Refund Group Setup

Refund Groups must be set up in order for CAMS to automatically generate a refund transaction when students drop classes or withdraw. You can define as many groups as needed. Each group contains a Refund Period, or schedule, detailing the timetable in which a student’s account will be credited according to your institution’s policy. You will first need to create Refund Groups and second, define the schedule (refund period) for each group. Refund Groups define the course start and end dates. The same Refund Group may be set up multiple times by using different Refund Types, however each Refund Group will be listed once in the Offering Maintenance Refund Schedule drop-down. Start Date and End Date should be the same for each instance of the same Refund Group.

To Create a Refund Group:

Begin the process of setting up these groups by accessing the Refund Group Setup form: Click Registration >Offering >Setup >Tuition and Refunds >Refunds Group tab.

If you took advantage of the Setup option or the Copy option to populate this data grid, you will want to verify the information that was loaded (Begin/End dates, Refund Policy, etc.) Once done, move forward with Defining Refund Periods.

If you are adding records to the Refund Group, right-click in the data grid to access a blank entry screen.

Select the applicable Refund Policy (Standard, Daily, Title IV, Standard Plus).

Standard Policy is used when the refund percentages can be set by specified dates.

Daily Policy is used for situations that are not date specific, but rather the refund is based on the number of days after the start of a class. An example would be Independent Study and some Distance Learning classes.

Title IV Policy accommodates the federal requirements for Title IV refunds.

Standard Plus Policy is used when a Last Add Date, Last Drop Date, and Last Withdraw Date should be specified. Standard Plus can be set to use specified dates for refund percentages or the option, Use Relative Dates, can be enabled to use relative dates calculated on calendar days for refund percentages.

Choose a Refund Group Name from the Refunds Group glossary table, and Refund Type from the Refund Type glossary table..

Enter the Class Beginning and Ending Dates.

If using Standard Plus with Use Relative Dates not enabled, you can specify the last date a course may be added, dropped or withdrawn. If a registration or drop is attempted after these dates, CAMS users will be presented with an option to override the add or drop; Portal users will be presented with a notification to see the Academic Office.

If Allow Drop in Portal and Allow Withdraw in Portal are enabled in Offering Maintenance detail for a course with the Standard Plus Refund Policy, and the Last Drop Date is today or in the future, the course may be dropped from the portals.

If the Last Drop Date is in the past and the Last Withdraw Date is in the future, the course may be withdrawn from the portals if the course is officially registered; for unofficially registered courses, the course may not be dropped once the Last Drop Date has passed. If only one option is enabled in Offering Maintenance, then the date entered for only that option is enforced.

If using Standard Plus with Use Relative Dates enabled, you can specify the last date a course may be added, the Start Date Number Days, the number of days a course will start after the date the course is registered, the End Date Number Days, or length of the course, the Last Withdraw Num Days and Last Drop Num Days, the number of days after a class may be withdrawn or dropped after the date the course is registered.

Click Update to save new entry or Cancel to exit without saving.

To Create a Refund Period:

Highlight the Refund Group you wish to define. If any refund periods exist for that group, they will be displayed in the lower half of this form in the Refund Periods data grid. If none exist, you will see a blank data grid.

Add a new entry by right-clicking in the Refund Periods data grid to open the data entry form. You can enter any percentage including up to two decimals. You will notice that the refund group information is displayed (blue field labels), providing the opportunity to verify that you are working with the right group.

Enter the Last Day of Refund Percent through which the refund percentage is effective.

You must start with 100%, which is usually the first day of class and end with 0% with an unlimited number of entries between the two.

If using Standard Plus Policy with Use Relative Dates enabled, enter the Days Since Start Date to indicate the number of days since the start of the course through which the refund percentage is effective.

You must start with 100% and end with 0% with an unlimited number of entries between the two.

To add another period, click Next Period. To review/edit previous period, click Prev Period. These two options allow you to work continuously without having to close and reopen the entry form.

Create as many entries as necessary to complete your refund schedule. When finished creating or modifying entries, click Update to save your work, or Cancel to exit without saving.

For example, if you were setting up a refund group to match a Title IV refund schedule you would have to enter every day and that day’s percentage of refund until you reached the 60% mark. After the 60% you would enter a 0%.