Setting Up External Awards

This chapter provides an overview and discusses how to:

Set up external award processing.
Define search and match criteria
Plan for File Parser and External Award processing.

Understanding External Awards

This section discusses:

Types of external award data.
Data sources and methods to obtain external awards.
Data flow of external awards into student award tables.
Special consideration for Student Financial payments.
Awarding Loan Certifications as External Awards.

Types of External Award Data

In most instances external awards are already determined for a student by an external entity. However, information about a student’s external award must be accounted for and posted to a student’s award package to determine the effect on a student’s total financial aid package and financial need.

External award or resource data can originate from various sources:

State agencies providing data on state grant awards.
Internal academic departments providing data on departmental scholarship awards.
Students directly providing information on outside or private scholarship and grant awards.
Student Financial department providing payment transactions that have already been acknowledged on a student’s (SF) account, such as waivers or third-party contract payments.

Data Sources and Methods to Obtain External Awards

External award or resource data can be communicated to the financial aid office in various formats and methods:

Data files, such as state grant roster files or internal departmental scholarship files.
Manual data entry required when a student submits paper financial aid notifications that indicate outside or private scholarship awards.
Entries from students who enter outside or private scholarships and grants in Self Service.
Data included in other non-financial aid specific records, such as waiver and third-party contract payments already posted to a student’s (SF) account.
School Loan Certification Requests, which are differ from all other external awards. The borrower applies for a loan directly with the servicer and the servicer requests that the school certifies the borrower's eligibility.

External award data processing is built around a core set of External Award Staging records that maintain the external award transaction data. Every external award transaction entered is keyed with a set of transaction key values and provided a processing status as it relates to the loading of that transaction into the student award records.

Data Flow of External Awards to Student Award Tables

A high-level flow of data is shown in the following figure.

Data Flow of External Awards to Student Award Tables

Various data sources update the core set of External Award Staging tables. After external award data or transactions update the staging tables, a separate External Award Load process is run to determine if and how the external award data is to update the student award tables. The result of the External Award Load process updates the processing status field maintained for each external award transaction.

Special Consideration for Student Financial Payments

The Student Financial and Financial Aid teams need to determine which payments to represent on a student's award package. Then use the External Award process to acknowledge payments, waivers, and third party credits that have already been posted to a student account. Payments posted to a student account can be defined as a one-to-one mapping to a (Financial Aid) Item Type or a many-to-one relationship.

To set up the mapping, complete the external award attribute setup outlined in this chapter. Then update the External Award tab on the (Student Financial) Item Type setup table. Run a separate SF External Award process to capture and assess mapped payments and credits to a financial aid item type. The SF External Award process creates external award transactions in the External Award Staging tables.

Awarding Loan Certifications as External Awards

The outcome of the External Award process updates award data in a student award package. A school loan certification request can became a candidate for a type of external award. The External Award process has options to identify the potential awarding of a loan certification request. School loan certifications are the only type of external award that will be evaluated for federal need eligibility, based on the type of loan certification request.

Federal Stafford loan certification uses the Related Item Type setup to identify the subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford financial aid item types. The Stafford loan certification awarding process evaluates the student's current federal need and posts the appropriate subsidized and unsubsidized award combination. If the student does not demonstrate need, the process returns an error message that the student is not eligible.

PLUS and Alternative school loan certification requests require a single financial aid item type.

Note. Only use this option if your school incorporates the processing of school loan certification request applications in CL4 or CRC. Awarding loan certification requests as an external award accomplishes the awarding step within the loan certification process for CL4 or CRC.

Setting Up External Award Processing

This section discusses how to:

Define external award types.
Define external award sources.
Cross-reference external award attributes to financial aid item types.

Pages Used to Set Up External Award Reporting

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
External Award Type	SFA_EA_TYPE	Set Up SACR, Product Related, Financial Aid, External Award Type	Define external award types.
External Award Source	SFA_EA_SOURCE	Set Up SACR, Product Related, Financial Aid, External Award Source	Define external award sources.
External Award Cross Reference	SFA_EA_TYPE_XREF	Set Up SACR, Product Related, Financial Aid, Item Type Cross Reference	Map external awards attributes to financial aid item types. Use if a financial aid item type is not defined on an external award transaction. Use cross-reference setup to map Student Financial payments to a financial aid item type award.

Defining External Award Types

Access the External Award Type page.

The External Award Type is a high-level description of the type of external award to be processed. External Award type is completely user defined. Definitions helps with categorizing and reporting external award data collected.

Defining External Award Sources

Access the External Award Source page.

Use the External Award Source page to define the sources of external awards, such as your state, other departments at your institution, your Human Resources department, Student Financials, or a general category of student-reported awards. A unique Program Code can be further defined within an external award source code. These attributes are completely user defined. Use the definitions to categorize and report collected external award data.

Cross Referencing External Award Attributes to Financial Aid Item Types

Access the External Award Cross Reference page.

Use the External Award Cross Reference page to map Type and Source values you entered on the External Award Type page and the External Award Source page to an existing financial aid item type. You can map many External Awards with similar attributes to the same financial aid item type. For example, a school can combine several outside scholarship programs in a single financial aid item type. The External Award attributes may differ, but all map to the same financial aid item type.

Note. If mapping many to one Financial Aid Item Type, ensure that the reporting code is Append. This ensures that the Financial Aid Item Type award represents a comprehensive total.

The Student Financial External Awards process uses the cross-reference mapping and external award attributes mapped on the Student Financial Item Type setup to determine which (SF) payments to process and report as external award transactions.

Award Type	Select an award type you entered on the External Award Type page.
Source	Select an award source you entered on the External Award Source page.
Program Code	(Optional) Use depending on the granularity of detail you need to map an external award to a financial aid item type. Select an award source program code you entered on the External Award Source setup page.
Item Type	Select the Financial Aid Item Type to be associated with this row’s type and source combination. Different combinations of external award attributes can be mapped to the same item type. For example, you could categorize several outside scholarships with their own combination of Type, Source and Program Code. However, each combination would map to a single item type for award posting. Note. If mapping several attribute combinations to a single item type, each external award transaction must have a reporting code of Append to ensure that the correct added amount is posted.
Self Service	Select the check box for each row of information that should appear for the student on the Report Aid from Other Sources Self Service pages. In Self Service, students can then select the award type from a dropdown list. If an award does not appear in a dropdown list, the student can enter the award in free form. See Setting Up Financial Aid Self Service.

Defining Search and Match Criteria

This section discusses how to define search and match criteria for the External Award Load process.

Page Used to Define Search and Match Criteria

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
External Awards Search Match Rules	SFA_EA_SRCH_MATCH	Set Up SACR, Product Related, Financial Aid, External Awards Search/Match Rules	Define search and match criteria for use by the External Award Load process.

Defining Search and Match Criteria for the External Award Load Process

Access the External Award Search Match Rules page.

The External Award Stage process uses the Search/Match utility when running the External Load for an external file. You create your own Search/Match rules and Search/Match parameters for each File Mapping Definition. The process determines if an existing ID matches a transaction identified within an external award data file. Each external award data file must be related to a File Mapping definition defined within the File Parser Utility.

The following table lists the search fields specific to External Award Stage processing that are relevant when defining Search/Match Rules.

External Award Stage Fields	Search Rule	Search Field
National ID	NationalIDRule	NATIONAL_ID
Last Name	LastNameSrchRule	LAST_NAME_SRCH
First Name	FirstNameSrchRule	FIRST_NAME_SRCH
Date of Birth	DateOfBirthRule	BIRTHDATE
Middle Name	MiddleNameRule	MIDDLE_NAME

See Setting Up Search/Match.

No Match Found	Select Suspend or Ignore as the action for the External Award Load process to take when no match is found.
Match(es) Found	Starting from the lowest search order, select Update, Suspend, or Ignore as the action for the External Award Load process to take when a match is found. In this example, 10 is the lowest and most restrictive search rule.

Planning for File Parser and External Award Processing

You will use the File Parser Utility to map external award data files and convert data to the external award staging tables. The delivered External Award Context Definition defines the target External Award Staging tables, fields, and mapping action. Use this section to determine how to create File Parser mapping definitions for external award processing.

This section discusses how to:

Use the context definition.
Use the file mapping definition.
Review the External Award Staging tables.

Using the Context Definition

The Context Definition identifies the target table that the File Parser populates with external data. A Context Definition identifies the hierarchy of the target record structure and fields available to be mapped and updated. Your Campus Solution database is provided with the Context Definition for the External Award process. The External Award Context Definition contains the External Award Stage records and fields, which is the target record for mapping any external data file for the External Award process. Do not change any record or fields defined in the External Award Context Definition unless you need to reduce the number of fields that are Visible for Mapping.

Using the File Mapping Definition

Use the File Mapping Definition component to map and define a data file to be converted to target staging tables. The key element in a File Mapping Definition is the context definition to be referenced. After you identify the context definition, identify the external data file layout. The external fields are then mapped to the available target records and fields.

Use the File Definition tab to identify the context definition and general attributes of data file to be processed. Use the External Award Load context definition for external files that have data you want to convert and update the external award staging tables. If your external file has multiple row types, then only identify the row types that have data you want to convert.

Use the File Layout tab to identify the external file fields and format.

Use the Mapping tab to define how the target staging table and fields will be updated when the external file is processed. For example, your external file probably contains a field comparable to the required SFA_EA_REPORT_CD field on the staging table record SFA_EASTAGE_DTL. On the Mapping tab for this field, set the Mapping Action to Default Value and enter A=Append, R=Replace or N=New. When the external file is processed, the SFA_EA_REPORT_CD field is then populated with that value.

Reviewing the External Award Staging Tables

The record layout and field definitions describe the External Award staging tables. The layout also identifies which fields are visible for mapping in the File Parser Mapping Definition component. The four records are:

SFA_EASTAGE_HDR, the header record contains the highest keys.
SFA_EASTAGE_DTL, the award details at an annual award level.
SFA_EASTAGE_DSB, award disbursement details.
SFA_EASTAGE_CNT, summary counter and amounts.

External Award Stage Header Record and Fields

This is the parent record to the SFA_EASTAGE_DTL and SFA_ESTAGE_DSB records.

Field Name	Description	Visible for Mapping	Comment
SFA_EA_TRANS_NBR	Transaction number		Key assigned by the system.
TRANSACTION_DATE	Transaction date		Assigned by the File Staging process.
PROCESS_INSTANCE	Process instance
SFA_EA_TRANS_SRCE	Transaction source		Assigned by the system. 01 = Manual Entry, 02 = External Data file, 03 = Loan Certification file (not currently used), 04 = Student Financials Feed, 05 = Self Service.
OPRID	User ID		Assigned by the File Staging process.
SCCFP_MAP_ID	File mapping ID		Assigned by the system.
FILENAME	File name		Assigned by the File Staging process.
CPS_SCHOOL_CODE	School code	Yes	Not currently used. Context Definition is Visible for Mapping.
SFA_EA_STDNT_COUNT	Transaction student count		Field exists on the SFA_EASTAGE_CNT record. If mapped, field is used to capture source transaction student count.
SFA_EA_AWARD_TOTAL	Transaction award total		Field exists on the SFA_EASTAGE_CNT record. If mapped, field is used to capture source transaction award total.
SFA_EA_RSLT_COUNT	Actual count		Number of row counts in SFA_EASTAGE_DTL when source is External File.
SFA_EA_RSLT_TOTAL	Actual total		Sum of awards in SFA_EASTAGE_DT, when source is External File.
SFA_EA_FILE_STATUS	File read status		Assigned by the File Staging process.
PKG_STATUS_CD	Packaging status		Error number. Assigned by File Staging process.

External Award Stage Detail Record and Fields

This is the child record to the SFA_EASTAGE_HDR record.

Field Name	Description	Visible for Mapping	Comment
SFA_EA_TRANS_NBR	Transaction number		Key assigned by the system
SFA_EA_SEQNO	Sequence number		Key assigned by the system
NATIONAL_ID	National ID	Yes	Available as a Search/Match element. If EMPLID provided, Search/Match routine is bypassed.
BIRTHDATE	Date of birth	Yes	Available as a Search/Match element. If EMPLID provided, Search/Match routine is bypassed.
LAST_NAME	Last name	Yes	Available as a Search/Match element. If EMPLID provided, Search/Match routine is bypassed.
FIRST_NAME	First name	Yes	Available as a Search/Match element. If EMPLID is provided, Search/Match routine will be bypassed
MIDDLE_NAME	Middle name	Yes	Available as a Search/Match element. If EMPLID is provided, Search/Match routine is bypassed.
EMPLID	Employee ID	Yes	If provided, then Search/Match parameters is bypassed during the External Award Load process.
INSTITUTION	Academic Institution
AID_YEAR	Aid Year
ACAD_CAREER	Academic Career	Yes	(Optional) External Award Load process will process with an active career, as determined from the FA Term record for ID. If the student has multiple careers within one aid year, the External Award Load process will error with a message indicating student has more than one active career. If executing External Award Load process from batch, you can allow the External Award Load process to post an external award transaction to the first active career found.
SFA_EA_PROC_STAT	Processing Status		Processing status of External Award transaction: Unprocessed: All transactions start with this value except student reported aid (Self Service). Processed: Indicates a successful External Award Load. Error: Adjusted: Assigned as a result of Multi-Career batch option, Term Mismatch batch option, or a reduction by the Engine (in the case of an loan certification request). Duplicate: Assigned during EA Load. If the reporting code is New and the student's award package already has Financial Aid Item Type posted, External Award Load process will return Duplicate. Can also be changed manually to Duplicate. Suspend: Based on Search/Match option. Skip: Based on Search/Match option, Multi-Career batch option, or Term Mismatch batch option. In Progress: Assigned to transactions selection for a particular External Award Load process. Thus, if the program aborts during process, batch transactions remain at this status. Change the value manually in order for the batch to get selected again by the External Award Load process. Reported: Assigned to all new External Awards with Data Source of Self Service.
SFA_EA_PROC_DTTM	Date/Time Processed
SFA_EA_EA_TYPE	External Award Type	Yes	(Optional) If no Financial Aid Item Type is provided, then external award attributes of Type, Source, or Program code are reviewed against External Award Cross-Reference Item Type setup.
SFA_EA_SOURCE	External Award Source	Yes	(Optional) If no Financial Aid Item Type is provided, then external award attributes of Type, Source, or Program code are reviewed against External Award Cross-Reference Item Type setup.
SFA_EA_PROGRAM_CD	External Award Program Code	Yes	(Optional)
SFA_EA_LOAN_CERT	Loan Certification	Yes	(Optional) Indicates external award data is based on a Loan Certification Request. If yes, then there must be a corresponding Related Item Type Group or Item Type value identified. If yes, Reporting Code will default to New. See Awarding Loan Certifications as External Awards.
SFA_EA_REPORT_CD	Reporting Code	Yes	(Required) Determines how transaction data is posted to student’s award package: New: If Item Type to be posted already exists, the External Award Load process sets transaction to Error. Ideally used for external awards reported once each aid year. Replace: Default value when entering transactions manually. Use this value to change existing annual and disbursement details of an award. If Item Type to be posted does not already exist, the External Award Load process treats transaction as if Reporting Code value is New.Be careful when using the Replace value and only providing term amount details. See NET_AWARD_AMT field to understand how field amount is determined. Append: Use this value to add an amount to an existing award. Append transactions can increase the annual award amounts for specific Disbursement IDs. If Item Type to be posted does not already exist, the External Award Load process will treat transaction as if Reporting Code is New.
ITEM_TYPE	Item Type	Yes	If blank, the External Award Load process uses the External Award Item Type Cross Reference setup to determine Item Type to be added or updated.
REL_ITEM_TYPE	Related Item Group	Yes	Only available when Loan Certification equals Yes. Intended to determine Stafford eligibility. Related Item Type group should identify both Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford Item Types. See Awarding Loan Certifications as External Awards.
DESCR	Description	Yes	(Optional) Enter a 30-character award description. Description will be displayed in Self Service.
DISBURSEMENT_PLAN	Disbursement Plan	Yes	(Optional) If provided, the Disbursement Plan (DP) is used. If not provided, the default DP from the item type’s career default DP/Split Code (SC) is used. If no default DP/SC is defined for career, a DP/SC is used from the student’s term enrollment. If a DP/SC is not found, External Award Load will error the transaction. For Replace/Append transactions, this must be the same value used on the posted (non-cancelled) award. A Split Code does not need to be provided if there is a Disbursement Plan code. Providing only a Disbursement Plan code allows the External Award Load process to establish the term disbursement structure and define the specific distribution based on amounts provided in transaction.
SPLIT_CODE	Split Code	Yes	(Optional) If provided, this Split Code is used to determine the disbursement split formula. Split Code is set to XX if disbursement data is provided on the External Award transaction.
NET_AWARD_AMT	Net Award Amount	Yes	(Optional) Annual amount to be posted. If scheduled disbursement amounts are provided, the cumulative scheduled disbursement amounts must equal the Net Award Amount. If this is blank, and scheduled disbursement detail is provided, then Net Award Amount is assigned the sum of scheduled disbursement amounts.
DISBURSED_AMOUNT	Disbursed Amount	Yes	(Optional) Total disbursed amount to be posted. If disbursement detail amounts are provided, the cumulative amounts must equal Disbursed amount. If this is blank and disbursement detail is provided, then disbursed amount is assigned the sum of the disbursement detail amounts. Note. Disbursed Amount on the posted award is updated only when the Disburse Method for the Item Type is No.
SFA_EA_PAY_STATUS	Paid Status	Yes	(Optional) Indicates the annual amount has been fully paid to the student. If you select Yes, the annual Disbursed Amount will be equal to the Net Award Amount. Note. Disbursed Amount on the posted award is updated only when the Disburse Method for the Item Type is No.
SFA_EA_ADJ_REASON	Adjustment Reason	Yes	(Optional) Use this 3-character field to capture additional information. Any data mapped to this field is visible when viewing external award transaction data.
SFA_EA_INELIGIBLE	Ineligibility Reason Code	Yes	(Optional) Use this 3-character field to capture additional information. Any data mapped to this field is visible when viewing external award transaction data.
SFA_EA_SUSPEND_RSN	Suspense Reason		1-character suspense code. Currently not being used.
SFA_EA_LOAD_ERROR	Load Error Code		External Award Load Error Message codes are maintained in the Message Catalog/Message Set Number = 14402/Message Set range 600s.
SFA_EA_SS_VISIBLE	Self Service Visible Code		Yes/No. Field available on the Award Detail component for each External Award transaction. Select Yes to show DESCRLONG value as award detail in Self Service.
FIN_AID_TYPE	Financial Aid Type		Used by External Award Load process to evaluate award posting.
DESCRLONG	Description		Used with SFA_EA_SS_VISIBLE field. If Visible field is checked, descriptions entered are available for student to view in Self Service, Reporting Outside Aid-Award Details.

External Award Stage Disbursement Record and Fields

This is the child record to the SFA_EASTAGE_DTL record.

Field	Description	Visible for Mapping	Comment
SFA_EA_TRANS_NBR	Transaction number		Key assigned by the system.
SFA_EA_SEQNO	Sequence number		Key assigned by the system.
SFA_EA_DISB_SEQNO	Disbursement Sequence	Yes.	(Required) Key assigned by system. Represents each unique disbursement detail for the transaction. If you map several disbursement detail rows from an external file, when you define the mapping, set the Mapping Action to default to a 2-digit numeric value. This ensures the key is created when the external file is processed.
STRM	Term	Yes	(Optional) If provided, the External Award Load process will determine if valid with student’s enrollment. If Disbursement ID is not provided, then the first Disbursement ID for STRM will be updated.
DISBURSEMENT_ID	Disbursement ID	Yes	(Optional) Use to append Disbursement Amount to an existing award.
SCHEDULED_AWARD	Scheduled Award	Yes	Scheduled or Allocated Disbursement amount at the disbursement sequence level.
DISBURSED_AMOUNT	Disbursed Amount	Yes	Disbursed or paid amount at the disbursement sequence level. Note. Disbursed Amount on the posted award is updated only when the Disburse Method for the Item Type is No.
SFA_EA_PAY_STATUS	Paid Status	Yes	(Optional) Identify the paid status at the disbursement sequence level. If you select Yes, the Disbursement Sequence amount will be equal to the resulting Scheduled Award amount. Note. Disbursed Amount on the posted award is updated only when the Disburse Method for the Item Type is No.

External Award Stage Counter Record and Fields

This is the child record to the SFA_EASTAGE_HDR record.

Field Name	Description	Visible for Mapping	Comment
SFA_EA_TRANS_NBR	Transaction number		Key assigned by the system.
SFA_EA_STDNT_COUNT		Yes	If mapped, field is used to capture source transaction student count, but no processing logic is associated with the field.
SFA_EA_AWARD_TOTAL		Yes	If mapped, field is used to capture source transaction award total, but no processing logic is associated with the field.