A good time to clean up your student management system!
During this difficult time all Colleges will be depending on their student and agent management system more than ever to be up to date and contain accurate information.
I also wanted to share tools and techniques you can use with eBECAS.
Many of these tips will seem basic, but I stress are vital to keep accurate student and agent information which is shared with staff in eBECAS. It is vital to have one source of truth and information on student and agent information that you can rely on. We have incorporated design features in eBECAS that have been shared across many Colleges over more than 34 years, we incorporate tools and techniques that make eBECAS an industry proven and accurate system.
Offers and Enrolments
One of the most fundamental building blocks in eBECAS is the separation of an offer (a quote) and a contracted and confirmed enrolment. Offers are changeable and the basis of contacts and review of interest for student and agents. Offers are the means by which you list nett or gross pricing (nett and gross proforma invoices use the same offer item list but different bookmarks for gross and nett without pre-receipting and fees). An offer may include a schedule of fees. An offer is the basis of a legally binding contract once confirmed between your College, agent and student.
The offer search is designed for your marketing and admissions department to share their data and work together . An offer contains all information to reduce the duplication of information with classing, teacher and resource allocation, finance, homestay and airport transfers information.
The offer search in eBECAS is very powerful. Offer search enables you to search offers by entry date, course start dates, homestay start date, airport pickup date for not yet accepted offers. Note: There should never be any not accepted offers for courses with a past start. This is an important KPI. Your marketing and admissions team are not following up unaccepted offers before the start date if they are listed. You should ensure that all offers are followed up before start date. If the students are not coming to start for that course start date, change the date to another course start date in the future or cancel the offer. All departments – marketing, admissions homestay and airport transfer need to work from the offer information to confirm details and start. When changes occur, the offer details can change and all staff are using correct and updated information from the one source. You can select what data to display in the search columns and the course start date can be shown.
Only once the signed agreement has been received with payment should an offer be accepted. Once an offer is accepted the student is listed ready to be assigned to class and receipts can be entered. Only credit or receipt agent fees in proportion of the tuition fee. If only half of the tuition fee is received, then credit or include half of the agent fee. (Communicate with me if you are confused by this – it is vital for accurate financials).
Please, once the student arrives at the College update the student has arrived. This enables the College within the first week if the student has not arrived to check where the students is and update the enrolment start date and marking of attendance to delay their commencement, class allocation and revenue.
Communication using the student portal, sms messaging and email with records kept in eBECAS
What is vital in this current situation is to communicate with your agents and students. Keep students and agent up to date with government restrictions and changes by using the student portal, where students can see your Colleges news and their own messages. Sms and email messages can be sent in bulk and sms messages are stored automatically in eBECAS and can be view by the students in their student portal. Students can update their contact details including address, email and phone number in the student portal.
Anticipated Cash-flow
A report that may be particularly of interest is the Anticipated Cash-flow (please check users have access to this report). eBECAS – Reports – Finance Anticipated Cash Flow. This lists by week or month for a period (as of a date for historic comparison) any money both due and or paid in that month or week.
The report can be grouped by faculty, country, agent or salesperson and filter by company, location or faculty.
Online payments via Flywire
We support online payments by agents or students directly using Flywire. Flywire has the benefit of receiving payments for the amount invoiced without added separate charges. Students from their student portal can make scheduled invoice payments and emails can be sent via email and sms in bulk for online payments when due.
VET support for USI version 3
eBECAS has been updated to support the new Australian Government M2M credentials. eBECAS can generate and verify USI live and online from within eBECAS.
We are always keen to hear of any feedback – any suggestions are welcome.
Best wishes, John
ebecas.com.au
john@equatorit.com
