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Payment Plan Software

  • 1.  Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-05-2025 10:34 AM
    Edited by Misty Newport 12-08-2025 11:06 AM

    We are a private liberal arts institution using Ellucian Colleague as our ERP, with our IT team managing the servers and related infrastructure. Currently, our payment plans are built into Student Self-Service and, with each new release, IT has to apply fixes to keep them functioning. With the upcoming Self-Service release, our existing payment plan functionality will no longer be supported. As a result, we are seeking recommendations for third-party payment plan only software that integrates effectively with Colleague. 



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    Misty Newport
    Bursar and Director of Accounts Receivable
    Wabash College
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  • 2.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-08-2025 08:26 AM

    We have been using TouchNet for several years and have been very pleased with them.  They are always willing to help if we have questions.  TouchNet integrates with Colleague in real time.  



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    Kay Gerhardt
    Bursar
    Benedictine College
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  • 3.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-08-2025 09:07 AM

    Hi Misty, 

    We have utilized TouchNet for several years, and their customer service is highly responsive, offering a wide range of capabilities. We are a Banner institution, and Touchnet operates seamlessly with our system through full automation.

    Angela Shelton

    Student Accounts Manager / Bursar

    Saint Mary's College  



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    Angela Shelton
    Student Accounts Manager/Campus Bursar
    Saint Mary's College
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  • 4.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-08-2025 09:26 AM
    Edited by Stephen Ridge 12-08-2025 09:27 AM

    I'll echo the positive feedback on TouchNet as well. We currently use PeopleSoft, but I previously worked at an institution on Colleague, and in both environments the TouchNet connection was seamless. I've been working within TouchNet for a little over eight years and have found the platform to be stable and consistently improving. Their customer support has also been responsive and proactive, especially when new releases go live. From my experience, updates and enhancements have been frequent and meaningful, and the ERP integrations have been smooth in both systems.



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    Stephen Ridge
    Sr. Business Operations Associate
    University of Missouri-Columbia
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  • 5.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-08-2025 10:10 AM

    I have also worked with Touchnet at my last college. We do not have it here and I do miss it. We never had issues with TouchNet. Are you loading the changes in the test environment and testing before rolling the changes out live?



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    Constance Dyer
    V. P. of Finance
    Saint Vincent College
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  • 6.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-09-2025 10:05 AM

    Hi Constance,

    Yes, changes are always loaded in the test environment first to allow testing before rolling them out live. Unfortunately, our IT team was unable to fix the payment plan functionality in the test environment with this latest release.



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    Misty Newport
    Bursar and Director of Accounts Receivable
    Wabash College
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-08-2025 10:12 AM

    We are also looking to implement a new payment management software and have reviewed Touchnet and Meadow. We like Meadow better, but haven't made any final decisions yet. Meadowfi.com 



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    Anne Larsen
    Vice President, Administration and CFO
    Gillette Community College District
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  • 8.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-08-2025 10:30 AM

    I've met with Meadow a number of times and I really like what they have to offer. I'm familiar with Touchnet but we're a small college (~900), so cost is certainly a factor.



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    Misty Newport
    Bursar and Director of Accounts Receivable
    Wabash College
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-08-2025 11:07 AM

    I've used both TouchNet and Cashnet (Transact Campus) in Ellucian at a small private. Now at the CSU Chancellor's Office and we use Transact for all 22 campuses. For the last four years we've also used their payment plans for non-continuing students which they've just developed into a new pre-collections module. Their worth checking out for this and other enhancements. Pricing has always been very competitive. We're also moving all campus from a real-time component interface integration to an API web service integration. This will take some of the workload off of your IT group as they'll not have to maintain an interface and firewalls on your Ellucian server. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to discuss further.



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    Steve Woods
    Sr. Mgr., Treasury Operations
    The California State University Office of the Chancellor
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  • 10.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-08-2025 01:06 PM

    We've used Nelnet and Transact.  Nelnet setup is actually easier.  You can set up much of it yourself w/out needing to complete paperwork and go through support all of the time.



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    Mindy McCauley
    Director of Student Accounts
    Marian University, Inc.
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  • 11.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-09-2025 08:28 AM

    Hello, new to the forum, newer to the industry - and we have NelNet.    Do you get the EBILL functionality to work well, and can you filter the EBILL /statements to exclude certain semesters?  IE, exclude Spring 2026 - but include everything else?   

    Do others of you in this chat - like your NelNet Functionality?  thank you



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    Lisa Simon
    Chief Financial Officer
    Wheeling University
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    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-10-2025 09:14 AM

    Hi, Lisa.

    I may be an outlier here. We are a Colleague school that formerly used Tuition Management Systems for real-time billing and payment plans--loved them. They were bought by Nelnet, so we attempted an integration with them. At the time (three years ago) Nelnet was not up-to-snuff with Colleague; we were not pleased with the functionality. We left late in the implementation and moved to TouchNet. They were more expensive but had a far more professional and finished product as far as we were concerned. Nelnet may have made upgrades for Colleague since then.

    Elizabeth Hannon
    Bursar
    Roger Williams University



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    Elizabeth Hannon
    Associate Bursar
    Roger Williams University
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    Original Message


  • 13.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-09-2025 09:30 AM

    Elgin Community College uses TouchNet for Payment plans and their payment gateway and we have had a positive experience. Our students use Self-Service for making payments in full or signing up for payment plans.

    Thanks,



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    Sushil Morker
    Director of Business & Finance Information Systems
    Elgin Community College
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  • 14.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-09-2025 09:31 AM

    We used Nelnet for decades but switched to TouchNet this Fall when we went to Ellucian Colleague SaaS as they appeared to be further along in the integration process than Nelnet was and Ellucian was pushing TouchNet.  As Mindy notes, Nelnet set-up is much easier.  TouchNet wants to teach you to do tasks you'll not often need to do, Nelnet does it for you.  Nelnet manages payment plans very well and does the follow-up/re-attempts on missed scheduled drafts.  TouchNet makes it your problem.  TouchNet has a nice student-facing dashboard, not sure what an integrated Nelnet dashboard would look like.



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    Richard Martens
    Director of Accounting Services
    Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
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  • 15.  RE: Payment Plan Software

    Posted 12-09-2025 11:41 AM

    Student Financial Solutions (SFS) relies on two external partners-Nelnet and Transact-to run the Time‑Payment Agreement (TPA) process because each brings a specialized capability that SFS does not manage directly:

    Together, these partners enable SFS to:

    • Offer flexible, automated autopay options for TPAs (credit‑card or e‑check).
    • Keep payment processing secure, compliant, and efficient.
    • Separate core student‑account responsibilities from the technical and regulatory demands of payment and loan servicing.


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    Tracy Stutts
    Financial Services Analyst
    University of California, San Diego
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