G-9. Revenue-Generating Events
All departments, schools, or centers who host any revenue-generating conference, non-credit program, professional development activity, or any other type of event for which funds are deposited into a University account must use the IU Office of Conference and Event Registration Services (“OCERS”), located on the Bloomington campus, for the revenue collection process. This includes account numbers that begin with the following two-digit identifiers: 08, 20, 22, 23, 29, 60, and 66.
OCERS is a University Administration registration management organization that specializes in guiding the payment process for meetings, forums, symposia, workshops, and conferences. The purpose of the policy is to (1) minimize the number of staff physically handling revenues and minimize the associated risk and liability, (2) create a more efficient process for handling large volumes of revenue transactions, and (3) ensure compliance with revenue processing standards and Treasury FIN-TRE-120. The Office of Conference and Event Registration Services and the Office of the Treasurer have invested significant experts in field who are at the disposal to all departments at Indiana University. At minimum, the revenue collection activities that are required currently cost $6.00 per registrant plus +2.5% of credit card charges. The IU Southeast staff still control all other aspects of the event like sending invitations, planning agendas, tracking information regarding how many meals to provide, and tracking registration.
Revenue Collection Process
All departments that produce revenue must have a revenue producing activity questionnaire (RPAQ) on file. Once approved, the IU Southeast department would create a webpage, with the assistance of OCERS, with all of the relevant information regarding their event payment.
For a $12.00 charge per registrant, OCERS would create a detailed registration web page for the department. This usually is used for more intensive purposes, such as departments that want to put survey questions on the site to provide the number of meals that will be needed, obtaining demographics, and other types of information. They will also provide an 800 number to call for questions relating to the event. View Registration Best Practices. OCERS will give the event coordinator access to a report system on the event as it is in progress, along with downloadable event information. OCERS will accept the following forms of payment: credit cards, debit cards, ACH payments, and purchase orders for check payments.
Examples of events at the Southeast campus that are in the scope of this policy and must use OCERS include:
- Any event that charges a fee to attend
- Conference of any type when a fee is required to attend
- College-prep workshops
- SAT/ACT testing sessions
- Student excursions where the student pays a portion of the cost of the trip and funds go into an IU account
- Arts Institute Summer String Clinic for elementary and high school students
- Music courses taught to elementary and high school students one-on-one
- IU Southeast job fair
- Athletics fundraising events when funds go into campus accounts
- School and departmental fundraising events when funds go into IU accounts
- School of Business golf outings
Examples of events that are not in the scope of this policy and do not need to use OCERS include:
- Any free events or where revenue does not go into an IU account
- School of Business CEO roundtable
- Sander’s Speaker Series
- Common Experience events
- Advertised and free events marketed to students
- Student leadership conferences – free
- Student conferences when registration online is required but there is no fee to attend
- Events sponsored by IU Alumni Affairs where funds are not going into an IU account (e.g. Alumni Night at the Bats Game)
- Events handled by IU foundation accounts where funds go to and IUF account
- Medallion Dinner – where funds all go to an IUF account
- Athletic NAIA and intramural events
- Ogle Center theatre box office sales
The above lists are not all inclusive, rather they are examples of the types of events that may or may not be required to OCERS.