N W O C A U S E R C O N F E R E N C EN O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 2

POWERSCHOOL FEES

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PowerSchool Fee Setup

• Fee Categories (Indicate the manner in which fees are assessed)

• PS includes two default fee categories (groups):• School• Course

• School Enrollment fees are automatically assessed when a student enrolls in school.

• Course enrollment fees are automatically assessed when a student is enrolled in the course.

• Other fee categories are considered “Student” fees and the district may create as many as are needed.

• Student fees are assessed manually:• For individual students or groups of students.

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Fee Categories - Continued

• School Enrollment Fees are those that will be assessed to all students in all grades.

• School Enrollment Fees can be Pro-Rated.• For fees that pertain to specific grade levels, they

cannot be school enrollment fees. These should be Student Fees.

• Examples of Student Fee Categories:• Library• Sports• Clubs/Organizations• Property Damage• Parking

• Fee Categories are created at the District Office• District > Fee Categories > Click “New”

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Fee Types

• Fee Types are created at the School Level.• Examples of Fee Types:• Freshman Fees (Category = Student)• Sophomore Fees (Category = Student)• Participation Fee (Category = Sports)• Fundraiser Fee (Category = Student)• Advanced Placement Test Fee (Category = Student)• School Fees (Needed for School Enrollment Fees)• Each Fee Type can be assigned a Priority to control

the order in which they are paid. Fees with lower priority numbers will be paid before those with higher priority values.

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School Enrollment Fees

School Enrollment fees are set up at the District Office• District > Schools/School Info > Select your School >

Scroll to the bottom of page > Click “New”.

• (A Fee Type of “School” must first be added at the School.)

• Reminder: All students, in all grades, will be assessed the fee during the enrollment process unless they are exempted from fees. (Field on the student’s Other Information Page.)

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Fee Exemptions

• Individual Students:• Select the Student • Choose the Other Information page• Use the “Fee Exemption Status” field & select Exempt from

School fees, course fees or all fees:

• Groups of Students:• Select the Group• Select the “Student Field Value” function.• Set the Field to Change: Fee_Exemption_Status

• 0 = Not Exempt• 1 = Exempt From Course Fees• 2 = Exempt From School Fees• 3 = Exempt From All Fees

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Fee Exemptions, Continued

To delay the assessment of School and/or Course Enrollment Fees, use the Edit School page at the District Office and set the “Fee Exemption Status” field to exempt all students in the school from School, Course, or All Fees.

District Office > District > Schools/School Info >[Select the School]

This will exempt the school from having students automatically assessed.

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Fee Exemption Search Commands

Students who are NOT exempt:Fee_exemption_status= Fee_exemption_status=0

Students who ARE Exempt:Fee_exemption_status# (Field is not blank; so either exempt from school, course, or all fees)Fee_exemption_status=1 (Students are exempt from Course Fees)Fee_exemption_status=2 (Students are exempt from School Fees)Fee_exemption_status=3 (Students are exempt from ALL Fees)

Compound Searches: (separate commands by a semicolon)Grade_level=10;Fee_exemption_status=0 *Number_of_Classes>0;Fee_exemption_status=0

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Course Fees - Setup

• Course Fees are added to the Course at the District Office or School Level.

• Tip for searching for all courses that have fees:Use the “Filter Results” link on the Courses page.School > Courses > Filter Results > Check “Has Fees” > click on red link “Filtered By Has Fees”

Click the Fees tab on a course to view/add fees.• NOTE: A Fee Type of “Course” must exist at the

school.

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Course Enrollment Fees

After the EOY (End of Year) process has been run, schedule changes will result in students being assessed fees when they enroll in a course that has fees. All other students will not automatically be assessed. This must be done manually using the “Assess Course Enrollment Fees” function.

**WARNING: If you have semester 2 courses that have fees, set your “Term” to the full year before assessing course fees.

(See Slide 7 if you do not wish to assess course fees until later.)

Since schedule changes and new enrollments will cause students to be assessed course fees, you might want to assess all students right after running EOY. (SEE SLIDE 14)

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Payment Methods

• Payment Methods are created at the District Office:

District > Payment Methods

• Example:

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Working With Individual Students

• To add a fee for an individual student, select the student, choose the Fee Transactions page, choose the fee type from the Create a New Fee list.

• To enter a payment, select a student, choose the Fee Transactions page, click Payment.

• To “Distribute” payments, on the Fee Transactions page, click on “Distribute”. Enter the Amount, and any outstanding fees will be paid in the priority order set up on Fee Types page at the School.

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Working With Groups of Students – Assessing School Enrollment and Course Enrollment Fees

• To assess a selected group of students School Enrollment fees, first search and select the students.• Make sure the selected group of students have not already been

assessed (to avoid duplication).• Choose Fee Functions > Assess School Enrollment Fees > Select: For

the selected ___ students only.

• To assess a selected group of students Course Enrollment Fees, select the appropriate term, & make sure course fees have not already been assigned to the selected students.• Select the group function, Assess Course Enrollment Fees > Select: For

the selected ___ students only.

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Working With Groups of Students - Continued

• To add student fees for a group of students, select the students, then select Fee Functions• Select New Fee (Note: only “Student” fees will

appear in the list)• To assess additional School Enrollment Fee

for a group of students, select the students, choose Fee Functions, click New School Enrollment Fee.• To assess additional Course Enrollment fee

for a group of students, select the students, choose Fee Functions, then New Course Enrollment fee.

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How to Create a New Transaction

• Select a group of students, choose Fee Functions, click on “New Transaction”.

• Choose the Fee Type from which the fee was created. Note: this function allows you to select Student, School, or Course Enrollment fees.

• For Transaction Type, select Payment, Credit, or Void.• For Amount, enter the amount owed.

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Recalculating Fee Balances

• Select Students to be Processed

• System > Special Operations > Re-Calculate Fee Balances

This function will re-calculate fee balances for students in the current selection only.

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Fee Searches

*fee.id=noschoolStudents who are not related to a school fee record

*fee.id=nocourseStudents who are not related to a course fee record

*fee.fee_balance=partialStudents who have at least one fee balance that is partially paid

*fee_balance.balance>0Students with a fee balance greater than 0

*fee_balance.balance=0Students with a fee balance equal to 0

*fee_balance.balance=nullStudents with no fee_balance record

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Create a List of Students Who Owe

• Search for students who have an outstanding balance:• *fee_balance.balance>0• (To include inactive, precede the command with ‘/’)

• From the group functions list, select “List Students”• Include the field: fee_getstudentbalance

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Create An Extract

• Search for students who have an outstanding balance:• *fee_balance.balance>0• (To include inactive, precede the command with ‘/’)

• From the Group Functions list, select Quick Export • In the Current Table field, Select the Students

Table• Include the field: ^(fee_getstudentbalance)• Include other fields, such as LastFirst,

Grade_level, etc.• Click Submit

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• Use this procedure to remove a fee(s) for a student when the fee was assessed by mistake and an offsetting credit is not desired.

• Select the student, click on Teacher Comments to get the internal ID & make a note of it.

• Use DDA & select the Fee [146] table in the Current Table box.• Under Search Fee, select the StudentID field, then in the box to the

right of the box containing “=“, enter the student’s internal ID.• Click on “Search All ___ records in this table”.• You can narrow the search further using the fields in the drop down

list, then click on List View and open the record to be deleted.• Click on the Delete button at the bottom of the page.• Deleting a fee from the Fee [146] table will automatically remove any

associated transaction records from the Fee_Transactions table.• Run the special operation “Re-Calculate Fee Balances” for this

student.

How To Delete a Fee Using DDA

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Deleting Fees Using DDA - Notes

The use of DDA (Direct Database Access) is typically limited to one or two individuals within the district. It may be necessary to enlist the help of your district’s PowerSchool Administrator for this process.

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Student Fee Alert

• For an alert to appear on student pages, select School > Balance Alert and set a minimum balance amount to trigger the alert, then click Submit. You may also add text to appear in the alert window. An email with this text is also sent to parents who choose to receive Balance Alert emails.

• When a student’s outstanding balance exceeds the amount set on the Balance Alert page, a green dollar sign will appear on student pages for the student, as well as on the Parent Portal.

• Clicking on the icon will show a message: