Bursaries and Loans {FRM-22}

General Information 

This is the User Manual for the ITS Bursaries and Loans (BL) Subsystem.  It is one of a series of user and technical manuals that is available for the ITS systems.  

It is assumed that the reader is already familiar with the general operation of the menus and the keyboard. These matters are fully discussed in the Operational Aspects of ITS Systems Manual.

The reader is reminded that the copyright of the ITS systems and documentation remains with ITS, and that users thereof are contractually prohibited from providing information thereon to third parties, such as other educational institutions.

Overview Of Financial System

The ITS Financial System (Menu option {FRM}) consists of the following modules (Menu option in brackets):

The modules are listed in sequence under {FRM}:

Option	Menu	Description
1	{FCCT}	Counter (Receipts/Ad Hoc Payments / Cash Book)
2	{FCMR}	Mail Recording
3	{FACB}	ACB
5	{FEBC}	Electronic Bank Conversion
6	{FPME}	B2B Vendors
7	{FPM}	Procurement Management  (PMIS)
f21	{FSA}	Student Accounts
22	{FBL}	Bursaries And Loans
23	{FAR}	Accounts Receivable
24	{FSDC}	Debt Collection Interface
27	{FCS}	Code Structures
28	{FGL}	General Ledger
29	{MEB}	Income And Expense Budgeting

All of these modules are fully integrated with one another, and also with the other ITS Systems such as Human Resource Management, Student Management Information and General Facilities Management. More detail on the individual modules is found in the appropriate User Manuals.

A comprehensive system of access control applies to these modules 

Overview Of Bursaries and Loans Subsystem

This subsystem enables the user to:

• Identify bursary and loan applicants

• Match bursaries and loans to applicants according to certain criteria

• Allocate bursaries and loans to applicants manually or automatically according to specified rules

• Specify the need and allocate funds according to the following categories:

• Tuition

• Accommodation

• Books

• Meals

• Living Allowance

• Other Fees

• Generate the necessary financial transactions for the above

• Keep record of available bursary and loan funds

• Maintain detail regarding the private funding of study fees

• Keep record of the repayment of loans according to different rules

• Provide relevant information to the following parties:

• Students

• Bursary and loan administrators

• Donors e.g. NSFAS

The process of allocating and keeping record of bursaries and loans can be summarised as follows:

Identify the characteristics of bursaries and loans by specifying the following:

• Different bursaries and loans available
• Criteria for allocation
• Repayment terms of loans

Maintain applicants and applicant detail

• Specific biographical detail
• SRS and WRS scores for applicants
• Examination results for senior students
• Financial need
• Other specific allocation criteria
• Bursary and loan applications

Match Bursaries and Loans with Applicants

• The specifications of the bursaries and loans are matched with the characteristics of the applicants. The end result of this process is a table, which contains entries for applicants with their matching bursaries/loans.

Allocate Bursary/Loan Amounts to Applicants

• The allocation of bursaries can be performed programmatically. The amount fields can be updated and new records can also be added.

Generate Financial Transactions

• The necessary financial transactions are generated once the allocations are finalised.  In the case of bursaries, the student accounts are updated in the Student Debtor Subsystem. Meal allocations are posted directly to the meal account of the student in the Card Subsystem. In the case of loans, additional sundry debtor accounts are also updated in the Account Receivable Subsystem. It is therefore a pre-requisite that the ITS Accounts Receivable Subsystem must be operational to accommodate the loans section of the Bursaries and Loans Subsystem, and the ITS Card Subsystem must be operational to accommodate meal allocations. If the Card Subsystem is not operational, any money that is allocated for meals will be transferred to the student fee account and can be identified on the fee account by using a specific account type when the money is transferred. 

Repayment of Loans

• Detailed records are kept of individual transactions in respect of individual loans.

Correspondence

• Correspondence with students who applied for bursaries, or who were allocated bursaries, is available on  {FCSO}.

Linking With Other ITS Systems

The ITS systems are designed to eliminate the entering of duplicate information in different systems, which causes the systems to be integrated with and interdependent upon one another.  The implications for the Bursaries and Loans Subsystem are discussed in this Section.

All financial transactions generated by this system should be posted to specific General Ledger Allocations, which must be pre-defined, in the Financial Code Structure System.  Transactions are generated in the Student Debtor Subsystem, Card System and Accounts Receivable System, and are posted from all three systems.

The Financial Systems are driven by user-defined transaction types, which must be defined in {FCSO-7}. For the Bursaries and Loans Subsystem, transaction types must be linked to events that will identify specific processes to be executed by the different programs.

• event 33 - SD - BURSARY AWARDED - Bursary allocations to the student fee account in the Student Debtor Subsystem
• event 35 - SD - LOAN AWARDED - Loan allocations to the student fee account in the Student Debtor Subsystem
• event FX - AR - LOAN AWARDED - Generate transaction in the Account Receivable System for a loan
• event MD - CM - MEAL ACCOUNT: BURSARIES AWARDED - Generate transaction in the Card System for the meal allocation

The characteristics of the transaction types are as follows:

Event 33 - SD - BURSARY AWARDED - Bursary allocations to the student fee account in the Student Debtor Subsystem

Subsystem	SD
Active Indicator	Active
Financial Field	Journal
Update Type	Automatic
Event Number	33
Repeat Indicator	No
Credit/Debit	Credit
Transaction/Alternate Note	Prints on student statement depending on student preferred language
Post to General Ledger	Yes
GL Note	General ledger note for transactions that post in detail
Debit GLA	Not needed - the fund GLA on the bursary definition {FBLO-1} will be used
Credit GLA	Not needed - the control GLA of the SD account type {FCSC-21} where the allocation {FBLO-4} will be copied to will be used.

Event 35 - SD - LOAN AWARDED - Loan allocations to the student fee account in the Student Debtor Subsystem

Subsystem	SD
Active Indicator	Active
Financial Field	Journal
Update Type	Automatic
Event Number	35
Repeat Indicator	No
Credit/Debit	Credit
Transaction/Alternate Note	Prints on student statement depending on student preferred language
Post to General Ledger	Yes
GL Note	General ledger note for transactions that post in detail
Debit GLA	Inter system clearing GLA. This should be the same GLA as the credit GLA for event FX
Credit GLA	Not needed - the control GLA of the SD account type {FCSC-21} where the allocation will be copied to will be used.

Event FX - AR - LOAN AWARDED - Generate transaction in the Account Receivable System for a loan

Subsystem	AR
Active Indicator	Active
Financial Field	Journal
Update Type	Automatic
Event Number	FX
Repeat Indicator	No
Credit/Debit	Debit
Transaction/Alternate note	Prints on student statement depending on student preferred language
Post to General Ledger	Yes
GL Note	General ledger note for transactions that post in detail
Debit GLA	Not needed - the control GLA of the AR account type {FCSC-21} as defined on the bursary definition
Credit GLA	Inter system clearing GLA. This should be the same GLA as the debit GLA for event 35

Event MD - CM - MEAL ACCOUNT: BURSARIES AWARDED - Generate transaction in the Card System for the meal allocation

Subsystem	CM
Active Indicator	Active
Financial Field	Journal
Update Type	Automatic
Event Number	MD
Repeat Indicator	No
Credit/Debit	Credit
Person Type	Student
Transaction/Alternate Note	Prints on student statement depending on student preferred language
Post to General Ledger	Yes
GL Note	General ledger note for transactions that post in detail
Debit GLA	Not needed - the fund GLA on the bursary definition {FBLO-1} will be used
Credit GLA	Not needed - the control GLA of the CM account type {FCSC-21} where the allocation {FBLO-4} will be copied to will be used.

       

Debtor master records must be created in {FARO-21}for students to whom loans are allocated. Allocations can only be copied to AR account types where the account type is linked to the AR category L in {FCSC-21}.

Implementation And Operation 

This subsystem assumes that the ITS Student Debtors Subsystem is operational. The ITS Accounts Receivable System must also be operational to accommodate the loan section of this subsystem.  If the Card System is in use, meal allocations willl be transferred to the Card System, otherwise it willl be transferred to the Student Debtors Subsystem.

The user should implement this module as follows:

The Bursaries and Loan Subsystem is fully integrated with the ITS Student Debtors Subsystem, ITS Card System and the ITS Accounts Receivable System which in turn is fully integrated with the ITS General Ledger System.  If the latter is not in use at an institution, the interface between the three ITS Systems and the users' own General Ledger must be created through Interim Transaction Files (ITF), which may then be used to update the user's own General Ledger regularly.

The format of the ITF-files will be in the same format as the transaction file prepared for updating the ITS General Ledger.  The user's program for updating the “own ledger” can re-format this file to his own requirement.  If the latter has a Batch Journal Facility, this offers an easy way of importing the data; otherwise the user should write an in-house program to update his own General Ledger from the ITF.