Researching unclaimed payments for AVLs is a major task of record correction that ensures you can claim as much as you can on AVLs. There will be many unique and special cases for why a service cannot be claimed, but most fall into several common categories, which we will go over in this guide.
First, to cover the basics, the work for researching unclaimed payments is done in "Claims" -> "AVL Problem Research" -> "Unclaimed Payment Research".
How to read the Unclaimed Payment Research window
The Unclaimed Payment Research window will look like this:
1. The school year dropdown allows you to select a school year; this needs to be set first.
2. The retrieve button creates the main list.
3. The Excel button allows you to export the list into an Excel sheet.
Next, I'll go over the different columns from left to right: (Important columns are bolded.)
1. Last Name, First Name, DOB:
-This is the child's demographics
2. Type:
-This is the general service type: it's RS, CB, SEIT, PTRANS (Parent Transportation), or CTRANS (Commercial Transportation).
3. ESID:
-The ESID number of the enrollment.
4. Provider:
-The provider agency or the independent provider who provided the service.
5. Prog:
-This is the program code. For RS, it will be 9200, but for SEIT and CB, it will specify the specific program code.
6. From, To:
-This is the enrollment from and to date. This research list will include both winter and summer semesters.
7. SED Type:
-The specific service type will show what kind of RS service (ST, OT, PT, etc.). For CB classrooms and SEIT services, it will say "EDUC". For transportation, it will say "TRAN".
8. Rec #:
-This is the record number of the STAC that the enrollment is attached to.
9. Potential Problem:
-This is the most important column in this list, as it shows what type of problem is associated with the enrollment. If this column is blank, then that means the enrollment has no problems and should be able to get claimed without further actions if it has positive claims. The only reason that there are enrollments with blank potential problems is that the unclaimed payment research will bring up all the enrollments with unclaimed payments.
10. Amount:
-This is the sum of all the unclaimed payments inside the enrollment. If the amount is $0 or negative, it means there are adjustment payments inside the enrollments. Zeros and negatives can be ignored because they don't represent any positive payments that you can still claim. They exist whenever you adjust or correct payment records. The general rule is that negative payments don't need to be claimed unless SED asks for them in the form of AVL adjustments.
11. StatusDate, Resolved, Reason, Notes:
-These are optional note-taking fields where you can manually enter status, notes, and indicate whether it's resolved or not. To edit those fields, you need to right-click the enrollment line and select "Edit Claiming Notes".
It is important to note that you can sort each column in this list. The most helpful way is to sort it by potential problem, so that all the enrollments without any potential problems are tucked away, and you only see the ones that need your attention.
Unclaimed Payment Research window shortcuts:
After you right-click an enrollment line, you'll see a menu that contains useful shortcuts:
(Bolded options are the most commonly used.)
View Payments-------------------------------------------opens the payment listing window for that enrollment.
Goto Child/STAC screen------------------------------opens the child's STAC blue screen immediately.
Goto County Enrollment screen-------------------opens the child's grey enrollment screen immediately.
View All SED Summary Information-----------------opens this child's STAC Summary (Blue STAC ID link).
View SED Summary for STAC------------------------opens the summary window for just that STAC.
SED Summary Comparison---------------------------opens a window that allows you to compare the service details in Preschool with the approved summary details.
How to read the enrollment payment listing:
Researching what is wrong with an enrollment is mostly done inside the payment listing window, where you'll see the detailed payment batches and examine what went wrong, so it is very important that you know how to read the payment listing window.
We will start with the payment listing for a fee-for-service enrollment, like RS or SEIT:
1. A payment listing window has two tabs: the "Payments" tab shows more enrollment details, and the "STAC Summary" tab shows more STAC details.
2. This is the enrollment listing. If a child has multiple enrollments of the same service type, they will all show up here.
-The first several columns are self-explanatory; the important information is towards the right,
-Total: This column shows the total amount that this enrollment should get, which is the total number of sessions according to the frequency times the rates per session.
-Paid: This column shows the total amount that you paid the provider.
-Unpaid: This is the Total minus Paid. If it's a positive number, that means the enrollment is underpaid, which isn't a problem if the provider didn't provide the full number of sessions. If there is a negative number here, it means the enrollment is overpaid, which is a problem.
-Claimed: This is the total amount that has been claimed in prior AVLs.
-Unclaimed: This is the total amount that you paid but hasn't been claimed yet.
-Rec #: Shows which STAC this enrollment is attached to.
3. This is the detailed payment listing that shows different batches of payments that you made for all the enrollments of this service type.
-Label: This is very important as it shows you which payments are made on which enrollments. You can compare the label of the payment to the label of the enrollment to see which payments are for which enrollment.
-Month: This is the service month for which the payment was made.
-Empty Column with "R" and "A": This shows the payment type. "R" means regular payments; "A" means adjustments.
-Sess: This shows how many sessions for which the payment was made.
-Rate: This shows the rate per session.
-Amount: This shows how much was paid in that payment batch.
(If Sess times Rate doesn't equal the amount, then that's another problem.)
-Status: This shows whether the payment is claimed or just processed (PAID).
-Payment Batch, BatchDate, Check#, Check Date: These four columns help you identify and find the payment batch in the check log.
-Claim Batch, Claim Date: These two columns help you identify on which AVLs the payments were claimed on.
This window will look slightly different for a tuition-based service like CB:
The Total, Paid, and UnPaid columns for the enrollment will use the FTE-adjusted tuition as the basis of their calculations.
And the payment details won't include "Sess" and "Rate" because CB tuition isn't based on the number of sessions. Instead, it will just show the monthly tuition amount that you paid.
Flipping over to the other side, this is what the "STAC Summary" tab looks like. (The switch is on the top left.)
It has less information about total paid, total unpaid, etc. But it adds the STAC approval information on the top right (1) for easy comparison between the STAC and your payments.
-The main columns to look out for are "Approved" and "Remaining". The Approved column shows how much is approved for the whole STAC, and the Remaining column shows how much remains that is available to claim.
If there are multiple STACs involved in the same service type, different STACs will also be added as different columns on the right end of the payment listing (2), so it's easier to see which payment is on which STAC:
(Like this, where you can see which payments are made in record 01, and which are made in record 03.)
Payment Movements:
Oftentimes, moving payments to the correct locations is what is needed to resolve an AVL problem. To do so, you need to right-click the payments and select the appropriate action:
Move Payments to Different Enrollment: This will move the payment to another enrollment, while remaining on the same STAC.
Move Payments to Different STAC: This will move the payment to another STAC record, while remaining on the same enrollment.
THIS SHOULD NEVER BE DONE TO CLAIMED PAYMENTS!
Common AVL Problems
Now that the basics are out of the way, and you can read the payment listing fluently (that is an essential prerequisite), we can start talking about common AVL problems.
==STAC-related Issues==
-STAC not marked OK to Transmit:
Self-explanatory. The STAC is not approved, and it's not marked as OK to Transmit, so it won't get approved unless you check it to send.
-STAC is Not Approved:
As the message suggests, the STAC is not approved. It could be that the STAC was rejected, or it was just not sent.
-Enrollment is attached to Withdrawn STAC:
The enrollment is attached to a STAC that is withdrawn. If there is a replacement STAC that is approved and available, you can re-attach the enrollment to the new STAC, which will resolve the issue.
To do so, right-click the enrollment in the top enrollment list and select "Attach Enrollment to Different STAC".
-County paid more than approved on STAC:
The enrollment total, as well as the payments you made on the enrollment, exceeded the approval of the STAC. If the overpayment is valid, like for example, the frequency increased, but the STAC wasn't amended for the increased sessions, then amending the STAC for additional sessions/higher frequency will resolve this problem.
-County paid more 30-minute sessions than approved on STAC: This is too many sessions
There are more RS/SEIT sessions paid than what is approved on the STAC. To troubleshoot this, first, check how many sessions you paid for that enrollment by adding up the "Sess" column in the payment list. Then, check that number against the total approved sessions on the child's SED summary. You may need to convert your total sessions into 30-minute sessions before comparing them to the total number of 30-minute sessions approved on the STAC.
You should be able to see how many sessions were over the limit, then, like the rest of the problems, you just need to determine if the overpayments are valid. If they are, amend the STAC for more; if they aren't, recoup the money from the provider.
-County paid rate higher than approved 30-minute rate on STAC: This is too much money per session
The rate for the RS/SEIT sessions you paid is higher than what is approved on the STAC. To troubleshoot this, compare the rate that is approved for the service on the child's SED summary with the "Rate" column of the payment list, you may need to again convert the rates to 30-minute rates to compare them with the summary. Alternatively, if you see one or two payment batches with a rate higher than the rest of the payments, they are the issue. Rates are more complex to fix than the number of sessions, if a service should have periods of different rates, and some of them are sticking above the approval ceiling, then contact your support person for more help.
==Payment-related Issues==
-Overpaid County Enrollment:
The most common type of AVL problem. The symptom is that you have a negative unpaid amount (overpayment) on the payment listing page. You need to determine why the enrollment is overpaid.
If the overpayment is valid, like an extra session that you approve of them doing, then you just need to make sure you have enough approval for that extra session; if not, you can request additional sessions on the STAC.
If the overpayment is not valid, like the provider double-billing by accident, then you would need to create adjustments to recoup the overpayment.
-Payment exists for months outside STAC / Payment exists for months outside enrollment:
This means there are payment batches for service months that fall outside of the enrollment's date range. If you can move entire payment batches to another enrollment/STAC that covers their dates, doing so should resolve this problem.