Using the Open Balance Report in Fee Processing


A frequently asked question involving tuition/fee processing is “how do I get my open balance report to show me the correct balances of students?” There are two answers to this question, and it depends on the circumstance.

 

1.  In this scenario, the user wants the report to reflect the same balance shown as the student’s balance in the fees, payments, and adjustments area. In order for the balance on the report to be the same as the balance shown on the screen, you MUST select the option “no lower value” when setting the beginning date range during the print preview process. That way ALL of the charges and ALL of the payments are included in the total to make it balance to the screen’s total.

2.  In another scenario, the user wants the balance to reflect what money is due, if any, for just this school year. In this instance, the user must use date range values that include ONLY the dates of the charges and payments for this school year. Study a student’s account in the fees, payments, and adjustments area. On what date did you mass assign the charges to the students? Was it June 1 or the first day of school? Once you determine this date, use it for the lower date range value, then use today as the upper date range value. Now the open balance report will reflect only the money due for THIS school year and ignore any data from previous school years.

Optionally: you could use a sort and from the AR_Statement table select only records from the current school year using the field School_Year.