Recommended Ledger Procedures, CNCL Ledger Type
Using the CNCL (Cancel) Ledger Type
The CNCL (Cancel) ledger type is a way for you to represent an amount on a ledger that a student (or prospect) is not responsible for. Canceling an amount off of a ledger can either be permanent or temporary. Canceling an amount off of a ledger permanently can be used when a particular student's contract amount changes, but the normal contract amount that the school charges is still the same. Canceling an amount off of the ledger temporarily is used mainly when you want to organize the contract balance to reflect only what the student owes for a certain period of time.
Permanently Canceling a Contract Discount
If your school offers a discount to certain students then you can add the discounted amount to the ledger as a CNCL, rather than changing the contract amount on the students’ Financial tab. This allows you to keep the original contract amount as a reference and to use the discount ledger entry as tool to track all students who received the discount. Do not use the CNCL ledger Type for any type of scholarship as this will adversely affect reports such as 1098Ts and statistics such as a student’s value per hour. Please consult your CPA or third party administrator for advice as to when to apply reduced contract amounts as a discount, scholarship, or grant.
Permanently Canceling Unearned Tuition
Another example of permanently canceling a ledger amount would be when a student drops out of your school and you need to add the unearned portion of their tuition, equipment, tool, kit, and books to the ledger. This also applies to any amount that the school will no longer hold the student responsible for after dropping out. The process for adding this to the ledger is the same as above, except when creating a new Program code and entering the description in the check number. Create a Program code and enter a description that references Unearned Tuition.
Temporarily Cancelling a Payment Period
Courses can be setup in SMART to mirror the process a school is using for processing their funding. For example: Courses can be setup as Cash Pay courses (for schools/courses that do not participate in Title IV funding), Academic Year courses (if the school is processing Title IV funds by academic year), or Pay Period courses (if the school is processing Title IV funds by payment periods).
SMART recommends that schools processing Title IV funding based on academic year or payment periods work only on the academic year or payment period the student is currently in. For example: If a course is setup to process funding in four payment periods, the first action on a student’s ledger may be to cancel out payment periods 2, 3, and 4 or subsequent academic years. By doing this, the ledger will clearly reflect when the school has received all of the funding for that payment period or academic year, and any additional funding for that payment period or academic year will be student overage (see the procedure above for adjusting student overages off of the ledger and paying credit balances to the student).
For example, to cancel out payment periods 2, 3, and 4
Tips: The process is the same if your course is setup for academic year processing; create the program Cancel AY 2 in this case.
Once all of the funding has been received for PP 1 or AY 1 as designated by your course setup, any credit balances have been paid to the student, and the student now has reached the number of hours to begin the next AY or PP, you will need to add the next AY or PP back on to the ledger. To do this, just reverse the original process.
Using the payment period example above
Temporarily Canceling a New Contract
Another example of a temporary cancel is when a dropped student re-enrolls into your school and a new contract is required for the student. The new contract amount should be added to the Financial tab of the student, which, consequently, will increase the total contract amount that is reflected on the ledger. Now when you run a Ledger Statement report, the Contract Balance column will include the new contract amount, so all of the amounts will be incorrect. Canceling this new contract amount on the ledger will make all of the previous contract balances display correctly. The process is the same as above for payment periods except that the cancel for a new contract is added prior to all other ledger entries, for the entire new contract amount. Then the new contract amount is added back on to the ledger on the re-enroll date.
The CNCL (Cancel) ledger type is a way for you to represent an amount on a ledger that a student (or prospect) is not responsible for. Canceling an amount off of a ledger can either be permanent or temporary. Canceling an amount off of a ledger permanently can be used when a particular student's contract amount changes, but the normal contract amount that the school charges is still the same. Canceling an amount off of the ledger temporarily is used mainly when you want to organize the contract balance to reflect only what the student owes for a certain period of time.
Permanently Canceling a Contract Discount
If your school offers a discount to certain students then you can add the discounted amount to the ledger as a CNCL, rather than changing the contract amount on the students’ Financial tab. This allows you to keep the original contract amount as a reference and to use the discount ledger entry as tool to track all students who received the discount. Do not use the CNCL ledger Type for any type of scholarship as this will adversely affect reports such as 1098Ts and statistics such as a student’s value per hour. Please consult your CPA or third party administrator for advice as to when to apply reduced contract amounts as a discount, scholarship, or grant.
- Prior to entering a discount on to the ledger, create a Program code for the discount in the Administration section of OnlineSMART.
- Select New on the Ledger page.
- Select a Period if you wish to assign this discount to a particular payment period. (Optional)
- Enter the Date the discount was applied in the Disbursement Date and Post Date.
- Select the ledger Type as CNCL.
- Enter a description in the Check Number field. (Example: Spring 2017 Discount)
- Enter the Amount of the discount as a positive number.
- Select the discount Program code you made earlier.
- Select the Year.
- Allocate the discount to the contract amounts that will be discounted.
Permanently Canceling Unearned Tuition
Another example of permanently canceling a ledger amount would be when a student drops out of your school and you need to add the unearned portion of their tuition, equipment, tool, kit, and books to the ledger. This also applies to any amount that the school will no longer hold the student responsible for after dropping out. The process for adding this to the ledger is the same as above, except when creating a new Program code and entering the description in the check number. Create a Program code and enter a description that references Unearned Tuition.
Temporarily Cancelling a Payment Period
Courses can be setup in SMART to mirror the process a school is using for processing their funding. For example: Courses can be setup as Cash Pay courses (for schools/courses that do not participate in Title IV funding), Academic Year courses (if the school is processing Title IV funds by academic year), or Pay Period courses (if the school is processing Title IV funds by payment periods).
SMART recommends that schools processing Title IV funding based on academic year or payment periods work only on the academic year or payment period the student is currently in. For example: If a course is setup to process funding in four payment periods, the first action on a student’s ledger may be to cancel out payment periods 2, 3, and 4 or subsequent academic years. By doing this, the ledger will clearly reflect when the school has received all of the funding for that payment period or academic year, and any additional funding for that payment period or academic year will be student overage (see the procedure above for adjusting student overages off of the ledger and paying credit balances to the student).
For example, to cancel out payment periods 2, 3, and 4
- Choose CNCL as the type code.
- Enter the amount of contract charges associated cumulatively with payment periods 2, 3, and 4.
- Enter this as a positive amount.
- Choose the program Cancel PP 2, 3, 4 (create this program).
- Allocate the same positive amount to Other.
- Once saved, the ledger will reflect that the current balance is equal to the amount of contract fees associated with the first payment period only.
Tips: The process is the same if your course is setup for academic year processing; create the program Cancel AY 2 in this case.
Once all of the funding has been received for PP 1 or AY 1 as designated by your course setup, any credit balances have been paid to the student, and the student now has reached the number of hours to begin the next AY or PP, you will need to add the next AY or PP back on to the ledger. To do this, just reverse the original process.
Using the payment period example above
- Select CNCL as the type code.
- Enter the amount of contract charges associated with PP 2.
- Enter this number as a negative number this time.
- Choose the program Post PP 2 (create this program).
- Allocate the same negative number to Other.
- Once saved, the ledger will reflect that the current balance is equal to the contract charges associated with payment period.
Temporarily Canceling a New Contract
Another example of a temporary cancel is when a dropped student re-enrolls into your school and a new contract is required for the student. The new contract amount should be added to the Financial tab of the student, which, consequently, will increase the total contract amount that is reflected on the ledger. Now when you run a Ledger Statement report, the Contract Balance column will include the new contract amount, so all of the amounts will be incorrect. Canceling this new contract amount on the ledger will make all of the previous contract balances display correctly. The process is the same as above for payment periods except that the cancel for a new contract is added prior to all other ledger entries, for the entire new contract amount. Then the new contract amount is added back on to the ledger on the re-enroll date.