Session 7: Financial Activities

This page will outline the topics included in the Financial Activities session.

Overview

The session focuses on the financial aspects within Paradigm, covering the content underneath the Accounting tab from the Paradigm interface. It includes topics on creating an invoice, creating payments, and how to apply payments to an invoice. The accounting module of the system is also tightly associated with a student’s unit enrolments.

Learning outcomes

• Demonstrate the ability to create a new enrolment invoice

• Demonstrate the ability to create a new general invoice

• Understand the difference between an invoice header and its line items

• Demonstrate the ability to create payments

• Demonstrate the process of applying payments to an invoice

• Demonstrate the process of cancelling an invoice

• Demonstrate the process of creating a credit note

1. Accounting invoices

Duration: 30 minutes

Complexity: Medium

BE ADVISED:

Users need to maintain the invoicing time period, so the system can locate a unit enrolment that needs to be invoiced.

It is useful to understand the current accounting processes in your institution, whether you raise invoices in Paradigm or an external accounting package. An invoice record is created against a student’s unit enrolment. This section will cover the difference between a tuition item and a non-tuition item of an invoice, and the workflow of how to create a new enrolment invoice and a new general invoice. In addition, we will cover the best practice process in the event of cancelling an invoice.

Topics:

• Invoicing configuration time period

• Invoice header

• Invoice item

• Field: Invoice Id

• Button: Status to Sent

• Workflows from Invoicing and Receipting

2. Accounting payments

Duration: 10 minutes

Complexity: Medium

BE ADVISED:

It is important that any users have a high level of understanding of the system before accessing and using the Accounting section of the system.

In Particular:

• Fee Rules
• Timings of various key milestones in Higher Education reporting (Census dates and HEPCAT / TCSI reporting)

NOTE:

You can only apply payments to an invoice once the invoice header is set to ‘Status to sent’.

In this section, we will demonstrate the workflows on how to create student payments in Paradigm, as well as apply payments to an invoice.

The system supports students who wish to make payments on their end. In Paradigm, go to Student > Make payment.

We currently offer three payment gateway integrations:

• Payment Express (https://www.paymentexpress.com)
• PayPal (Pay Online, Send Money or Set Up a Merchant Account - PayPal Australia )
• BPoint (Commonwealth Bank Group - BPOINT )

Topics:

• Payment Workflows from Invoicing and Receipting
• Field: Payment method

• Button: Set status to sent

• Screen: Accounting payments

3. Accounting refund

Duration: 20 minutes

Complexity: Medium

NOTE:

From time to time, something will inevitably go wrong with an invoice.

If invoices are tracked in an external Accounting Package such as MYOB or XERO, it is best practice to cancel the original invoice, make any changes, generate a new invoice and then report them to the Accounting department to ensure all records are up to date and accurate.

In this section, we mainly cover the best practice if you wish to refund the student. We assume that the student has made the payment to an invoice in Paradigm. A credit notice cannot be created if the original invoice has never been paid off. Then we will demonstrate the process of creating a credit notice. It is also worth noting that a credit notice does not need to be the exact amount of the original invoice. For instance, the provider may have a policy where refunds are -10% of the invoice as a penalty or admin overhead fee. Once you create a credit notice, you should apply a new payment type - ‘customer return’ against it.

Topics:

• Refund Workflow from Invoicing and Receipting
• Actions menu: Create credit notice

• Screen: Accounting invoice overview

4. Review

Duration: 10 minutes

Complexity: Medium

After delivering the main topics, there will be some spare time for open discussion. You can ask any questions you have during the training. We will discuss and confirm a date and time for the next training session.

Topics:

• Open discussion including Q&A

• Confirm the schedule for the next training session

• Outline outcomes of the next session

5. Extension

Duration: 60 minutes

The following tasks are recommended for users to complete at the conclusion of each training session to ensure that the content is understood and to establish familiarity with Paradigm terminology and its user interface.

Any records created during this section may be raised for review at the beginning of the next session to ensure that the data has been entered correctly, for example, meeting the relevant government reporting standard.

Tasks:

• Create a new enrolment invoice

• Create a new general invoice

• Cancel an invoice you created

• Create a payment

• Apply the payment to an invoice

• Create a credit note and apply the payment type against it

Presentation Slides

The current version of our presentation slides may be downloaded here. Please check back regularly as we are continually updating our material as we accommodate feedback from our users.

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Paradigm Training Session 7 Financial Activities.pdf

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