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Student Fiscal Services Implements New E-billing Process

by Peggy Fitzwater and Paige Hamlin

During Autumn Quarter 2004, Student Fiscal Services (SFS) started e-billing as a means of delivering tuition account information to students electronically. As many other UW student related processes such as registration, grades, and financial aid are already handled electronically, this was a natural progression for SFS.

Prior to autumn 2004, SFS mailed over 50,000 tuition statements to students each quarter. Now with e-billing, students with either debit or credit balances receive emails at their UW email addresses throughout the quarter. The messages direct the students to go online to MyUW to view their tuition statements. The MyUW tuition statements have replaced the former printed bills as the official tuition statements.

Students are also able to authorize online access to their statement for two additional people (for example, parents) by logging on to the MyUW Tuition Statement and using the online Information Release Authorization link. During autumn quarter, over 5,600 students signed up at least one person for either online, email, or phone access to their tuition account information.

A new payment option, "web check payment" is also available from the tuition statement on MyUW. Using this feature, students or parents can pay tuition charges directly from their checking or savings account. During autumn quarter, over 9,000 students and parents used webcheck to pay almost $12.9 million in tuition costs.

E-billing saves both time and money for students as well as SFS. Students now have access to online real-time charges rather than having to wait for their statements to arrive in the mail. The earlier receipt of tuition statement information has resulted in SFS receiving tuition payments earlier in the quarter which has a positive impact on the UW’s cash flow. Less postage and mailing costs, faster delivery of information, and quicker receipt of funds – it all adds up to success.