STREAMLINED STUDENT PAYMENTS AND RECEIVABLES: HOW CCAC SIMPLIFIED BILLING, INCREASED STUDENT RETENTION AND REDUCED ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN
At the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC), financial flexibility is a top priority for both the institution and the students it serves. As a community college, many of its students seek an affordable education without the higher cost associated with four-year universities. Ensuring students can easily manage tuition payments is critical to both their success and administrative efficiency.
That's why CCAC evaluated its tools for enabling payments across the entire student journey. They found that an integration between TouchNet's Bill+Payment and ECSI's RecoverySelect made the journey for students and administrators easier. Ken Bush, CCAC’s Bursar, shares how this unified approach has set their students up for success, all while reducing manual work for his staff.
A QUICK LOOK AT CCAC
Community college in Pittsburgh, PA
10,500 students
RecoverySelect user
since 2016
LESS PAPERWORK, MORE STUDENT SUPPORT
Before offering payment plans through TouchNet’s Bill+Payment, Ken’s team manually set up all of the payment plans, contacted students about plan options and tracked students’ completion of promissory notes. It was time-consuming, inefficient and left room for errors. Now, CCAC offers payment plans online, giving students more control to enroll in and access their payment plan details at their convenience through an online account center. Plus, the robust reporting shows the college exactly who is on a payment plan and allows them to easily follow up with students who have missed a payment.
If the student was unable to make payments, we would have to pass their account directly to a collection agency. But that isn’t very student or customer service-oriented. We really wanted to take a different approach to help our students.
EMPOWERING STUDENTS WITH TRANSPARENCY
Recognizing that students can face extenuating, unexpected financial hardships, CCAC implemented ECSI's RecoverySelect to continue proactive, student-centric outreach activities. CCAC has configured RecoverySelect to pick up unresolved balances by mid-semester.
RecoverySelect isn’t a collection agency, which can have negative effects on both the students’ credit and relationship with the institution. Instead, it’s a tool to help students repay their past-due balances before engaging a third-party agency.
With an average 40 percent success rate, the program can keep students from negative credit bureau reporting and in strong financial standing with their institution. Through a targeted series of calls, emails, texts, and letters over the course of 90 days, RecoverySelect guides students through a path to repayment, all while providing payment information back to the school in real time.
“From an efficiency standpoint, it’s a huge help.”
A PAPERLESS, AUTOMATIC, AND STRESS-FREE EXPERIENCE
One of the most significant advantages? The transition to a paperless system. Gone are the days of lost documents or missed notifications. Everything students need is at their fingertips, while administrators can easily access financial records and engage students about past-due balances — without adding stress or putting their education at risk.
“We want to help them. We want them to be successful. We want to retain them as a student. So earlier on in the semester, we're able to hopefully connect with them and engage with them regarding their balance, with the goal of getting that either paid or helping them to get on a payment plan.”
BETTER FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT YIELDS BETTER STUDENT OUTCOMES
With built-in reporting, flexible, user-friendly payment plans and a student-first approach to navigating the world of finance, the TouchNet and ECSI integration has simplified the way CCAC manages student tuition and fees. The result? A more efficient administration, improved financial wellness for students and better retention. It’s created a financial experience that supports students every step of the way — helping them focus on their education, not just their tuition.