Overview
Navigate to Financial Transactions.
This article explains how to use the Financial Transactions page in Aeries to view and manage a student's financial transactions.
Users with appropriate permissions can access the Financial Transactions page for a student. For details about the permissions required, see the Security article for this feature.
Transactions ↑
Transaction records are at the heart of the Aeries Financials system. A useful analogy would be a bank statement or credit card statement. Each fee or payment is a separate transaction, and at all times there is a running balance. The transactions in Aeries work the same way.
Add a Fee ↑
To add a new fee, click the Add Fee button. The following window will display.
Enter the following information for the new transaction:
Date - The date the fee was charged. Defaults to the current date. Please be careful to enter the correct date, as the date cannot be changed after the transaction is created.
Code - If code table records have been created for FTD.CD using the Financial Accounting Codes page, the drop-down list will display those codes. Select from the list to automatically populate the Amount instead of typing the amount manually.
Course Fee - If the student is enrolled in a course that has Course Fees, those values will display in the drop-down. Select from the list to automatically populate the Amount and Description instead of entering them manually. This can be used as an alternative to the Import Course Fees option that is detailed later in this article.
District Asset - This dropdown lists any assets checked out to the current student. If this fee should be associated with a District Asset, select the Asset, as well as choosing either Damage or Replacement.
Amount - Enter the amount of the fee. Please be careful to enter the correct amount, as the amount cannot be changed after the transaction is created.
Tuition/Related Expense - Check the box if this transaction is related to Tuition.
Required on Next Payment - Check the box if the full amount of this transaction should be applied to the next scheduled payment. Otherwise, the amount will be distributed across all future scheduled payments.
School - The school to which the fee applies. Defaults to the current school.
Description - Enter a description for the transaction.
Click the Add Fee button to save the transaction, or click Close to go back.
Add a Payment ↑
To add a new payment, click the Add Payment button. The following window will display.
Enter the following information for the new transaction:
Date - The date the payment was made. Defaults to the current date. Please be careful to enter the correct date, as the date cannot be changed after the transaction is created.
Amount - Enter the amount of the payment. Please be careful to enter the correct amount, as the amount cannot be changed after the transaction is created.
Payment Type - select the payment type. Code table values for FTD.PT can be used. Each code can be set to default the status to Pending or Completed by specifying a 1.00 in the amount field for Completed. If there are no codes set in the code table, options default to Cash, Credit Card, Personal Check, Adjustment and Credit Adjustment. A Credit Adjustment is intended for situations where a fee was entered incorrectly or erroneously. Since amounts are not allowed to be changed, a Credit Adjustment allows correcting an error in the student's balance to offset the incorrect data.
Reference # - A check number, last 4 of credit card, or other reference number may be entered if applicable. This field is optional and informational only. For security reasons, Aeries does not recommend storing the full credit card number in this field and suggests no more than the last 4 digits simply for reference purposes.
Status - Either Pending or Completed. A Pending payment will not be credited to the student's balance until it is set to Completed. For example, you may want to set a payment to Pending while waiting for a check to clear. Note: if the Payment type is Cash or Credit Adjustment, the record will automatically be set to Completed regardless of which Status is selected here. For this reason, code table values for FTP.PT are recommended.
Description - Enter a description for the transaction.
Apply to Charges - Choose from the drop-down list of all fees that have not yet been paid off.
You may choose more than one fee if desired. Fees with the Require Next Payment flag will automatically be included and cannot be de-selected.
Note: Selecting multiple items from Apply Charges will NOT split the payment evenly across the selected fees. Instead, fees will be paid in the order they are selected. If the payment amount is not sufficient, some of the selected fees may be unaffected by the payment.
Click the Add Payment button to save the transaction, or click Close to go back.
Balance Adjustments ↑
To make a Balance Adjustment, select the Add Payment option. When the form opens, select Balance Adjustment as a Payment Type.
Enter the following information for the new transaction:
Date - The date the adjustment was made. Defaults to the current date. Please be careful to enter the correct date, as the date cannot be changed after the transaction is created.
Amount - Enter the amount of the adjustment. Please be careful to enter the correct amount, as the amount cannot be changed after the transaction is created.
Payment Type - select the Balance Adjustment payment type. A Balance Adjustment is intended for situations where a fee was entered and the amount of that fee needs to be reduced. Since Balance Adjustment are reductions in cost only, they are not allowed to be changed. A Balance Adjustment will change the amount of the Fee it is applied to. To see the details of an adjustment, select the Details button for the Fee that is being adjusted.
Status - Either Paid or Completed.
Description - Enter a description for the transaction.
Apply to Charges - Choose from the drop-down list of all fees that have not yet been paid off.
You may choose more than one fee if desired.
Edit a Transaction ↑
To edit a transaction, click the Details button to the far right of a transaction. The following window will display.
Note: Depending on the type of transaction and the status, certain fields are locked from editing. Some transactions cannot be edited at all, and the Edit button will not appear. For example, a transaction imported from LivingTree cannot be edited.
If the transaction is a fee/charge, only the following fields can be edited:
- District Asset
- Asset Fee Type
- Tuition/Related Expense
- Required on Next Payment (once the fee has been fully paid, this can no longer be edited)
- School
- Description
If the transaction is a Pending payment, only the following fields can be edited:
- Grant (indicates whether the payment is from a grant/scholarship. At this time, this field is informational only.)
- School
- Payment Type
- Check/Card Number
- Status - can be changed from Pending to Completed, Canceled, or Declined. Once the status is changed, it cannot be changed again. Only Completed payments are credited toward the student's balance.
- Description
If the transaction is a Completed payment, only the following fields can be edited:
- Grant (indicates whether the payment is from a grant/scholarship. At this time, this field is informational only.
- School
- Check/Card Number
- Description
Click the Update Transaction button to save changes, or click Cancel to go back. Then, click Close to close the Transaction Details window.
NOTE: The date and amount of a transaction cannot be edited, and transactions cannot be deleted if a payment has been applied. If a fee transaction was entered in error, a Credit Adjustment payment transaction can be entered to offset the error so that the overall balance is correct. If a payment was entered in error and is still Pending, it can be Canceled. If a payment was entered in error and is Completed, then it can only be corrected by adding a new fee transaction to offset the erroneous payment so the overall balance is correct. Naturally, great care should be taken to avoid these errors in the first place.
Delete a Fee ↑
To delete a Fee, select the Details button to the right of the transaction.
Select the Delete Transaction button at the bottom of the form.
Note: A fee transaction can only be deleted if no payments have been applied to the fee. The Delete Transaction button will not appear if the fee transaction has a payment(s) applied.
Remaining Balance ↑
As transactions are added for the student, the Remaining Balance displayed in the upper-right of the page will automatically update. Notice in the example below that the Remaining Balance is the sum of all the transaction amounts.
Payment Details ↑
As payments are entered, they will automatically be applied to outstanding fees. The Amount Paid column will be updated to show the amount of the fee that has been paid so far.
Click the arrow to the left of a fee transaction to display details of the payment amounts that have been credited toward that fee so far. Notice that the individual amounts shown below add up to the Amount Paid.
Import Course Fees ↑
Click the Import Course Fees button, and the system will look for Course Fees in the courses in which the student is currently enrolled.
A pop-up will display all Course Fees.
Required Course Fees cannot be de-selected, but those that are not required can be de-selected if needed. When the selections are complete, click the Import Course Fees button to load the selected Course Fees into the Financial Transactions table.
Note: Once a Course Fee has been imported, the Student Course Fees pop-up will no longer display that fee. However, the Import Course Fees button can still be used to select and import any remaining Course Fees at any time.
Payment Schedule ↑
Aeries has the ability to schedule monthly payments for a student. To get started, click the Payment Schedule button.
The following window will display.
Enter the following information:
| Start Date | Enter the starting date for the payment calculator. The field will default to today's date. |
| Target Date | Enter the ending date for the payment calculator. The field will default to the last day of the current school year. |
| Day of the Month | Choose a day of the month for each scheduled payment. You can choose a fixed day (such as the 1st) or a day relative to the day of the week (such as 2nd Friday). |
| Schedule Every Other Month | Check the box to schedule payments for every other month. Otherwise, payments will be scheduled for every month. |
Click the Calculate Payments button to calculate a payment schedule. The details will display in this window and can be reviewed before saving. In the below example, payments were scheduled for the 3rd day of each month from June to August.
Payments are calculated as follows:
- Subtract all outstanding "Required on Next Payment" amounts (if any) from the Remaining Balance.
- Divide the result by the number of payments. This is the "regular monthly payment"
- Add the outstanding "Required on Next Payment" amounts (if any) to the first payment
This way, certain fees are due sooner, and the others are spread across multiple payments.
Click the Save Payment Schedule button to save the changes, or click Close to go back.
Payment Schedule Report ↑
After a Payment Schedule has been saved, it can be printed. Click the Print button.
The following window will display. Leave the box checked if you want a signature line to print on the report. Otherwise, de-select it. Then, click the Run Report button.
Depending on which web browser you are using, the report may appear in a download prompt, or the PDF may be displayed directly in the browser.
Reports ↑
The Reports button offers quick access to Financial reports for the current student.
When the Reports button is clicked, the following window will display:
Print Transactions - Run the Financial Transaction History report for the current student only.
Print Statement - Run the Financial Statement report for the current student only.