BG@100 CSS April Go-Live

A BG@100 Campus Solutions (CSS) Go-Live event is scheduled for the weekend of April 3-5, 2009. Details regarding the go-live items to be completed are provided in the following paragraphs.

Student Financials

Student Financials will Go-Live with the following items as a part of the April Go-Live:

• Tuition Calculation
• Billing
• Refunds
• Cashiering
• Web Payment
• Collections
• Third-Party Contracts
• Parking
• ECSI (Student Loans)
• My Commuter Meal Plan
• FMS Accounts Receivable

The following Change Management items will be in place for Student Financials as a result of the April Go-Live:

• • Student bills will be electronic, on a site hosted by CASHNet and accessible from MyBGSU.  Current bills will be available through the CASHNet site and archived as they are created.  Notification will be sent to student BGSU email accounts when a bill is available for viewing.  Parent and third party access can be granted by the student for viewing and paying bills.
  • As much refunding as possible will be handled electronically by the direct deposit feature in CASHNet.  The Bursar's Office has a marketing campaign in place and is communicating this service to students.
  • Installment Payment Plan will be available electronically via CASHNet beginning July 2009; payment plans will automatically recalculate as classes are added/dropped.
  • The Bursar's Office will change credit card (and IVR) payment processors, the new vendor is CASHNet.
  • Some services currently performed by the bursar staff will be performed by an outside vendor.  Examples of these services include preparing and sending electronic billing notifications, managing guest access to bursar information, preparing and distributing direct deposit financial aid refunds, and preparing and distributing 1098-T tax forms.
  • Tuition will be calculated based on student attributes rather than class attributes.  Student attributes include career, campus, and program.
  • Non-student accounts receivables (community members, businesses) will move from SIS to FMS.
  • Currently the Bursar's Office reconciles all data coming into SIS from Dining, Residence Life, Bookstore, etc.  With the implementation of CSS, it will be the responsibility of the sending office to reconcile their data and the money that flows through CSS to FMS.
  • Departments which are authorized to bill student accounts for fines or fees currently send that information via a spreadsheet to the Bursar's Office for processing. The new process will entail those departments entering the charges directly into CSS, where possible/practical.
  • Currently, some payroll deduction payment arrangements for student bursar accounts that were accepted this past academic year by the Bursar's Office are concluding.  As a part of the CSS implementation, Payroll will be responsible for all paycheck adjustments.
  • Currently the Bursar's Office has a method to record and view names of individuals whom students have indicated may inquire about their account.  In CS a FERPA service indicator will be in place to track this information.
  • When Graduate Assistance fee waivers are moved from funding by one DCC or grant to another, that accounting charge is currently masked from the student in SIS.  In CSS the Graduate Assistants will see lines on their bills showing the fee waiver moved from one item type to another, netting to zero.  This may cause confusion, however many graduate assistants are aware when their funding is moved from grant to grant.  Graduate Student Senate has been asked to help communicate this change.
  • Commuter meal plans and extra meal dollars are currently purchased at the bursar windows or at the BG1 Card Office desk.  In the future, they will be purchased at the bursar windows, at the Dining Services Accounting Office or from the "My Commuter Meal Plan" link in MyBGSU.
  • Currently, students who sign up for a meal plan which costs less than their meal scholarship are routinely "upped" so their meal scholarship is used in full.  With CSS, Dining Services will contact these students to ask if they want an increase in meal plan.  If not, Financial Aid will sweep the funds to return or reallocate.  This affects the dining dollars rollover.

Financial Aid

Financial Aid will Go-Live with the following items as a part of the April Go-Live:

• Packaging
• Award Letters
• Alternative Loans
• Award Authorizations
• DL Loan Origination
• Summer Aid Applications
• Loan Disbursements
• Employee / Dependant Fee Waiver
• Federal Work Study (FWS)

The following Change Management items will be in place for \Financial Aid as a result of the April Go-Live:

• • The current process for posting external / private awards involves a paper notification between the Bursar's Office and the Financial Aid Office. This process is changing with the implementation of PeopleSoft CSS; the Financial Aid Office will enter these awards on the student package and disburse them to the student's Bursar account. This process provides greater accountability by tracking each award in the system.
  • Currently, the Financial Aid Office is notified of Resident Advisor Room/Meals Awards via a spreadsheet received from the Residence Life Office. Residence Life will begin entering the RA Awards directly on the student's package using Departmental Awards. This will expedite the process and ensure accurate awarding because the award is posted at the same time as the award decision is made.
  • The current practice for alternative loans involves a manual certification by the Financial Aid Office, and manual posting of funds by the Bursar's Office.With this implementation the Financial Aid Office will automate the certification and disbursement processes. Funds will be "pushed" through CSS to provide greater accountability and a more integrated process, with audit trails. Students will be directed to FastChoice (alt. ln comparison tool provided by Great Lakes Higher Ed) to select a lender. The selected Lender will approve the loan and send a confirmation to BGSU Student Financial Aid using Scholarnet tool for certification. Student Financial Aid then certifies the loan and disburses funds to student's Bursar account. Students who chose to use a lender who does not participate in this automated process will be required to sign a paper check to receive their funds.
  • Students who receive a Federal Perkins Loan award will be prompted to go online to accept or decline the award through the Student Center. After accepting the award, students who need a promissory note will be prompted to complete the eMPN. Students may either complete the promissory note at that time or return to complete the note later. The system retains the MPN data, which can be updated by the Student Loan Collection Office or the Student Financial Aid staff as appropriate.
  • The current process for processing dependant & employee fee waivers is all manual for Human Resources, Bursar and Student Financial Aid Offices. Utilizing the new process, Human Resources will load the fee waiver information received through the Employee/Dependant Fee Waiver Form to the Restricted Aid page in Financial Aid. Financial Aid will pull this information into the student's package and make adjustments to reflect the actual enrollment/eligibility as necessary. Funds will disburse from Financial Aid to Student Financials as part of the normal disbursement schedule.
  • Departments will no longer receive Federal Work Study (FWS) allocations to be divided among their student employees; work availability will be based on student's FWS allocations. Students who have earned at least $1 in the prior aid year through FWS will receive first priority when awarding FWS funds in ‘09-‘10.
  • Currently SFA only awards a PLUS if the parent has completed a PLUS Pre-Application and the credit check is approved.  Beginning in ‘09-‘10; all dependent students who could potentially receive a PLUS will be packaged with an offered amount. The award will not be official until the Parent completes a PLUS Pre-Application, is credit worthy and has signed a Promissory Note to accept the award.
  • Currently there are no controls over whether or not a book scholarship is used for book/supply expenses. An interface has been developed to apply book scholarships to the University Bookstore via the Financial Aid and Student Financial accounts.
  • The current system has no controls on whether a fee specific award is actually applied to the designated fees (ie.., tuition scholarship for tuition charges). Many manual processes and repackaging has to occur on a regular basis to monitor the awards for potential overawarding. CSS delivers charge priorities that allow fee specific awards to only pay for corresponding charges. Automated processes have also been created to monitor for overawarding.
  • Currently students apply for Student Loans with Student Financial Aid. Student Financial Aid completes promissory notes and types check the following day that must be signed by the Chief Financial Officer. Loans are recorded in various places on the system in both SIS/Sam when issued and then when paid off. Bookkeeping is done using Excel and journal entries.  With CSS Student Financial Aid will continue to issue Student Loans to students using paper promissory notes. Funds will be authorized & disbursed to Student Finance for creation of a "refund/STL" check or can be deposited directly into students’ banking accounts. Reconciliation will occur through delivered reports and fund rosters.

Student Records

• Following the April Go-Live, the comments for Student Records will be live in CSS.  As of April 6, CSS will be considered the system of record for this information.
  • In SIS this information would have been available from NOTE and NOT9
  • Users with Advisement Self Service or Faculty Center will have access to advising notes in CSS

Student Self Service

The following Student Self-Service items will available following the April Go-Live:

• Bursar Bill
  • The Bursar bill will be viewable and payments can be made through CASHNet accessible through the BGSU portal.
• Student Insurance Requirement
  • Students will be informed of their student insurance requirement through checklists viewable in the Student Center.
• Orientation and Registration
  • Reservations for Orientation and Registration will be made through MyBGSU.

Changes in System Availability during BG@100 Go-Live

As a result of go-live activities, the CICS region availability will be changed on Thursday, April 2.  On this date all CICS regions will go offline beginning at 6 p,m. rather than the normally scheduled 9 p.m. time.  During this time the MyBGSU MyServices menu items noted with an * will be unavailable.  This adjustment is required in order to complete additional batch processing in preparation for the weekend's Go-Live activities.  Normal CICS access will resume on Friday morning, April 3 at 7:30 a.m.

CSS users are strongly encouraged to not use, make changes, or complete business processing in CSS during the period from 6 p.m. Friday, April 3 through 6 a.m. on Saturday, April 4.  Also CSS users, such as those who may be registering for classes during this time period, may potentially experience disruption to this service during this Friday 6 p.m. - Saturday 6 a.m. time period.

Processing in FMS will continue to be available - the go-live activities will not impact FMS transactions. 

No outage period is being announced for CSS, however the BG@100 Project Team does reserve the right to make the CSS system unavailable if necessary during the go-live period.

April Town Hall PowerPoint Presentation

Any questions may be directed to  BGat100@bgsu.edu.

Change Management Items - Master List

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