The Student Billing (BRS) Collection is a subset of the University Data Warehouse containing data from BRS, the Billing and Receivables System used by Student Financial Services (SFS). BRS handles the majority of the tuition and fees processing for the University. It is a batch processing system, into which charges and payments are loaded from a variety of feeder sources, including, but not limited to: tuition, financial aid, Housing, Dining, Cashier, and manual adjustments.
For a brief overview of the collection, see the BRS Quick Reference Guide (PDF).
ATTENTION: All users of Student Data, whether they write their own queries, or use data or reports extracted by someone else, agree to abide by University policy regarding confidentiality of student records, and by the Family Educational and Right to Privacy Act. Failure to abide by the policies and laws governing student data can result in disciplinary action, including termination.
Tables are listed in alphabetical order. Select Table to obtain the explantion, common uses, primary keys, indexed data elements, and related tables for a table. Select Elements to obtain the definition, list of values, formats, and not null values for each data element in the table. A description of table and data element terminology is in the document What the Warehouse Contains.
Looking for a specific element or caution? Try the searching the collection documentation for particular keywords (search page will open in a new tab).
BRS Tables
| BRS_COURSE_FEE | BRS_GL_DETAIL *only in BRS_Combined universe Elements |
| BRS_DETAIL Table Elements |
BRS_SUBCODE Table Elements |
| BRS_FEE_RATE | BRS_SUBCODE_HISTORY_V Table Element |
"Non-BRS" Tables - only in the BRS_Combined universe
| DEGREE_TERM_ALL_V (from Student collection) Table Elements |
EMPLOYEE_GENERAL (from SalMgt collection) Table Elements |
| GL_PERIODS (referenced in several universes) Table Elements |
PERSON_ALL_V (from Student collection) Table Elements |
"Non-BRS" Tables - in both universes
| CENTER_REF_CODES Table Element |
OBJECT_CODES Table Elements |
| CNAC_CODES Table Elements |
ORG_CODES Table Element |
| FUND_CODES Table Elements |
PROGRAM_CODES Table Elements |
The BRS_DETAIL table is refreshed on a daily basis, Monday through Friday, following SRS and BRS source system processing. The BRS_SUBCODE, BRS_COURSE_FEE and BRS_FEE_RATE lookup tables are refreshed on an ad hoc basis, usually after SRFS has changed the source tables.
Source of the Data
The sources of the data in the BRS_DETAIL table are the Bursar_Detail, Intermediate and History files, which contain data from the online Billing and Receivables System (BRS). Together, these files represent all the data on a student account. The BRS_SUBCODE, BRS_COURSE_FEE and BRS_FEE_RATE tables contain only the most current versions of the subcode, course fee and tuition rate lookup data.
Time Span Covered
The BRS data collection stores from fiscal year 2003 and on. Select records from years previous to fiscal 2003 are also available, in cases where older charges have not been fully paid and applied.
The Student Billing (BRS) collection is described in the BRS Combined and BRS Detail diagrams. Each diagram illustrates the architecture of a specific BusinessObjects universe and identifies the join criteria between tables. Most tables are clickable - doing so will take you to the table documentation.
- The BRS Detail universe contains BRS data, employee general information, and General Ledger account segment reference tables. Anyone with access to the BRS collection may use this universe.
- The BRS Combined universe contains BRS data, employee general information, and General Ledger account segment reference tables. It also contains person and degree information from the Student data collection. Only indvidiuals with access to the Student data collection will be able to use all the tables in this universe.
The Business Objects Corporate Documents area provides access for authorized users to pre-defined, prompt-driven reports that you can run to retrieve a standardized perspective on your data.
BRS Snapshots for Mulitple Students and Record Type
After prompting the user for multiple SID or Penn IDs, and Record Type (Detail or Intermediate and History or all) this query will return Name, Amount, Account2, Paid Applied Amt, Batch Reference & Date, Bill Date, Term, BRS Descr, C/P, Subcode, and BRS Term, from all SSNs and all record types specified. (History Records, as of 2003). Uses BRS_Detail universe.
BRS Subcode Summary
For Detail records (where Detail = Y), display subcode totals by BRS term. Report tabs show applied and unapplied amounts, as well as batches with zero amounts. Uses BRS_Detail universe.
Select Subcode and BatchDate
Prompts user for a specific Subcode and a Batch Date range (begin date/end date), then returns SSN, Name, Batch Date, and Amount for all transactions meeting the condition, from Detail, Intermediate, or History (History, as of 2003) records. Uses BRS_Detail universe.
Data training for this collection is offered on an ad hoc basis -- please contact Enterprise Information & Analytics for assistance with specific training questions. You can also refer to the table and element documentation for information and cautions about specific data.
Individuals who already have access to the Student data collection in the Data Warehouse will be granted access automatically to the BRS collection, to facilitate joining the BRS and student biographical and/or enrollment data.
Those individuals who do not already have access to the Student data collection, and/or who only want to be able to use the BRS detail data, must complete BRS Data Access Request eForm and obtain supervisor, school access administrator and Student Financial Services (SFS) approval. This more restricted level of access does not include elements from the Student data collection.
Access to the BRS data in the warehouse will be given to users on a global basis, and will not be restricted by school or department. If a user has access to the tables they can see all transactions for all students in all schools.
Regulations and Policies on Student Data
Federal regulations regarding access to student data are spelled out in the Family Educational Right to Privacy Act (Buckley Amendment), commonly known as FERPA. For more information, see the FERPA information on the Penn Privacy site.
The University's policy on the Confidentiality of Student Records is available at http://www.upenn.edu/privacy/policies_publications.htm.
Releasing Data Outside the University
The only office that may release BRS data is Student Financial Services (SFS). Requests for BRS data should be directed to SFS.
Releasing Data Within the University
Within the University, BRS data may be disclosed only if it is needed to do the business of the University, and only to those who need to know the information in order to do their jobs. If you are not sure whether to fulfill a request for BRS data, contact Student Financial Services.
Query Results
If you save your query results in Excel, pdf, or any other local file type, you must see to it that any sensitive data stored on your peronal computer is safeguarded through physical security, access control software, or encryption. When a computer is left signed to an account, it is easy for someone to gain unauthorized access. Either sign off from your account before you leave your computer or restrict access by some other means (physical security or access control software).
For more information on security and privacy, contact the Office of Information Security.
If you have a question about the World Travel data, or if you notice some documentation that needs updating, please contact Enterprise Information & Analytics. For documentation published on the Web, please specify the URL for the documentation that needs to be updated.