Date Created: April 15, 2024 Last Updated: May 24, 2024
Overview:
Greek organizations and Cooperative Living Units generate revenue from students for housing, and in some cases meal plans. All student billing is processed through local systems and fed to the Bursar System. Finance staff reconcile StarRez, and the Bill table to the Bursar and the general ledger to ensure revenue is recorded accurately in the financial statements for the month/semester that the income is earned.
Criticality: High | Frequency: Other | Turnaround: Other |
Key Parties / Contacts:
Student: The student electronically signs contracts for Housing once they accept enrollment to Cornell University. These initiate billing transactions fed to the bursar that the student is responsible for paying.
Unit Staff: The unit staff are responsible for processing transactions in their local systems and ensuring transactions feed over to the bursar system without error/failure.
SSIT Staff: Manage the file extract process from StarRez and submit to the bursar system for processing. Follow up on billing issues due to file errors as needed.
Financial Transaction Center (FTC): Reconciles revenue in 4241 to StarRez and bursar. Issues identified must be brought to the attention of the unit so they can be addressed appropriately and corrected.
Accounting Firms (Sciarabba Walker) – Provide oversight of financial transactions and manages accounting, receipts and payments for specific organizations (Greeks).
Key Documents / Sources of Information:
- StarRez contracts and billing for housing
- Kuali Financial System GL transactions
- Bill Table activity
System Access Needed:
- StarRez
- Bill Table
- Kuali Financial System (KFS)
OAS Reporting Dashboard (KDW)
Common Problems or Issues Encountered:
- Student status, if student becomes unregistered or goes on leave, bursar may reject the transaction.
- Transactions failing to feed to the Bursar
- Delayed notification of student status
Step by Step Procedures:
Student Housing
- Students sign up for housing contracts online once they accept enrollment to Cornell University
- Contract is submitted using an electronic signature: once the electronic signature is submitted, the student is automatically billed through StarRez and charges are fed to the Bursar system weekly to bill the student accounts.
- Once fed to the Student accounts, a receivable is created in the GL, along with the Housing revenue. (See Billing Process below for fees charged to Housing by Bursar)
- Housing revenue is recognized once transactions are posted to the Bursar through a file feed.
- No refunds are made unless the student does not attend the University.
- Exceptions: Medical reason, never checked in, required academic leave, University emergency, pandemic (or similar disaster)
- All billing is initiated through the StarRez system and fed to the bursar via unique codes; undergrad and graduate housing charges are coded separately.**
- Undergrad: Billing done in July for first semester and January for the second semester.
- Billing issues can occur if the student enrolls without being registered or becomes unregistered during the semesters.
- This occurs if there is a delay in an accepted student's financial aid payment, if a student takes a leave of absence or withdraws.
- Report of suspended transactions comes from Bursar to unit finance.
- Unit finance staff monitor's suspense accounts to ensure that transaction clears.
- All cooperative living unit meal plan billing is recorded to deferred revenue and the funds are sent to the Co-op to deposit into their individual checking accounts. This fund transfer is so they can purchase food for the house.
**Exception:
- Sigma Phi doesn’t use the Bursar’s office for billing room rates.
Key Risks | Key Controls |
Revenue not recorded through to the GL for Housing |
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Regulatory Compliance: Failure to comply with regulatory requirements related to health regulations can result in fines, penalties, or legal liabilities and/or closure of facilities. |
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Data Security and Privacy: Handling sensitive student information, such as payment details and personal data, exposes the university to risks of data breaches, and potential FERPA violations. | 1. Access to protected data is limited to only information needed by individual position. |
Metrics:
- Budget vs Actual
- Occupancy Rates
- Average Room Rate
Glossary of Key Terms/Acronyms:
- KFS – Kuali Financial System
- OAS – Oracle Analytics Server, financial reporting tool (formerly known as OBIEE)
- GL – General Ledger
- FTC – Student and Campus Life Financial Transaction Center that processes financial transactions for Cornell Catering
Greeks & Coops Revenue Process Flow Chart