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Manual for the Course User Fee

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Table of ContentsRationaleElaboration of Fee Audit Lists TimetableBackground

General ProcedurePurpose

Reporting PeriodDocumentation Presentation of Information

Required worksheetEnrollmentExpenditures

500 Expenses600 Expenses700 Expenses

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New courses/New FeesCourses not offered in reporting period

Special situationsCourses taught at multiple CampusesCourses sharing expenses with other coursesDeletion of courses

Summary of computer paths

CurricUNET Process for submission

Examples

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Course User Fee-Procedure 1164

Rationale: Miami Dade College and the State Auditors have an agreement that all courses with a fee shall be prepared to be audited at least once every five years. Manual of Procedures # 1164 Course User Fees describes the College’s procedure which outlines the process developed in support of all course user fees.

https://www.mdc.edu/procedures/Chapter1/1164.pdf

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Elaboration of Fee Audit ListsALC has determined for optimization purposes to define a categorical system divided into “disciplines of study” to allocate an equal and reasonable amount of courses to be audited in twenty percent (20%) increments for a total of one hundred percent (100%) after a 5 year period. At the conclusion of the fifth year, it is expected to have a completion of course user fee audits equal to the total amount of active courses with a fee in the course dictionary at such given date. The Office of Academic Programs in consultation with Business Affairs would develop the 20% lists of courses for 5 years. Beginning in 2012 the master list of all the courses in the Course Dictionary that have a fee would be provided to ALC members for the selection of the 20% Fee Audit Lists for the next 5 years. Each year the list would be updated to reflect changes that occurred during the year affecting the number of courses in the Course Dictionary that have a fee.

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TimetableDate Performance

Between January and April 2015

The District Office of Academic Programs in conjunction with Business Affairs will generate the 2015 Fee Audit List according to the Disciplines scheduled for review. 2015 is the fourth year that is being reviewed under the Discipline format.

April 1st The Course User Fee Audit List is distributed to the Academic Deans College wide. The discipline dean in charge of the course(s) under audit shall appoint a chairperson(s) and/or designee to oversee the process of collecting the required information as outlined by the “course user fee documentation manual” provided by Business Affairs in conjunction with the District Office of Academic Programs.

August 17th Submission deadline through CurricUNET of all courses.

To be completed by August 17th

Originator-The chairperson and/or designee overseeing the collection process shall submit all collected documentation through CurricUNET by creating a Course User Fee Proposal. Instructions and access to CurricUNET is done through the Office of Academic Programs.

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Between August 17, 2015 and February 1, 2016

Business Affairs Staff Review-The designated staff members at Business Affairs shall review, request additional information as appropriate, and approve the proposal.Note: If during review, Business Affairs requires adjustments, those adjustments must be submitted by the discipline within two weeks from the date the request for adjustments has been sent by Business Affairs; review of the new or corrected documentation and response from Business Affairs to the departments are to be received within 2 weeks from the date submitted.

To be completed by February 1, 2016

Deadline for Business Affairs to have reviewed and approved all the courses and changes that were timely submitted in CurricUNET.

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On Demand State Auditors-The archived proposals are readily available for the State Auditors. Auditors select the courses to be audited from the “Course User Fee Audit List” (annual subset of approximately 20%), and an electronic page for the annual subset of approximately 20% is made available by Business Affairs for the auditors to access the appropriate course information/documentation.

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BackgroundGeneral procedure:The State Auditors request from Business Affairs the Fee Audit List from which they would choose the courses to be audited that year. The number of courses chosen in any given year has usually ranged from 20 to 30 courses. Once the auditors review the original number of courses requested, they might decide to request additional courses for review. The auditors might do this as a result of their findings. For example, inadequate number of courses to reflect a fair representation of the course population, discrepancies and inconsistencies found in the courses reviewed, or any other reason that seems pertinent to them.

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Even though the courses that are typically audited each year are very few compared to the number of courses on the Fee Audit List, the auditors might want to visually scan the information that Business Affairs has collected from the departments to ascertain that the College is complying with its obligation to collect the necessary information.

Purpose:The purpose of the Audit is to verify that the fees that are collected from the students are used for resources that are provided to the students and not used to cover the College’s general expenses. The information that is required for the Audit would verify the purpose of the expenditures.

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Although it is the intention of the College to prove that the expenditures used in providing services to the students was more than the fees collected, the information requested is to document the expenditures not the revenue. For example, if the revenue from the fee collected for one course is $10 per student, the expenditures reported should be not less than $10. In cases where the expenditures are materially less than the fee collected, the fee for that course would have to be decreased.The expenditures should include every single spending for that course other than the expenses paid with the regular tuition revenue, such as faculty salaries. In many cases the departments make payments out of other sources, such as Dean’s and Chair’s accounts, etc. Whether the expenditures were made directly with the fees collected or from other sources, they should be included as part of the cost of the course.

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• The reason for including all the costs is because the collection of data for the courses is serving two purposes; to satisfy the State requirement that the costs be documented and to provide information to the College regarding the actual costs of the courses. In many instances the College has been able to increase the fee charged for a course as a result of the cost information compiled for the Fee Audit.

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Reporting period

The reporting period must be chosen by each department. It can be a calendar year, a school year or a fiscal year and should be within the last three years. An academic year reporting period is the preferred choice because it generally makes matching expenditures and enrollment easier. The acceptable reporting periods for the 2015 Fee Audit are 2014-1, 2, 3, 2013-1, 2, 3 and 2012-1, 2, 3.

The reporting period can be one semester instead of one year; however, this can potentially limit the information available, making it more difficult to correlate costs with enrollment. For example, because the expenditures must coincide with the period being reported, if a semester is chosen instead of a whole academic year, you will be limited to expenditures made only during that semester, unless you provide an explanation about the difference in dates (e.g., inventory carryover).

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Documentation:

Once the reporting period is determined you need to compile the two(2) primary components of the fee audit: the enrollment and the expenditures. It is essential and required to provide supporting documentation for all of the information submitted for the courses.

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Presentation of Information

Required Worksheet

The information compiled for the courses must be submitted in a worksheet. You can design your own worksheet or download it from the web using the link below. The name of the form is “Special Fees Expenses Worksheet”https://www.mdc.edu/businessaffairs/FMs.asp

Note: If you design your own worksheet, it must include the same components and provide the same information as the one on the web.

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EnrollmentThe actual enrollment of each course for every session in every Campus must be reported for the reporting period that has been chosen.For example, if you are reporting for the year 2013-2014 and the course is offered in 6 Campuses, with several sections in each Campus, the enrollment for each of the sections in each of the Campuses must be included. In some cases, like Enc, Math, Hum, etc. this could entail many sections that may add up to thousands of students.

The documentation could be 1) the EIS report; 2) the Class Master; or 3) Maintain Credit Class and Schedule Screen. 

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1. EISTo get the information from the EIS, the link is:https://eisvsr.mdc.edu/eis/gate/EISmain.aspxNote: You must have access to “Productivity”. Usually Chairs have access.Click on Productivity on the left hand side of the screen, choose semester, for example 2014-1, click on “Product by Campus” (where course is housed in), for example, Business-Kendall for an accounting course. Click on “Division”, Kendall-Business Administration), then click on department again, on the next screen, click on course, for example ACG 2021.It will give you information about the enrollment for the course, choose either the seats taken, which represents the enrollment for that course for that campus or choose Regis-SCH., which represents the enrollment for that course College wide. Print that screen with the enrollment by courses and highlight the course(s) that you are submitting.

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2. Class Master To get the enrollment information from the Class Master the path is:OD, ST, Campus #, CU, CC, BC, CM, Term, Course #, F11. It takes you to the enrollment of all the reference numbers for that course for that term.3. Maintain Credit Class and Schedule ScreenIt gives separate enrollment for each reference number.The path is:OD, ST, Campus #, CU, CC, MC, and reference #, (enter), type “D” on action line and tab to reference # again and press enter.Note: the disadvantage of this method is that each reference number would be in a separate page, creating too many pages when the course has many sections.

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Expenditures:The expenditures are linked to a qual. The Course ID and Reference # is very important to obtain so that the quals where the courses and course expenditures are held can be determined.The path for obtaining the qual follows:OD, ST, Campus #, CU, CC, MC and reference #, (enter), type “D” on action line and tab to reference #, press enterEvery course reference number is attached to a qual. Therefore, you will need to check all of your reference numbers to make sure you capture all of the quals. You may have one qual or many.

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Note: Remember that some expenses may be in your Department Chairs qual instead of the qual used for the course. Also there might be expenses that were paid from the Dean’s accounts or other accounts. All of the expenses for the course being reported must be included regardless of the source from where they were paid. It is important to keep in mind that all of the expenditures for the courses should be included even if it is more than the fee amount charged for the course. For example, if the fee for a course is $20 and the cost documented so far is $20, but there are other costs associated with the course that could be included, those costs should be add in.

Exception: Expenses paid with Grants cannot be included. There is an exception to this exception: if the expenses in the past had been paid with funds from a Grant, and the Grant is not going to be available in the future, the documentation of those expenditures could be used to justify and support the current fee or a “new” course fee. It is necessary to include in the information an explanation about the Grant not being available in the future.

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The expenditures are divided into 3 categories; 500, 600 and 700 expenditures. The 500 expenditures include expenditures for tutors, part-timers, lab assistants, lab managers and any other individuals directly involved in servicing the students other than Faculty. Faculty salaries should not be included. Below is the procedure for dealing with hourly employees and salaried employees.

1. Hourly EmployeesThe personnel cost requires two sets of documentation-one for time worked and one for the hourly rate.a. Time Worked: there are two paths to get to the number of hours. The first one is the Odyssey document that shows the number of hours worked by the employee for each pay-period. The path to get this information is:OD, CM, TA, BE, employee ID number, (enter). You must identify, by highlighting or specifying, the pay-period that is being

reported.

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An alternate method is to use the document that shows all the employees paid by pay-period. If this method is chosen, the line that shows the employee or employees that are being reported should be highlighted or underlined. The computer path to acquire the number of hours worked by an employee under this method is:OD, CM, TA, EA, type in check date, H(hourly), Qual and enterb. Hourly Rate: there are two paths to get to the hourly rate.

(For the dollar amount, the Odyssey document that shows the hourly rate is required).

The computer path to acquire the hourly rate is:OD, CM, TA, AI (enter), Qual (enter), DI on person’s name (enter), it takes you to “Employee Job Assignment

Screen” Hourly Rate

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An alternate method for getting the hourly rate is as follows:

OD, CM, TA, EA, check date (H), qual (enter), F11 and it will give you the hourly rate. Notice that this path is the same as the one to get the hours, with the additional step of going to F11.

2. Salaried Employees

The path to get the salary for a salaried employee for the current period is as follows: OD, CM, TA, AI, (enter), Qual and enter, DI on person’s name.

***To obtain the salary for periods other than the current period, contact the designated person by Business Affairs (currently Blanca Ortega).

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To report the personnel cost, it would be a good idea to summarize on a “Summary Spreadsheet”, the names of the employees, the number of hours for each pay period times the hourly rate and the total dollar amount. At the end of the pay-periods all the dollar amounts for each employee would be added to arrive at the personnel cost.

If a more informal summary is desired, the same information could be shown by hand on the first or last page of the documentation.

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Example of Payroll Worksheet

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The 600 Expenditures, depending on the nature of the courses, could include office supplies, medical supplies, bullets, software, videos, case studies, subscriptions, service contracts, etc.The supporting documentation for these expenditures is a copy of the invoice and the posted general ledger transaction where the payment is shown. The purchase requisition is not an acceptable supporting document. You could use it as a vehicle to obtain the Purchase Order # which you would need to get the invoice or the payment information from the General Ledger.

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The 600 expenditures are documented in one of three (3) ways: Purchase Orders, Disbursement Requests or Purchasing Cards.1. Purchase Orders

If you know the G/L code and the qual where the expenses are located, you can use this path:

OD, CM, IQ, IP, IS, Qual and enter, tab to actual column and place cursor in line of G/L row, click, date, DI on actual line, to Posted General Ledger Transactions and print it. You also need a copy of the invoice.

If you don’t know the G/L code and the qual where the expenses are located, you will need to get the PO #:

First, you need the department requisition, and then you follow this path to get the PO #:OD, CM, IQ, DI, SD, type “D” in action lineEnter reference #, (enter) (at the bottom you will see the PO#)

This screen gives you the qual and the G/L code where you can find expenses related to that PO.

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2. Disbursement requests You can follow the same path as the “Posted General Ledger Transactions” (above) and send a copy of the invoice. The

receiving document is not acceptable.

3. Purchasing CardsThe path is the same as the “Posted General Ledger

Transactions” (above). Purchasing cards have transaction #’s but they are posted as Journal Entries (JE’s). You need to include a copy of the reconciliation and copies of the receipts.

Note: Copies of a selection of invoices must be included as evidence of the 600 expenditures.

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The 700 expenditures include purchases of equipment, such as computers, automobiles, aviation simulators, medical equipment, etc. Usually these expenditures are depreciated over a period of time for accounting purposes. To allocate these expenditures, you must estimate the number of years that you are planning to use the equipment, and allocate an amount to each year.For example if the equipment cost $300,000 and it is estimated that it is going to last 5 years, each year that it is used, $60,000 of the cost will be allocated to that year. Using the above example, if the equipment is used for less than one year, such as, for ½ of the year, the allocation would be only $30,000 for that particular year.

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All inventoried items (700 expenditures) are in the Property Management System that you can access via the web.

• All college property over $1,000 and all computers are tracked on the Property Management System.

• All college employees that are A1’s or A2’s have access to view inventory via the web.

• PC labels are placed on all computers and inventoried items. They are recorded under the department qual.

To get the information for the asset (equipment, computer, etc.) you need the PC number of the asset. Then go to the link below and enter the PC number and it gives you the information that you need to allocate the cost to the course(s) that you are reporting. The supporting documentation for these expenditures is also the posted general ledger transaction and a copy of the invoice.

https://aes.mdc.edu/dhsweb/MDCTotalRecall-1.aspx

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New Courses/New Fees New courses, courses that have not been offered within the last 3 years, or the first time that a fee is going to be attached to the course, needs to document a projection of the enrollment and of the expenditures. A projection for enrollment is an estimate of the enrollment that is expected in that course in order for it to be offered. It must include a projection for the enrollment in all the Campuses. This requirement is satisfied for new courses and for the courses that have not been offered within the last 3 years, with an explanation on the comments section. For example: “It is estimated that the average number of students is going to be 20”, or “the minimum number of students in order for the class to be offered is 15.”

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For courses that have been offered within the last 3 years, but a fee is being added for the first time, an estimate based on the prior enrollment of the course should be used. The same documentation that is listed in this manual under “enrollment” needs to be submitted for the prior enrollment. The documentation for the projection of the expenditures is estimated from different sources:

For the 500 expenditures (personnel) projection, it is necessary to anticipate the number of employees that is required, the number of hours expected from the employees and the hourly rate expected to be paid to these employees. It is the same process that is used to calculate the actual personnel costs, only that in this case, it is a projection instead of an actual cost.

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To estimate the cost of the 600 and 700 expenditures (supplies, equipment, etc.) the documents could include quotes from vendors, catalog pages with price information, or website pricing for the items listed.

For example, Office Depot or Office Max for office supplies, vendors that sell case studies, vendors with machinery or software similar to the ones that are going to be needed in the course, subscriptions, etc. The idea is to document how the estimate was arrived at.

Courses not offered in reporting period

If a course has not been offered in the current reporting period, another period within the most current 3 years must be chosen.

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Special situations

Courses taught at multiple Campuses

A course that is offered at different Campuses needs a special treatment.• A convener must be assigned, preferably by the Dean of

the discipline where the course belongs. • A convener is the individual that would collect the

information for the course from all the Campuses and report it in the required format. The convener must assume a leadership role by staying in contact with the other Campuses, with the Dean and with the person designated by Business Affairs as the liaison for the Fee Audit.

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• Ideally, the convener should be a Chair or someone in a similar or higher administrative position. In some cases and with the consent of the Dean and of Business Affairs, an exception could be made if the situation justifies it.

• Each Campus would send the information to the convener in the final format for the Campus. The responsibility of the convener is to combine the information received from all the Campuses and report it as only one cost for the course.

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Courses sharing expenses with other courses

When a course shares expenses with other courses, an allocation of expenses among all the courses that benefit from the available resources must be made. For example, a lab that is used by students from different courses needs to develop a criterion for an equitable distribution of the costs to all the courses receiving the benefits of the resources. Once the costs have been allocated to each of the individual courses, the information would be submitted only for those courses being reported for purposes of the Fee Audit. The criterion used in arriving at the allocation of costs must be disclosed.

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Deletion of courses

For any course deletion please contact the Office of Academic Programs. Please note that this request must be entered in CurricUNET and it must follow the Curriculum timeline. If a course is on the Fee Audit List, and the department is reporting it as being deleted, the course must be shown in the Course Dictionary as end-dated or evidence must be provided by the reporting department that the deletion process has been initiated.

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Summary of computer paths and Links

Enrollment

EIS linkhttps://eisvsr.mdc.edu/eis/gate/EISmain.aspx

You must have access to productivity. Usually Chairs have access.

Class Master

OD, ST, Campus #, CU, CC, BC, CM, Term, Course #, F11. It takes you to the enrollment of all the reference numbers for that course for that term.

Maintain Credit Class and Schedule Screen

OD, ST, Campus #, CU, CC, MC and reference #, enter, type “D” on action line and tab to reference # again and press enter.

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Expenditures

To obtain qual for expenditures

OD, ST, Campus #, CU, CC, MC and reference #, enter. Type “D” on action line and tab to reference #, and enter reference # again, press enter.

500 expenditures (Personnel) 1. Hourly employees

a. Time worked

Document that shows the number of hours worked by the employee for each pay-period: OD, CM, TA, BE, employee ID number, enter.

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An alternate method-Document that shows all the employees paid by pay-period:

OD, CM, TA, EA, type in check date, (H) hourly, qual andenter.

b. Hourly Rate

OD, CM, TA, AI, (enter), Qual (enter), DI on person’s name (enter)

An alternate methodOD, CM, TA, EA, check date (H), Qual (enter), F11.

2. Salaried employees: OD, CM, TA, AI, enter, Qual and enter, DI on person’s name. Make sure that you request the period that you are reporting.

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600 Expenditures (office supplies, subscriptions, medical supplies, etc.)

Purchase Orders, Disbursement Requests and Purchasing Cards

• If you know the G/L code and the qual where the expenses are located:

OD, CM, IQ, IP, IS, Qual and enter, Tab to the actual column and place cursor in line of G/L row, click, date, “DI” on actual line to “Posted General Ledger Transactions” and print it.

• If you don’t know the G/L code and the qual where the expenses are located, you will need to get to the PO#.

First, you need the department requisition:OD, CM, IQ, DI, SD, type “D” in action line, enter reference #, enter (at the bottom you will see the PO #).

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700 Expenditures (equipment, machinery, computers, etc.)

You need the PC number to get information for the asset (equipment, computer, etc.) go to the link below and enter PC number. It will give you the information that you need to allocate the cost to the courses and to get the “posted general ledger transactions” and a copy of the invoice.

https://aes.mdc.edu/dhsweb/MDCTotalRecall-1.aspx