Student Financial Services is responsible for billing and collecting tuition and fees, housing, dining and other charges for the university. Over the course of one year, more than 1.9 million individual transactions are posted to student accounts.

Transactions can be posted manually or through one of several automated processes. Automated entries are identified by user initials beginning with “BUR.” All other entries are done manually. For more information, please read About Student Accounts. Each transaction must include a valid financial transaction code (FTCode).

The most common transactions posted manually to student accounts using BUR.U.FTD include:

  • Penalty Waivers
    • Academic and administrative departments may waive late fees for students if they have enrolled or settled late due to delays caused by those units. This generally includes advisement, departmental clearance (D-clearance) and financial aid issues.
      • Students who are simply late in registering or paying should not have their fees waived.
      • Academic departments may not waive late fees for prior academic years.
    • Finance charges may only be waived by Financial Aid, Student Financial Services/Cashier, Admissions and the Registrar’s Office. Academic departments are not permitted to waive finance charges. Before entering any late fee waivers, please read About Late Fee Waivers.
  • Deferments
    • Financial aid pending
      The Office of Financial Aid may post a deferment when a student has completed everything required of him or her, but aid (generally direct loans) will not be available prior to the settlement deadline. These deferments are not offered for departmental aid delays.
    • Employer reimbursement deferments
      Student Financial Services offers a deferment program to students whose employers reimburse them for tuition at the end of each term.
  • Special Fees
    Fees for items such as travel and university-arranged housing for overseas programs in which the amount can vary per student may be posted manually. USC does not bill student accounts for extracurricular, recreation or social activities, or for non-USC entities.
  • Class/Session Fee Waivers
    Departments may waive their own class or session fees manually. Waivers are not linked to specific charges. Occasionally a student may drop a class, which can result in a reversal of the original fee but will not reverse any waivers. It is the department’s responsibility to monitor these waivers and make any necessary corrections.Tuition and mandatory fees cannot be waived using BUR.U.FTD. Academic units may award departmental aid to reduce students’ tuition by using award codes linked to their own tuition income accounts.

Transactions posted to the future credits module using BUR.U.FUTR may include:

  • Commitment deposits
  • Special deposits
    Departments may collect good faith deposits (similar to commitment deposits but unrelated to admission to USC) to ensure that students or guests attend a special program as promised. These deposits must be related to a course in which the student enrolls.

Frozen Accounts:

Students not currently enrolled in classes are not eligible to have charges posted to their student accounts. Shortly after the beginning of each fall and spring term, the accounts of students who have not enrolled are frozen to prevent further transactions from being posted.  Accounts are reviewed each business day and unfrozen when there is new enrollment activity.

Documentation and additional information on the following processes are available: