Auto packaging evaluates a student's Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) against the cost of attendance and disbursement rules you’ve configured in Campus Cafe and then packages the student with the appropriate financial aid awards. Campus Cafe auto packaging supports federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans, Pell grants, and PLUS loans.
Other aid such as Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), federal work study, state and local government grants, alternative (private) loans or institutional scholarships can be set up to be packaged with Title IV aid through the use of Other Packaging Rules.
Separately, you can also use Campus Cafe to view or print the standardized EdExpress format.
Access to the institution's ISIRs, typically retrieved from EdConnect.
An Admissions Portal form to accept inquiries created by ISIRs must be created so an inquiry is created when an ISIR arrives for a student who doesn’t already exist in Campus Cafe. The name of the admissions Portal form (e.g. ISIR) must be set in F/A Control.
F/A Control Export-Import Provider must be Federal Financial Aid COD.
Transaction Codes and F/A Code Maintenance (award codes) must be configured.
Cost of attendance must be configured.
Disbursement rules must be configured.
Major Detail fields for academic programs that qualify for financial aid must be defined in order to package students:
CIP Code
Program Length
Length Type
Credential Level
Full Time Term Credit Hours
The Degree Seeking checkbox must be checked.
For Clock Hour programs, the Clock Hour Indicator must be selected (checked)
Hours to Complete must be filled in for Clock Hour programs.
The students to package must have degree rows.
If cost of attendance and disbursement rules are configured based on enrollment status (full time, half time, etc.) student's Part Time Code on the Degree Detail screen must be set.
Module | Number | Description |
|---|---|---|
System Admin | 293 | Prevent auto promotion of ISIRs |
Student Financials | 1250 | View ISIR; must set to RO (read only) |
Student Financials | 1142 | Launch packaging |
Admissions | 498 | Link to the Admissions Portal Duplicate Holding Table |
Importing Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) to Campus Cafe allows the platform, in conjunction with the configured cost of attendance and student's academic record, to package students for federal financial aid.
Go to Financials > F/A Packaging.
Click Import ISIR > Browse.
Select the file containing ISIRs.
Click Import.
Users with Permission 498 (In Permission Module 69: Admissions) will have access to a link to the Holding Table form the ISIR import page to check for ISIR imports that match existing users |
If you import an ISIR and Campus Cafe can’t find an existing person record in Campus Cafe that matches, Campus Cafe creates the individual as a prospect or, if the record appears similar to an existing person in Campus Cafe, sends the ISIR to the holding table. Campus Cafe sends ISIRs to the holding table if the ISIR matches the name, address, email or phone number of an existing record but the Social Security Number doesn’t match.
If a prospect is created either automatically or “Inserted without parent” through the duplicate holding table; the student’s Admissions' Transfer Code will be assigned a “H” (Highschool/1st-Time Student) based on the ISIR’s grade level. If the ISIR’s grade level is listed as sophomore or above it will be assigned as a “C” for “College/Transfer”.
The Department of Education may send your institution multiple ISIRs for the same student. This can occur if the student made corrections to their FAFSA or had another change with their data.
By default, Campus Cafe will use the most recent ISIR, that with the highest CPS revision number, in auto packaging and treat this ISIR as the default ISIR. Campus Cafe also copies the cost of attendance from the previous ISIR revision to prevent having to re-generate or re-adjust the cost of attendance.
If a student is packaged already with aid, the awards will also have the CPS number used field updated to prevent rejections due to a mismatch between the awards and the current active ISIR.
If an ISIR of a lower revision than the current default ISIR, the lower revision will not be promoted to the default used ISIR on the packaging page or on the packaged aid.
If you don’t want Campus Cafe to supplant an ISIR with a higher CPS revision number received for a student with an ISIR already in Campus Cafe, you can turn off this feature. The newer ISIR won’t be used and Campus Cafe won’t update the Award' CPS Number used field. This also means the student’s awards won’t be updated.
Go to Admin > Custom Control.
In Search enter FA_ISIR_SKIP.
Click the pencil.
In Parameter Value 2 enter Y.
Click Save.
Campus Cafe translates the ISIR data into a standardized readable format.
Go to Financials > F/A Packaging.
Click Filter Packages.
Select an Award Year.
Optionally select other criteria such as the Package Status.
Click Submit.
Next to the ISIR to view click the paper and magnifying glass in the View ISIR column. If a student has a manual packaging row, the View ISIR icon doesn’t appear.
The ISIR opens as a PDF in a new window.
Campus Cafe summarizes the information form the ISIRs and information about students from Campus Cafe into a table. This table provides a high-level view of the student’s financial aid eligibility.
Go to Financials > F/A Packaging.
Click Filter Packages.
Select an Award Year.
Optionally select other criteria such as the Package Status.
Click Submit.
Review the information.
Hold: If the student has a financial aid hold blocking packaging.
MPN: Shows if there is an active master promissory note imported or added for the student. This shows “Expired” if an MPN exists and the expiration date has passed.
Counseling: Shows if there is entrance counseling on record for the student.
SAI: Shows the student’s Student Aid Index used for Pell Packaging. -9999 or NA will show if an SAI isn’t calculated on the ISIR. This usually occurs when an ISIR is incomplete and only a Provisional SAI is included.
Provisional SAI: Shows the potential SAI as a reference before a finalized ISIR is received. Campus Cafe won’t package or calculate Pell with this value. -9999 or NA will show if a Provisional SAI isn’t calculated on the ISIR. This usually occurs if an active SAI exists.
Full Time Term Credit Hours: The credit hour threshold used for Enrollment Intensity percentage.
Term Credits: The amount of hours the student is enrolled in from the most recent enrollment term. The packaging calculations will be based on the student’s enrollment from the term that matches the first term of the disbursements term rules.
PELL LEU%: This will show the Pell usage amount from the imported ISIR. Auto packaging a student with an LEU greater than 500% will result in proration of Pell.
If a student has a LEU of 575.000% the calculation would be
(600% - 555.555% = 45.445% remaining | (Max Pell - SAI) x .45445 then split further by the term disbursement rules that are applied to packaging)
Major: the student’s current active program.
Start Semester: The current active program’s starting cohort semester.
IRS Request Parent/Student: The IRS Data Transfer Request tool flag.
Primary EFC/SAI Formula Dependent Status: Shows the student’s dependency flag that the students unsub loan amounts will be based upon.
Session Class Level: Shows the most recent session record class level for the student.
Grade Level College: shows the selected ISIR class level that is used for packaging and also exports out to COD for loan origination and disbursements.
For the 24-25 ISIR the new valid Class Levels are 1,2,3,4 (4 now being for graduate/professional degrees). However, COD is still using levels 6 and 7 for graduate programs and not grade level 4. Therefore, until COD adjusts its process to match the FAFSA grade levels, upon import of a 24-25 ISIR grade level 4 will be automatically converted to grade level 7 to allow for proper origination in COD.
Max Pell Indicator: Shows the Max Pell Indicator if a student has been selected to receive full Pell calculation regardless of the posted SAI.
Minimum Pell Indicator: Shows the Minimum Pell Indicator if a student has been selected to receive the minimum Pell calculation regardless if the student’s SAI does not qualify them for Pell.
Student FTI AGI: Shows the Adjusted Gross Income reported from the IRS Linked data.
Student Exempt Num: Shows the tax exemptions reported from the IRS Linked data.
Student Dependents Num: Shows the dependents reported from the IRS Linked data.
Parent FTI AGI: Shows the Adjusted Gross Income reported from the IRS Linked data.
Parent Exempt Num: Shows the tax exemptions reported from the IRS Linked data.
Parent Dependents Num: Shows the dependents reported from the IRS Linked data.
Go to Financials > F/A Packaging.
Click Filter Packages.
Select an Award Year.
Select a Package Status.
Hold: Students held for verification.
Packaged: Students already packaged.
Repackage: Students pending repackaging.
Unpackaged: Students not packaged.
Optionally enter Entered/Changed Date From and To fields to show only ISIRs imported or changed within the entered date range.
Optionally select Include Non-Default to show non-active ISIRS. The first time an ISIR is imported for a student that ISIR is marked as the default ISIR to use for packaging. Unless you’ve configured Campus Cafe to behave differently, Campus Cafe treats a subsequently received ISIR for the student as the new default ISIR for packaging.
Optionally select to Include Doc Status to see results with Financial Aid Required Activity Tracking Completion status. Selecting Include Doc Status will block packaging students with outstanding “F” member documents that lack a Completed Date for the current Award Year. Selecting this box may increase load times depending on how many required financial aid activities are listed on a student's account.
Click Submit. Packages are returned for your review.
To manually adjust a package or mark a student as verified, next to the record click the pencil to launch Package Details.
Optionally you may wish to apply a custom named term disbursement rule to the students. To do so, select the students to apply the rule. Then in Named Term Rules select the rule and click Apply Named Term Rule. Campus Cafe will now use this disbursement rule when packaging.
Optionally you may wish to apply a custom named cost of attendance rule to the students. To do so, select the students to apply the rule. Then in Cost of Attendance Rules select the rule and click Apply COA Rule. Campus Cafe will now use this cost of attendance when packaging.
In Cost of Attendance Acad Year enter the academic year in which the cost of attendance template will be applied. Refer to Term Disbursement Rules for additional information.
Default 1 is for institutions with one academic year per Financial Aid Award year. This is most common.
Students may have separate costs of attendance for different academic years represented by 1, 2, 3, etc. Such a system is sometimes used by clock hour or borrower-based institutions.
Click Generate Student Cost of Attendance. Campus Cafe applies the corresponding COA templates to the currently selected students for the entered academic year. Generated cost amounts can be seen in the packaging row grid after generation, and can also be reviewed under the student's packaging detail.
Once students have their Cost of Attendance generated, select the students to package by selecting the checkbox next to the student(s) under the Selected column.
Click Package Selected.
Repackaging a student: Repackaging a student who has already been auto packaged will delete the current awards and will run the student through the packaging process.
If aid has already been disbursed and you need to make an adjustment to the package, you will need to manually add aid or make adjustments to currently disbursed aid. You will not be able to run the auto packager for the student again for the academic year that has disbursed aid.
Repackaging a student: Repackaging a student who has already been auto packaged will delete the current awards and will run the student through the packaging process.
If aid has already been disbursed and you need to make an adjustment to the package, you will need to manually add aid or make adjustments to currently disbursed aid. You will not be able to run the auto packager for the student again for the academic year that has disbursed aid.
After packaging has been completed for students, you can review the students for awarding over their federal Cost of Attendance or Need Limits through the Over Award Check Report under the Financial Aid Base Reports.
If a school does not utilize Federal Financial Aid but desires to batch package non-federal loans or scholarships, they may do so by following the process below. |
Using the Student finder, determine the group of students you would like to package. Then Select ‘To Federal Packaging’ for all students in that batch.
On the Financial Aid Packages page, select ‘Manually Add Record’. Then select ‘Add Record for All’.
This will create a packaging record for all students selected under the selected award year.
If the record already exists for a student then the student will be skipped and this record will not be created.
The following fields will pre-populate with these default values, which will allow them to be processed through the packaging system.
FA_PACKAGING.PACKAGE_STATUS = U
ISIR_DEPENDENCY_STATUS = I
SAI = 0
PELL_GRANT_ELIGIBLE = Y
GRADE_LEVEL_COLLEGE = 1
The Packaging Housing Plan Code must be populated prior to batch packaging. This will be determined based upon the Housing History Record for the student’s most recent semester on record.
If a student was a resident in the most recent semester, then the Packaging Housing Plan Code will populate with '1' for resident status.
If a student was not a resident in the most recent semester, then the Packaging Housing Plan Code will populate with '3'.
If there is no housing history in a prior semester, then the Packaging Housing Plan Code will be pulled from the Admission’s Resident Code field.
If the Admission’s Resident Code is ‘R', then the Packaging Housing Plan Code will populate with a '1’.
If the Admission’s Resident Code is not ‘R', then the Packaging Housing Plan Code will populate with a '3’.
The page will refresh and you will see blank packaging records for the list of students. These students may now be batch packaged with any non-federal aid you determine appropriate.