Accommodation Payments in eBECAS/EDMISS allow you to prepare and manage payments to Accommodation Providers for accommodation services arranged or managed by your institution on behalf of students.
Overview
Payments to accommodation providers follow two main steps:
Step 1: Prepare Accommodation Payments
Once a student has been placed with an Accommodation Provider, you can start preparing the payments to the provider.
Payment arrangements, including the frequency, number of instalments, amounts and due dates, may vary between institutions and Accommodation Providers. eBECAS/EDMISS provides the flexibility to prepare these payments according to your institution's policies and agreements with providers.
During this step, you create the Accommodation Payments and define their details, but they are not yet scheduled for payment. Scheduling and processing these payments are managed separately in the subsequent steps.
Each Accommodation Payment has an amount, a Payment Due Date, and a coverage period defined. Payments can be prepared for the full accommodation period in advance or generated progressively as required.
Learn how to prepare the payments to the accommodation providers
Payments to Accommodation Providers are independent of payments received from students. Your institution is responsible for paying providers for accommodation services delivered, regardless of whether the student has paid for those services.
Payment arrangements with students may also differ from those agreed with Accommodation Providers, including payment frequency, amounts and due dates.
For example, a student pays for six months of accommodation in advance, while your institution pays the Accommodation Provider fortnightly. If the student needs to move to another provider after two months, you can adjust the provider payments to cover only the period the student stayed with the original provider and start arranging the new payments to the new provider for the remaining period.
This flexibility allows you to manage changes to Accommodation Placements and provider payments without affecting the payments already made by the student.
Step 2: Manage Provider Payments through Schedule Payments
Once Accommodation Payments have been prepared, they can be reviewed, adjusted and scheduled for payment through Schedule Payments.
Scheduling is the final step in the Accommodation Provider payment process. Once an Accommodation Payment has been scheduled, it can no longer be edited or deleted directly. To make changes, you must first remove the related Scheduled Payment before editing or deleting the Accommodation Payment.
Learn more about scheduling payments to Accommodation Providers.
Preparing Payments vs Scheduling Payments
Preparing Accommodation Payments is where you define what your institution plans to pay an Accommodation Provider based on the student's Accommodation Placement. This includes the payment frequency, amounts, due dates and accommodation periods covered.
This step is typically managed by the accommodation team, as they are familiar with the placement details and arrangements with providers. At this stage, payments are only planned. They have not been scheduled or paid, and can be modified or deleted as needed.
Scheduling Accommodation Payments is typically managed by the finance or accounting team. This is where the prepared payments are reviewed, confirmed and scheduled for payment to the provider.
Once scheduled, an Accommodation Payment can no longer be edited or deleted directly. Any changes require the related Scheduled Payment to be removed first.