Awarding and Packaging Students

This chapter provides overviews of awarding and packaging students, online awarding, auto packaging, and mass packaging. The chapter also discusses how to:

• Award online.

• Perform Mass Packaging using federal application data.

• Perform Mass Packaging using institutional application data.

• Notify students of financial aid awards.

• Use Forms Engine to notify students of financial aid awards.

Understanding Awarding and Packaging Students

Financial Aid offers a seamless interaction between online (manual) awarding, Auto Packaging, and background Mass Packaging. Packaging plans are used by Auto Packaging and Mass Packaging, and the award packages they generate appear on the same page you use for manual awarding. All award packages can be modified manually after they are generated by an automated process.

This section takes you from early decision awarding, through reviewing information relevant to awarding, to awarding and packaging financial aid, to award notification and award updating. This chapter describes functions related to the process of awarding or packaging a student. Financial Aid provides the tools to make your awarding and packaging processes run smoothly and efficiently.

A note about terminology: awarding and packaging are terms that are often used interchangeably. In this chapter, awarding is used to indicate the activity of offering one financial aid item type (award) at a time manually to a student. Packaging is used to refer to a process where many awards are given at one time to a student to make a financial aid award package. Packaging is a rules-driven process—rules predefined by the U.S.E.D. and/or your institution via packaging plans.

Making early financial aid offers to students is done using award categories instead of specific awards. Using award categories enables you to give "early decision" students an idea of what types of financial aid they may receive without committing to exact awards. You define the categories you use when awarding early decision offers; therefore, you can decide what categories make the most sense for your institution. For example, you might have categories for loans, scholarships, work-study, and grants. When you are ready to award actual financial aid monies to the student, you must award specific financial aid item types using one of the methods of awarding or packaging.

Prior to awarding or packaging students, there is information you want to review to assist in selecting awards for these students. Information on aggregate aid limits, restricted aid awards, and the student’s status in the financial aid cycle are necessary prior to awarding or packaging. You can view aggregate aid information by aggregate area, such as Perkins or Stafford. If your institution has opted to use NSLDS totals for the federal Stafford Subsidized, Unsubsidized, Perkins, Pell and SEOG programs, ensure that NSLDS data has been properly loaded and pushed to the aggregate tables for direct use by the awarding and packaging processes. NSLDS totals are pushed to a specific aid year and you can override them on the Incoming Aggregate Aid component. You can also view a summary of aggregate aid for a student or look at aggregate information by institution. There are inquiry pages that enable you to monitor a process used to award restricted aid to students. Graduate departments that award merit-based aid would most likely use the Restricted Aid pages. These pages provide information about the progress of the restricted aid awarding cycle and make it possible for members of a committee to enter their final decision including the restricted aid award amount. This information can then be used to enter the restricted aid award for a student.

Information about a student’s status in the financial aid cycle is contained on a page used throughout the financial aid process. The Financial Aid Status page includes information about the status of the financial aid application, the student's institutional or federal verification status, a student’s Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) status, and information related to packaging of the student. The fields on the Financial Aid Status page can be used to prevent the awarding process from continuing if appropriate parameters are established in the system. For example, you may only want to award federal awards if the student is meeting SAP or choose not to package students who are determined to be not "ready to package." If you want to change a value on the Financial Aid Status page for a group of students, use Mass Change to set a field to the desired value.

In addition to the fields on the Financial Aid Status page, there are links to other pages that enable you to review and, in some cases, make changes to a student’s information. These other pages contain Financial Aid Term (FA Term) summary information, ISIR data, database match information, the student’s financial need calculated with federal and institutional methodology (FM and IM), Pell processing information, Pell eligibility calculation overrides, restricted aid information, and the current financial aid award package information.

After reviewing a variety of information, you are now ready to award and package students for financial aid. Financial Aid offers several ways to accomplish this. You can use manual awarding, which is done online, one student at a time, entering awards one by one, or you can choose one of two automated processes to package students individually or in a group. The first, Auto Packaging, is done online at the student level and uses a packaging plan (a set of institutionally defined rules for awarding) to award a student. After Auto Packaging has generated a financial aid award package for the student, you can elect to make any manual changes to awards in the student's package prior to saving the information. The second automated awarding process is Mass Packaging. Mass Packaging is a background process that enables you to package groups of students using one or more packaging plans. In the Mass Packaging process, you select your student population, using a query definition, and then the system assigns the appropriate packaging plan to each student. Finally, you initiate the actual Mass Packaging routine, which packages each student based on the packaging plan to which they were assigned. After each step in the process, you can further define your targeted populations by removing individual students from the selection or packaging plan assignment process.

No matter how a student is packaged, a validation process must be performed to check that all federal eligibility rules, aggregate aid limits, fiscal fund balances and rules, award rules and limits, and packaging plan rules are met. In Mass Packaging and Auto Packaging this is done as part of the final step when the award package is given to a student. For manual awarding, you click the Validate button to initiate the validation process.

Once a student has been packaged, they can be notified of their award package using a financial aid award notification (FAN). The FAN is generated by assigning a communication to a student and using your choice of mail merge software. If awards change for a student, multiple FAN letters can be sent.

After being notified of their award package, if a student declines the financial aid offered or declines a category of aid, such as loans, you can make these changes using a mass action. Mass actions allow you to accept, cancel, or decline all or specific categories of aid of the student's awards.

After a student has been packaged, and throughout the aid year, you will want to view summary information regarding the student’s awards and the disbursement of those awards. Several inquiry pages enable you to do this. You can also review anticipated aid to see which awards have not been disbursed.

See Also

Defining Packaging Plans

Prerequisites

Although you can award students manually, the most efficient way to package financial aid awards is with Auto Packaging and/or Mass Packaging. You are encouraged to set up the parameters needed for Auto Packaging and Mass Packaging to take full advantage of the Financial Aid system.

For manual awarding—assigning individual awards to students, one student at a time—you must set up your defaults (installation defaults and aid processing rule sets), financial aid item types, aggregate aid limits, disbursement plans and disbursement split codes, award adjustment reasons, and award messages for Financial Aid Notification letters.

See Also

Setting Up Auto Packaging and Mass Packaging

Establishing Defaults

Defining Financial Aid Item Types

Setting Up Aggregate Aid

Defining Disbursement Plans and Split Codes

Setting Up Award Messages

Preparing for Early Financial Aid Offers

Understanding Online Awarding and Auto Packaging

The Award Entry component is used for most online Manual and Auto Packaging situations. The awards are entered on the Student Aid Package page. The Need Summary page is part of the award entry component so you can see how each award affects unmet need and total aid amounts. The totals are updated on the Need Summary page after the Validation process takes place. The Term Summary page in the component allows you to view the student's Financial Aid Term and term budget information.

An overview of the online manual awarding and Auto Packaging processes precede the page description. The Student Aid Package page is used for both online manual awarding and Auto Packaging.

Certain fields have tips and/or directions for entering a Pell Grant award in Note boxes located below the field description. Pell Grants can be calculated by the system when validation is run if you set the award offer amount to zero dollars.

This section discusses:

• Use online manual awarding.

• Use auto packaging.

• Use need summary.

See Also

Awarding Pell Grants

Using Online Manual Awarding

Manual awarding is done by populating the tabs on the Student Aid Package page and inserting additional rows of awards as desired. You can have the Validation process populate the Offered amount for an award by leaving the Offered field at zero and validating the award. For example, if you want the Validation process to determine the correct Pell Grant amount for a student, you enter the Pell Grant financial aid item type, leave the offer amount at zero, and click the Validate button. During validation, the Pell Grant amount is calculated based on the student's eligibility and institutional rules. This amount is returned to the page along with the scheduled disbursements.

After you have entered all the awards for a student, you must run the Validation process before you can post the awards to the award tables. Validation checks that the student is eligible for the awards entered and that no packaging rules have been violated. Validation includes edits for minimum and maximum award limits, aggregate limits, fiscal fund availability, federal eligibility, and financial aid item type rules. Validation may reduce an award amount or set an award amount to zero to comply with rules and limits. Validation must be successful before the Posting routine can be run. Posting is the final processing step when you are manually awarding students.

Manual awarding can be combined with Auto Packaging. If you do not want a manually entered award to be discarded when the Auto Packaging process runs, it must be locked by selecting the Lock check box. The Auto Packaging process discards all unlocked awards when you run it, and these same financial aid item types may be re-awarded if the award is included in the packaging plan. The exceptions to this rule are those awards of a financial aid item type that has disbursement protection activated that have been at least partially disbursed; the Auto Packaging process preserves these awards but reduces the award amount to the amount that has been disbursed. Another exception is when the Packaging routine is processing awards in active/passive mode (such as multi-career packaging, multiple award period processing, or Pell-only repackaging); Auto Packaging does not cancel awards processed in passive mode.

Using Auto Packaging

To use the Student Aid Package page for Auto Packaging, you must have established packaging plans. Auto Packaging assigns awards to a student based on the rules of the selected packaging plan. With Auto Packaging the system does the awarding for you. Auto Packaging can be combined with manual awarding by changing the awards entered by the packaging plan or adding additional awards.

When you Auto Package a student, the process assigns awards based on the selected packaging plan and validates the awards all at once. Validation checks that the student is eligible for the awards given and that no packaging or financial aid item type rules have been violated. Validation includes edits for minimum and maximum award limits, aggregate limits, fiscal fund availability, federal eligibility, and financial aid item type rules. Validation may reduce an award amount or set an award amount to zero to comply with rules and limits. After Auto Packaging, if you make no changes to the awards, you can post the awards to the award tables directly. If you make manual changes to any awards after you Auto Package, you must validate all the awards (using the Validate button) to be sure the student is still eligible for the changed or new awards.

Warning! If you repackage locked and/or disbursed awards using Auto Packaging, PeopleSoft recommends that you post that set of awards first (click the Post button) before performing any validation activity and then click the Validation button. In other words, if the student has a set of locked and/or disbursed awards, and you repackage that student using Auto Packaging, click the Post button first. Do not a) click the Validate button immediately upon returning from Auto Packaging, or b) manually change the set of awards that was returned from Auto Packaging and click the Validate button. If you click the Validate button before posting a set of awards that was returned from Auto Packaging, it can potentially compromise that synchronization between Offer and Accept amounts as well as produce a different award than anticipated.

Note. If the student does not have a set of locked and/or disbursed awards, and you repackage that student using Auto Packaging, you may manually change that set of awards and/or click the Validate button immediately after Auto Packaging without needing to post that set of Auto Packaged awards first.

Using Need Summary

The Need Summary page displays the student’s Cost of Attendance (COA), Pell COA, Alternate Pell COA, Expected Family Contribution (EFC), federal and institutional need, federal and institutional award totals, need-based aid award totals, federal methodology (FM) and institutional methodology (IM) special need/cost aid award totals, unmet need, and unmet COA.

The Need Summary page displays the prorated EFC (federal) and institutional EFC values for a student. The EFC values are then used to determine the student's need. When using different application data sources for packaging, it is important to understand how the EFC and need are affected by different packaging data source selections. Here are two scenarios to illustrate the point:

Scenario 1: When the packaging data source on the Financial Aid Defaults page equals Fed Only, Fed, Inst, or Inst, Fed and only federal data exists for the student, if you award a financial aid item type with an institutional packaging methodology, the financial aid item type is awarded based on the institutional need. But, if you do not have institutional application data and analysis, institutional need equals institutional COA, because the institutional EFC is 0.00 USD. This means the Packaging routine awards institutional financial aid item types up to the institutional COA.

Scenario 2: When the packaging data source on the Financial Aid Defaults page equals Inst Only, Fed, Inst, or Inst, Fed and only institutional data exists for the student, if you award a financial aid item type with a federal packaging methodology, the financial aid item type is awarded based on the federal need. But if you do not have federal application data and analysis, federal need equals federal COA, because the federal EFC is 0.00 USD. This means the Packaging routine awards federal financial aid item types up to the federal COA.

If your institution uses IM for early awarding—in October, as an example—and you want to include estimated federal awards, set the Packaging Methodology field on the FA Item Type 2 page for your federal financial aid item types to Institutional Methodology. This allows the packaging processes to use the same need calculation for all the awards; since you only have institutional data you want to be using institutional need. When the federal aid year begins—January 1—you must change the Packaging Methodology field back to Federal for all your federal financial aid item types. You must also make sure that the student has application data that is compatible with the packaging data source you indicated on the Financial Aid Defaults page.

See Also

Defining Awarding and Rounding Rules

Defining Installation Level Defaults

Awarding Online

This section discusses how to:

• View need summary information.

• View term summary information.

• Use Auto Packaging.

• View award disbursement detail.

• Document award adjustments.

• Award students manually.

• Use professional judgment.

Pages Used to Award Online

Viewing Need Summary Information

Access the Need Summary page.

Award Period	View the different award periods (Academic or Non-Standard) by using the scroll arrows.
EFC Status (expected family contribution status)	The status of the prorated EFC: Official, Rejected, or Unofficial.
Fed Year COA (federal year cost of attendance) and Inst Year COA (institutional year cost of attendance)	The federal or institutional COA for the award period.
Prorated EFC and Institutional EFC	The prorated EFC and the institutional EFC are the EFCs adjusted for the number of months from the Budget Duration on the FM (Prorated) or IM (institutional) extension record—entered on the Global and Federal Options page and the IM Value Parms 1 page, respectively.
Fed Need (federal need) and Inst Need (institutional need)	The federal or institutional COA minus the EFC. This is the student's financial aid need.
Montgomery GI Bill / AmeriCorps	This field displays the amount you entered on the Veteran's Education Benefits page. The same amount is entered in the federal and institutional columns.
N/B Aid (Fed/Inst) (need-based aid federal/institutional)	The amount of need-based aid awarded to the student. This is determined by the Meet Need/Cost attribute of the financial aid item type.
Special Need/Cost Aid (Fed/Inst) (special need/cost aid federal/institutional)	The amount of special need/cost aid awarded to the student. This is determined by the Meet Need/Cost attribute of the financial aid item type. Special need/cost aid always reduces the student's need first, then replaces the student's EFC.
Total Aid (Fed/Inst) (total aid federal/institutional)	The total amount of aid awarded for federal and institutional calculations. This is N/B Aid plus Special Need/Cost Aid.
Unmet Need (Fed/Inst) (unmet need federal/institutional)	The Fed/Inst Need minus Total Aid.
Unmet COA (Fed/Inst) (unmet COA federal/institutional)	This is the Fed/Inst Year COA minus Total Aid.
Pell Year COA	The student's COA calculated by adding up the budget items that have an associated Pell category. This COA is used when calculating Pell Grant awards using the Regular Federal Pell Grant Schedule.
Alt Pell COA	The COA used when determining if a student's Pell award should be calculated using the Alternate Pell Grant Award Schedule. This COA is calculated by adding up budget items that have associated Pell categories of Tuition, Child Care, and Disability.
Pell LTHT (Pell less than half-time)	Displays the Pell less than half-time amount. The system determines which Pell annual COA to use when calculating each term Pell award. If the term enrollment is less than half time, the system uses the less than half-time Pell annual COA to determine the Pell award.

Viewing Term Summary Information

Access the Term Summary page.

The Term Budget group box displays the term and the corresponding career. Use the scroll arrows to see each term within the aid year. The following fields are also displayed.

The FA Term Data group box displays data for the term from the Financial Aid Term component. Use the scroll arrows to see each term within the aid year.

See Also

Building a Financial Aid Term

Using Auto Packaging

Access the Student Aid Package page.

Note. Click the tabs in the scroll area to access multiple views of this page. We document fields common to all views first.

Common Page Information

Award Tab

See the above exhibit for an example of this tab.

Note. If you select a disbursement for three terms but only have valid Financial Aid Terms for two of the terms, how the award is treated depends on whether you selected the Missing Term Enrollment - Split evenly across valid term option for the financial aid item type. If you selected this option, then the system splits the award equally among the valid terms. If you did not select this option, the system splits the award amount as follows. (Similar calculations would occur for a four-term disbursement where only two or three Financial Aid Terms were valid.) 1) The three terms would have disbursement splits of 20%, 40%, and 40%. The percentages associated with the valid terms are added together. For example, 20% + 40% = 60% 2) To calculate each valid term's award amount, the term disbursement split (20% or 40%) is divided by the percentage calculated in #1 to get the percentage which is applied to the award amount. For example, 20% divided by 60% = 0.3333 (33.33%) and 40% divided by 60% = 0.6667 (66.67%). The award amount multiplied by 0.3333 = first term award amount and award amount multiplied by 0.6667 = second term award amount. If you want an award split equally between the two valid Financial Aid Terms, select a two term disbursement plan.

Status Tab

Select the Status tab.

PJ (professional judgment)	This check box is selected if an existing award was added or modified using professional judgment. This check box is display only. You can manually modify awards that have this check box selected; if you use Auto Packaging, the award is not modified. See Using Professional Judgment. Since professional judgment awards can be manually modified on this page, anyone with access to this page—not just those with access to the Professional Judgment page—can modify professional judgment awards. Members of your staff may not realize an existing award is a professional judgment award unless they check the Status page. For example, when a staff member reviews a student's award package, she sees that the student has an existing 10,000.00 USD award. The initial view of the Student Aid Package page does not indicate whether this award was made using professional judgment. To determine if the award was made using professional judgment, she should click the Status tab to see if the PJ check box is selected before modifying the award. You may want to address this issue during staff training, and advise your staff members to proceed cautiously.
Lock	Select to prevent the award from being overwritten by the Auto Packaging or Mass Packaging process and to override the financial aid item type level award amount limits. Manually locking an award does not allow you to override the fiscal, aggregate, and equity limits, and any federal or legal rules or limits. You can also set a global lock at the financial aid item type level. Doing this always sets the award to locked when performing Manual, Auto, or Mass Packaging. An example of an award you might want to lock is an award from a private source that should not be altered by another packaging process.
Need Override	Select to prevent the system from changing the award amount when the student’s need changes. The check box is only available for awards associated with the active career. When this check box is selected, only fiscal limits and aggregate rules are applied during validation. When this check box is selected, you do not need to select the Lock or Override check boxes because their functionality is effectively included when you select Need Override.
Override	Select to allow the award amount to exceed the award amount limits defined for this financial aid item type. The override does not allow award amounts to exceed legal limits, available fiscal funds, or aggregate limits.
Charge Priority	Select the type of charge you want this award to pay. The list contains the charge priority lists set up at your institution. If your institution has defined a charge priority list for the financial aid item type, it defaults in this field. See Defining Charge Priority List Rules.
Award Status	The current status of the award. The award status can be Offered, Accepted, Canceled, or Declined.
Adjustment Reason	If you adjust an award action, this link appears immediately after the Award Status field. Click to access the Award Adjustment page and enter the reason for the adjustment.

Warning! If you repackage locked and/or disbursed awards using Auto Packaging, PeopleSoft recommends that you post that set of awards first (click the Post button) before performing any manual modification activity requiring you to click the Validation button. In other words, if the student has a set of locked and/or disbursed awards, and you repackage that student using Auto Packaging, click the Post button first. Do not a) click the Validate button immediately upon returning from Auto Packaging, or b) manually change the set of awards that was returned from Auto Packaging and click the Validate button. If you click the Validate button before posting a set of awards that was returned from Auto Packaging, it can potentially compromise that synchronization between Offer and Accept amounts as well as produce a different award than anticipated.

Note. If the student does not have a set of locked and/or disbursed awards, and you repackage that student using Auto Packaging, you may manually change that set of awards and/or click the Validate button immediately after Auto Packaging without needing to post that set of Auto Packaged awards first.

See Also

Defining Disbursement Plans and Split Codes

Processing Awards for Multiple Award Periods Employing Passive/Active Mode

Viewing Award Disbursement Detail

Access the Award Disbursement Detail page.

Sequence	The sequence number of this award.
Item Type	The financial aid item type of this award.
Net Award Amount	The award amount minus any fees, such as loan fees.
Disbursement Plan	The disbursement plan selected for the award.
Split Code	The split code selected for the award. If the Custom Split check box is selected, or if this is an award that originated as multiple entries with the same disbursement plan but different split codes, or if this is a Pell Grant generated by a default Pell award rule of FA Enrollment, FA Load, or FA Enrollment, this field displays XX to indicate a custom split is being used.
Custom Split	Select to manually define a disbursement split rather than use a predefined split code. Then manually enter in the Offered amounts for each term. The dollar amounts for each term cannot exceed the total amount of the award. Validation must be run after any custom split codes are entered so loan fees can be recalculated and redistributed.
Custom Loan Fee	This check box appears if the award financial aid item type is defined as a loan and the award has been accepted. Select the check box to make the Offer Loan Fee and Net Disb Balance (net disbursement balance) fields available. Enter the custom loan fee amounts in the Offer Loan Fee field for each term. The Net Disb Balance changes based on the amount you enter in the Loan Fee field. Once a custom loan fee is entered, it is preserved unless the loan award amount changes. You do not need to use the Lock or Override check boxes to ensure that the custom loan fees are preserved. Note. If the Offer Amount and/or Accept Amount of a loan is changed on an award entry page, the Accept Loan Fee amounts are reset to the default loan fee amounts by the Packaging routine. After validating the new loan amounts, re-enter the custom loan fee amounts if you want to have custom loan fees for the new loan amount. Loan processing can also update an award’s loan fee amount as a custom loan fee if the loan fee returned by the Lender or trading partner is different from the established fee for the loan. If Loan Processing changes the loan fee amount, the Custom Loan Fee check box is selected but is not available. See Moving CL 4 Inbound Files From Staging Tables to the Database.

The following fields are displayed in the Disbursement Distribution group box. Some fields are available for editing as noted.

Documenting Award Adjustments

Access the Award Adjustment page.

You can use award adjustment reasons for reporting and statistical purposes. You define the award adjustment reasons during setup.

See Also

Setting Up Award Messages

Awarding Students Manually

Access the Manual Student Packaging page.

This page is identical to the Student Aid Package page except the Auto Packaging functionality is not available.

Other departments on campus can use this page to enter students' departmental awards, like academic or athletic scholarships. Using Item Type security, you can limit the choice of financial aid item types available for selection on the page.

See Also

Using Auto Packaging

Using Professional Judgment

Access the Professional Judgment page.

The fields on the Professional Judgement page correspond to those on the Student Aid Package page. Awards that you enter or adjust on this page have the PJ check box selected on the Student Aid Package and Manual Student Packaging page to indicate that the normal eligibility criteria and award limits were not applied to this award.

See Using Auto Packaging.

The Professional Judgement page allows you to override the Packaging routine’s edits—financial aid item type rules, federal Aggregates (annual and lifetime), federal Eligibility Rules—when awarding a student. This override applies to awards that have the following actions taken:

• An award is manually entered on the Professional Judgement page.

• An existing award is changed on the Professional Judgement page.

• A change is made to an Auto Package award on the Professional Judgement page.

Since this page can be used to bypass all federal eligibility and awarding rules, careful thought should be given when granting security for this page.

Awards that you enter or modify on this page selected cannot be modified on any award entry pages except the Professional Judgement page.

Award Tab

See the previous exhibit for this tab.

Select the Award tab.

When you use the Award tab on the Professional Judgement page to add a new manual award or to override the offered or accepted amount for an item type of an existing award, the system automatically selects the PJ check box on the Status tab on the Professional Judgement page.

Status Tab

Select the Status tab.

When you add a new award manually or override an existing award, the system selects the corresponding check box in the PJ column for the adjusted item type. You can clear this check box.

Understanding Mass Packaging

Using Mass Packaging, you can award financial aid for groups of students. A Mass Packaging query definition is used to identify the group of students being selected for Mass Packaging. You can then associate one or more packaging plans to that population. In addition, Mass Packaging enables you to evaluate your selected population and the packaging plan associated with each student before Mass Packaging takes place. The system selects the optimum packaging plan for each student based on the combination of your packaging equations and the processing order of the packaging plan. Then the system applies the packaging plan against those selected students, and the system awards each student based on the defined packaging plan rules.

There are three distinct processes that are run as part of Mass Packaging. The first process selects students to be included for Mass Packaging evaluation. The second process assigns packaging plans to students. The third process reviews the student's eligibility, the program rules, and other eligibility criteria and then awards financial aid to students using the assigned packaging plans. After the first and second processes, you have the opportunity to review the students being selected and the packaging plans being assigned to these students. You can also review the order in which the students will be packaged, again by packaging plan. Finally, you have an opportunity to delete unwanted students. The third process can be run in either live mode or in simulation mode to review expected packaging results. The term 'Mass Packaging' is used to refer to the three-step process described here. The term 'Mass Packaging process' is used to refer to the third step in Mass Packaging.

Before using Mass Packaging, you should think about what results you want the system to produce according to your institution's packaging philosophies. Think about what student attributes to use in the packaging equations to select the correct students for each packaging plan. Review the criteria each packaging plan uses to select students. It is possible some of the selected students cannot be matched to any of the packaging plans you have selected. A list of these students can be reviewed to determine why the students did not get matched. Adjust your equations to ensure these students are assigned to the proper packaging plans.

Note. You must have your packaging plans completely established before you begin any of the steps in Mass Packaging. Once you start Mass Packaging, do not make any changes to your packaging plans until you have run all three processes. If you make changes to your packaging plans, rerun the Mass Packaging processes starting with the selection process. Changing packaging plans after students have been selected or assigned to packaging plans may produce incorrect or undesirable results during the Mass Packaging process.

See Also

Defining Packaging Plans

Using Federal Application Data or Institutional Application Data

Mass Packaging can be run using federal or institutional application data. There are separate pages for federal Mass Packaging and for institutional Mass Packaging; what distinguishes the two processes is which application data is used to determine the selection of students.

Mass Packaging, both institutional and federal, is affected by the value in the Packaging Data Source field on the Financial Aid Defaults page and the Aid Processing Rule Setup page. Mass Packaging and Institutional Mass Packaging use the packaging data source information at different times during the three step Mass Packaging process. In Mass Packaging, students are only selected if they have federal application data, regardless of the packaging data source selection. During the third step in Mass Packaging, the packaging data source is evaluated and compared to the need analysis application received for the student before the student is packaged. If an ISIR has not been received for the student, that student is bypassed by Mass Packaging if the packaging data source is Federal, and a background error is created. The Mass Packaging process continues to package students until it reaches the maximum number of background errors allowed.

Note. You may want to set your Background Errors Allowed field on the Financial Aid Defaults page to a number greater than one. If you do not increase this value, the Mass Packaging process stops after encountering only one error.

In Institutional Mass Packaging, the selection process—the first step in Mass Packaging—compares students' application data to the packaging data source. If the student's application data does not match the packaging data source selected on the Financial Aid Defaults page, that student is not included in the batch. During the third step in Institutional Mass Packaging, the packaging data source is evaluated and compared to the need analysis application received for the student before the student is packaged.

For example, if a student has PROFILE application data, but the packaging data source indicates a Need Access application, the student is not be selected for institutional Mass Packaging or by the Equation Processor for institutional values. Similarly, if a student has Need Access application data, but the packaging data source indicates federal application data, the student is not be packaged during Mass Packaging.

You can determine if Mass Packaging or Institutional Mass Packaging was successful by reviewing the Mass Packaging Summary page, which lists the number of students successfully packaged by the packaging plan used. To view more information about the students who were packaged by Mass Packaging and their awards, use the Awards Detail page, which lists all students who were successfully packaged. The number of background errors allowed by your setup and the number of students with errors determine how many successfully packaged students you see on the Mass Packaging Summary page and the Awards Detail page.

The Mass Packaging Errors page lists students who were not packaged because they did not have the same application data as the packaging data source, or if they had some other error, like no Financial Aid Term data.

See Also

Establishing Defaults

Performing Mass Packaging Using Federal Application Data

This section discusses how to:

• Run Mass Packaging selection.

• Review students selected for Mass Packaging.

• Assign packaging plans to students.

• Review packaging plans assigned by query.

• Review packaging plans assigned by packaging plan.

• Process Mass Packaging.

Pages Used to Perform Mass Packaging Using Federal Application Data

Running Mass Packaging Selection

Access the Mass Packaging Select page.

Institution and Aid Year	Enter the institution and aid year for which to run Mass Packaging.
Query Definition	Select the Mass Packaging query definition you want to use to select students for this Mass Packaging run. You can only choose from the query definitions defined on the Mass Packaging Definition page.
Run	Run the Mass Packaging Student Select process (FAPPKSEL) when you are ready to select students.

Reviewing Students Selected for Mass Packaging

Access the Mass Packaging by Students page.

Process Status

Indicates whether the student will be packaged with this batch of students in the next two steps of Mass Packaging. Invalid for Packaging: The student is not included in this Mass Packaging run. Valid for Packaging: The student is processed during this Mass Packaging run.

You can delete the student's row or change the Process Status to Invalid for Packaging to remove any students you do not want to be included in this packaging batch. If students have multiple careers, there is a row for each career for which they will be packaged.

Assigning Packaging Plans to Students

Access the Mass Packaging Assign page.

Select the Mass Packaging query definition that you are using to select your students for the current Mass Packaging run.

In the Packaging Plan Parameters group box, select one or more packaging plans the system should apply against the current group of students selected for Mass Packaging.

Reviewing Packaging Plans Assigned by Query

Access the Mass Packaging Plans by Query page.

To identify each packaging plan, the page displays three fields from the Mass Packaging Assign page—Packaging Plan ID, Academic Career, and Sort Packaging by— and the Plan Order from the packaging plan setup. The plan order is the processing order for the packaging plan. Use the scroll arrows to view the other packaging plan IDs used for this Mass Packaging session.

For each packaging plan, the page displays the students selected for the packaging plan in ascending ID order. The list provides the student’s ID, name, and value for the field identified in the Sort Packaging by field (the name of the third column changes to match this field). Click Remove to remove a student from the list and prevent the student from being packaged during the final step of the Mass Packaging process.

Reviewing Packaging Plans Assigned by Packaging Plan

Access the Mass Packaging Students by Plan page.

To identify each packaging plan, the page displays three fields from the Mass Packaging Assign page—Packaging Plan ID, Academic Career, and Sort Packaging by—and the Plan Order from the packaging plan setup. The plan order is the processing order for the packaging plan.

For each packaging plan, the page displays the students selected for the packaging plan, sorted by the field identified in the Sort Packaging by field. The list provides the student’s ID, name, and value for the field identified in the Sort Packaging by field (the name of the third column changes to match this field). Click Remove to remove a student from the list and prevent the student from being packaged during the final step of the Mass Packaging process.

You can view students who were not assigned a packaging plan by selecting a career but no packaging plan when you open the page.

Processing Mass Packaging

Access the Mass Packaging Process page.

Select the MPkg Qry Defn (mass packaging query definition) you want to use to run the Mass Packaging process.

Select Simulation or Live as the mode for which you want to run this Mass Packaging. If you select Simulation, you can review the results before deciding to update all award tables. If you select Live, the process updates all award-related tables.

Note. It is highly recommended that you run the Mass Packaging process in Simulation mode at least once before running it in Live mode.

A student can receive one, none, all, or some of the awards defined in the packaging plan assigned to them. The system applies your institution’s financial aid item type rules, federal eligibility rules, fiscal limits, and aggregate aid rules to determine whether the student receives a particular award as part of their package. The Mass Packaging process also determines award amounts, disbursement plans, and split codes for each award.

When you run the third step of the Mass Packaging process (including Institutional Mass Packaging) in Live mode, the process updates various tables including student awards, student disbursements, student aggregate history, loan information, fiscal item types, and the award activity log. If the Mass Packaging process encounters an error, the Posting process provides a message regarding the reason the student was not packaged and the student is displayed on the Mass Packaging Errors page. The Mass Packaging process continues packaging students and writing errors to the Mass Packaging Errors page until it reaches the number of errors allowed by the Background Errors Allowed field on the Financial Aid Defaults page. When the allowed errors limit is reached, the Mass Packaging process stops.

Note. Students whose award record encounters posting errors during Mass Packaging Live mode appear on the Mass Packaging Details component (Financial Aid, Awards, Mass Packaging) as well as the Mass Packaging Errors page. However, these students have not actually been packaged. The Mass Packaging Details pages displays the awards the student would have received if there were no posting errors.

Run the Mass Packaging process (FAPPKBKG) when you are ready to package students.

Performing Mass Packaging Using Institutional Application Data

This section discusses how to:

• Run Mass Packaging selection.

• Review students selected for institutional Mass Packaging.

• Assign packaging plans to students.

• Review packaging plans assigned by query.

• Review packaging plans assigned by packaging plan.

• Process Mass Packaging.

Pages Used to Perform Mass Packaging Using Institutional Application Data

Running Mass Packaging Selection

Access the Institutional Mass Packaging Select page.

Institution and Aid Year	Enter the institution and aid year for which to run Institutional Mass Packaging.
Query Definition	Select the Institutional Mass Packaging query definition you want to use to select students for this Institutional Mass Packaging run. You can only select Institutional Mass Packaging definitions.
Run	Run the Inst Mass Pkging Stdnt Select (institutional Mass Packaging student select) process (FAPPKSIN) when you are ready to select students for Institutional Mass Packaging.

Reviewing Students Selected for Institutional Mass Packaging

Access the Institutional Mass Packaging by Students page.

The system displays the Mass Packaging query definition you used to run the Inst Mass Pkging Stdnt Select process.

You can delete the student's row or change the Process Status to Invalid for Packaging to remove any students you do not want to be included in this packaging batch. If students have multiple careers, there is a row for each career for which they will be packaged.

Assigning Packaging Plans to Students

Access the Institutional Mass Packaging Assign page.

The field descriptions for the fields on this page are the same as those on the Mass Packaging Assign page.

See Also

Assigning Packaging Plans to Students

Reviewing Packaging Plans Assigned by Query

Access the Institutional Mass Packaging Plans by Query page.

The field descriptions for the fields on this page are the same as those on the Mass Packaging Plans by Query page.

See Also

Reviewing Packaging Plans Assigned by Query

Reviewing Packaging Plans Assigned by Packaging Plan

Access the Institutional Mass Packaging Students by Plan page.

The field descriptions for the fields on this page are the same as those on the Mass Packaging Plans by Query page.

See Also

Reviewing Packaging Plans Assigned by Packaging Plan

Processing Mass Packaging

Access the Institutional Mass Packaging Process page.

The field descriptions for the fields on this page are the same as those on the Mass Packaging Process page.

See Also

Processing Mass Packaging

Reviewing Mass Packaging Results

You can use these pages to view detailed information regarding the student's financial aid eligibility, need information, and specific award information. You can also view a list of students who were not packaged because they did not meet the selection criteria for any of the packaging plans used in the Mass Packaging process (federal or institutional).

This section discusses how to:

• Review Mass Packaging summary information.

• Review student eligibility and need information.

• Review student award information.

• Review Mass Packaging errors.

Pages Used to Review Mass Packaging Results

Reviewing Mass Packaging Summary Information

Access the Mass Packaging Summary page.

Batch Number	The number assigned to the batch of students when you run the Mass Packaging process or Institutional Mass Packaging process.
Batch Date Time	The date and time you ran the Mass Packaging process or Institutional Mass Packaging process for this batch of students.
Live vs. Simulation	Indicates whether you ran the Mass Packaging process or Institutional Mass Packaging process in live or simulation mode. Live: The Mass Packaging process or Institutional Mass Packaging process updated all award-related tables. Simulation: You can review the results of the Mass Packaging process or Institutional Mass Packaging process, but award-related tables were not updated.
Packaging Plan ID	Identifies the packaging plan used in the Mass Packaging run or Institutional Mass Packaging run.
Total Selected	The total number of students assigned this packaging plan.
Total Packaged	The total number of students who were successfully packaged using this packaging plan.
Total Not Packaged	The total number of students who were assigned this packaging plan but did not receive any awards because of one or more errors.

Reviewing Student Eligibility and Need Information

Access the Eligibility/Need page.

This page displays information for a single packaging plan. To see other students packaged using the selected packaging plan, use the top set of scroll arrows. Use the bottom set of scroll arrows to view the information for each student by award period.

See Also

Viewing Need Summary Information

Reviewing Student Award Information

Access the Awards Detail page.

All awards in the packaging plan are displayed for each student. The page displays zero and non-zero awards—non-zero awards display the scheduled disbursements.

Reviewing Mass Packaging Errors

Access the Mass Packaging Errors page.

Only students who had serious errors (such as students who had their Financial Aid Term deleted) during the actual Mass Packaging run are in this list. Generally, there should be no students listed on this page. If there are, look beyond the packaging plan for the reasons for the error.

Mass Packaging Error Messages

The following table lists and explains possible Mass Packaging posting error messages.

Notifying Students of Financial Aid Awards

This section provides an overview of financial aid notification (FAN) processing and discusses how to:

• Assign FAN communications manually.

• Assign FAN communications using mass change.

• Review students selected for award notification.

• Select students to include in the extract file.

• Create the FAN extract file and produce the FAN letter.

• Print the award letter using Microsoft Word.

• Review an award notification summary.

Understanding FAN Processing

After packaging students, use the financial aid notification (FAN) to notify students of their financial aid awards. The FAN includes the name of each award, the amount awarded to the student, and any messages you designated for a particular financial aid item type. When you define financial aid item types, you select award messages to print on the FAN and specify whether the award should be classified as an award item, other resource, or a custom format when printed on the FAN.

There are four steps to creating a FAN:

1. Assign communications to students.

   You can assign a FAN communication to an individual student manually, or you can use Mass Change to assign a FAN communication to a group of students.

2. Select a group of students for which to create an extract file.

3. Create the extract file.

4. Merge the extract file with your selected word processing software to create the actual FAN letter.

Some particulars for FAN processing:

• Aid year is a merge field to enable printing a FAN for multiple aid years.

• Financial aid item types that are designated to be printed as ‘Other Resources' are summed together and displayed on the FAN as one item in the Eligibility section of the letter. To provide a breakdown of the Other Resources total, each financial aid item type designated to print as ‘Other Resources’ appears as a line item in the Financial Aid Offer section of the letter with term amounts and total award amount shown. The message code of OTHR identifies each financial aid item type designated to be printed as ‘Other Resources.' Awards with the OTHR message code are not included in the total financial aid offer amount displayed.

• Adjustment reason codes are included in the data extract process so they appear when the FAN is printed. Adjustment reason codes appear only if there has been a change to an award.

Pages Used to Notify Students of Financial Aid Awards

Assigning FAN Communications Manually

Click the Communication button to access the Communication Management page and assign a FAN communication for an individual student. This button is found on several financial aid pages including the:

• Communication Summary page.

  You can use this page to see if a FAN communication has already been assigned to this student, since the page displays communications assigned to a student.

  See Reviewing a Summary of Communications with an Individual.

• Financial Aid Status page.

  See Reviewing the Student's Packaging Status.

Assigning FAN Communications Using Mass Change

To assign communications using Mass Change:

1. Update the Mass Change Select Template in the Mass Change Definition component (Campus Community, Communications, Mass Change—Communications, Mass Change Definition) with the criteria you want to use to select students.

   1. Select FAN-Select Letter as the Mass Change Definition.

   2. Select the Campus Solutions page, and enter or update the fields as necessary.

   3. Select the Criteria and Defaults page and use the SQL Statement scroll arrows to find Execution Seq 2, which has a Description of Select Application Criteria.

   4. Update the Field and Field Value entries you want to use to select students, leaving blank those fields you are not using.

   5. Select the Generate SQL page, and click the Mass Change Clear Switch button.

   6. Click the Mass Change Generate SQL Swch (mass change generate SQL switch) button.

   7. Click the Count button to make sure that the count (number of students selected) is at least greater than zero.

   8. Click the Save button, and click OK for any warning messages that appear.

2. Run the Mass Change using the Run Mass Change page.

   1. Select the Execute Single Mass Change option in the Mass Change Run Type group box.

   2. In the Mass Change Definition field, select FAN-Select Letter.

3. If you want, you can review and edit the selected students on the Award Notification Selection page.

4. Update the Mass Change Update Template in the Mass Change Definition component (Campus Community, Communications, Mass Change—Communications, Mass Change Definition).

   1. Select FAN-Update Comm Table as the Mass Change Definition.

   2. Select the Campus Solutions page, and enter or update the fields as necessary.

   3. Select the Generate SQL page, and click the Mass Change Clear Switch button.

   4. Click the Mass Change Generate SQL Swch (mass change generate SQL switch) button.

   5. Click the Count button to make sure that the count (number of students selected) is at least greater than zero.

   6. Click the Save button, and click OK for any warning messages that appear.

5. Run the 3C Engine (Community, Communications, Process, 3C Engine).

   1. On the Trigger Table page, select the Mass Change option in the Process 3Cs group box.

   2. Select the Mass Change page.

   3. Enter FAN-Create-Communication in the Mass Change Group ID field.

   4. Click the Run button.

See Also

Assigning FAN Communications Using Mass Change

Reviewing Students Selected for Award Notification

Access the Award Notification Selection page.

The Mass Change Selection - Results group box lists the students selected to receive a FAN by the mass change process.

Selecting Students to Include in the Extract File

Access the Award Notification Selection (process) page.

ID	To print a FAN letter for only one student, select the student's ID number in this field. Only students who have been assigned a communication with FINA as the function are available for selection. If you want to select a group of students, leave this field empty.
Sequence	If you are going to print a FAN letter for a group of students, leave this field blank. Select a specific communication for the student. If you leave this field empty, the most recent communication is used. When you select a sequence number, the system populates the Institution, Function, Aid Year, Category, and Letter Code fields.
Institution	If you are selecting a group of students to run this process for, select the institution these students attend. When you complete this field, the system automatically populates the Function and Aid Year fields. If you have selected an ID, this field is already populated.
Function	The administrative function of the Communication. FINA is the default.
Category	Select AWARD for the FAN letter.
Career	If you have selected an ID and a Sequence you can specify a career for the student. If you specify a career, only awards for that career are printed on the FAN. If you do not specify a career, then awards for all the student's careers are printed on the FAN. If the student is a multiple career student and you want awards for all careers printed on the FAN, do not select a career. If you are selecting a group of students to run this process for, if you specify a career then only the awards for that career for each student are printed on the FAN. If you have multiple career students and you want awards for all their careers to be printed on the FAN, do not select a specific career.
Letter Code	Select FAN for the FAN letter.
Award Period	Select the award period for which you want the FAN letter created. The default value is Academic. Non Std (non standard) is also available for nonacademic terms. FA Term determines the default for these periods and uses the last effective-dated sequence or effective-dated status. For example, if the default is Academic and because there are different academic statuses in FA Term such as Fall 2003-2004, Spring 2003-2004, and Summer 2004-2005, the system uses the last effective-dated sequence or effective-dated status for that aid year.
Address Usage	The address usage determines which address is printed on the FAN letter. Address usage is defined by your institution.
Address Name	Select which address name you want to use for this FAN letter. This determines what name is printed on the FAN letter. Address name is defined by your institution.
Print Canceled/Declined Awards	Select if you want the FAN letter to print canceled and declined awards in addition to offered and accepted awards.
Institutional Methodology	Select if you want institutional costs to be included as part of the FAN letter data. The institutional costs are summed into the Personal/Miscellaneous budget category.
Update FAN Attributes	Select to update the information on the Award Notification Summary page and mark the communication record completed. Clear the check box to run the selection process in test mode.
Run	Run the Select students who need a FAN process (FANSEL) when you are ready to select students for the extract file.

Note. Be sure to run the FANSEL process in update mode at least once. If you never run the process in update mode the communication request is never marked as completed and it may always be selected for award notification. If you forget to Update FAN Attributes on this step, you can also update it during the Extract File Creation step.

Creating the FAN Extract File and Producing the FAN Letter

Access the Award Letter Data Extract page.

ID	Select the student you are working with if you are creating a FAN letter for only one student. If no ID is selected, all students who have been selected to receive a FAN are included in the extract file.
Letter Code	Enter FAN.
Sequence	This number distinguishes between versions of letters sent to a student. Every time a new communication and award notification letter (FAN) are requested, a sequential number is assigned to the award notification letter. This sequence is increased by one each time an additional award notification letter is requested. The sequence number allows you to select which version of the award notification letter you would like to use if an ID is entered.
Career	If you have selected an ID and a sequence number you can specify a career for the student. If you specify a career, only awards for that career are printed on the FAN. If you do not specify a career, then awards for all the student's careers are printed on the FAN. If the student is a multiple career student and you want awards for all careers printed on the FAN, do not select a career. If you are selecting a group of students to run this process for, if you specify a career then only the awards for that career for each student are printed on the FAN. If you have multiple career students and you want awards for all their careers to be printed on the FAN, do not select a specific career.
Award Period	Select the award period for which you want the FAN letter created. The default value is Academic. Non Std (non standard) is also available for nonacademic terms. FA Term determines the default for these periods and now uses the last effective-dated sequence or effective-dated status. For example, if the default is Academic and because there are different academic statuses in FA Term such as Fall 2003-2004, Spring 2003-2004, and Summer 2004-2005, the system uses the last effective-dated sequence or effective-dated status for that aid year.
Update FAN Attributes	Select to update the Print Status field on the Award Notification Summary page and update the communication record. Clear to run the process in test mode only.
Use Current Effective Address	Select to have the Create Award Data Extract process (FANLTR) reselect the student's name and address information using the information you enter in the Address Usage and Address Name fields on this page. Clear to have the extract file contain the name and address chosen during the FANSEL process.
Address Usage	The address usage determines which address is printed on the FAN letter. Address usage is defined by your institution. The default value is the address usage from the student selection process.
Address Name	Select the address name to use for this FAN letter. This determines what name is printed on the FAN letter. Address name is defined by your institution. The default value is the address name from the student selection process.
File Type	Select the extract file type to be created. You can choose JetForm, CSV, or Other. JetForm is the default value. The value you choose in this field determines what other file-related fields appear on the page. If you select JetForm, the page displays the File Path and Override Flags fields. If you select CSV, the page displays the Send to Printer check box, the File Path field, and the Template Path field. If you select Other, the page displays the File Path field.
Send to Printer	If you selected CSV for the file type and you want the letter to go directly to the printer during the Microsoft Word merge process, select this check box.
File Path	The full path of where you want the extract file to reside after the FANLTR process is run. Include a / or \ at the end of the path, like C:\TEMP\ or //user/tmp/. Make sure the destination folder or directory is a valid share folder or directory on the network.
Template Path	If you selected CSV for the file type, you need to indicate where your award letter master document (FANLTR.doc) and your template file (FANLTR.dot) reside. The Microsoft Word merge process uses this information. This location is usually \\PS_HOME\Winword.
Override Flags	If you selected JetForm for the file type, specify print options to use when producing the FAN, such as the number of copies to create.
Run	Click to run this request. Process Scheduler runs the Create Award Data Extract process (FANLTR) at user-defined intervals. Once the system runs the process successfully, you can retrieve the extract file from the file path you specified. You can then use the extract file in whatever software you use to create the actual FAN letter.

Printing the Award Letter Using WORD

To perform a merge using Microsoft Word:

1. Use the Award Letter Data Extract page to create a FAN extract file, using CSV for the file type. The date file output has been changed from .LTR (MS-Word) to .CSV.

2. Specify the file path where you want the extract file and the parameter file to go in the File Path field. This can be a shared folder on your local machine or a shared folder on any valid network drive path. An example of a file path is C:\TEMP\.

3. Run the process from the Process Scheduler. Upon successful completion of the process, the extract file for the FAN (FAN.CSV) and the Word Merge parameters file (FANPARMS.DAT) are located at the file path you specified in Step 2.

4. Move the FANPARMS.DAT file into the C:\TEMP\ folder if it is not already located there.

5. Create a shortcut for MS-Word on your desktop specifically to run the merge process for the FAN letter. You must create this shortcut.

   1. Open Windows Explorer and find the Winword.exe file (usually in C:\Apps\Office\).

   2. Drag the button onto your desktop to create a shortcut.

   3. Right-click the shortcut and select Properties to edit the shortcut properties. Select the Shortcut tab.

   4. Edit the Target field to include the following parameter path values for launching the Winword file, template, and macro. In this example, we are pointing to C:\PS\LS8\Winword\ to find the FANLTR.DOT file, but you must enter the valid directory where the template resides on your system. However, you must enter /mPRCSFANLTR for the name of the macro.

      You need to use a space to separate the path for launching the Winword file (which should already be in the Target field) from the path to the template and to separate the path to the template from the macro name. For example: C:\Apps\Office97\Office\WINWORD.EXE C:\PS\LS\Winword\FANLTR.DOT /mPRCSFANLTR

   5. Click OK when you are done editing the Target field.

   6. Rename the shortcut to indicate that the shortcut launches the merge process, such as FAN Winword.exe.

   7. Double-click the Word desktop shortcut you created to launch the merge process. The merge process creates a file called SAFANLTR.DOC in the C:\TEMP\ folder.

   8. Open the SAFANLTR.DOC file and print the FAN letters.

      Note. If you select the Send to Printer check box on the Award Letter Data Extract page, the file prints automatically on your default printer.

      Warning! If you are using Microsoft Office 2000, you must have applied service pack SR1 for the FAN to print. If you have not applied the service pack, the FAN does not print.

Using Forms Engine to Notify Students of Financial Aid Awards

This section discusses how to:

• Understand Forms Engine FAN printing.

• Set up to print FAN letters using Forms Engine.

• Print FAN using Forms Engine.

Understanding Forms Engine FAN Printing

Prior to 2003-2004, printing FAN letters required you to initiate a process within the Packaging feature of Financial Aid. Navigate to Report Manger to view the results and print the FAN. Through the use of Forms Engine, an Application Engine program that outputs information in PostScript format, you can print FAN letters directly to your PostScript printer without leaving Packaging. Using Forms Engine for printing FAN eliminates the need for JetForm, Crystal Reports, and Word Merge.

The process prints the award notifications and updates a communications table to indicate that an award communication has been sent. You can initiate a process to print a single FAN letter for an individual student or for students in batch.

The prior process for printing FAN letters remains available. However, the new process is more streamlined and efficient than the prior process.

Setting Up to Print FAN Using Forms Engine

This section discusses how to:

• Set up notification form types.

• Set up FA process demographic use information.

• Set up the process sort order.

• Set up a printer.

• Set up award notification equations.

• Set up award notification default information.

Pages Used to Set Up FAN to Print Using Forms Engine

Setting Up FE Award Notification Form Types

Access the FE Award Notification Form Type page.

Form Type	Identifies the form type for this award notification.
Description	Describes the form type that PeopleSoft delivers. Form Type 1 is the initial notification of financial aid. Form Type 2 is shorter version of the initial notification.
Group	Identifies in which group of letters this letter code exists.
Letter Code	The code from the Campus Community Standard Letters page for this communication. You can define the letter code for the FE FAN process.
Category	The communications category associated with this letter code. You can define the category for the FE FAN process.
Context	The context from the Campus Community Communications Context page that is included in this category. You can define the context for the FE FAN process

Using Process Demo Setup

This setup uses the Campus Community components to evaluate Address and Name Usage processing requirements and to indicate from where the student’s demographic information should be gathered.

Access the FA Process Demographic Use page.

Select the appropriate option for each of the fields.

See Also

PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Community Fundamentals 8.9 PeopleBook

Setting Up the Sort Order

You can sort the data by field to control the order in which the output documents generated by a batch print process appears. PeopleSoft delivers two sort sequences. FAN PROC 1 displays information by Record, Field Name, Length, and Field Long Name. FAN PROC 2 displays information by Field Name, Long Name, Record, and Length. You must set up any other sort sequences for your institution.

Access the Sort Order Names page.

Sort Name	The name of the sort sequence.
Seq(sequence)	The hierarchy of how you want data to sort. Using a Zip Code sort gives you information in the order to use for a bulk mailing.
Field Name	Name of the field.
Length	Character length of the previous field.
Field Long Name	Full name of the field displayed.
Decimal Positions	Displays how many positions appear after the decimal point if this is a numeric field.

Setting Up a Printer

Access the Printer Name page.

Printer Name	Defines printer name and location of path.
Description	Define the description of the printer.
Printer Location	Define the printer location.

Setting Up FE Award Notification Equations

Access the FE Award Notif Select. Eqtns page.

Note. You must create equations using the Equation Engine prior to setting up the FE Award Notification Equations page. See Equation Engine documentation for more information on setting up and using the Equation Engine.

Equation Name	Name of the equation.
Description	Description of the equation.

Setting Up FE Award Notification Details

Access the FE Award Notif. Defaults page.

Note. This page is designed to define the initial setup for the One-Up Print Process and Batch Print Run Controls.

Career	Define the options for financial aid processing. Examples of standard career options are undergraduate or graduate.
Award Period	Awards period used in packaging. Options include Academic, Non-Standard, and Both Academic and Non-Standard.
Academic Program	Academic program options used for financial aid processing.
Form Type	Define and create the options using the Forms Engine. PeopleSoft delivers Initial Notification Option 1 and Option 2 (Short FAN).
Group	Define this in the Setting Up the Forms Engine. It identifies the Form Type to a specific processing group.
Letter code	The code for the letter associated with this communication. You define this in the FE Award Notification Form Type Set Up.
Category	The communications category associated with this letter code. You define this in the FE Award Notification Form Type Set Up.
Context	The context from the Campus Community Communications Context page that is included in this category. You define this in the FE Award Notification Form Type Set Up.
Equation Name	Define this using the Equation Engine. The options that PeopleSoft delivers include the following. FANLTRSEL (Award Letter Selection Criteria), FANLTRDTRANG (Award Letters within a Date Range), FANLTRNONEED (Students with No Need).
Sort Order	Defined using the Sort Order Set Up. Sorts FE FAN output by sorting preferences.
Address Usage	Defined using the Process Demo Set Up. Allows you to override Address Usage options.
Name Usage	Defined using the Process Demo Set Up. Allows you to override Name Usage options.
Printer Name	Defined using the Printer Names Set Up. Allows you to select defined printer.
Aid Application Status	Options are based on Packaging Status Summary. PeopleSoft recommends that this is initially set to Active.
Service Impact	Determines whether or not to print a notification based on service impacts.
Award Status	Options are based on Packaging Award Status field. PeopleSoft recommends setting this option to Accepted or Offered.
Package Status	Options are based on Packaging Status Summary field, Aid Packaging Status. PeopleSoft recommends setting this option to Packaging Completed.
Aid Packaging Method	Options based on how aid packages were created. Options are Blank, Auto, Counselor, and Not Packaged. PeopleSoft recommends initially setting this to Blank. That way the program evaluates all options.
Packaging Methodology	Options are Federal Methodology and Institutional Methodology.
Retention Period	Indicates the length of time that Forms Engine keeps historical data.
Retention Units	Indicates the unit used in Retention Period. Use Years as the unit to facilitate audit requirements.
Budget Type	Options are Budget Categories (Institutional) and Pell Categories.
Include Revisions	Select to include revisions made to Aid Packages in the Print Job.
Display Notification Number	Display number counter of letter. It prints on the aid notification.
Print Cancels	Prints the information if an award was cancelled.
Run Simulation	Select to run this print job in simulation mode.
Print Via Script	Select to allow for multi-platform printing.
Display Customized Messages	Select to display customized, on demand user defined messages from the FE Award Notification Page Comment Box, and FE Award Notification Page Comment Box.
Display COA Only	Select to display the Cost Of Attendance/Budget information on the Aid Notification. The system does not display the resource information on the printed aid notification if you select this option.
Display Form Name	Select to display the name of the form on the printed aid notification.
Print Declines	Prints the information if a student has declined an award.
Duplex – Print Both Sides	Allows printing of both sides of a page.

Printing FE FAN Using Forms Engine

This section discusses how to:

• Process and print FE FAN letters in batch.

• Process and print individual FE FAN letters.

• View Forms Engine FAN information.

• Reprint FE FAN letters.

• View examples of printed FE FAN letters.

Pages Used to Print FAN Using Forms Engine

Processing and Printing FE FAN Letters in Batch

Access the FE FAN Run Control page.

Run Control ID	Name of the run control.
Expiration Date	Date the information is purged from the system.
Addr Usage(address usage)	Defined using the Process Demo Set Up. This allows you to override Address Usage options defined on the FE Award Notification Default page.
Sort Order	Defined using the Sort Order Set Up. This allows you to override Sort Order defined in the FE Award Notification Default page. It sorts FE FAN output by sorting preferences.
Name Usage	Defined using the Process Demo Set Up. This allows you to override Name Usage options defined in the FE Award Notification Default page.
Budget Type	Options are Budget Categories (Institutional) or Pell Categories.
Printer Name	Defined using the Printer Names Set Up. This allows you to override printer selection defined in the FE Award Notification Default page.
Form Type	Defined in the Setting Up the Forms Engine. Identifies the Form Type to a specific processing group.
Group	Defined in Award Notification Form Type Set Up. Identifies in which group of letters this letter code exists.
Letter Code	The code from the Campus Community Standard Letters page for this communication. You define this in the FE Award Notification Form Type Set Up.
Category	The communications category associated with this letter code. You define this in the FE Award Notification Form Type Set Up.
Context	The context from the Campus Community Communications Context page that is included in this category. You define this in the FE Award Notification Form Type Set Up.
Use Institutional Methodology	Select to use institutional methodology.
Display Customized Messages	Select to display customized, on demand user defined messages from the FE Award Notification Page Comment Box.
Print Cancels	Prints the information if an award was cancelled
Print Declines	Prints the information if an award was declined.
Duplex — Print Both Sides	Select to allow for printing on both sides of the page.
Print Via Script	Select to allow for multi-platform printing.
run Simulation	Select to run this print job in simulation mode.
Include Revisions	Select to include revisions made to aid packages in the print job.
Display Notification Number	Displays number counter of letter. This prints out on the aid notification.
Display COA Only	Select to display the Cost Of Attendance/Budget information on the aid notification. The system does not display recourse information on the printed aid notification if you select this option.
Display Form Name	Select to display the name of the form on the printed aid notification.

Award Notification Selection

FAN Letter Run Control with Equation Selection

Access the FAN Letter Run Control page with Equation Selection.

This selection allows you to select a batch printing population defined by using an equation.

FAN Letter Run Control with Student Override Selection

Access the FAN Letter Run Control page with Student Override.

This selection allows you to run batch processes for a single or multiple student IDs if row insert is used.

Processing and Printing an Individual FAN Letter

Access the FE Award Notification Detail page.

Note. You must first set default values on the Default Setup Page before using the FE Award Notification Detail page

Note. The OK, Cancel, and Apply buttons appear below the page when you access it by clicking the Award Notification link on the Award Entry, Student Aid Package page.

The system displays the ID, Aid Year, and Institution.

Academic

Non-Standard

Viewing FE Award Notification Inquiries

Access the FE Award Notification Inquiry page.

This page is view only. It is meant for front-line users with limited access or security. You cannot process actions or invoke processes from this page.

Viewing Award Notification Summary

Access the Award Notification Summary page.

Letter Code	Used to generate the FAN letter.
Sequence	A number that distinguishes between versions of letters sent to a student. When you request a new communication and award notification letter (FAN), the system assigns a sequential number to the award notification letter. This sequence increases by one each time you request an additional award notification letter.
Date/Time	Indicates the date and time the letter was created.
Print Status	Indicates whether the letter has been printed, is awaiting printing, or has an error.
Award Period	Indicates the award period for which the FAN letter is printed. FA Term determines the default for these periods and uses the last effective-dated sequence or effective-dated status.
FAN Data	Click to access the Summary of Data Printed on FAN page to view the information that was printed on the student’s FAN letter.

Note. To use the preview link, you must load the Get Post Script Viewer program. This program is freeware. You must load the GSVIEW and the GNU GHOSTSCIPT programs from this link.

This page is view only. It is meant for front-line users with limited access or security.

Click the Preview link to view and reprint a copy of the FE FAN letter associated with the Form Instance number.

Reprinting a FAN

Access the Award Notification Reprint page.

The system displays the Run Control ID.

Examples of Printed FAN Letters

Financial Aid Award Notification Letter, long version

Financial Aid Award Notification Letter, short version

Modifying FE FAN Form Letter Templates

This section discusses how to:

• Change an address.

• Change messages and instructions.

Note. You may want to consult your technical support group before implementing this procedure.

Changing an Address

The system uses the school address information from the Academic Institution Table for the FE FAN letter. To change an academic institution's address, use the Academic Institution 1 page by navigating to Set Up SACR, Foundation Tables, Academic Structure, Academic Institution Table.

Changing Messages and Instructions

You can update or change messages and instructions.

To change the “Please return within 90 days.” message:

1. Navigate to PeopleTools, Utilities, Use, Message Catalog.

2. Enter 14402 in the Message Set Number field and click Search.

3. Click Find and enter 98 in the Explorer User Prompt dialog box.

4. Click OK.

5. Use the Message Text field to update the message text.

6. Save your changes.

To change the “Instructions” section:

1. Navigate to PeopleTools, Utilities, Use, Message Catalog.

2. Enter 14420 in the Message Set Number field and click Search.

3. Click Find and enter 180 in the Explorer User Prompt dialog box.

4. Click OK.

5. Update the text in the Explanation field.

6. Save your changes.

To move existing information from one page to another or adding another page, change the Application Engine Program called FAAWDNOTIF.

Note. It is useful to know the page names in Application Designer. The first page of the FE FAN is called FA_AWD_NOTIF_LTR1.