Table of Contents
Document Summary
RecTrac offers you the ability to setup and issue Scholarship funds that can, in turn, be used as payment for services and products you provide. RecTrac Scholarship functionality offers a great deal of flexibility to meet your Scholarship Management needs. Scholarships in RecTrac can be used in any combination of the following:
- Issued to a single Family Member for use by that family member only.
- Issued to a single Family Member for use by any member of the Household.
- Set up as a general Scholarship Fund for use by anyone in your database. When using this option, Scholarships are not issued to Family Members; rather the scholarship is a "general use fund" available to anyone.
Once established, you issue Scholarships and patrons can use them as payment for the services you provide. Additionally, you can run reports and inquiries about Scholarship balances for your Family Members as well as reports about Scholarships issued and funds remaining.
License – Maintenance Agreement
The Scholarship Interface is free. Use of the interface requires a VSI license and annual maintenance agreement for RecTrac and the component modules discussed in this document. Prior to implementing any process outlined in this document, please contact the Vermont Systems Sales department at 1-877-883-8757 to verify that you are authorized to use the modules discussed in this document and if not, to obtain a quote and/or approval.
Setup Steps
This document will walk you through the basic steps required to:
- Create Scholarship Codes to track the scholarships you receive and use.
- Create a Scholarship Payment Code that will be used when patrons use their Scholarship as payment and include the Payment Code in the list of allowed Payment Codes on your Payment profile(s).
- Determine who may use Scholarships issued to a Family Member:
- The Family Member to whom the Scholarship was issued only.
- The Family Member's entire household.
- Issue a Scholarship to a Family Member.
- Use Scholarships in Daily Processing.
- Single Family Member Scholarships used as payment.
- Entire Family Scholarships used as payment.
- General Use Scholarships used as payment.
- Refund Scholarships.
- Run basic Scholarship reports and inquiries.
If you have additional questions about RecTrac Scholarships setup and operation after reading this document, please contact Vermont Systems Customer Service by phone at 887-883-8757 or generate a Support Case through the Customer portal of the Vermont Systems web site using your Customer ID and password.
Before You Begin
This document is written with the following assumptions. If any of the items listed below is NOT true, contact Vermont Systems Support prior to continuing, as the steps in this document may prove difficult to complete and unexpected results may occur.
- Your organization is running RecTrac 3.1.04.00 or greater.
- The User ID with which you sign into RecTrac has the requisite permissions and ability to access all modules and functions pertaining to RecTrac Scholarships, to include but not limited to: the Scholarship Management, Profile Assignments, Payment Code Management, Module Management, Household Management, and RecTrac Daily Processing functions.
- You understand RecTrac DataGrids and how to maneuver through them.
- You understand RecTrac Profile Hierarchy.
- You understand the Scholarship program at your Department.
File Maintenance Setup
File Maintenance for Scholarships is required in the following areas:
- Scholarship Management
- Payment Code Management
- Profile Assignments • Payment profile(s).
Note: All file paths and screen/tab locations in this document refer to file paths and screen/tab locations as they appear in the standard, default Vermont Systems Design. Your setup and Design may vary.
Create a Scholarship Code
The Scholarship Maintenance program allows add, change, delete, and clone Scholarship Codes that can be used for tracking scholarship or grant monies received and used in RecTrac/WebTrac for purchases.
- In RecTrac, go to Management Ribbon • System Management • Financial Management Group • Scholarship Management.
- Click Add. You will continue to the Scholarship Update screen.
- Enter a Scholarship Code. For Example: VSI.
- Enter a Description for the Scholarship. For Example: Vermont Systems Merit Scholarship.
- Click the Picklist icons for GL Code and Cost Center and enter the appropriate GL Code and Cost Center (if applicable) for this Scholarship. Ideally, these will be your Scholarship Liability account and cost center.
Note: These codes will be used if you opt to Create Cash/GL Posts when making an adjustment to a family member scholarship allotment using the Family Member Scholarship Maintenance program. Additionally, IF you use a GL Interface, these accounts will be credited and debited as Scholarships are issued and used.
- Enter the value which equals the original amount of the scholarship. This is the amount of the endowment and/or grant from the originating agency. For Example: Vermont Systems, Inc. awards you a $5,000.00 endowment to be used at your discretion for members who enroll into your programming and computer-related skills activities. You would enter "5,000.00" in this field.
- Click the Calendar icon to select the expiration date for this Scholarship Code, if desired. The system will disallow remittance using Scholarships issued from this Code after this date has been reached. If your Scholarship is good "forever," enter a date far in the future. DO NOT leave this field blank.
-
Determine whether you wish to Deduct Usage from Member Balance.
Select this option if you want to link Scholarships amounts from this Code to individual Family Members and/or Households.
De-select this option if this Scholarship Code is for general use and therefore NOT linked to individual Family Members or their Households.- Option Selected: -When this option is selected, you use the Family Member Scholarship Management program to add Scholarship balances to Family Members. When remitting for purchases using a Scholarship Payment Code, the Payment Screen will list the Scholarship(s) available to the Family Member and their current balances.
- Option De-Selected - When this option is de-selected, the scholarship is treated as a General Use fund that anyone can use for payment. You do NOT use the Family Member Scholarship Management program and you DO NOT post Scholarship amounts to individual family members. Rather, when you get to the Payment Screen and select a Scholarship Payment Code, a picklist populates with the "general use" Scholarship Codes and the amount remaining on them. These types of Scholarships can be used by any household in your database and/or for Daily Sales.
Notes: If your intention is to use Scholarships at the "Household Level" as opposed to the "Family Member Level," select this option to ensure you link Scholarships to Family Members and then go to your Payment profile and enable the option to Allow Scholarship Use Across Family Members.
When this option is selected, a family member's/household's Remaining Scholarship Balance will print on receipts.
- Fill out the remaining fields as needed. Use the "i" and "?" Help icons for field definitions, if needed.
- Click Save when done. You will be returned to the Scholarship Management DataGrid.
- Repeat these steps as necessary to create additional Scholarship Codes or exit back to the main menu.
Create and Link a Scholarship Payment Code
In order to use Scholarships Points as payment, you need to establish a Scholarship payment code and link it to your Payment profile(s).
To Create a Scholarship Payment Code
- In RecTrac, go to Management Ribbon • System Management • Financial Management Group • Payment Code Management.
- Click Add. You will continue to the Payment Code Update.
- Enter your Pay Code. For Example: Scholarships or 23 or 23 - Scholarships.
- Expand the Drop-down list for Payment Type and select Scholarship.
- Enter a Description and Long Description for this pay code. For Example: Scholarships.
- Fill out the remaining fields in all groups on this screen as necessary.
Use the "i" and "?" Help icons for field definitions, if needed. - Expand the GL Settings groupand enter the appropriate Offset, Over and Short G/L and Cost Center Information, if needed. This is recommended if you use a GL Interface and/or if you track Overages and Shortages.
- If you do not interface your general ledger accounts, you do not need to enter any information on this screen.
- If you do not track over/short amounts, you will not need to enter any information into the Over/Short general ledger/cost center fields.
- Click Save. You will be returned to the Payment Code Management DataGrid.
- Repeat these steps as necessary to create additional Scholarship Payment Codes or exit back to the main menu.
To Link a Payment Code to Your Payment Profile
To use Payment Codes in RecTrac, they must be linked in the Allowed Pay Codes field of your Payment profile.
- In RecTrac, go to Management Ribbon • System Management • User/Menu/Profile Management Group • Profile Management.
- Highlight/select your Payment profile and click Change. You will continue to the Payment Profile Update screen.
- Scroll down to the Pay Code Restrictions Group.
- Click the Picklist icon for the Allowed Pay Codes field and highlight/select the Scholarship Payment Code you created above. Any Pay Codes already in the field will remain selected.
- Click Select. You will return to the Payment profile.
- Ensure your Scholarship Payment Code appears in the Allowed Pay Codes along with all other valid Pay Codes for this profile.
- Remain in your Payment profile and continue to the next section.
Note: If you allow/will allow Scholarship Refunds, be sure to include your Scholarship Payment Code in the Allowed Refund Pay Codes (Refund Now) field as well. Use the steps provided above as a guide.
Determine Who May Use Scholarships
Complete this section ONLY if you will be issuing Scholarships to Family Members in your database. IF your Scholarships are for General Use only as discussed above, you do NOT need to complete this section. Save changes to your Payment profile and continue to (Remitting with Scholarship) When Issued for General Use below.
When issuing Scholarships to Family Members, you need to determine who will be allowed to use the Scholarship as payment for service:
- The Family Member to who the Scholarship was issued only.
- The Family Member's entire household.
The Allow Scholarship Use Across Family Members option on the top panel of Payment profile controls this setting.
To Determine Who My User Scholarships
- From the Payment Profile Update screen, make your selection in the Allow Scholarship Use Across Family Members option.
- Option Selected - Select this option if you wish to allow Scholarship use at the "Household Level" as opposed to at the "Family Member Level." When this option is enabled, a Scholarship issued to a single Family Member of a household can be used as remittance for a service by any member of the family.
- Option De-Selected - Leave this option de-selected if you want Scholarships to be used only by those Family Members to whom they are issued.
- For Example: The Parks at Bedford Falls issues a $100 Scholarship in the name of Mary Bailey. With this option enabled, Mary can use that Scholarship as payment for activity enrollments for her children, Tommy, Zuzu and Pete. With this option disabled, Mary can use that Scholarship for purchases for herself only.
- Save your changes.
- Repeat these steps and the above for your additional Payment profiles, if any, and exit back to the Main Menu when done.
Note: This is NOT a System-Wide setting. This is a Profile-based setting only. IF you have multiple Payment profiles, VSI strongly recommends ensuring the Allow Scholarship Use Across Family Members option is set consistently on each profile.
This completes the File Maintenance Setup for RecTrac Scholarships.
Using Scholarships
Issue a Scholarships to Family Members
Complete this section ONLY if you will be issuing Scholarships to Family Members in your database. IF your Scholarships are for General Use only as discussed above, you do NOT need to complete this section. Save changes to your Payment profile and continue to (Remitting with Scholarship) When Issued for General Use below.
The Family Member Scholarship Maintenance program allows you to issue new Scholarships to the family member selected and/or manually adjust the balance of an existing Scholarship. Scholarships must be issued to an individual family member regardless of whether everyone in the household can use it. Whether Scholarships are for single family member use or household use is determined by how you set the Allow Scholarship Use Across Family Members option on your Payment profile.
To issue a new Scholarship or increase a Family Member's Scholarship balance, enter a positive number and click Process To reduce a Family Member's Scholarship balance, enter a negative number and click Process. No receipt is generated; the balance is simply updated. The User ID of the person logged in will be added to the Scholarship Maintenance record whenever a Family Member's Scholarship balance is updated.
To Issue a Scholarship:
- In RecTrac, go to Management Ribbon • System Management • Household Management • Family Member Scholarship Management.
- Look up and Select the Family Member to whom you wish to issue the Scholarship. You will continue to the Scholarship Maintenance program for the Family Member selected.
- The Family Member's Current Balance (if any) will appear in the corresponding field, and any existing Scholarships will be listed in the DataGrid on the right-hand side of the screen.
Note: For purposes of this example, the selected Family Member does not have an existing Scholarship, so the Current Balance field displays $0.00 and the DataGrid is empty.
- Enter the amount of the Scholarship being issued in the Change Amount. This will be a positive number. For Example: 50.00
Note: In event you want to reduce a Scholarship amount, you would enter a negative value in this field. For Example: 25.00-.
- Click the Picklist icon and select the appropriate Scholarship Code.
Note: The Scholarship Codes that appear in this picklist are those for which you are opting to Deduct Usage from Member Balance.
- Enter an Expiration Date. This date can be the same as the Expiration Date on the Scholarship Code, or it can be a different date, if desired.
- Determine whether you wish to Post to General Ledger.
- Enter a note in the Reference field to explain the adjustment, if desired. This note will appear in the Family Member's Scholarship history.
- Leave the remaining fields at their default values or make changes as necessary. Use the "i" and "?" Help icons for field definitions, if needed.
- Click Process to complete the action. The Family Member's Scholarship balance will be adjusted accordingly. You will be returned to the Lookup screen where you can repeat this process or Exit back to the main menu.
Remitting for Services with Scholarship Funds
When Issued for Use by a Single Family Member Only
The following assumes that you have:
- Created Scholarship Codes with the Deduct Usage from Member Balance option ENABLED.
- The Allow Scholarship Use Across Family Members option on your Payment profile(s) is DISABLED.
To Remit with Scholarship Funds
- In Global Sales, lookup and select the Family Member for whom you will process the transaction.
- Process the transaction for this patron as you normally would and click Payment to proceed to the Global Sales Payment screen.
- Expand the Drop-down list for Pay Code and select your Scholarship Payment Code.
- Upon selecting the Scholarship Pay Code, a Scholarship Drop-down list will appear, listing the Family Member and that amount of the Scholarship available.
Note: The Drop-down list will contain all Scholarships issued to the Household in the event more than one (1) has been issued. For purposes of this example, there is one (1) Scholarship only.
- Complete the sale as you normally would. The resulting receipt will display the amount of the payment, the Scholarship used (For Example: VSI),and the Scholarship amount remaining.
Note: In the event the Family Member selected in Global Sales is NOT the Family Member to whom the Scholarship was issued, the system will stop the transaction with the following message:
Refer to Troubleshooting below.
When Issued for Use Across All Family Members
The following assumes that you have:
- Created Scholarship Codes with the Deduct Usage from Member Balance option ENABLED.
- The Allow Scholarship Use Across Family Members option on your Payment profile(s) is ENABLED.
To Remit with Scholarship Funds
- In Global Sales, lookup and select the Household for whom you will process the transaction.
- Process the transaction for a patron in the household as you normally would and click Payment to proceed to the Global Sales Payment screen.
- Expand the Drop-down list for Pay Code and select your Scholarship Payment Code.
- Upon selecting the Scholarship Pay Code, a Scholarship Drop-down list will appear, listing the Family Member to whom the Scholarship was issued and that amount of the Scholarship available.
Note: The Drop-down list will contain all Scholarships issued to the Household in the event more than one (1) has been issued. For purposes of this example, there is one (1) Scholarship only.
- Complete the sale as you normally would. The resulting receipt will display the amount of the payment, the Scholarship used (For Example: VSI),and the Scholarship amount remaining.
Note: When using Scholarships across all members in a household… In the event the Family Member to whom the Scholarship was issued exists in two (2) or more Households in your database, ANY Family Member of ANY Household to which the Family Member belongs can use the Scholarship. This is a known system limitation due to the fact that Scholarships are linked to Family Members and not Households.
For Example: Eliza Doolittle exists as a Family Member in Alfred Doolittle's household in Henry Higgins's household. If you issue a Scholarship to Eliza, all Family Members in both the Doolittle household and the Higgins household can use it.
When Issued for General Use
The following assumes that you have:
- Created Scholarship Codes with the Deduct Usage from Member Balance option DISABLED.
- The Allow Scholarship Use Across Family Members option on your Payment profile(s) is ENABLED.
To Remit with Scholarship Funds
- In Global Sales, lookup and select the Family Member for whom you will process the transaction.
- Process the transaction for this patron as you normally would and click Payment to proceed to the Global Sales Payment screen.
- Expand the Drop-down list for Pay Code and select your Scholarship Payment Code.
- Upon selecting the Scholarship Pay Code, a Scholarship Drop-down list will appear, listing the All Members Scholarship(s) and that amount of the Scholarship available.
Note: The Drop-down list will contain all of your All Members Scholarships as well as any Scholarships issued to a Family Member in the Household, if applicable. For purposes of this example, there is one (1) All Members Scholarship only.
- Complete the sale as you normally would. The resulting receipt will display the amount of the payment and that a Scholarship was used.
Note: In the event the Allow Scholarship Use Across Family Members option on your Payment profile is disabled, the system will disallow the transaction. This is a current limitation:
Refer to Troubleshooting below.
Refunding Payments Made with Scholarships
Note: To complete the steps below, your Payment profile must be set to allow Refund Now as an Allowed Refund Option and your Scholarship Code must be listed in the Allowed Refund Pay Codes (Refund Now) field.
- Process the return for the patron as you normally would and click Refund to proceed to the Refund Update screen.
- Expand the Drop-down list for Refund Option and select Refund Now.
- Select your Scholarship Payment Code.
- Accept the default entry in the Scholarship field
OR
Expand the Drop-down to select the appropriate Scholarship if more than one (1) is listed. - Enter any applicable Pay References, if needed.
- Click Process and complete the transaction. The Receipt will display the Scholarship monies returned.
Purging Scholarship Balances
The Scholarship Purge program removes any Scholarship balance for Family Members in the range of Scholarship Codes selected with an Expiration Date within the Date Range selected. This program does not take permissions into account nor does it print a purge journal. It simply initializes Scholarship balances to $0.00 and creates an Audit Log entry.
For Example: Your Scholarship Range is VSI Merit. Your Expiration Date Range is 07/01/20xx - 06/30/20xy. When you run the Purge, any Family Member with a VSI Merit Scholarship that expires any time during the calendar year July 20xx - June 20xy will have its balance purged.
To Run the Scholarship Purge
- In RecTrac, go to Management Ribbon • System Management • Financial Management • Scholarship Management.
- Click Scholarship Purge. You will continue to the Scholarship Purge program.
Note: Access to this button is controlled via the Permissions profile: Buttons/Misc Permissions tab • ScholarshipMain_ButtonScholarshipPurge.
- Click the Picklist icons for Begin and End Scholarship to select your range of Scholarship Codes.
- Expand the Drop-down list and select the Begin and End Expiration Dates for the Purge process. Scholarship balances with an expiration date within this range will be purged.
THEN
Take appropriate action in the right-hand column to specify the actual date you wish to select. - Click Process when ready. The process runs on the AppServer. You will be notified when it completes. This program does not take permissions into account nor does it print a purge journal.
Scholarship Reports and Inquiries
Reports
Scholarship Reports are located on the Standard VSI Design here: Reporting Ribbon • Report Listing • System Financial group • Scholarship Reports. Available Scholarship Reports include:
-
VSI - Scholarship Liability Report - This report lists Scholarship Transactions by Date by Receipt. General Use/All Members Scholarships are exempt from this report.
- VSI - Scholarship Listing Report - This report lists the Scholarship Codes currently in your database.
Family Member Reports (Reporting Ribbon • Report Listing • Household & Family Member group) contain filters for Scholarships.
You can include a Family Member's Scholarship information on any custom report where the SAPerson Table is available. Opt to include:
- SAPerson_ScholarshipAmount (This calculates current available scholarship balance)
- SAPerson_ScholarshipAmountIssued (This calculates total amount issued in scholarship money over time)
- SAPerson_ScholarhsipAmountUsed (This calculates total amount used in scholarship money over time)
- SAPerson_ScholarshipExpirationDate (This calculates expiration date of current scholarship funds)
You can include a Household's Scholarship cumulative information on any custom report where the SAHousehold Table is available. Opt to include:
- SAHousehold_ScholarshipAmountRemianing
- SAHousehold_ScholarshipAmountIssued
- SAHousehold_ScholarshipAmountUsed
- SAHousehold_ScholarshipExpirationDate
Inquiries
You can check a household's total Scholarship information from the Financial Info tab using either Household Management or Household Inquiry. This is cumulative total for all scholarships issued to members of the household.
You can check a Family Member's total Scholarship information from the Member Details • Additional Settings tab using either Household Management or Household Inquiry. This is cumulative total for all scholarships issued to the Family Member.
You can check a household's Scholarship transaction information balance from Household Inquiry • Scholarships.
- Go to Household Inquiry.
- Look up the Household.
- Click the Scholarships button at the bottom of the DataGrid.
Optionally, you can check a Family Member's Scholarship balance and view his/her Scholarships History using the Family Member Scholarship Maintenance program.
Troubleshooting
The following lists some common questions regarding Scholarships and their possible solutions.
Problem:
When trying to purchase something with a Scholarship Pay Code, the following message displays:
Solution:
This is likely because the Allow Scholarship Use Across Family Members option is DISABLED on your Payment profile and you are trying to make a Scholarship payment for a member that was NOT issued a scholarship.
Problem:
When trying to use the Family Member Scholarship Management program to issue a Scholarship, the following message appears:
Solution:
Ensure the Deduct Usage from Member Balance option is enabled for your Scholarship Codes in Scholarship Management. This option determines whether the Scholarship can be issued to Family Members or whether it is a General Use scholarship.
Problem:
When trying to use a General Use Scholarship, the Scholarship Drop-down list on the Global Sales Payment Screen is blank.
Solution:
In Scholarship Management, for the Scholarship Code in question, ensure the following:
- The Deduct Usage from Member Balance option is DISABLED. This option determines whether the Scholarship is for "general use" or for Family Members/Households.
- You have a future date in the Expiration Date field. If the Expiration Date is in the past OR if the Expiration Date field is blank, the Scholarship drop-down on the Payment Screen will be empty.