CAMS Enterprisecams.lanecollege.edu/manuals/Financial Aid Setup.pdf · CAMS Enterprise –...

CAMS® Enterprise

Financial Aid Setup

Unit4 Education Solutions, Inc.

Published: 17 February 2016

Abstract

This document discusses the basic setup tasks necessary to use Financial Aid module. Basic tasks will be covered in

detail and include the following topics:

Creating values for the Financial Aid Tables in CAMS Manager

Populating the Award Reference List

Defining Academic Years

Defining Financial Aid Years

Defining Financial Aid Distribution Calendar

Defining Award Limits based on Academic Year, Financial Aid Year, Package, and Term

Defining Budget Costs

In addition, setup tasks required to mass apply cost of attendance budgets and prioritized packages will also be discussed

and include the following topics:

Building and Maintaining Financial Aid Queries

Creating and Maintaining Cost of Attendance Budgets

Defining and Maintaining Award Methodology

Creating and Maintaining Financial Aid Prioritized Packages

Building Auto-Load Document Tracking routines

CAMS Enterprise – Financial Aid Setup

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Please note: In order to remain current with the latest technology, the Financial Aid module has evolved, and some setup

items and functionality are no longer the most efficient method for managing certain tasks. Documentation for those has

been removed from this PDF document. The following topics are available through Online Help only:

Default Award Amounts

Award Properties

Award Sequences

Budget Rules

Lenders

Custom ISIR Import.

CAMS Enterprise Financial Aid Setup

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Disclaimer

Unit4 Education Solutions, Inc. makes no representation or warranties with respect to the contents or use of this guide. Further, Unit4 Education Solutions, Inc. reserves the right to revise this guide and make changes to its contents at any time without obligation to notify any person or entity of such revisions or changes.

In no event will Unit4 Education Solutions, Inc. be liable to buyer or any other party for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings, or other special incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use such product, even if Unit4 Education Solutions, Inc. has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party.

© 2016 Unit4 Education Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. All company and product names included in this document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. The information contained in these pages is subject to change at any time without prior notice.


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Table of Contents

Financial Aid Setup Overview ....................................................................................................................... 5 Financial Aid Award Setup ............................................................................................................................ 7

Populate Award Reference List ................................................................................................................ 7 COD Award Setup .................................................................................................................................. 10 Restrict Awards to GPA Groups ............................................................................................................. 14 Restrict Awards to ISAP or GSAP .......................................................................................................... 15 Award Comments ................................................................................................................................... 15 Default Award Amounts .......................................................................................................................... 16 Generate Award SSI Files ...................................................................................................................... 16

Yearly Setup ................................................................................................................................................ 17 Define Academic Years .......................................................................................................................... 18 Define Financial Aid Years ..................................................................................................................... 20 Defining Financial Aid Calendar ............................................................................................................. 22 Define Term Award Limits ...................................................................................................................... 23 Define Budget Costs ............................................................................................................................... 25 ISIR Comment Codes ............................................................................................................................. 26

Load Pell Schedule ..................................................................................................................................... 27 Export Pell Award Table from EDExpress .............................................................................................. 27 Loading the Pell Award Table ................................................................................................................. 28

Document Tracking Auto Load ................................................................................................................... 31 SQL Advanced Matching ........................................................................................................................ 33

Prioritized Packaging Setup ........................................................................................................................ 35 Financial Aid Queries .............................................................................................................................. 35 Award Methodologies ............................................................................................................................. 46 Copy Award Methodologies .................................................................................................................... 50 Define Award Methodology Amounts ..................................................................................................... 52

Financial Lifetime Limits .............................................................................................................................. 61 Index ............................................................................................................................................................ 65


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Financial Aid Setup Overview

Before Financial Aid can be packaged for students, it is necessary to complete a few setup tasks. These tasks are listed below in the recommended order of completion. Each task has detailed step-by-step instructions on the following pages.

1. Populate Financial Aid tables in the CAMS Manager module:

TransDoc reference table (CAMS Manager >Lookup Table Options >Transaction Documents) - Each award should be a separate TransDoc that includes the award name and description, account and opposing account numbers, etc. Scholarships, Grants, and Refunds must have the 1098T flag checked as appropriate for accurate 1098T reporting.

FINAID DIRECT COSTS glossary table – Budget names (identifiers) used to assign the appropriate cost items (cost of attendance) to students.

FINBUDGETLABELS glossary table – Cost Items such as Tuition and Fees, Books and Supplies, Room and Board, etc. which are used to determine cost of attendance.

FINAID STATUS glossary table – Used to identify the award status, such as pending, funded, etc. This status may be used to control transfer of awards to billing when funds become available for disbursement.

FINAWARDCATEGORY glossary table – Used to categorize award types such as Federal, State, Grant, Scholarship, etc.

Direct Loan Tables– Listed below are tables required to have certain values present in order to integrate with Common Origination & Disbursement (COD).

o College Level reference table – COD Student Level Code

o Country Codes glossary table – ISO Code

o State Codes glossary table – ISO Code

Other Financial Aid tables as needed. Listed above are the tables required, however, other data can be tracked as well.

2. Enter Awards and Award Parameters - Populate the Award Reference table in Financial Aid >Setup >Award Reference. The Award Name is selected based on the available TransDocs previously created in the CAMS Manager >Lookup Table Options >Table Maintenance >TransDoc Reference table.

3. Define the Academic Year in Financial Aid >Setup >Yearly Setup >Acad Year. Academic Years are the foundation for the financial aid calendar and are typically defined once annually.

4. Define Financial Aid Years associated with a specific Academic Year in Financial Aid >Setup >Yearly Setup >FA Year. Define as many Financial Aid Years necessary for the appropriate enrollment increments.


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5. Define Yearly Limits per Award per Package Term. During Priority Packaging and applying awards via Financial Aid >Maintenance >Award as part of a package, CAMS will not exceed the award limit defined for the Package Term.

6. Define Term Limits per Award per Term. When applying awards using Financial Aid >Quick Awards, or not as part of a package in Financial Aid >Maintenance >Award, CAMS will not exceed the award limit defined for the Term.

7. Define the Distribution Calendar for each Financial Aid Year in Financial Aid >Setup >Yearly Setup >Pkg Term. When using Financial Aid >Packaging >Single Student Packaging, CAMS will split an award according to the Distribution Calendar for that Financial Aid Year.

8. Identify Budgets and define Cost Item Amounts for a particular Financial Aid Year in Financial Aid >Setup >Yearly Setup >Budgets. These must be set up so that a Total Cost of Attendance and Remaining Need can be determined for students.

9. Import ISIR Comments from www.fsadownload.ed.gov per Academic and Financial Aid Year. This displays the information associated with Comment Codes present during the ISIR Direct import. See page 26 for Step-By-Step instructions.

http://www.fsadownload.ed.gov/


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Financial Aid Award Setup

Populate Award Reference List

Before any other financial aid setup tasks are completed, it is imperative that you populate the Award Reference List. However, before you can populate this list, the coordinating awards must exist in the TransDoc reference table in the CAMS Manager module. Any fields populated in the TransDoc table will automatically be populated in the corresponding fields in the Award Reference Entry window. These become the default values that display in the student award ledger. You may overwrite the default values in the student award ledger if desired. To access the Award Reference List, from CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Setup >Award Reference. The Award Reference List window opens.

Figure 1: Award Reference window


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Right-click on the data grid to add an award, or double-click to modify. The Award Reference Entry window displays.

Figure 2: Award Reference Entry window

Award Detail fields are described below:

Select the Award Type from the drop-down list. This list displays award types from the TransDoc reference table in CAMS Manager.

Select the award Category (Glossary: FINAwardCategory) from the drop-down list.

If not automatically populated from the TransDoc table, enter a Description for the award. This description displays on the student billing statements and some award letters.

Enter the Distribution Pct (percent). Typically this is 100 percent, which means that the entire award amount will be distributed according to the distribution calendar. For each award CAMS tracks the Amount (Gross amount of the award) and the Dist Amount (Net amount of the award which is Amount less Distribution Percent). Selecting a COD Award Type will remove the Distribution Pct field from the detail window as it is not needed with COD Award Types; the Origination Fee Percent and Interest Rebate Percent set in the Yearly COD Parameters are used to calculate the Distribution percent.

Note: If Distribution Pct is not changed from the default of 0 (zero), no award amount will be distributed, even if the Amount field of an award contains a dollar amount.

If an award requires a student credit check, and you wish to track these results for each award, a Default Credit Status (Glossary: FIN AID Credit Status) may be defined.

Select the Default Trans Status (Glossary: FINAID Status). For example, values such as Awarded, Approved, Funded, Disbursed, etc. should describe the award status during each step of the packaging process. This status displays on the student portal, award letters, packaging reports, and more. It can also be used during the Check Release and Transfer processes to indicate funds are available and the award should be transferred to the Billing Module to be distributed to the


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student’s billing ledger. The Direct Loan process uses this value to update the award status during the import of awards from COD.

Default Code 1 and Default Code 2 are user defined codes (Glossary: FINAID Code 1 and FINAID Code 2), and may be used for institution-specific needs. Population of these fields is not required if your institution does not need to track any additional award information.

o Select Yes or No in the following fields:

o Show on Statement – This must be set to Yes in order for pending awards to display on student billing statements. If set to No, the award would not display on a student billing statement even if “Show Pending Aid” is selected as billing statement criteria.

o Is Award a Loan – This differentiates awards that are loans, but does not drive any functionality.

o Is Award Active – This must be set to Yes in order for the award to be available when packaging aid. If an award is no longer offered, setting this field to No will prevent it from being applied to students.

o Need Based – Used as a Financial Aid BYOR report criteria to aid in reporting on need based or non-need based awards.

Life Time Maximum amount does not drive functionality and does not need to be populated here. Life Time Maximum amount is imported during the ISIR import process, and can be defined in Yearly Setup.

EDE/PowerFAIDS Fund Code is populated only if awards are being imported into CAMS from an external source. It is used to match awards between an external source and CAMS.

Select Dollars or Cents for the Award Rounding preference. Split awards will be rounded to the nearest Dollar or Cent depending on this selection.

Note: The Award Rounding setting does not affect COD awards. COD awards will follow the COD rounding/truncating rules regardless of the setting for Award Rounding. COD awards are designated by the COD Award Type drop-down selection. For Prioritized Packaging, the setting here for Award Rounding will determine if the award is rounded in dollars or cents. How the award is rounded is determined by the setting in Award Methodologies in Prioritized Packaging. The Award Methodology setting of "No Rounding" will not consider what is set here.


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Default # Slots field has no functionality and should not be used.

The Department field is used for departmental security. If a department is entered in this field then only those users who belong to this department will be allowed to add or modify this award. If this field is left blank then anyone with permissions to award financial aid will be able to apply this award to a student. The Award Type list will not display awards that have a Department selected if the user does not have that department assigned in their CAMS user profile.

Typically all awards, other than unsubsidized loans, should pay down need. Select Include Remaining Need for all awards that should pay down the student’s need (Need = COA - Alt Primary EFC). If an award is to pay down need, do not check Include EFC when checking this as Include EFC will override Include Remaining Need and will cause an award to be limited by Cost of Attendance.

Select Include EFC for all awards that are limited by the Cost of Attendance such as DL Unsubsidized or DL Plus. DL Unsubsidized and DL Plus must have Include EFC checked. Since Unsub and Plus loans do not require need to exist, when need is zero, students are limited to borrowing no more than their EFC amount. Setting Include EFC for Unsub and Plus loans will limit these loans to the Alt Primary EFC amount when the amount of need is zero. Include Remaining Need should not be checked.

EFA (Expected Financial Aid) is only used in Prioritized Packaging and should be used for institutional-type awards that the student should always get, regardless of remaining need, if they meet the criteria set in the Award Methodology. If Include Remaining Need is also selected, this award will bring down need and could cause need to go into negative numbers.

The Note field is used to remark about the specific award and can be pulled into various reports from Financial Aid BYOR and Award Letters. Such uses might include award renewal requirements (i.e. GPA, Student Load, College level, etc.).

State Reporting Code used for certain state reports. Data for this field is stored in the FinancialAwardRef SQL table.

COD Award Setup

If your institution plans to handle COD awards using the COD Integration functionality in Tools >Export >Financial Aid >COD Export, the award must have specific items set in the Award Reference Entry detail form and in the Yearly COD Parameters grid on the Award Reference List window in order to be included in COD Export (send) files.

Award Reference Entry Detail Form

COD Award Type must be associated with the award so the award can be included in the COD Integration Send file. This list is populated by Unit4 Education Solutions and may not be changed. Selecting a COD Award Type will remove the Distribution Pct field from the detail window as it is not needed with COD Award Types; the Origination Fee Percent and Interest Rebate Percent set in the Yearly COD Parameters are used to calculate the Distribution percent.


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Disclosure Statement Print Code is included in COD Send files to indicate who is responsible for printing disclosure statements for loans originated at your institution. Valid selections are as follows:

o COD prints and sends to Borrower

o COD reprint

o School Prints and Sends to Borrower

Additional COD Eligibility Award must be checked for additional Unsubsidized loans that a student could become eligible for when a Plus loan is denied or for additional Pell. The additional Unsubsidized or Pell award must be a different Award Type than the original award and use the same COD Award Type. When the additional Unsubsidized award is exported via COD Export, the original Unsubsidized loan will have the Unsub Indicator set to False and the additional award will have the Unsub Indicator set to True indicating to COD this is an additional eligibility Unsubsidized loan. When the additional Pell award is exported via COD Export, the Additional Eligibility Indicator will be set to True and the original Pell award Additional Eligibility Indicator will be set to False.

Note: The additional Pell award Financial Award Amount will be the total of the original and the additional Pell awards.

Additional COD Eligibility Award HPPA Indicates whether the student is eligible for a Health Profession Programs additional unsubsidized loan amount. Note: The COD System will not allow Foreign Schools to process the HPPA Flag on Direct Loan Unsubsidized awards. This is an exception only applying to Foreign Schools. A new award level reject edit will be added to the COD System if a HPPA Flag is submitted on a Direct Loan Unsubsidized award from a Foreign School.

Yearly COD Parameters Grid

In order to package Direct Loan COD Award Types of DLSubsidized, DLUnsubsidized, and DLPLUS for multiple Academic (Award) Years, the COD Yearly Parameters Grid must have the appropriate Origination Fee Percent and the Interest Rebate Percent defined for each Award Distribution Date range within an Academic Year. These amounts may be changed as necessary and all awards linked to the Yearly Cod Parameter may have these amounts updated from this window. This will be used to calculate the Origination Fee Amount and Interest Rebate Amount on each of the aforementioned COD Award Types. The award Amount field displays the gross amount of the award, and the Dist Amount field displays the net amount of the award.


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Step-By-Step: Add Yearly COD Parameter to Award

1. From the CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Setup >Award Reference to open the Award Reference List window.

2. Highlight the award in the top grid for which you wish to set the Origination Fee Percent and Interest Rebate Percent.

3. Click the View Default Award Amounts/Yearly COD Parameters link to toggle between the two in the lower grid and to display the Yearly COD Parameters grid.

Figure 3: Award Reference List with Yearly COD Parameters grid displayed

4. Right-click in the Yearly COD Parameters grid to open a new detail window or double-click a row to modify. The Yearly COD Parameters detail displays with the Award Type field populated.

Figure 4: Yearly COD Parameters detail


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5. Select the Academic Year from the drop-down. The first record created for an Award in an Academic Year is automatically set as the Default Record and the Award Distribution Dt From and Award Distribution Dt To fields are populated with the dates set in Yearly Setup for that Academic Year. Additional records in the Academic Year will automatically have the Default Record unchecked. This field cannot be changed.

Note: CAMS will use the default Yearly COD Parameter record for any Awards within the Academic Year whose distribution dates do not fall within another Yearly COD Parameter in that Academic Year. The default parameter cannot be used to update fees in existing awards if the Origination Fee Percent and/or Interest Rebate Percent amounts are changed.

6. Enter the Origination Fee Percent and Interest Rebate Percent for this award in the selected Academic Year.

7. Click Add (or Update) to save or Cancel to close the detail window without saving.

8. Additional Yearly COD Parameter entries may be added for the same Academic Year to accommodate changes that may be mandated during an Award Year. The dates entered in Award Distribution Dt From and Award Distribution Dt To may not overlap between additional parameter entries (with the exception of the Default Record).

9. After adding a new parameter or updating the Origination Fee Percent and/or Interest Rebate Percent, all student records for this Academic Year/Award with a Distribution Date that falls within the date range set in this parameter may be updated in mass by clicking Update Fees. A pop-up will display indicating the number of Awards that were updated.

Note: Only Awards that have NOT been transferred to Billing, Locked, or Exported to COD will have amounts updated upon changing the Yearly COD Parameter Origination Fee Percent and clicking Update Fees.

10. To remove a Yearly COD Parameter from the grid on the Award Reference List window, highlight the row then click Delete.

Note: The default record cannot be deleted unless it is the only record for the selected Academic Year.


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Restrict Awards to GPA Groups

When applying awards through single student packaging via Financial Aid >Packaging >Single or manual packaging through Financial Aid >Quick Awards or through Financial Aid >Maintenance >Awards, you may restrict certain awards to a particular GPA group. For example, students in an undergraduate program may not be eligible for awards reserved for Masters Program students. If the GPA Grouping field in the student’s Status record (Registration >Academic >Status) for the awarded term is blank then the all awards will be available for awarding, even if the award is limited to certain GPA Groups. If a GPA Grouping value is selected in the Status record, then the student will only be eligible to receive awards which have that same GPA Grouping value defined in the Award Reference table. Note that Priority Packaging ignores this designation.

Step-By-Step: Assign GPA Group to Award

1. From the Award Reference Entry detail window, click Toggle Display GPA Group Restrictions to display the GPA group restriction area.

2. Right-click in the Restrict Award to the following GPA Groups data grid. A blank GPA restriction window opens.

3. Select the GPA Group that is allowed to receive the award.

4. Click Add to select the GPA Group and return to the data grid or Cancel to exit without saving.

Note: More than one GPA Group can be assigned to receive the award. The Award Type drop-down will not display awards with a GPA Group restriction if the student does not have that GPA Group assigned to their student status record.

Figure 5: Award GPA Group


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Restrict Awards to ISAP or GSAP

When applying awards through single student packaging via Financial Aid >Packaging >Single or manual packaging through Financial Aid >Quick Awards or through Financial Aid >Maintenance >Awards, you may restrict certain awards to particular Institutional Satisfactory Academic Progress or Governmental Satisfactory Academic Progress as set in Student Status. You may add multiple entries to allow different Student Status SAP entries to be awarded these awards. Students with blank entries in the Student Status SAP drop-downs will not be restricted by settings here.

Step-By-Step: Assign GPA Group to Award

1. From the Award Reference Entry detail window, click Toggle Display SAP Institutional Status Restrictions or Toggle Display SAP Governmental Status Restrictions to display that SAP restriction window below the toggle.

2. Right-click in the Restrict Award to the Following SAP Institutional (or Governmental) Statuses. A blank detail window opens.

3. Select the SAP Institutional (or Governmental) Status that is allowed to receive the award.

4. Click Add to select the SAP status and return to the Award Reference detail window or click Cancel to exit without saving.

5. Repeat this process to add any additional statuses desired for this award.

Award Comments

Award Comments can be added to each award to allow standard information to appear on the Priority Packaging Award Letter available at the end of the Priority Packaging process and both the Standard By Package and Columns by Package Award Letters available from Financial Aid >Report >Award Letters. To add an Award Comment, simply click Toggle Display Award Comment and then enter the appropriate comment. Comments are saved when the award record is added or updated.

Figure 6: Display Award Comment


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Default Award Amounts

Exact dollar amounts for awards can be based on the number of credits for which a student is registered in a given term. While it is technically possible to use this functionality, a more efficient process using Prioritized Packaging Award Methodology is available. If you are using Prioritized Packaging and you would like awards based on student load to be auto-adjusted, click the Auto Repackage Students (Prioritized Packaging Process) checkbox in CAMS Manager

>Configuration >Misc tab. Detailed instructions are located in online help and in Financial Aid Processes.pdf. If you are not using Prioritized Packaging and would like more information on setting default award amounts, please refer to the online help file available by clicking the Help button on the Award Reference window in CAMS Enterprise.

Note: It is not possible to use both Default Award Amounts AND Prioritized Packaging Award Methodology. The Misc tab in CAMS Manager >Configuration allows either the Auto Adjust Financial Awards (Default Award Amounts) checkbox or the Auto Repackage Students (Prioritized Packaging Process) checkbox to be selected. It does not allow both checkboxes to be selected simultaneously.

Generate Award SSI Files

Click Generate to generate SSI files (which allows awards to display in the Award Type drop-down list) when you add awards to the award reference table or anytime you modify the name of an award.


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Yearly Setup

In addition to creating and maintaining awards as needed, there are some Yearly Setup tasks which must be accomplished in order for financial aid awards to be processed. These include the following items:

Academic Year – Typically reflects the standard academic year from July1 – June 30

o Annual Award Limits defined to prevent over-awarding during Priority Packaging

Financial Aid Year – Period of enrollment where the beginning date reflects the first day of enrollment

o Financial Aid Year Limits defined to prevent over-awarding during Priority Packaging

Pkg Term – Distribution Calendar used in Single Student Packaging and some Award imports

Term – Award Limits used in Quick Awards and in Award tab of Financial Aid Maintenance window

Budgets – Associated with Academic Year and Financial Aid Year to create cost of attendance for a specific period of enrollment

ISIR CC – Associated with Academic Year and Financial Aid Year to display the actual Comment with the numeric ISIR Comment Codes during ISIR Import process

Figure 7: Yearly Setup window


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Define Academic Years

If the institution imports Institutional Student Information Report (ISIR) records, then the Academic Years should be defined according to the United States Department of Education regulation, which currently begins on July 1 and ends on June 30 of the following year. Awards may be limited to a specific annual dollar amount by associating them with the Academic Year. This prevents over-awarding during the Priority Packaging process. Financial Aid Years can then be defined within each Academic Year.

Step-by-Step: Define Academic Years

1. From CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Setup >Yearly Setup to open the Financial Aid Yearly Setup window. The Acad Year tab displays.

2. Right-click on the data grid to add a new academic year. The Academic Year Detail window displays.

Figure 8: Academic Year Detail window

3. Enter the appropriate Academic Year value, then select from the drop-down calendars or type the Starting Date and Ending Date. This is usually July 1 to June 30 of the following year.

4. Enter the appropriate number of months in Length in Months.

5. CAMS will automatically calculate the Length in Weeks to be used in the COD Export and NSLC Export. This can be changed manually if desired. Manual changes for Length in Weeks will remain as entered unless the dates are changed at which time the weeks will be recalculated.

6. Click Add to save this information, or Cancel to exit without saving.

Note: Academic years may only be deleted (highlight the appropriate year, and then click Delete) if they have NOT been used in a status record. If using Direct Loans, only one Academic Year is valid for a COD Award Year.


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Step-by-Step: Define Academic Year Award Limits


2. Highlight the Academic Year in the upper data grid, and then right-click in the Academic Year Limits data grid. The Yearly Limits Detail window displays.

Figure 9: Yearly Limit Detail window

3. Select the Award Type you wish to limit, and enter the Yearly Limit dollar amount the award is limited to within this Academic Year. For example, the SEOG award may have an annual limit of $100,000. This will prevent over-awarding during the Priority Packaging process. The Total Awarded and Balance amounts will update automatically as awards are packaged.



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Define Financial Aid Years

You may establish as many Financial Aid Years for each academic year as needed. Financial Aid Years should reflect the various periods of enrollment at your institution. Each period of enrollment should have a Financial Aid Year with a start date equal to the begin date for that enrollment period. For example, you could have Fall/Spring Financial Aid Year with two terms defined, one for Fall, and one for Spring. If you have an enrollment period beginning in Spring, a Spring/Summer Financial Aid Year may be appropriate. Students on a trimester schedule may need a different Financial Aid Year. Each Financial Aid Year also requires the length in months to be defined, as it is critical during the ISIR Import.

Step-by-Step: Define Financial Aid Years

1. From the Financial Aid Yearly Setup window, highlight the appropriate academic year, then click the FA Year tab.

Figure 10: Financial Aid Year Tab

2. Right-click on the Financial Aid Year data grid to add a new Financial Aid Year. The Financial Aid Detail window displays.

Figure 11: Financial Aid Detail window

3. Enter the appropriate Financial Aid Year designation, then select from the drop-down calendars or type the Starting Date and Ending Date for this period of enrollment. Enter the appropriate Length in Months. This information is critical to the ISIR Import process so that the EFC values and subsequent Cost of Attendance amounts are correct. More information about the ISIR Import process is available in the Financial Aid Processes document.


Note: Financial Aid Years may only be deleted (highlight the appropriate year, and then click Delete) if they have NOT been used in a status record.


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Step-by-Step: Define Financial Aid Year Award Limits


2. Highlight the Academic Year, and then click the FA Year tab. Highlight Financial Aid Year in the upper data grid, and then right-click in the Financial Aid Year Limits data grid. The Yearly Limits Detail window displays.

Figure 12: Yearly Limit Detail window

3. Select the Award Type you wish to limit, and enter the Yearly Limit dollar amount the award is limited to within this Financial Aid Year. For example, the SEOG award may have an annual limit of $100,000. This will prevent over-awarding during the Priority Packaging process. The Total Awarded and Balance amounts will update automatically as awards are packaged.



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Defining Financial Aid Calendar

Once the Financial Aid Years are defined, you must set up the distribution schedule for each Financial Aid Year. For example, a PELL Grant might be distributed over two terms, 50% each term.

Step-by-Step: Define the Financial Aid Calendar

1. From the FA Year tab, highlight the appropriate Financial Aid Year, and then click the Pkg Term tab.

Figure 13: Financial Aid Year Tab

2. Right-click in the grid to open a new detail window or double-click on appropriate package term to open an existing entry. The financial Calendar Details window displays.

Figure 14: Financial Aid Calendar Detail

3. Enter the Distribution Term.

4. Supply the Distribution Date. This entry serves as a default distribution date. This can be modified as necessary in the award detail screen or during transfer and distribution processes.

5. Enter the Distribution Percent. This percentage is used to calculate the award amount to be applied for the given term within a Financial Aid Year. For example, if your Financial Aid Year is comprised of two terms (Fall and Spring), each with a distribution of 50%, then a $1000 award for the selected Financial Aid Year would result in distribution of $500 for the Fall term and $500 for the Spring term.

6. Enter the Remaining Need Percent. This percentage is used to determine the percent of remaining need to be calculated for the given term. For example, if your Financial Aid Year is comprised of two terms, each with a Remaining Need Percent of 50%, then a $2000 remaining need amount for the selected Financial Aid Year would be split to $1000 for each term in the calculations. This is utilized in Prioritized Packaging to divide the Remaining Need among all terms in a Financial Aid Year.


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7. Enter the Payment Period Start Date. The Payment Period Start Dates must be set for each Package Term. This date is used in the COD Export to report the correct Payment Period Start Date for each Disbursement. If there is a circumstance where this default date in Yearly Setup needs to be overwritten, the date can also be set for each award individually in Financial Aid >Maintenance >Awards. The date set here is also used in Return to Title IV Funds calculations located at Tools >Processes >Financial Aid >R2T4.

8. Enter the Payment Period End Date. This date is used in Return to Title IV Funds.

9. Click Add to save information or Cancel to exit without saving.

Define Term Award Limits

Term Award Limits are used to prevent over-awarding when applying student awards using the Financial Aid >Quick Awards window or on the Financial Aid >Maintenance window outside of an Academic Year and Financial Aid Year.

Step-by-Step: Define Term Award Limits

1. From CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Setup >Yearly Setup to open the Financial Aid Yearly Setup window. Click the Term tab.

Figure 15: Term Limits window

2. A list of all Terms display in the upper data grid. These cannot be edited from this window. Highlight the Term in the upper data grid and then right-click in the Term Limits data grid. The Term Limits detail window displays.

Figure 16: Term Limit detail window

3. Select the Award Type you wish to limit, and enter the Term Limit dollar amount the award is limited to within this term. For example, the SEOG award may have an annual limit of $50,000. This will prevent over-awarding during the Quick Awards process. The Total Awarded and Balance amounts will update automatically as awards are applied.


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Define Budget Costs

After defining the Academic Calendar Year, and the Financial Aid Year, you will define budget costs based on that Academic Calendar year and Financial Aid Year. The budget costs help the Financial Aid department determine the amount of aid needed. These budget costs will reflect the average amount that a student in a specified program may be charged. Before budget costs can be applied, the CAMS Manager must set up the Direct Cost Types in the Glossary Table: FINAID Direct Costs. And set up budget values in the FinBudgetLabels glossary table. Values for this table may include, but are not limited to, tuition, housing, fees, books, loan fees, etc.

Step-by-Step: Define Budget Costs

1. From the Academic Year window, highlight the appropriate Academic Year, then click the FA Year tab. Highlight the appropriate Financial Aid Year, then click the Budgets tab. The Yearly Budgets window displays.

Figure 17: Yearly Cost window

2. The selected Academic Year and FA Year display. Select the appropriate Direct Cost Type (Glossary: FINAID DIRECT COSTS) from the drop-down list. Any budget costs associated with this direct cost type for the selected Academic and FA Years display in the list.

3. To add a budget cost item, right-click in the data grid. The Budget Costs detail entry window displays.

Figure 18: Budget Cost Detail

4. Select the appropriate Cost Item (Glossary: FINBUDGETLABELS) from the drop-down list, and then enter the dollar amount of the item.

5. Click OK to save this information, or Cancel to exit without saving.


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ISIR Comment Codes

ISIR Comment Codes that are included in ISIR records as a three-digit number. The text of the codes must be uploaded into CAMS in order to make each Comment Code’s text available throughout CAMS in the student’s ISIR record and on reports. ISIR Comment Codes may be obtained from the Department of Education’s website in the “Technical References and Guides” section at https://www.fsadownload.ed.gov/docsStudentAidGateway.htm. On that page in the “CPS Test System” section, click the award year for which you wish to download comment text. On the resulting page, right-click the “Text Format” link for the ISIR Comment Text file. Choose the Save or Save Target As option presented by your Internet browser to save the text file. (Note that left-clicking the link may open the text file in your browser rather than presenting the option to save the file).

Step-By-Step: Upload ISIR Comment Codes

1. From CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Setup >Yearly Setup to open the Financial Aid Yearly Setup window. Select the Academic Year and Financial Aid Year for which you wish to upload ISIR Comment Codes.

2. Click the ISIR CC tab.

Figure 19: ISIR Comment Code upload

3. Click the Browse button to open the Choose File to Upload window. Browse to and select the ISIR Comment Text file that was downloaded from the FSA Download site. The text file may be located on any local or network drive where you have access.

4. Click the Upload Document button. The uploaded file name will display.

5. Click Load to add the Comment Codes to the selected Academic Year / Financial Aid Year. The grid will populate with the uploaded Comment Codes.

Note: ISIR Comment Codes must be uploaded for every Financial Aid Year within an Academic Year.

https://www.fsadownload.ed.gov/docsStudentAidGateway.htm


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Load Pell Schedule

In order to use automated processing of Pell awards, it is necessary to update and maintain the PellSchedule table.

The Pell award table can be exported from EDExpress. However you obtain your Pell award table you will need to ensure that it is in the correct format for importing into CAMS via this process.

When changes occur in the Pell Table you will need to repeat these processes to ensure that your PellSchedule table is up-to-date. CAMS Enterprise does not automatically update the PellSchedule table or notify you if there are changes to Federal Pell Grant Program.

EDExpress may be downloaded from the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Download site located at https://www.fsadownload.ed.gov/software.htm.

Export Pell Award Table from EDExpress

You can export Pell award table, tbl_P_Pell, to a text file from the EDExpress MDB file using MS Access. If a password is requested when opening the MDB file, use the password provided in the EDExpress help files. This file is typically located at the C:\IAM\Database folder on the computer where you have EDExpress installed. If you chose to install EDExpress at a different location on your hard drive, you will find the MDB file in that location.

Note: It is recommended that you copy the database file to another location, then export the tbl_P_Pell from that copy in order to ensure you do not accidentally convert the database file from the version of Access it is created with to the version of Access you may be using.

Export the tbl_P_Pell table as a comma delimited text file with double-quotation mark as the Text Qualifier.

Do NOT select the MS Access option to “Export data with formatting and layout” or “Include Field Names on First Row”. You may save this file in any location where you have access to in order to then import it into CAMS.


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Loading the Pell Award Table

Once tbl_P_Pell has been exported from the EDExpress MDB file you may import it into CAMS.

Step-By-Step: Load Pell Schedule

1. From the CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Setup >Load Pell to open the Load tbl_P_Pell window to the Step 1 tab.

Figure 20: Load tbl_P_Pell Step 1 tab

2. Click Browse to open the “Choose File to Upload” window. Locate and highlight the tbl_P_Pell.txt file then click Open.

Note: This text file can be at any location where you have access such as your local hard drive or a network share.

3. Click Upload Document. The file is uploaded to a working location on the CAMS Enterprise server, text displays indicating the file being used preceded by the CAMS user login name, and the Parse Pell File button displays.

Figure 21: Pell file ready to parse


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4. Click Parse Pell File. The text file may take several minutes to parse and load into temporary SQL table. Once the text file is parsed, the window will automatically change to the Step 2 tab.

Figure 22: Load tbl_P_Pell Step 2 tab

5. Select the Academic Year and one or more Financial Aid Years in which to load the Pell Schedule.

6. Click Load Pell Schedule Table. The Pell Schedule will be loaded to the Academic Year/Financial Aid Year(s) selected and you are taken to the Step 3 tab. Select the Academic Year and Financial Aid Year then click Find to view the Pell Schedule that has been loaded.

Note: Loading the Pell Schedule table will replace the data that is currently in the table. This allows you to repopulate the Pell Schedule table at any time the Department of Education makes changes to the Pell Schedule in a subsequent version of EDExpress.

Figure 23: Load tbl_P_Pell Step 3 review tab

7. If desired, you may page through the Pell Schedule records which are displayed 100 rows per page in the grid. Click Next or enter a page number in the page field then tab out of the field to change to that specific page.

8. Select a different Academic Year and/or Financial Aid Year then click Find to view the Pell Schedule for that Academic and Financial Aid Year.


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Step-By-Step: View Current Pell Schedule Records

1. From the CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Setup >Load Pell to open the Load tbl_P_Pell window to the Step 1 tab.

2. Click the Step 3 tab.

3. Select the Academic Year and Financial Aid Year for which you wish to view the currently loaded Pell Schedule records.

4. Click Find. The grid populates with the Pell Schedule records for the Academic Year/Financial Aid Year selected.

5. You may page through the Pell Schedule records, which are displayed 100 rows per page in the grid. Click Next or enter a page number in the page field then tab out of the field to change to that specific page.

6. Select a different Academic Year and/or Financial Aid Year then click Find to view the Pell Schedule for that Academic and Financial Aid Year.


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Document Tracking Auto Load

Document Tracking documents can be automatically loaded for students during the ISIR Direct import process based on any ISIR field names and values. Any number of documents can be added and are linked to the Academic Year set in the Document Tracking Auto Load. In addition, an advanced query option is available by clicking the Use SQL checkbox on the ISIR Standard record, so that conditions may be added to the document tracking import. Documents will only be loaded once for each student and will not be loaded again upon subsequent ISIR imports.

The EDE ISIR import functionality requiring use of custom ISIR fields to load documents will not be supported after the 2010-2011 Academic Year, and therefore those instructions are available through the Online Help only.

Step-By-Step: Setup Document Tracking Auto Load

1. From the CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Tools >Import >Financial Aid >Doctrack AutoLoad. The Doc Track Autoload on ISIR Import window opens. Click the Auto Load Standard tab.

Figure 24: Document Tracking Auto Load

2. Select the Academic Year from the drop-down and click Find to display any ISIR fields and documents that already exist for this Academic Year. You must click Find before adding ISIR fields and Document Tracking items.

3. Right-click in the Codes in Standard ISIR Records data grid to add a new ISIR Field or double-click an existing entry to modify. The Code in ISIR detail window opens.


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Figure 25: ISIR Field Detail

4. Select the ISIR Field from the drop-down list.

5. Enter the Code Present in Field. For example, the ISIR Field could be CommentCode and the Code Present in Field could be 110.

6. Click Add (or Update) to save or Cancel to exit without saving.

7. In the Codes in ISIR Records grid, highlight the ISIR Field to which you want to add Document Tracking documents and then right-click in the Documents to Load data grid to add a new document or double-click an existing entry to modify. The Document Tracking Load detail window opens.

Figure 26: Document Tracking Load

8. Select the document from the Document Name drop-down list (required).

9. Leave the Document Date field blank for the document to reflect the date that the ISIR is imported. Populate the document date if the document should appear to have been loaded on a date other than the current date.

10. Enter the Document Description associated with this document.

11. Set the appropriate Document Status. If desired, set the User Defined field, enter Reference or Comments. These fields apply to all students to which the document is applied.

12. The Location (required) automatically defaults to the Financial Aid module, but may be changed if the document should be located in a different module.

13. Click Add (or Update) to save or Cancel to exit without saving.

14. Check the Internal checkbox if the document is for internal reference only. Students will not see internal documents on the Student Portal.


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SQL Advanced Matching

AutoLoad Document Tracking offers SQL Advanced Matching for associating conditions with one or more ISIR fields. For example, if a student has been selected for Verification and has a Dependent Status of Dependent, it may be appropriate to associate a Verification Worksheet document, a Parent Tax Return document, and a Student Tax Return document. Some knowledge of SQL programming code will be helpful.

Step-By-Step: Set up Advanced SQL Matching

1. From the CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Tools >Import >Financial Aid >Doctrack AutoLoad. The Doc Track Autoload on ISIR Import window opens. Click the Auto Load Standard tab.

2. Select the Academic Year from the drop-down and click Find to display any ISIR fields and documents that already exist for this Academic Year. You must click Find before adding ISIR fields and Document Tracking items.

3. Right-click in the Codes in Standard ISIR Records data grid to add a new ISIR Field or double-click an existing entry to modify. The Code in ISIR detail window opens.

4. Select the ISIR Field from the drop-down list, for example, Verification Code.

5. Enter the Code Present in Field, for example Y.

6. Click the Use SQL checkbox to open the Advanced Matching detail window.

Figure 27: Advanced Matching detail window


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7. The SQL Where Clause must contain the exact column name in the FinancialISar database table. Correct SQL syntax must be used, or the query will not be saved. Enter the SQL Where Clause and then click Test. If the correct SQL syntax has been used, a list of query results will display. If not, a message displays indicating that incorrect syntax has been used.

Figure 28: Test Results display grid

8. Click Return to go back to the previous window, and then click Add or Update to save the query, or Cancel to exit without saving.


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Prioritized Packaging Setup

Prioritized Packaging is designed to easily package multiple students based on awarding rules and methodologies, providing greater efficiency to financial aid offices. Prioritized Packaging is divided into four parts:

Package Criteria: This builds the queries that determine which students will be given an award, assigned a budget, or assigned a package. This is the first step in this process. If your institution has a large number of records or the queries are very complex, it is strongly recommended you use the Advanced Query Editor.

Award Methodology: Determines the amount of award/awards for the list of student created in Package Criteria.

Budgets: Also referred to as Cost of Attendance, this is where the charges associated with tuition, books, housing, and more are assigned to the students identified through the Budget Criteria query. See the Financial Aid Processes.pdf document for detailed instructions for creating and processing budgets.

Package: This is the process which assigns the package to those students identified in the Package Criteria. The Package Queries and Award Methodologies must be completed before the Package process can be completed. See the Financial Aid Processes.pdf document for detailed instructions for creating and processing budgets.

Financial Aid Queries

Use the Packaging Query Builder to create queries based on the Academic and Financial Aid Years. Queries are stored here and applied to Prioritized Packages, Awards, Budgets, Financial Limits, and ISIR Batch Jobs. It’s common to apply a query to packages, awards and budgets concurrently. For example, a query built to determine in-state residents may be used in conjunction with packages, awards and budgets. Or an ISIR Batch Job query may be used to identify students whose ISIR import will be assigned to a specific Financial Aid Year based on a particular Program, Campus, or GPA Grouping, for example.

Creating a query has three (3) basic steps.

Define the query

Choose the Query Objects

Build and Test the query

Note: SQL statements can be entered manually or modified in the Query Builder in addition to the method described below which will allow users without SQL knowledge to create queries.

Clearly describe the query so that it is easily identifiable from the Student Criteria Selection grids accessible in each Prioritized Packaging window. Determine where the query should be used. For example, a query built to determine in-state residents may be used in conjunction with all three (3) Prioritized Packaging windows. If you want the query to be available to use to determine which budget (an in-state budget could be different from an out-state budget) to apply to qualifying students, the Budget check box must be selected, otherwise that query would not be visible from the Budgets window.


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Step-By-Step: Define Query

1. From CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Package Criteria. The Packaging Query Builder window displays.

Figure 29: Packaging Query Builder

2. Select the appropriate Academic Year and Financial Aid Year, and then click Find to display any queries already associated with the selected Academic and Financial Aid year. You MUST click Find first to add a new record.

3. Check the box next to Use Advanced Query Editor to write your own SQL query using tables or views or to modify an existing query that was created either with the Advanced Query Editor or the normal Query Builder.

Note: Advanced SQL users can use the Advanced Query Builder to create and optimize their own queries using tables or views or edit an existing query. Note that once a query has been saved using the Advanced Query Editor, it cannot be edited with the normal Query Builder.


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Figure 30: Advanced Query Editor

4. Right-click in the data grid to add a query, or double-click an existing query to modify it. The Query Builder detail window displays.


5. Provide a Query Description. This displays in the Student Criteria Selection grid accessible from each Prioritized Packaging window.

6. Click the appropriate check boxes to select Package Query, Award Query, Budget Query, Financial Limit, and/or ISIR Batch Job.


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7. Select and add one or more Query Objects to use.

Figure 32: Query Object

The Query Object is a View which may contain data from one or more database tables. Several Views are available to use with queries. Use the Add/Remove Object button to activate the views. Active views display in the color red in the drop-down list. Click Add/Remove Object to activate the selected Query Object. Click Yes on the confirmation message that displays. Your CAMS Manager can add additional views to the Query Object list.

Note: This is the only way to display the fields associated with that particular View in the Query Field. Therefore, even if a Query Object has been activated, and then another Query Object is selected, you will need to re-select the first Query Object to use those fields again. Once a Query Object has been activated, it continues to display in red in the list, even if it is not the current active View.

8. To ensure that the selected View has the data you want to query, click Show to display a sample set of the data, which defaults to the 100 most recent data rows. The sample data set can be expanded by increasing the number of rows to show.


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9. The example below indicates that there is data in the CAMS_FinancialStatus_View.

Figure 33: CAMS_FinancialStatus_View

10. Click Return to go back to the Query Builder.

Note: The Query Object selected determines which Query Fields are available. The query may be built by selecting the first View, choosing the fields associated with the view, applying the conditions to the fields, and then repeating the process by selecting another Query Object, and so on. For example, to design a query to identify students with a designated Expected Family Contribution (EFC), use the CAMS_FinancialStatus_View.

11. After selecting and adding the Query Object, select the appropriate Query Field from the drop-down.

Figure 34: Field Criteria Query Field

Use the Query Field, Operators, and Values to build the query.

Note: If using any of the Financial views, in order to limit your results to an Academic Year/Financial Aid Year, it is recommended that you include the value @AcademicYear (text value of the Academic year), @AcademicYearID (actual ID of the current Academic Year) from the AcademicYear Query Field and the value @FinancialAidYear (text value of the Financial Aid year), @FinancialAidYearID (actual ID of the current Financial Aid Year) from the FinancialAidYear Query Field.

Including these values will allow CAMS to use the Academic Year/ID and Financial Aid Year/ID selected in the Packaging Query Builder window. When copying the Query to another Academic Year and Financial Aid Year, CAMS then will be able to adjust the query to the Academic Year/ID and Financial Aid Year/ID to which it is copied. This is available in the Simple and the Advanced Query builders.

12. Choose the Query Field to add the field to the query. In this example, Primary EFC is selected.


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13. Select the Operator to apply conditions to the value selected in the Query Field. For example, less than or equal to (<=).

Figure 35: Field Criteria Operator

14. Finally, enter the Value of the condition to apply to the Query Field. Either select the value from the drop-down, or type the value in the field. In this example, students matching the criteria of having a Primary EFC of less than or equal to $20,000 will be selected.

Figure 36: Field Criteria Value

Note: The list of available values is dynamically populated based on the Query Object selected. For example, selecting the CAMS_StudentAddressList_View populates the Value field with the columns available in that view. Those columns hold address related data.


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15. Click Append to add the statement to the query. If Append is disabled, you may need to first click AND or OR in order to add to your SQL query.

Figure 37: Field Criteria Query Statement

16. Repeat the steps above until all the desired criteria have been added to the query.

Available operators are as follows:

Figure 38: Available Operators

Note: The Like and Not Like Operators should only be used when attempting to query free form text fields (values that are not contained in a drop-down list). For example, if a city name has been entered several different ways, e.g., St. Louis, Saint Louis, St Louis, a wild card character such as the percent sign (%) can be used. Therefore, the query “S%” in the City Name field would return all city names beginning with the letter “S”.

To include only active address types in the query, select the Query Field “Active Flag”, Operator “=”, and Value “Yes”. The following step by step instructions will continue to build on this example. Actual steps may vary depending on the query you build.

17. Select and add the Query Object (Ex. CAMS_StudentAddressList_View).

Figure 39: Query Object

18. Click AND to add the next condition to the query.


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19. Select the Query Field (Ex. Active Flag) and the Operator (Ex. =)

20. Select the Value (Ex. Yes).

21. Click Append to add the new statement to the query.

Figure 40: Append to Query Statement

22. Repeat the steps above, this time selecting Query Field Address Type, Operator =, Value Home.

23. Repeat the steps adding the Query Field State, Value MO.

24. The query is now complete and reads as follows:

Figure 41: Completed Query Statement

25. Click Test. The List of Students Returned from Query grid displays the first 100 unique values. Click Return to go back to the Query Builder detail window.


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26. Click Add to save the query or Cancel to exit without saving.

The Stored Queries data grid displays.

Figure 42: Stored Queries data grid


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Step-By-Step: Copy Queries

Because queries are attached to a specific Academic and Financial Aid Year, it is necessary to create them for each Academic and Financial Aid year. This can be done manually, or to save time, use the Copy button to copy all queries associated with one particular Academic and Financial Aid year to another Academic and Financial Aid year. Because queries may not be copied one at a time, make sure that all necessary queries are completed before copying to another Academic and Financial Aid Year.

Note: Copy Queries should NOT be done here when using the Copy Package, Copy Methodology, or Copy Budgets functions. When using the Copy Package function, Package Criteria queries, Award Methodologies, and Budgets associated with the Package are copied automatically. The Copy Methodology and Copy Budgets functionalities will copy the associated queries.

1. On the Packaging Query Builder window, select the appropriate Academic and Financial Aid year and click Find to display the queries associated with the selected criteria.


2. Click Copy. The Copy SQL Criteria detail window opens with the Academic Year From and Financial Aid Year From displayed.

Figure 41: Copy SQL Criteria

3. Select the Academic Year To and Financial Aid Year To.

Figure 44: Select Academic and Financial Aid Year


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4. Click Copy to copy the queries to the new Academic and Financial Aid years, or click Cancel to exit without copying.

Figure 45: Copy SQL

Note: Be sure that all queries for the Copy From Academic and Financial Aid years have been added prior to copying. If the Copy process occurs more than once, duplicate queries will be created in the Copy To Academic and Financial Aid years. If duplication occurs, highlight the unwanted query in the data grid and click Delete to remove. Queries already attached to packages, awards, and budgets cannot be deleted.


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Award Methodologies

Use the Award Methodologies window to define how awards will be distributed. This is a two-part process. First, define the methodology and determine how the amount will be calculated. Next, build the disbursement based on the method used to determine the amount to award. Methodology for each disbursement period must be defined, which means that two methodologies may be created for the entire two-term cycle. For example, the state of Missouri gives an institution a grant of $500,000 annually to be disbursed equally over the two-term Financial Aid year. Two methodologies will be created, one for Fall, and one for Spring. These will be assigned simultaneously during the Prioritized Package process.

Step-By-Step: Define Award Methodology

1. From the CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Award Methodology. The Award Methodology window displays.

2. Select the appropriate Academic Year and Financial Aid Year, then click Find to display any methodologies already associated.

Figure 46: Award Methodologies


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3. Right-click in the top data grid to add a methodology, or double-click an existing methodology to modify. The Award Methodology detail window displays.

Figure 47: Award Methodology Detail

4. Provide an Award Methodology Description.

5. Click the search icon next to the Student Selection Criteria field to open the Student Selection Criteria window displaying the queries for the Academic Year/Financial Aid Year you are working with. Double-click the query to associate with this methodology.

Figure 48: Select Query


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6. Enter the Min Amount and Max Amount of the award to be applied to the student. For example, if a student could receive an amount for that disbursement period between $250 and $1000 depending on the amount of remaining need, student load, Pell, or sum of billing TransDocs, that would be the range entered into these fields. If the Total Funds are to be distributed using the Even Split option, then the Min Amount and Max Amount fields would NOT display on the window.

7. For awards, such as Unsubsidized loans, that are totaled together with another award, such as Subsidized loans, select the Award Methodology used for the Sub loan (for example) using the lookup icon next to the Combined Max field and enter the total maximum amount of both awards in the Combined Max Total field.

8. Award Methodology has the flexibility to set rounding for each methodology as is needed. Select the required Rounding from the drop-down for each Award Methodology:

No Rounding (default setting) - awards are not rounded.

Round Up - awards with any number after the decimal are rounded up to the next dollar.

Round Down - awards with any number after the decimal are rounded down to the next dollar.

COD Loan Rounding - awards will be rounded as specified by COD rules.

Note: For Prioritized Packaging, the setting for Award Rounding in Award Reference will determine if the award is rounded in dollars or cents. How the award is rounded is determined by the setting here. The setting of "No Rounding" will not consider what is set in Award Reference.

9. Enter the Term. The term is the period during which the distribution will occur. A single award can be distributed multiple times during the term if required. Another methodology would be built using the same term but different distribution dates if that were the case.

10. Enter the Distribution Date, required. This may be an approximate date. The exact date of distribution is typically changed during the Financial Aid Transfer process.

11. Enter the Award Type by selecting from the drop-down list.

Note: Once a package that includes an Award Methodology has been applied to students, the methodology Term, Distribution Date, and Award Type fields cannot be changed.

12. In the Total Funds field, enter the entire amount of the award available to ALL students for this distribution period. For example, the MO State Grant award may allow a yearly maximum of $500,000. If the award is split evenly between Fall and Spring, then the amount should be $250,000. The Amount Used and the Balance fields are automatically updated by the system as the funds are disbursed during the packaging process.

13. In the Amount Determined By area, choose the method (defined below) by which the amount will be awarded to individual students. The method chosen here will determine which fields are available in the lower data grid of the Award Methodologies window.

14. Click Add to save the Award Methodology, or Cancel to exit without saving. Repeat these steps to add additional terms for the award year. Alternatively,


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single Award Methodologies may be copied utilizing the Copy One button below the top grid.


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Copy Award Methodologies

Because methodologies are attached to a specific Academic and Financial Aid Year, it is necessary to create them for each Academic and Financial Aid year. This can be done manually, or to save time, use the Copy button to copy all methodologies associated with one particular Academic and Financial Aid year to another Academic and Financial Aid year. Individual methodologies can also be copied in order to facilitate creating Award Methodologies for multiple-term Financial Aid Years.

Note: Copy Methodologies should NOT be done here when using the Copy Package function. When using the Copy Package function, Package Criteria queries, Award Methodologies, and Budgets associated with the Package are copied automatically. You should ONLY copy methodologies here if you will NOT be copying packages. Copying the methodologies will also copy the associated Package Criteria queries.

Step-By-Step: Copy All Award Methodologies

1. On the Award Methodology window, select the appropriate Academic and Financial Aid year and click Find to display the methodologies associated with the selected criteria.

Figure 49: Copy All Award Methodologies

2. Click the Copy All button above the top grid. The Copy Award Methodologies detail window opens with the Academic Year From and Financial Aid Year From displayed.

Figure 50: Select Academic and Financial Aid Year

3. Select the Academic Year To and Financial Aid Year To.


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4. Click Copy to copy the methodologies to the new Academic and Financial Aid years or click Cancel to exit without copying.

Note: Be sure that all methodologies for the Copy From Academic and Financial Aid years have been added prior to copying. If the Copy process occurs more than once, duplicate methodologies will be created in the Copy To Academic and Financial Aid years. If duplication occurs, highlight the unwanted methodology in the data grid and click Delete to remove. Methodologies already attached to packages, awards, and budgets cannot be deleted.

Step-By-Step: Copy One Award Methodology

1. On the Award Methodology window, select the appropriate Academic and Financial Aid year and click Find to display the methodologies associated with the selected criteria.

2. In the top grid, highlight the methodology you wish to copy to this Academic and Financial Aid year.

Figure 51: Copy One Methodology

3. Click the Copy One button below the top grid. The Copy Single Award Methodology detail window opens.

Figure 52: Copy One Award Methodology

4. Enter the Term to which you are copying the methodology.

5. Click Copy to copy the methodology within the Academic and Financial Aid year selected on the Award Methodology window. A copy of the methodology is created with the additional term for the Academic and Financial Aid year.


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Define Award Methodology Amounts

Once the Award Methodology is defined, the method by which the amount will be awarded to individual students must be determined. This will complete the Award Methodology, which will later be used in the Prioritized Packaging process. All methods described below are available from the Amount Determined By area of the Award Methodology detail window.

Straight Remaining Need

Use Straight Remaining Need if the award should be applied based on the Student's Remaining Need only, which is defined as the student's total cost of attendance less the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) and any awards credited to the student's account. Awards with Include Remaining Need checked in Award Reference will be based off of the students Remaining Need and any awards already credited to the student’s account. Awards with Include Remaining Need NOT checked in Award Reference will be based off of the students Cost of Attendance and any awards already credited to the student’s account.

Step-By-Step: Define Amounts Based on Straight Remaining Need

1. Select Remaining Need. The Min Amount and Max Amount fields display in the Award Methodology Detail area. These amounts should be the minimum amount and the maximum amount that would be awarded to a single student.

Figure 53: Straight Remaining Need

2. Click Add or Update to save the methodology and return to the Award Methodologies window. No bottom grid will display. The award will be based solely on Remaining Need.


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Remaining Need

If the award should be applied based on the Student's Remaining Need, which is defined as the student's total cost of attendance less the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) and any awards credited to the student's account, the remaining need amount will be defined, along with the award amounts based on the student's load (credits enrolled), and the minimum and maximum amounts available to a single student.

Step-By-Step: Define Amounts Based on Remaining Need

1. Select Remaining Need. The Min Amount and Max Amount fields display in the Award Methodology Detail area. These amounts should be the minimum amount and the maximum amount that would be awarded to a single student.

Figure 54: Remaining Need

2. Click Add or Update to save the methodology and return to the Award Methodologies window. The lower data grid displays the title Amounts Based on Remaining Need.


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3. Right-click in the lower data grid to add the remaining need amounts. The Amount Based on Remaining Need detail window displays.

Figure 55: Remaining Needs Amounts

4. Populate the Remaining Need dollar amount. For example, if Remaining Need equals $5000, the amounts to award will be based on that number and over up to the next Remaining Need amount entered.

5. Next, enter the dollar amounts to award for:

Full Time

Three Quarters Time

Part Time

Half Time

Less Part Time

Audit Amount

Note: If nothing should be awarded for Less Part Time or Audit Amounts, enter zero (0) in the field.


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6. Click Add to save and return to the Award Methodology window. Repeat steps three (3) through six (6) until all amounts based on remaining need have been defined for this methodology.

Figure 56: Remaining Need Dollar Amounts

Note: The amounts entered for Remaining Need in the bottom grid are calculated in blocks. For example if Remaining Need amounts of $5000.00 and $6000.00 are entered, students with remaining need between $5000.00 and $5999.99 will fall in the $5000.00 Remaining Need entry.


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Student Load

If the award should be applied based on the Student Load, defined as the number of credits the student is enrolled for that specific term, then minimum and maximum amounts available to a single student will be defined, as well as a percentage of the maximum amount per student for each number of credits enrolled.

Step-By-Step: Define Amounts Based on Student Load

1. Select Student Load. The Min Amount and Max Amount fields display in the Award Methodology Detail area. These amounts should be the minimum amount.

Figure 57: Student Load

2. Click Add or Update to save the methodology and return to the Award Methodologies window. The lower data grid displays the title Amounts Based on Student Load.


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3. Right-click in the lower data grid to add the Student Load amounts. The Amount Based on Student Load window displays.

Figure 58: Add Student Load Amounts

4. Populate the Percent of Maximum to be Awarded percentage. For example, 100.

5. Enter the credits required for the student to receive the percentage specified. For example, if the student must be full time to receive 100 percent, and full time credits equal 12, then enter 12 in the Credits Enrolled field.

6. Click Add to save and return to the Award Methodology window.

Figure 59: Student Load Percent of Maximum to be Awarded

7. Repeat steps three (3) through six (6) until all amounts based on Student Load have been defined for this methodology.


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Pell

When creating the award methodology for the Pell Grant, the system will use the Pell Schedule to determine what amounts will be awarded based on number of credits enrolled. The Pell Schedule data must be imported into the PellSchedule database table for this option. The institution is responsible for obtaining this data.

Step-By-Step: Amounts Based on Pell Schedule

1. Select Pell and enter the percent of Pell to award per term such as 100 for a single term Financial Aid year, 50 for a two term Financial Aid year, etc.

2. The Min Amount and Max Amount fields display in the Award Methodology Detail area. These amounts should be the minimum amount and the maximum amount that would be awarded to a single student.

Figure 60: Pell

3. Click Add or Update to save the methodology and return to the Award Methodologies window. The lower data grid displays the title Amounts Based on Pell Schedule Table.

Note: The data from the Pell Schedule table displays. It cannot be edited. No additional steps are necessary.


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Billing TransDoc Sum

If the award should be applied based on the sum of specific TransDocs (for example, award may be applied to Tuition, but not to Books), then those TransDocs will be defined, as well as a minimum and maximum amount available to a single student. The amount awarded are determined by the TransDocs associated with the student's Billing Ledger only (which means batch transactions would not be included in the sum).

Step-By-Step: Amounts Based on TransDoc Sum

1. Select Billing TransDoc Sum. The Min Amount and Max Amount fields display in the Award Methodology Detail area. These amounts should be the minimum amount and the maximum amount that would be awarded to a single student.

2. Click Add or Update to save the methodology and return to the Award Methodologies window. The lower data grid displays the title Amount Based on Sum of Billing TransDocs.

3. Right-click in the lower data grid to add billing transdocs. The Amount Based on TransDoc Sum detail window displays.

Figure 61: Add Billing TransDocs

4. Select the TransDoc to Sum from the drop-down list.

Figure 62: TransDoc to Sum


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5. Click Add or Update to save the methodology and return to the Award Methodologies window. The TransDoc “Tuition” has been added.

Figure 63: TransDoc Type Added

6. Repeat steps three (3) through (5) until all TransDocs to Sum have been added.

Even Split

The Total Funds amount will be divided evenly among all students qualifying for the award for this distribution period. For example, if the institution has $10,000 to split for the Fall term among 50 students, each student would receive a $200 award. Simply select Even Split from the Award Methodology Detail window prior to adding the methodology. No additional steps are required.

Figure 64: Even Split


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Financial Lifetime Limits

Many types of federal aid limit the amount of funds a student can receive over the lifetime of their aid. In addition to federal aid, Lifetime Limits can be used to impose maximum lifetime totals for other aid as determined by your institution. Lifetime Limits are first defined for groups of students based on Lifetime Limit queries built in the Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Package Criteria window. Federal guidelines are available for the current Academic Year and consist of identifying the student’s college level, type of program the student is pursuing, and more. These are values that will be included in lifetime queries. Unlimited lifetime queries may be created to ensure all groups of awards and students are included.

Once lifetime queries have been defined, lifetime award limits are set in the Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Lifetime Limits window. This is considered to be basic setup and should occur at the beginning of the Academic Year, prior to ISIR records being imported.

When Lifetime Limits are set, Current Limits are imported during ISIR Direct import process. This prevents over-awarding during the Priority Packaging process. If active ISIR records exist prior to running the Update Lifetime Limits process, any current limits from active ISIR records will also be updated.

Step-By-Step: Create Financial Lifetime Queries

1. From the CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Package Criteria. The Packaging Query Builder window opens.

Figure 65: Packaging Query Builder window


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2. Right-click to add a Lifetime Limit query or double-click an existing query to modify. The Student Criteria Query Builder window opens.

Figure 66: Student Criteria Query Builder

3. Click the Financial Limit check box to designate this query for Financial Lifetime Limits. Any queries with Financial Limit checked will automatically display in the Lifetime Limits window. For more information on creating Financial Aid queries, see the Financial Aid Processes PDF document.

Step-By-Step: Set Financial Lifetime Limits

1. From the CAMS Enterprise Home page, click Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Lifetime Limits. The Financial Lifetime window opens.

Figure 67: Financial Lifetime window


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2. Select the Academic Year and Financial Aid Year, and then click Find. Any Financial Lifetime queries built in Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Package Criteria display.

3. Highlight the appropriate query in the Financial Lifetime Queries grid, and then right-click to add an Award Limit or double-click to modify an Award Limit in the Award Types Grid.

Figure 68: Financial Lifetime Award Types detail

4. Select the Award Type from the drop-down list, and then enter the Lifetime Limit for the award.

Note: For Unsubsidized loans, the Lifetime Amount in this set up should be a total of the student’s actual Subsidized and Unsubsidized lifetime amount limits.

5. Click Add or Update to save the award limit, or Cancel to exit without saving.

6. Click the Initiate tab, and then click the Initiate button (nothing else appears on this tab). A message displays to remind you that students must have a financial status record in order to continue. The Update tab displays with students affected by the Lifetime Query with the Lifetime Max amounts for each award.

Figure 69: Update Financial Lifetime tab


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7. Double-click on a student record to modify the Lifetime Max if needed or right-click in the data grid to add a new student lifetime maximum amount. Use the search icon to locate the appropriate student. Click Update or Add to save the record, or Cancel to exit without saving.

Figure 70: Financial Lifetime detail

8. Click Update Financial Lifetime table to update the Current Lifetime Amounts from active ISIR records for that Academic and Financial Aid year. If subsequent ISIR records are imported and are active, the Current Lifetime amount will automatically update with the new active ISIR record limits.


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Index

Academic Years ....................................................... 18 Award Amounts Based an Even Split ....................... 60 Award Comments ..................................................... 15 Award Type ................................................................ 8 Budget Costs............................................................ 25 Category .................................................................... 8 COD Award Setup .................................................... 10 COD Award Type ..................................................... 10 Copy Award Methodologies ..................................... 50 Default # Slots .......................................................... 10 Default Award Amounts ........................................... 16 Default Code 1 ........................................................... 9 Default Code 2 ........................................................... 9 Default Trans Status .................................................. 9 Department .............................................................. 10 Direct Cost Type ...................................................... 25 Direct Loan Tables ..................................................... 5 Disclosure Statement Print Code ............................. 11 Distribution Date ....................................................... 22 Distribution Pct ....................................................... 8, 9 Distribution Percent .................................................. 22 Distribution Term ...................................................... 22 EDE/PowerFAIDS Fund Code ................................... 9 Financial Aid Calendar ............................................. 22 Financial Aid Setup .................................................... 7 Financial Aid Years .................................................. 20 Fund Code ................................................................. 9 Generate Award SSI Files ........................................ 16 GPA Groups, Restricting Awards ............................. 14 Include Remaining Need .......................................... 10 Is Award a Loan ......................................................... 9 Is Award Active .......................................................... 9 ISIR Comment Codes .............................................. 26 Lifetime Limits .......................................................... 61 Load Pell Schedule .................................................. 27 Need Based ............................................................... 9 Note ......................................................................... 10 Overview .................................................................... 5 Pell Schedule, Export from EDExpress .................... 27 Pkg Term tab............................................................ 22 Populate Award Reference List .................................. 7 Prioritized Packaging Query Builder ......................... 35

Remaining Need Percent ......................................... 22 Restrict Awards to GPA Groups ............................... 14 Restrict Awards to ISAP or GSAP ............................ 15 Setup Overview .......................................................... 5 Show on Statement .................................................... 9 SQL Advanced Matching ......................................... 33 SSI Files ................................................................... 16 State Reporting Code - Texas .................................. 10 Step-By-Step

Define Academic Award Year Limits ................ 19 Define Financial Aid Year Award Limits ........... 21 Define Term Award Limits ................................ 23

Add Yearly COD Parameter to Award .................. 12 Assign A GPA Group To An Award ...................... 14 Award Amounts Based on Pell ............................. 58 Copy Award Methodologies ................................. 50 Copy Prioritized Packaging Queries ..................... 44 Create Financial Lifetime Queries ........................ 61 Define Academic Years ........................................ 18 Define Award Amounts Based on Transdoc Sum 59 Define Award Amounts for Based on Remaining

Need ................................................................ 53 Define Award Amounts for Based on Student Load

......................................................................... 56 Define Award Methodologies for Prioritized

Packaging ........................................................ 46 Define Budget Costs ............................................ 25 Define Financial Aid Years ................................... 20 Define Methodology Amounts for Prioritized

Packaging ........................................................ 52 Define Query for Prioritized Packaging ................ 36 Define the Financial Aid Calendar ........................ 22 Document Tracking Auto Load Setup .................. 31 Load Pell Schedule .............................................. 28 Set Financial Lifetime Limits ................................ 62 Set up Advanced SQL Matching .......................... 33 Upload ISIR Comment Codes .............................. 26 View Current Pell Schedule Records ................... 30

tbl_P_Pell ................................................................. 27 Term Award Limits ................................................... 23 Unsubsidized Lifetime Limit ..................................... 63

Date post:	17-Oct-2020
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