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About Financial Aid Disbursement Term Rules

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About financial aid disbursement term rules

When you give a student a financial aid award, you must tell Campus Cafe if the award is provided (disbursed) to a student all at once or in multiple installments. Semester-based schools institutions typically divide an annual award between fall and spring semesters. However, the rules you can be set differently different rules depending on the award code and student's enrollment load (full time, three-quarter time, half time, etc.).

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Prerequisites

Required permissions

Module

Number

Description

System Admin

293

Turn on disbursement rules

Student Financials

1144

Configure disbursement rules

Student Financials

1144

Establish disbursement rules

Turn on disbursement rules (set by default)

  1. Go to Admin > Custom Control.

  2. In Search enter FA_PKGTERM.

  3. Click the pencil.

  4. Parameter Value 1-1 enter Y. Entering N will use a legacy packaging function.

Video tutorial

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urlhttps://vimeo.com/703905607

Configuration

The cost of attendance can be configured to include or exclude certain elements by using custom control FA_RULEKEY.

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ProgramID

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Sequence Number

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Parameter Number

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Description

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FA_RULEKEY
(by major)

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1

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1

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Set to N to indicate the disbursement rule is dependent on the student's major. Set to Y to exclude the major from the disbursement rule.

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FA_RULEKEY
(By Program Start Semester)

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1

...

2

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Set to N to indicate the disbursement rule is dependent on the student's start semester. Set to Y to exclude the student's start semester from the disbursement rule. (Usually only used for less-than-1-year programs or clock hour/borrower based programs)

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FA_RULEKEY
(by part-time code)

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1

...

3

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Custom named rules

When you establish a disbursement rule, you can tell Campus Cafe which elements of a student’s record to consider. If set to consider it, Campus Cafe considers a student’s major, program start date, part-time code and/or degree override start date when assigning a disbursement rule.

If you need to consider a different factor such as multiple student cohorts, you can create custom named rules and then attach them to a disbursement rule. This rule then takes precedence over all other rules.

If your institution is borrower based with many different starting cohorts, you may create a few named label disbursement rules/schedules that you can re-use by changing the academic/award/payment period dates after you have completed packaging a previous cohort. The way you don’t have to completely recreate a rule with all of the disbursements.

If enabled, the rule must be applied on the student's packaging page and works in conjunction with any other enabled rules. You must also set custom control FA_RULEKEY, Sequence 4 to N (see configure disbursement rules).

Create named rule

  1. Go to Admin > STParm.

  2. In Parameter Code enter FCPKGR.

  3. In Parameter Value enter a short description for the rule.

  4. Click Add.

  5. In Description and Long Description enter text to describe the rule.

  6. Click Save.

  7. Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.

Configure disbursement rules

Before setting up your first disbursement rules, you need to tell Campus Cafe what traits about a student to consider. For example, you may tell Campus Cafe that a student’s disbursement rule varies by major or whether the student is part time.

  1. Go to Admin > Custom Control.

  2. In Search enter FA_RULEKEY.

  3. Click the pencil.

  4. Adjust each Parameter Value to align with your institution’s business practices. Refer to below table.

  5. Click Save.

  6. Go to Admin > Refresh Data Cache.

  7. Log out of Campus Cafe and log in again.

Student Trait

Sequence Number

Parameter Number

Description

Major

1

1

means disbursement rules are dependent on a student's major.

means disbursement rules aren’t dependent on the student's major.

Program start semester

1

2

means disbursement rules are dependent on a student's start semester.

Y means disbursement rules aren’t dependent on a student's start semester. Y is typically selected only for academic programs that are less than one year or clock hour/borrower-based programs.

Part-time code

1

3

means disbursement rules are dependent on a student's part-time code (full time, three-quarter time, half time or less than half time).

Set to Y to exclude the

Y means disbursement rules aren’t dependent on a student's part-time code

from the disbursement rule.FA_RULEKEY
(by Custom Named Rule)

(full time, three-quarter time, half time or less than half time).

Custom named rule

1

4

Set to N to indicate the disbursement rule is

means disbursement rules are dependent on

the

a student's

assigned Custom Named Code Rule

custom named rule selected on the packaging page

(Codes are Created using STParm FCPKGR). Set to Y to exclude the Custom Named Code from the disbursement rule. (Usually used for cohorts/student types that need different dates).FA_RULEKEY
(by Degree Start Date Override)

.

Y means disbursement rules aren’t dependent on a student's custom named rule selected on the packaging page.

Degree start date override

1

5

Set to N to indicate the disbursement rule is dependent on the

means disbursement rules are dependent on a student's student’s current degree record’s Start Date Override

field

.

A date range can be used to determine packaging.

Please note that if

If you have two rules that have an overlapping date range,

the system will use

Campus Cafe uses the first created rule to package the student.

It is recommended that

For this reason, overlapping date ranges

should not

shouldn’t be created.

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Important

To apply configuration changes, refresh the cache by navigating to Admin > Refresh Data Cache > reload data; then log back in.

Create Custom Named/Label Disbursement Rule for FA_RULEKEY Parameter 4

In addition to disbursement rules based on a student's major, semester, or part-time code, institutions can establish a custom named rule for specific cohorts. The rule itself is applied on the student's packaging page and  takes precedence over other disbursement term criteria.

  1. Navigate to Admin > STParm Maintenance

  2. In the Parameter Code box enter "FCPKGR"

  3. In the Parameter Value box type a short description (code) for the rule

  4. Click Add; a new screen appears

  5. In the Description box enter text that identifies the rule

  6. In the Long Description box enter more detailed text that describes the rule

  7. Click Save

  8. Refresh the cache by navigating to Admin > Refresh Data Cache; then log back in.

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A Consideration for Borrower Based Institutions with many different starting cohorts, you may set up a few named label disbursement rules/schedules that you can re-use by changing the Academic/Award/Payment Period dates after you have completed packaging a previous cohort, that way you do not have to completely recreate a rule with all of the disbursements.

Set Disbursement Rule

...

means disbursement rules aren’t dependent on a student's student’s current degree record’s Start Date Override.

Establish disbursement rules

  1. Go to Financials > F/A Disbursement Term Rules.

  2. Click Add and select criteria to use for the Award/Disbursements (The criteria that is available for the Rules are determined in the custom control maintenance)

  3. Packaging Award Type: Choose the award ("INTERNAL" type is used for setting up disbursements for the Non-Federal/Other Packaging Rules process)

  4. Award Year: Choose the financial aid year

  5. Start Semester: Choose the semester

    .

  6. Select a Packaging Award Type. Select Internal for disbursement rules for non-federal/other packaging rules. Otherwise select the federal award.

  7. Select the financial aid Award Year.

  8. Choose which criteria the disbursement rule applies to. You’ll only see criteria you told Campus Cafe applies to your institution.

    • Start Semester: Select the semester. The rule applies to students with this starting semester.

    • Part-Time Code: Choose what student enrollment status to apply the rule toThe rule applies to students with this part-time code.

    • Major Code: Choose what major to associate the rule with (leave blank for all)The rule applies to students with this major. Leave blank to apply to all majors.

    • Named Rule: Choose what Custom Named Rule associated with the ruleThe rule applies to students with this custom named rule.

  9. Click Add and set the following criteria for the disbursement:.-

    • Award Code: The award code associated with the award package


    -
    • . For example, the Rodriguez Scholarship.

    • Percentage Disbursed: The amount of the total award to apply to the student

    -
    • Schedule Semester: The semester in which the disbursement will apply


    -
      • Also, the semester code that will be used to determine enrollment intensity for Pell packaging, the packaging process will review the student’s enrollment in selected rule semester code to determine intensity and then split that by the Percentage disbursed.

    • Scheduled Date: The date the award is anticipated to be applied

    -
    • Award Period Begin Date: Set the Award Period begin date on the 1st disbursement for the award. Setting the date in Subsequent disbursements will override the Award Period date for the specific disbursement.

    -
    • Award Period End Date: Set the Award Period End date on the 1st disbursement for the award. Setting the date in Subsequent disbursements will override the Award Period date for the specific disbursement.

    -
    • Payment Period Start Date: Set the date for the payment period starting date for this disbursement.

    -
    • Payment Period End Date: Set the date for the payment period ending date for this disbursement.

    -
    • Academic Year: Enter a 1 to indicate the disbursement falls within the current academic year (default). Enter a 2 to indicate the disbursement falls outside of the first academic year but draws from the award year shown.  (This is academic year within the same Federal Award Year. {Default '1' is for the current and only year for most Term based programs. '2' is for a 2nd academic year/period within the same Federal Award Year as used by borrower-based programs. 3, 4, and so on can be used where applicable.})

    -
    • Acad. Year Begin Date: Set the Academic Year Begin date on the 1st disbursement for the award. Setting the date in Subsequent disbursements will override the Academic Period date for the specific disbursement. 

    -
    • Acad. Year End Date: Set the Academic Year End date on the 1st disbursement for the award. Setting the date in Subsequent disbursements will override the Academic Period date for the specific disbursement. 

    -
    • NSLDS Sub Usage Period Limit (0.000): [As of July 1st, 2021 the Dept. of Education has removed the Sub Usage regulation and this field no longer affects packaging of Sub loans; recommend setting this field at '0' or to '9'.]  NSLDS Sub Usage Period Limit: NSLDS Sub Usage Period should be set for the 150% limit of the students program. (i.e. "6.0" would be set for 150% of a 4-year program or "3.0" for a 2-year program)

  10. Click Save.

  11. Repeat for subsequent Disbursements and Awards.

Use Academic Year field in Term Rule to dictate loan Class Level packaging

  1. Go to Admin > Custom Control.

  2. In Search enter FA_PKGTERM.

  3. Click the pencil.

  4. Parameter Value 1-2 enter Y.

  5. This will then use the Academic year value on a packaging rule to dictate the Sub loan class level amount when packaging rather than the F/A Packaging Record’s Class Level field that comes from the ISIR.