Ready for you at TU: Rapid refunds

By Kyle Hobstetter on August 5, 2020

This story is part of a series on how different departments at Towson University have worked over the summer to keep operations running and prepare campus for the Return to TU.

Each year, the Office of Financial Services processes around 27,000 invoices for the Towson University community: utility bills, special events on campus, reimbursements and refunds, among others.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic started, Financial Services faced a deluge.

Because TU switched to a distance learning model in the spring 2020 term, TU issued prorated refunds for housing, dining, athletics and parking fees.

Julie Hall, supervisor of the accounts payable department, and her team partnered with the Bursar’s Office to process more than 20,000 student refunds and send them to the State of Maryland Department of Budget and Management in Annapolis. 

“There were days when [the Bursar’s Office] was sending us anywhere between 4,000 and 6,000 transactions per day,” Hall says. “We had to be up at 5 a.m. to get those reports scanned and sent to the state office because they had to be in by 11 a.m. to be processed so those refunds could be released the next day.” 

Like the rest of the university, COVID-19 forced the Financial Services team into a teleworking environment. According to Eric Jones, director of financial services, one of the main concerns his team had about working from home was their reliance on paper. 

They currently use software like ImageNow, which allows users to secure and access content virtually and instantly share precise and accurate data. 

“In a normal instance you could just print something and hand it to your colleague,” Jones says. “But we’ve had to rely on technology to stay consistent. We’ve done a lot of phone calls, a lot of WebEx meetings…we’ve had to adapt like everyone else. And through the collaboration of our office, we’re able to get that done.”

While Financial Services has been focused on using technology, that hasn’t prevented in-person interaction. 

When the accounts payable department needed to refund staff and faculty parking, Hall and her staff of six had to process around 2,800 new invoices manually.

With her team working 12-hour days in April, Jones stopped by Hall’s house two or three times a week to help with paperwork. Luckily, they live 10 minutes apart in southern Pennsylvania. 

“I was very fortunate that he was able to come and help out,” Hall laughs. “Normally we don’t do many faculty and staff parking refunds, let alone that high volume in that short amount of time. But we worked six days a week, 12 hours a day to get these keyed in so people could get their refunds quickly.”

With the fall term starting, Jones, Hall and their team in Financial Services will continue to work from home to lower density on campus.

But they will still be easy to reach. Members of the TU community who need help can contact them via the Financial Services helpline, through email at finservehelp@towson.edu or by phone at 410-704-5599.

Jones and Hall are happy to meet on WebEx or a scheduled on-campus meeting. But their goal right now is to keep the Towson University community safe. 

“I want my staff to stay as safe as possible while still doing what they do best,” Jones says. “I’m fortunate to have the team that I do because no matter how daunting the task is or how long it takes, they are fully committed to their work and to this campus.”

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland.