Software solutions to increase transparency and guard Student Activities and Student Government Associations (SGA’s) against fiscal misconduct

16 Nov 2007, Cambridge, MA – Colleges and universities across the United States and Canada are implementing software solutions to streamline processes, enforce policies, and archive information about budgetary and purchase decisions in student activities and student government. These software solutions provide the checks and balances to protect institutions against the types of financial improprieties that have struck a number of institutions recently.

CollegiateLink, a leading solutions provider to colleges and universities, has worked with student affairs departments for the past two years to implement and improve upon SA Finance, a technology product and workflow solution to track funding and purchase processes, comply to audit requirements, and improve financial reporting.

SA Finance, first implemented at “charter” client Wentworth Institute of Technology in 2004, has been recently updated as part of the SA LINK 2.1 software release this fall. SA Finance provides a combination of 1) an accounting system to track departmental allocations to student organizations and 2) a configurable financial requests function that builds an audit trail around the purchase process.

Other features of the SA LINK solution address the desire of higher education institutions to assess student engagement in programs, to facilitate student organization compliance with university policies, and to help students identify how to get involved outside the classroom. SA LINK is able to integrate with campus ERP and authentication systems to make it a secure and extendable technology platform.

A combination of accountability and convenience are major benefits identified by SA LINK institutions. “[We] enjoy the control both the students and staff / faculty advisors have over their budgets…[SA LINK] has enabled us to give the students more responsibility and accountability,” Todd Foley, Associate Director of Student Leadership Programs at Wentworth Institute of Technology said.

“Before SA LINK…students never kept a ledger as requested. Now, students can just log on, day or night, and get account balances, process a payment and request funds,” Dave Hahn, Office Manager of the Rosenberg Center for Student Involvement at University of Baltimore said.

For additional information on SA LINK 2.1, contact Mark Miller, VP Business Development at (877) 733-8335 or visit www.collegiatelink.net.