Fees Management for Colleges

Configure per-credit rates by residency (in-state, out-of-state, international) and course level (100-200, 300-400, graduate). At registration, the system multiplies enrolled credits by the applicable rate and generates an invoice with per-course line items. Add-drop before the census date adjusts the invoice automatically. Program-specific fees (nursing lab, welding shop) attach to the course record so they only bill for students enrolled in that course.

Yes. When a US college student officially withdraws before completing 60 percent of a payment period, the R2T4 module calculates unearned federal aid (Pell Grant, Direct Loan, SEOG, TEACH) based on the withdrawal date under 34 CFR 668.22. Unearned aid is scheduled for return to the federal COD system within the 45-day statutory window. Institutional refund per the published refund schedule runs in parallel.

Stripe (USD, GBP, EUR, and 135+ currencies), PayPal (US and international), Razorpay (India), Paystack (Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa), Adyen (enterprise multi-region), and Authorize.Net (US). ACH direct debit is supported via Stripe for US colleges and via Razorpay UPI for Indian colleges. Configurable convenience fees pass processing costs to the payer where institutional policy allows.

Payment plans are defined per term with a plan name, down-payment percentage, installment count, first-installment date, and installment frequency (monthly or biweekly). Students opt into a plan from the payment portal after invoice generation. Automated email reminders precede each installment due date by 7 and 3 days. Late installments trigger a configurable late fee and, after a grace period, a bursar hold on registration and transcripts.

Yes. Scholarship awards are recorded per student per term with an award amount, source (institutional, external donor, federal, state), and disbursement schedule. On disbursement, a credit posts to the student account offsetting the tuition invoice. Federal aid comes in via a Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) file import that matches disbursements to student IDs and posts credits. Third-party sponsor billing (military tuition assistance, employer reimbursement, embassy sponsors) generates a separate invoice to the sponsor.

Tuition invoiced at term open is posted to a deferred revenue liability account. Revenue is recognized on a straight-line basis across the term (semester, trimester, quarter) matching the service delivery period per ASC 606 (US GAAP) or IFRS 15. Withdrawal reversals adjust both the recognized revenue and the refund payable. This treatment satisfies external auditor expectations for higher-ed financial statements under GASB 34 (public colleges) and FASB (private nonprofit colleges).

Yes. For colleges running Ellucian Banner Finance, Colleague Finance, Workday Financials, SAP, Oracle NetSuite, or Sage Intacct, OpenEduCat exports daily journal entries in the receiving system format (CSV, XML, or REST). Chart of accounts mapping is configurable per fee head so tuition, fees, and refunds hit the correct GL accounts. Sub-ledger detail (per-student, per-invoice) is retained in OpenEduCat with the summary posted to the general ledger.

OpenEduCat uses tokenized payment gateway iframes (Stripe Elements, Razorpay Checkout, PayPal SPB) so credit card data never touches OpenEduCat servers. This limits PCI DSS scope to SAQ A (the smallest merchant category) instead of SAQ D. Institutions can self-attest to SAQ A annually. For higher-risk models (mail-order-telephone-order payments), Stripe Terminal and Razorpay POS integrations keep the terminal in scope while OpenEduCat stays out of scope.