DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF FEES CLEARANCE SYSTEM

SOFTWARE

(Veritas University Abuja bursary office)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Many organization uses computerized information system to keep their

data/information. There is an urgent need to document every information of an

organization for the decision making in such organization. Fee clearance

information system/software is used mainly in higher institute of learning to track

the record of students data/information need to be change to the electronic format

of processing.

Bursary department in every institution is highly and need to be taken care

of. This department deal with students figures in terms of payment and therefore

need to be well documented. Figures can be easily manipulated and incorrectly

represented which call for immediate attention when dealing with such

information.

Because of the manual approach used in bursary department, a lot of

students’ records are mismanaged. The institute also has suffered a lot of bruises

like improper calculation of student departmental fees, embezzlement of the

institute money by some bursary staff and some student claiming that they have

paid. Fee clearance information system/software, FCIS is well automated system.

Fee clearance information system/software makes the staffs of bursary department

of any institution to be accountable to the management. The management uses fee

clearance information system/software, FCIS as effective tool in keeping all the

students records as pertaining their payment. The management uses fee clearance

information system/software; FCIS to know the entire student that have made their

payment and those owing them. It is used as a effective tool to calculate all the

student payment and document such report.

Another important aspect of fee clearance information system/software,

FCIS is that it is used as effective tool during student’s clearance. Being automated

system, the student’s record will be easily retrieve to check his/her payment status.

Before now, the student’s payment record must have been recorded in the system

by the computer operator in the bursary department. Once a student’s record is

brought out the payment status will show. If the student is owing any department
fee, the fee clearance information system/software, FCIS will indicate it and vice

verse.

1.1 Statement of Problem

i. The difficulties people face in keeping information/data.

ii. Unwillingness attitude of some staff when dealing with data/information.

iii. Fragile nature of information/data.

iv. Difficulties people encountered when searching for a given information.

v. Time wasted in searching for information on packed files.

vi. Time wasted in sorting files

vii. Important nature of data/information in the growth of any organization.

The need arise for the development of fee clearance information

system/software bursary department, for a higher institution.

1.2 Purpose of Study

The main purpose of this study is to put to an end the difficulties people

encountered during storage of data/information. This is actualized by designing fee

clearance information system/software bursary department, which is user friendly

and interactive. By the time this software is designed and implemented, the

difficulties encountered with manual method of keeping information will be

eliminated.
1.3 Aims or Objectives

The aims and objectives of this project are listed below:

i. To develop software called fee clearance information system/software that

will replace the manual method of storage.

ii. To stop or eliminate the difficulties people face with manual method of

storage.

iii. To demonstrate increased motivation to the bursary workers.

iv. To easy the work associated with manual method.

v. To eliminate the error involved with the manual storage of data/information.

vi. To save the time wasted when searching or sorting for a given

data/information.

vii. To remove untidy nature of most offices because of huge number of files

scattered all over.

viii. To make higher institution a computerized one.

All these contributed to show that personnel office is now been influence by

information technology.

1.4 Scope of Study

 This project work is narrowed to fee clearance information system/software

bursary department. It deals with the development of personnel management

information system to help in the storage of data/information in VERITAS

UNIVERSITY ABUJA bursary office. It stores all registration, departmental fee

and individual information.

1.5 Limitation of Study

Owing to the scope of this project work as stated above, this project work is

limited in a fee clearance information system/software bursary department.

It is important to mention here that time was a major constraint in the course

of fact finding. It is also wise to mention here that some information we need to

work with was not collected because of the unwillingness of the staff to review

such information.

1.6 Assumption Study

One of the major assumptions made in this project work is that manual

method of storage are ineffective, time wasting, prone to error and high level of

energy dissipation.
 It is also assumed that with the level of development in information

technology, there is a serious demand to join this trend of information technology.

It is also assumed that fee clearance information system/software motivate

the staffs to work more with easy and enhance their work.

1.7 Definition of Terms

 Client: This may process that request specific services from several

processes.

 Computer: This is an electronic machine that can accept; handle and

manipulate data by performing arithmetic and logic operations without

human intervention usually under the control of programmes.

 Date: This is fore runner of information. It is unprocessed fact.

 Database is a collection of information that is related to a particular subject

or purpose.

 Hardware: This is the electromechanical part of computer system.

 Information: This is data that have been processed, interpreted and

understood by the recipient of the message or report.

 Internet: Is a collection of computer networks that operate to common

standards and enable the computers and the program they run to

communicate directly.
CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents a review of the literature on; information systems,

electronic payment systems, card payment processing, fees payment systems in

Nigeria, examples of online fees payment systems, and comparison of the existing

online systems with the intended system. From Wikipedia, (2013), Information

system (IS) is the study of complementary networks of hardware and software that

people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create, and distribute data.

The study bridges business and computer science using the theoretical foundations

of information and computation to study various business models and related

algorithmic processes within a computer science discipline.

According to Singh, (2004), an information system refers to information

technology and people's activities that support operations, management and

decision-making. Alternatively, an information system is the interaction between

people, processes, data and technology (Singh, 2004). In this sense, the term is

used to refer not only to the information and communication technology (ICT) that

an organization uses, but also to the way in which people interact with this

technology in support of business processes. Information system is an integrated

set of components for collecting, storing, and processing data and for delivering

information, knowledge, and digital products. Business firms and other

organizations rely on information systems to carry out and manage their

operations, interact with their customers and suppliers, and compete in the

marketplace (James, 2009).

2.2 CONCEPT ELECTRONIC PAYMENT SYSTEMS

Shon and Swatman. (1998) introduced the term electronic payment system

to describe any exchange of funds initiated via an electronic communication

channel, while Kalakota and Whinston (1997) showed that an e-commerce

electronic payment is a financial exchange that takes place in an online

environment. Abrazhevich (2004) stated that electronic payment systems are

summoned to facilitate the most important action after the customer’s decision to

pay for a product or service. Several initiatives have been undertaken to create and

develop electronic payment systems (Kalakota and Winston, 1996), and successful

ones include various types of smart cards, electronic cash, and electronic cheque

mechanisms. (Harris, Guru, and Avvari, 2011). Singh (2009) broadly classified

electronic payment systems into four categories: online credit card payment

system, online electronic cash system, electronic cheque system and smart cards-

based electronic payment systems.

According to Singh (2009), payment systems that use electronic distribution

networks constitute a frequent practice in the banking and business sector since

1960s, especially for the transfer of big amounts of money. In the four decades that

have passed since their appearance, important technological developments have

taken place, which on the one hand have expanded the possibilities of electronic
payment systems and on the other hand, have created new business and social

practice, which make the use of these systems necessary. Arkalgud (2012), say e-

payment involves trading using the latest electronic equipment and software

between the sellers and the buyers. The trade in e-commerce is conducted in a

slightly different way than the traditional trading. The earliest form of automation

in the financial industry was done to automate the functions of clearing house in

bank associations. In 1968, group of California bankers formed Special Committee

on Paperless Entries (SCOPE) which led to the formation in 1972 of California

Clearing House Association. This was the first regional automated Clearing

House. The first form of automated payments was to disburse salaries to

employees from an employer's account. Gradually, the information revolution

changed the outlook of the banking sector and computerized majority of the

functions.

Shon & Swatman (2001) introduced the term electronic payment system to

describe any exchange of funds initiated via an electronic communication channel.

(Moertini et al., 2011), defined an electronic payment as a payment services that

utilize Information and Communication Technology (ICT), including

cryptography and telecommunications networks. (Kalakota & Whinston, 1998),

showed that an e-commerce electronic payment is a financial exchange that takes

place in an online environment. (Arkalgud, 2012), stated that electronic payments

are monetary transaction that occurs electronically as opposed to the physical

exchange of money or cheques. Tangible currency is eliminated and accounts are

maintained electronically to reflect the effects of transactions.

One of the most widely used systems for electronic payment is the debit

card. Debit cards combine the service of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) cards

and cheques (Lwanga et al.,2017) . Another method is the credit card, which is a

small plastic card issued to users as a method of payment for online or offline

transactions. The service provider or the commercial bank grants a line of credit to

the card user, and the card user is required to pay at least a minimum amount of

purchases made every month (Harris et al., 2011).

As noted before, in Nigeria, cash is the main mode of payment and a large

percentage of the populations are unbanked (Ajayi & Ojo, 2006) . This makes the

country to be heavily cash-based economy. the cost of cash to Nigeria financial

system is high and increasing; the cost was very close to fifty billion naira in 2008

(CBN, 2011). Recently, it has been revealed by CBN that the direct cost of cash is

estimated to reach a staggering sum of one hundred and ninety-two billion naira in

2017.

For the purpose of the present study, the researchers focused on the use of

debit and credit cards for secure online fees payment by students and their

sponsors in Veritas University.

2.2.1 Card payment processing

According to Mohammad and Emmanuel (2003), there are six parties

involved in a traditional credit card processing cycle; customer, card issuing bank,

merchant, merchant’s bank, acquirer, and a credit card processor. The card issuing

bank issues credit cards to customers and maintains their accounts and the

merchant opens an account with a bank to receive payments. In order to accept

credit cards, the merchant needs to register with an acquirer, a bank or financial

institution that sets up an account for the merchant and provides a terminal to

process credit cards. The processor is a large data center maintained by the credit

card network, and it acts as a clearinghouse for all credit card transactions

(Mohammad and Emmanuel, 2003).

i. Credit Cards

A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a method of payment

for online or off-line purchases. The service provider or the commercial bank

grants a line of credit to the card user, and the card user is required to pay at least a

minimum amount for purchases made every month (Harris, Guru, and Avvari,

2011). With the credit approach, charges are posted against the customer's account

and the customer is billed for this amount later or subsequently pays the balance of

the account to the payment service. Credit cards are the most commonly used

method of electronic payment (Chou, Lee and Chong, 2004) and are widely
accepted by consumers and merchants throughout the world, especially in retail

markets. (Laudon and Traver, 2001).

ii. Debit Cards

One of the most widely used systems for electronic payments is the debit

card; Debit cards combine the service of Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) cards

and cheques (Chou, Lee and Chong, 2004). When customers pay with a debit card,

the money is automatically deducted from their checking bank account

(Abrazhevich, 2004). In contrast with the credit cards, the spent money comes

from the bank account directly. Many banks issue a combined ATM/debit card that

looks like a credit card and can be used in places where credit cards are accepted.

In this case, when users pay with a debit card, the payment will still be

processed as a debit transaction. (Abrazhevich, 2004). Both debit and credit cards

are associated with advantages of convenience, speed, flexibility, simplicity, ease

of use, accessibility and availability.

2.3 FEES PAYMENT SYSTEMS IN NIGERIA

Banking halls are flooded with parents and students trying to clear their

school fees in time for the new semester. For most of them, the long queues they

have to endure seem to be the biggest challenge ((BoN), 2012). In a quest to

achieve the mission of developing and maintaining efficient, reliable and secure
payment systems for Nigeria, the payments and settlements department of Bank of

Nigeria is currently engaged in operating and improving the following payment

systems; cash, cheques, Electronic Clearing System (ECS), Electronic Funds

Transfer (EFT), credit and debit cards payment systems ((BoN), 2012).

To provide a variety of adequate payment instruments to the growing

corporations and the corresponding increase in their transactions, Bank of Nigeria

in August 2003 implemented the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) for both credit

transfers and direct debits. The EFT system provides fast, convenient, reliable and

secure domestic payment and collection of funds. Credit transfers are

predominantly being used by government and corporate customers to transfer

salary payments to the employees‟ and beneficiaries‟ accounts ((BoN), 2012). On

1st July 2009, Bank of Nigeria (BoN) and commercial banks implemented a local

clearing of items denominated in foreign currency. To automate both cheque

processing and clearing, Bank of Nigeria in May 2002, implemented an Electronic

Clearing System ((BoN), 2012).

2.4 EXISTING ELECTRONIC PAYMENT SYSTEMS

2.4.1 PayPal

PayPal.com, developed by Max Rafael Levchin, John Bernard Powers, Peter

Thiel and publicized in 2002 (Wikipedia, 2013), is one of the most successful

online payment systems on the market in the beginning of the 21st century
(Abrazhevich, 2004). It enables businesses to securely, conveniently and cost-

effectively receive payments online (Connie, 2010). To be able to use the service,

it is necessary to register providing credit card or bank account details as the

source of payments. To pay, buyers only need to know the seller’s e-mail address,

which is verified and linked to a PayPal account. The payment will be debited

from the buyer’s personal PayPal account and no further financial information is

transmitted to the seller. (Abrazhevich, 2004).

2.4.2 Agresso Web Payments

According to The University of Huddersfield (2013), Agresso web

payments is a web based application, for use with Agresso Business World

(ABW), which allows payment of student/customer debt remotely. The University

of Huddersfield uses this application and is accessed at

https://www.webpayments.hud.ac.uk/webpayments//. The remote payment

function allows for payment against specific items of debt, or recording of

payment on account. Items of outstanding debt are displayed once the

student/customer has logged in. This secure system allows students to pay tuition

fee invoices and make payments on account directly over the web. The types of

cards accepted by the application include Visa, MasterCard, Visa delta, Electron,

Maestro and Switch and user that can have access to the system are

student/customer, sponsors and parent.

2.4.3 Active Network School Software

This school software developed by Active Network allows schools, districts

and all types of educational organizations to easily and securely manage student

fees and data. The software integrates with school accounting software and

financial systems and stream lines tuition processing. Active Network School

Software is one of the best payment processing and school credit card processing

solution (Fiat, 2008)

2.4.4 FeePay

This is an online payment system that is the bottom line on student fees and

is used to stream line the fee payment process. It is a one stop for all fees related to

students or family school expenses and payments. Detailed fees and payment

histories can be tracked across multiple years and the unlimited numbers of

optional fees are supported. It also interfaces with general ledger systems for

receivables and collection. (Feepay, 2013)

2.4.5 Other online fees payment systems in different institutions

Other various universities have implemented online fees payment systems

where students and their sponsors pay fees using their pay cards. Some of the

universities include;
 i. Glasgow Caledonian University at

https://onlinepayments.gcu.ac.uk/open/

ii. Northumbria University at https://www.northumbria. ac.uk/sd

/central/stud_serv/sws/int_adviser/visa_info/stuwbvisa1/?view=Standard

iii. The University of the West Indies Mona, Jamaica at

https://eservices.mona.uwi.edu/finserv/tuition/

iv. University of Leicester at https://epay.le.ac.uk/open/

v. Qatar University at https://secure.touchnet.com/ C24950_tsa /web

/login.jsp

vi. Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland at https://my.hw.ac.uk

/payments/faces/Start.jsp20

2.5 COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF EXISTING PAYMENT SYSTEMS

The table below shows both similar and different features between the proposed

system and some existing payment systems.

Table 2.1: Comparative Evaluation of Existing Payment Systems

System feature PayPal Active Agresso Proposed

Network Web System

 School
Payments
Software

Security

Electronic fund

transfer

Ability to pay fees

using debit cards

Convenience (No

user accounts

required)

Immediate

payments and

money transfers

Payments in

Nigeria Naira

(NGN)

Learnability (Ease

of use)

Customization to
 Veritas University

Abuja

3.0 METHODOLOGY

3.1 GENERAL ANALYSIS OF EXISTING SYSTEM

When a student is about to graduate, he/she will take his/her degree exam after

which he obtain clearance letter from various departments and unions. The

registrar office carefully reviews each degree candidate academic records and

certificate to faculty that the candidate has completed his requirement for the

degree. Also the bursary has to certify that the student has completed all payment.

The current clearance system of the university is a manual one. These make the

system tedious and time consuming. Here, student has to visit all the clearance

offices with a form for them to sign, once this forms are sign, it prove that the

student has been cleared, the process take some months to be completed and

processes a lot of stress to both staffs and the student involved. In the manual

system, the clearance forms are documented in a file cabinet. Each time the
clearance form is needed, a search operation is conducted on the file cabinet to

locate a particular student clearance form.

3.2 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

During this project research work, data needed for the project was gathered from

the various sources. In gathering and collecting necessary data and information

needed from the system analyses, two major fact-finding techniques were used in

this work and there are:

a. Primary Source:

This refers to the source of collecting original data in which the researcher made

use of empirical approach such as personal interview and questionnaires

b. Secondary Source:

The secondary data were obtained by the researcher from magazine, journal,

newspaper, library source and internet downloads. The data collected from this

means have been covered in literature review in the chapter two.

3.2.1 Oral interview

This was done between the researcher and the staff of the Veritas University. Also

various departmental heads were interviewed reliable facts were got based on the

questions posed to the staffs by the researcher.

3.2.2 Study of Manual.

Manuals and report based on clearance were studied and a lot of information
concerning the system in question was obtained. The clearance forms were

gathered and information relating to clearance fee and other requirement were

also obtained.

3.2.3 Evaluation of Forms.

Some forms that are necessary and available were accessed. These included

clearance form, fee receipt, registration forms etc. this forms help in the design of

the new system

3.4 PROBLEM OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM

Due to the manual means been used by the university, keeping information about

student clearance, a lot problems are encountered which includes:

a. Delay in processing clearance form

b. Unavailability of some key staffs while processing clearance form, which

leads student repeatedly visiting a particular office in other to sign his/her

clearance form.

c. Lose of vital document as the filing system is manual.

d. Damage of document due to fire or rain incident.

e. Illegal removal of forms by fraudulent staff leading to insecurity.

f. Take a lot of time to retrieve a particular clearance form.

3.5 JUSTIFICATION FOR THE NEW SYSTEM

The new system is designed to solve problem affecting the manual system in use.

It is design to be used online thereby relieving both student and staff from much

stress as experienced from the manual system. This will do the analyzing and

storing of information either automatically or interactively, it will make use of

online access to internet.

The proposed system will also have some other features like.

1. Accuracy in handling of data

2. Fast rate of operation and excellent response time.

3. Flexibility (i.e.) it can be accessed at any time

4. Easy way of back up or duplicating data in diskette in case of data loss.

5. Better storage and faster retrieval system.

6. Accessibility from any part of the world.

SYSTEM DESIGN

4.1 DESIGN STANDARDS

This new system is structured to work with the standard software development

procedure. In order to achieve effective online clearance system, Structured

System Analysis and Design Methodology (SSADM) were used. This is because

SSADM is an internationally accepted software engineering model mainly used in

most result oriented analysis and design.

4.2 OUTPUT SPECIFICATION AND DESIGN

The sequence of the report is one of the important features that should be

concluded. This is emphasized because it forms the basis of the school effective

well document up-to-date and formatted output to help as a tool in planning and

decision making/based on the student clearance form.

There method of generating reports in the new package.

Hardcopy- This is a process of printing from the printer to paper, and

Softcopy- It is the process of displaying an output on the computer screen The

reports generated by the system include;

Student clearance status

Student clearance certificate

4.3 INPUT SPECIFICATION AND DESIGN

It is also necessary to denote that data inputted in the computer for processing

determines what the output will be. Screen designs are generally or basically

made for data entry or capture. Since data are captured from a hardcopy form,

the sequence of data capture should be identical to the hardcopy form made for

data collection. The new system is composing mainly of two forms of input form,

they are:- a. Student Registration Form b. Clearance Form

4.4 FILE DESIGN

4.6.2 Software Requirement

The software specification required on the computer system is.

A window XP or higher version for faster processing

HTML

Text Editor

Dreamweaver 8.0

PHP

MYSQL

Apache server 2.5

Fire Works

Mozilla web browser