The Pennant Accounts collection contains the student billing and related data from the NGSS Pennant Accounts source database (a Banner transactional system). As of Fall 2015, Pennant Accounts handles the majority of the tuition and fees processing for the University. It is both an online and 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.
The legacy Billing and Receivables System (BRS) used by Student Financial Services contains student billing data prior to Fall 2015.
Individuals with access to query the Pennant Accounts data collection will also be granted access to the legacy BRS data. Access to the Pennnt Accounts collection also includes access to student data from the Student Records System. Please consult the Data Training page for information about training prerequisites.
For more about the source Pennant Accounts system, see the Next Generation Student Systems project.
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).
| STUDENT_ACCOUNT_BALANCE Table Elements |
STUDENT_ACCOUNT_PAID_APPLIED Table Elements |
| STUDENT_ACCOUNT_DETAIL Table Elements |
STUDENT_ACCT_HOLDS Table Elements |
| STUDENT_ACCT_GL DETAIL Table Elements |
DETAIL_CODE Table Elements |
| STUDENT_ACCOUNT_GL Table Elements |
BANNER_DETC_TO_BRS_SUBCODE Table Elements |
| STUDENT_ACCT_DEFAULT_GL Table Elements |
Related Student tables included in the Pennant Accounts universe:
| DEGREE_TERM_ALL_V Table Elements |
PERSON_ALL_V Table Elements |
| DEGREE_PURSUAL_ALL_V Table Elements |
ADDRESS Table Elements |
| ENROLLMENT_ALL_V Table Elements |
COURSE_SECTION Table Elements |
Related employee data included in the Pennant Accounts universe:
| EMPLOYEE_GENERAL Table Elements |
Related GL reference tables included in the Pennant Accounts universe:
(in folders prefixed by 'Acct1' and 'Acct2'):
| CENTER_REF_CODES Table Elements |
OBJECT_CODES Table Elements |
| CNAC_CODES Table Elements |
ORG_CODES Table Element |
| FUND_CODES Table Elements |
PROGRAM_CODES Table Elements |
The tables in the Pennant Accounts Data Collection that contain data from the Pennant (Banner) transactional system are refreshed nightly, Monday through Friday nights.
The tables in the Student Data Collection that the Pennant Accounts universe references are refreshed from the Student Records System (SRS) nightly, seven days a week.
Source of the Data
The sources of the data in the Pennant Accounts Data Collection are the Pennant Accounts transactional system (in Banner), which includes data coming from external systems into Pennant Accounts, such SRS, Housing, Dining, etc. An introduction and high level overview of Pennant Accounts can be found in the Next Generation Student Systems project.
Time Span Covered
Pennant Accounts contains student billing formation starting in Fall of 2015: In mid-October 2015, the NGSS team converted Student Account Receivable (AR) records for all current and returning students and students on leave for less than two years. Specifically, this included students who had any billing activity for the Fall of 2015 or for any term within the two prior years, as well as students with AR holds (financial, graduation and/or collection receivable holds). The conversion population was based on AR activity, and it was possible for some students to have an open academic program in SRS but not to be initially converted to Pennant if they have no Fall 2015 billing and no billing activity for the two years prior to the cut-over.
Following conversion, any student registration activity that results in billing for the current or any future term will get picked up automatically, and their SRS records will synchronize to Pennant Accounts.
For returning students who were not picked up in the Fall 2015 conversion, only new billing charges and payments will be in Pennant; no historical AR transaction information will be in Pennant for this population..
For billing information prior to Fall 2015, see the BRS Data Collection.
The Pennant Accounts BusinessObjects Web Intelligence universe structure is described in the Pennant_Accounts_universe_diagram. The diagram shows how the tables are joined in the Pennant Accounts universe. For people who write their own queries, this diagram demonstrates the ways tables can be joined in this data collection. Another suggested way to understand the relationships between the tables is to examine the logic used in the pre-written queries, available in the Public Documents folder in BI Launch Pad.
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.
Count PhD Students with Tuition Funded
Replaces the report of the same name that previously used the legacy BRS Combined universe. The query prompts for a division or divisions, and a term. It finds PhD students in the specified divisions who were actively enrolled and billed in the specified term, and shows how much tuition, general fee, tech fee and health insurance was billed and funded.
Count students with Tuition Billed
Replaces the report of the same name that previously used the legacy BRS Combined universe. The query prompts for a term and has an optional prompt for a division or divisions; if left blank, it returns data for all divisions. It finds students who were billed for tuition in the specified term.
Count students with no tuition billed
Replaces the report of the same name that previously used the legacy BRS Combined universe. The query has custom sql, as documented on the "custom sql" report tab; the query should not be modified in any way unless the user understand how to reset the custom outer joins. The prompts are for division or divisions, and term. It finds students in the specified divisions who were actively enrolled in the specified term but were not billed tuition.
Detail Code summary report
Replaces the "BRS Subcode Summary" report that previously used the legacy BRS universe. The query prompts for a term, and returns the total applied and unapplied charges and payments, by Detail Code, for that term.
Pennant Accounts details for selected students
Replaces the "BRS Snapshots for Multiple Students and Record Types" report that previously used the legacy BRS universe.The query prompts for a specific Penn_ID or Penn_IDs, and for a Term. The term prompt is optional. (Note: old BRS data has not be converted to Pennant Accounts. This report will not show all billing history for the selected students. If the term prompt is left blank, the report will find all Pennant Accounts data for the selected students.)
Select Detail Codes and Accounting Dates
Replaces the "Select Subcodes and Batch Date" report that previously used the legacy BRS universe. The query prompts for a "matches pattern" on the desired Detail Code. For example, 'A%' will return data for all Detail Codes that begin with the letter A. The other prompts are for the beginning accounting date and ending accounting date (aka "batch dates") These dates must be entered in YYYYMMDD format. For example, a begin date of '20150701' means July 01, 2015. The report shows a breakdown of the billing activity, by Detail Code, in the specified date range.
Access to the Pennant Accounts Data Collection in the warehouse has the following prerequisite training:
- Family Education Rights and Privacy Act FERPA Overview
- Information Privacy and Security at Penn (Annual Requirement)
- Using the Student Data Collection in the Data Warehouse
- Penant Plus for Detail Code Inquiry and Subcode Mapping Inquiry (101) - all modules
- Pennant Accounts: Using the Pennant Student Account Summary (PSAS) Screen (102)
All of the above are offered online, via Penn's Workday Learning training system. Log in to Workday Learning with your PennKey, and in the "Find Learning" window, search for the courses by title. The courses are designed to be self-paced. You can exit before finishing, and resume where you left off. Most courses have built-in quizzes, to help evaluate your retention of the material. You may do the training either before or after submitting a Request for Access eform, but your access will not be finalized until you have completed all of the above training.
More information is available on the Pennant training page.
Additional recommended training
The following training is not required for obtaining access to the Pennant Accounts Data Collection, but is recommended, particularly if you plan to create your own reports:
- Student Records System (SRS): This is an instructor-led course, offered by the Office of the University Registrar. See the Student Records System training page for more information.
- SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence: This for-fee course is taught by outside consultants, and is designed for people who need to create and edit their own reports using Web Intelligence. The course is based on a generic database, and does not use Penn-specific data. For the introductory class, no prior reporting experience is required. Familiarity with Microsoft Office is helpful. People taking the advanced class are expected to have completed the introductory class. For information about course fees, dates and times, contact learnit@isc.upenn.edu.
To request access, submit the eform for Pennant Accounts, located in the Data Warehouse section of the Penn eForms page. Access will be granted only after all prerequisite training is completed.
Access to the Pennant Accounts 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. Users of Pennant Accounts data also have access to the student data that comes from the Student Records System (SRS).
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 Pennant Accounts data externally is Student Financial Services (SFS). Requests should be directed to SFS.
Releasing Data Within the University
Within the University, Pennant Accounts and Student 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 student billing 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.
Most queries and documents in the InfoView Pennant Accounts public folder will have an "About this report" tab that describes what the report does and how to use it.
If you have other questions or comments about the Pennant Accounts data in the warehous please contact Enterprise Information & Analytics. If you have comments about documentation published on the Web, please specify the URL for the documentation that needs to be updated.
An introduction and high level overview of Pennant Accounts can be found in the Next Generation Student Systems project.