This article explains how to use the Import Fees to Financial page in Aeries to import existing Fees and Fines data into the Aeries Financials system.

Users must have Mass Update permission to the Financial Transaction Summary (FTS) security area and also Read permission to the Fees and Fines (FEE) security area in order to access this page. The page is located under School Info | Functions on the navigation menu.

Note: Currently, the Import Fees to Financial process is designed to be run once when a customer has first implemented Aeries Financials. Generally, it is advisable not to have any existing Financials data prior to running this process. The process is compatible with most existing Financials data; however, it currently does not update Payment Schedules that have already been created.

The Import Fees to Financial page will display the following form:

There are no options on this page. This is an all-or-nothing process! Click the Import Fees to Financial button to start the process. The following message will display.

Once the process has started, it cannot be run again without manually updating a specific record in the SQL database. If the process has previously been run or is in progress, the following message will display if the Import Fees to Financial page is visited again.

Process Details

The Import Fees to Financial process will take every outstanding record in the Fees and Fines (FEE) table and create an equivalent transaction in the Aeries Financials system. An outstanding fee record is defined as having an Amount Charged (FEE.AM) greater than the Amount Paid (FEE.PD). Only the remaining amount will be brought into Financials. Please note that the code values in FEE.CD will be copied to FTD.CD; therefore, it is recommended that Financial Accounting Codes be aligned with existing Fees and Fines codes prior to running this process.

The process will keep each student's Financial Transaction Summary (FTS) information - Amount Billed and Remaining Balance - updated based on the newly imported fees.

If Edbacker integration is enabled, the process will create and update student Payment Portal information as needed, syncing the itemized fees to Edbacker and updating the total amount in the payment portal.

Note: To maintain data integrity, do NOT perform any data entry related to Financials while the process is running. If Edbacker integration is enabled, the process can take a long time to run - greater than 30 minutes even for a medium-sized district. This is due to the large number of requests that must be made to the Edbacker API. The process will eventually finish, and an email will be sent to the person who ran the process as well as to any email addresses that are entered on the Edbacker Nightly Process Configuration page.

As noted above, the process will NOT update existing Payment Schedules, so it is important to run this process before creating any payment schedules for students.