The current billing system, used by the Simpson College businessoffice, can boggle even the most intelligent mind.

“I took one glance at my bill one day and it made me extremelyconfused so I put it away,” said freshman Jess Harvey.

With a greater focus on customer service, the Simpson CollegeBusiness Office is looking into making the billing statements moreunderstandable.

Recently Adam Voigts, assistant vice president for businessservices, and the business office have had conversations aboutchanging the format of the billing statements students receive.

The new bill will be easier to read for both students andparents, according to Voigts. The new format will include all ofthe same information, but will be more “user-friendly.”

“(This is something we’ve) been wanting to do this for a longtime,” said Voigts.

Voigts is currently

working towards getting a group of students together to givefeedback about the current billing statements and lend advice aboutfuture ones.

“I’d like it to change, but I can’t fathom how to change itbecause I can’t understand it,” said freshman Jennifer Allan.

Having students involved will help to achieve the reasonablegoal of having students and parents alike understand their bills,according to Thorius.

Jim Thorius, dean of students, is putting together an advisorycommittee to look at the old bills and look at possible changesthat will be made.

“I was really pleased to hear that… they were working on it,”said Thorius.

The changes in format will come from an upgraded version of thecurrent software used by the business office, according toThorius.

Within several weeks Thorius and Voigts hope to have feedbackfrom students and are planning to send out the first set of billswith the new format to students enrolled in summer classes atSimpson.

“The bills are extremely hard to understand. I don’t want to beoverwhelmed when I look at a piece of paper, I think that (thebill) needs to be broken down,” said freshman Jenny Goodall.

The new bill will be more than one page long and will include asummary of charges, and also a more detailed breakdown of thecharges and/or credits, according to Voigts.

This new look to billing statements is only a start for thebusiness office, “along with these revisions we are hoping to beable to allow students to make payments online through Stormfront,”said Voigts.

Voigts is unsure about when online bill-pay will be available,but is expecting the new bills to be hitting the mailboxes thiscoming fall.