Additional Information Regarding TOPS Billing Procedures
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Additional Information Regarding TOPS Billing Procedures |
LOUISIANA
STUDENT FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE COMMISSION
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TOPS BULLETIN NUMBER: |
T98-4 |
DATE ISSUED: |
November 17, 1998 |
EFFECTIVE DATE: |
1998-99 Academic Year |
| DISTRIBUTION: | Louisiana Colleges, Universities and Technical Colleges |
| TOPIC: | Additional Information Regarding TOPS Billing Procedures |
To assure that your Scholarship and Grant Policy and Procedure Manual remains current, please record this document on your TOPS Bulletin index and retain it with your manual.
Institutional Billing for TOPS Awards:
A. This is a reminder that the TOPS Master Roster is a cumulative listing of students who have qualified for TOPS awards. The file contains all the data needed to determine the amount that may be billed to LOSFA for each TOPS eligible student enrolled at the billing institution. This file is updated and available for retrieval every Monday. Please retrieve this file weekly, preferably on Monday, for changes to student records or the inclusion of new student records which may affect the amount your institution may bill.
B. To prevent over billing, do not transmit a student record on the TOPS Billing Request file more than once, unless an adjustment in the billing of that record is necessary. Please ensure that your programmers are re-initializing the file to zeroes before adding records which have not been billed previously. Do not add records to a file that was previously transmitted and then retransmit a cumulative file. Payment for an institution’s original billing will be forwarded as it is received. Subsequent billings will be held and processed through our payment validation program before payments will be remitted. After December 7, when the payment validation program will be operational, payment on receipt of billings will resume.
Point of Contact for Institutional Inquiries on Billings
Technical questions regarding file access, file layout or electronic transmission of files should be directed to Terry Tuminello, Director of Information Systems, at 1-800-259-5626, extension 1039, or in Baton Rouge 922-1039, or via E-mail to ttuminello@osfa.state.la.us.
Questions regarding individual payments for students included on the TOPS Payment Roster file should be directed to Belinda Tate, Scholarship & Grant Program Specialist, at 1-800-259-5626, extension 1151, or in Baton Rouge 922-1151, or via E-mail to btate@osfa.state.la.us.
Verification of Institutional Charges
Each institution eligible to participate in TOPS must provide written verification of the institutional charges for tuition and mandatory fees (excluding technology fees) which were in effect as of January 1, 1998. The verification must be under the institution’s official letterhead and be signed by an appropriate official. This verification may be faxed to (225) 922-0790.
Institutional Policies Regarding Audited, Remedial and Pass/Fail Classes
For the purpose of determining whether students have earned the grade point average and semester hours required for continuation of a TOPS award, this office will accept grades and hours reported by the institution which were determined in accordance with institutional policies applicable to the inclusion and reporting of audited, remedial and pass/fail classes.