Introduction
The conditional application fee addresses scenarios where application payments are required only for specific _Grades_/Programs (or to exclude specific cases such as specific pricing categories), rather than being applied universally across all applications.
In many institutions, certain programs require applicants to pay an application fee or other tuition fee pre-payments:
- Upon application submission
- Upon application/offer acceptance (during admission workflow)
while others do not.
To support this flexibility, with a relevant setting enabled, the system will check and ask for payment, only if an arrangement greater than zero has been calculated based on related configurations (fees connections to relevant _Grades_ etc.). If the relevant configuration results in no arrangements or zero amounts, then the payment step will be skipped only for those cases.
Settings
The Conditional setting:
Navigate to CONFIGURATION > Admission > Admission Settings > ‘Financial & Payment Settings’ Tab > ‘Basic Settings’ section > ‘Ask for Payment Before Submission Only If an Amount Has Been Calculated’ setting
- ‘Ask for Payment Before Submission Only If an Amount Has Been Calculated’ setting: This ensures that the system will only ask for payment if there is an actual fee amount calculated for the application, either from service fee connected to the _Grade_/Program, or from other connected arrangements such as the _Grade_/Program tuition fees.
If no fee is calculated, the student will submit the application without payment required.
Relevant settings
Upon Application Submission:
Navigate to CONFIGURATION > Admission > Admission Settings > ‘Financial & Payment Settings’ Tab > ‘Basic Settings’ section
- ‘Ask for payment before submission (as required step)’ setting: This setting enables the functionality of application fee or other prepayments upon application submission.
- ‘Enable Payment Request Type’ setting: Choose whether the payment will be based on configured services (application fees) or other arrangements related to the educational program (e.g. prepayment of arrangement connected to the _Grade_/Program applying.
- ‘Create arrangement based on selected service’ setting: Select the configured application fee service, if the payment is based on application fee charge (second setting).
Upon Application Acceptance (Offer Acceptance)
Navigate to CONFIGURATION > Admission > Admission Settings > ‘Financial & Payment Settings’ Tab > ‘Application Acceptance & Rejection Settings’ section
Case Examples
Application Service Fee
When the settings are set to ask for payment for Application Fee Service, the system will check the connected _Grades_/Programs to the selected service and will ask for payment only if the educational program applying is connected.
- Service configuration:
Configure your application fee service and connect the _Grades_/Programs which require payment:
Navigate to CONFIGURATION > Main Settings > Services > Manage Services
Create/Open the application fee > Connect the _Grades_ in the corresponding field in the ‘General Data’ Tab
! If you don’t select any _Grades_ in the corresponding field, then the fee will apply to all (no filter).
Configure the price and arrangement data:
- Settings:
Navigate to CONFIGURATION > Admission > Admission Settings > ‘Financial & Payment Settings’ Tab > ‘Basic Settings’ section and configure the settings as below
Select your application fee service in the relevant setting.
The result:
- If the application is related to a _Grade_/Program, connected to the Application Fee Service, then the system will require the application fee payment upon application submission (only if the payment is successful, the submission will be completed).
- If the application is related to a _Grade_/Program, not connected to the Application Fee Service, then the system will not require the application fee payment upon application submission and the application can be submitted successfully without the payment.
*If there are more arrangements set during the admission process, and the system calculates other payments related to the _Grade_/Program, the system will still require a payment. The case refers to applications where the only payment required is the application fee.
_Grade_/Program Fee
When the settings are set to ask for payment of Prepayment or Due payment, the system will check the billing settings of the related _Grades_/Programs and will ask for payment only if the amount calculated is greater than zero.
Example:
The _Grade_/Program arrangement is shown and created during admission.
There are cases, where no price will be calculated for the applicant, such as:
- The specific _Grade_ does not have any default price set (special program, free of charge)
- The _Grade_ is configured with pricing categories, such as ‘Normal’, ‘Scholarship’, ‘Interest only – no Certification’ etc. so based on the selected pricing category (with relevant qualifications submitted) the calculation may also result to zero amount
- Scholarship can also be applied with relevant available discount, so final calculated price may result to zero.
Based on relevant settings to enable _Grades_ arrangements
And relevant _Grade_ billing configuration
The system may result to:
- The _Grade_ arrangement calculation with final price greater than zero – In this case the system will require a pre-payment based on the ‘Enable Payment Request Type’ setting and only if the payment is successful, the submission will be completed.
- The _Grade_ arrangement calculation with zero final price – In this case the system will not require a pre-payment and the application can be submitted successfully without the payment.
What happens if Fee is Zero
If the system calculates the fee for the application and it turns out to be zero:
- The system skips the payment step entirely.
- The application is submitted directly without asking for payment or showing any payment-related messages.
- This applies to all applicants and works even in scenarios where payment is normally required.
