POL-U5351.01 Billing and Receiving Payment For Tuition, Fees, Goods, and Services

The Vice President delegates the daily administration and oversight of this policy to the Director of Financial Services.

The Student Business Office (SBO) is designated as the University’s centralized billing and cashier location responsible for:

1. Billing and receiving payments on student accounts,
2. Billing and receiving payments on non-student customer accounts,
3. Receiving and processing decentralized department revenue, and
4. Compiling and depositing University funds.

In order to establish sufficient controls through a standardized billing (accounts receivable) process and to minimize the handling of cash, the billing and collection of tuition, fees, goods, and services will be processed either through the SBO or a Western e-commerce payment or point-of-sale system.

Exception: Departments wishing to maintain a decentralized billing and/or payment receipt operation on a short-term or permanent basis must receive prior written approval in accordance with procedure (PRO-U5351.01A or PRO-U5351.01B).

All fees including, but not limited to, course, lab, goods, service fees and fines, charged to students and/or external entities must receive initial approval in accordance with University fee policies. Fees include deposits (e.g. key or equipment deposits).

All cash received by the SBO and the Associated Students Bookstore must be deposited with the University’s bank within one business day following receipt of payment. All corrections and adjustments to deposits will be documented.

All cash received by approved decentralized cash receipt locations must be deposited with the SBO within one business day following receipt of payment.

Exception: Treasury Services may grant decentralized locations a waiver to the one business day requirement, however, departments with waivers must comply with deposit requirements as directed by Treasury Services. See 24 Hour Waiver Form (FRM-U5351.01A).

If an unauthorized receipting location receives a payment either in person or in the mail, the department will:

1. Direct the payee to the SBO or applicable e-commerce site (if in-person),
2. Hand deliver the payment to the SBO within one business day of receipt of payment (if received in the mail), and
3. Notify the payee of the mailing address for the SBO for future payments.

Accepting an in-person payment to the SBO on behalf of the payee is prohibited.

Refunds for charges applied to a student or general receivable account must be made in accordance with the Adjusting Student and General Receivable Accounts and Refunding Credit Balances policy (POL-U5352.03) and related procedures.

General refunds (payments received directly for charges that were not applied to an established student or general receivable account) must be processed through the use of the General Refund Voucher.

Exception: Decentralized locations authorized to receive payments directly may receive specific authority to process their own refunds.

The SBO and financial managers granted authority to maintain a decentralized payment receipt and/or billing location (including refunding when applicable), must ensure compliance with applicable internal control requirements, stipulated by the Director of Financial Services. Financial managers must attest to being compliant with the Authorizing a Decentralized Billing and/or Payment Receipt Location procedures (PRO-U5351.01A).

The SBO will promptly contact any payer whose deposit item is returned by a bank.

Exception: Items returned that are payable to the Western Washington University Foundation and Western Washington University Alumni will be delivered to those offices for resolution. Other departments may be authorized by the Treasury Services Manager to collect their returned items.

Training provided by Financial Services must be completed:

1. Prior to participating in any cash/credit card handling activities,
2. Annually, and
3. Upon request of Treasury Services.

In accordance with the Authorizing and Defining Financial Responsibilities policy (POL-U5320.03), financial managers must ensure that performance issues of employees responsible for the stewardship of financial resources are promptly and adequately addressed (e.g. mishandling of cash).

Financial managers must ensure only University trained employees handle payments.

Exception: The Treasury Services Manager may authorize a non-employee to handle cash on a limited basis only after required training has been completed and appropriate internal controls are in place.

Financial managers, of departments authorized to handle billing and/or receipt of payment directly, must comply with all of the requirements outlined in the:

1. Authorization memo,
2. Decentralized Cash/Billing Internal Controls Verification, and
3. Trainings.

All cash handling operations are subject to random audits by Internal Audit and/or Treasury Services. Financial managers must comply, in a timely manner, with requests for information during audits.