[ctcLinkfinaidsupport] FA Weeklyish Bulletin 01/19/2024

Fri Jan 19 15:16:57 PST 2024

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A Financial Aid Focus
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We hope it’s been a great start to your winter term!
FA Support would like to share some reminders on what to consider when running Authorizing and Disbursing in ctcLink.  We recommend taking extra special care and communication to your SF friends when performing manual Authorization and Disbursements.  Manual adjustments should not be happening during the batch processes running nor prior to SF creating the batch Group Post.
Please bear in mind that when you are running batch Authorization and Disbursements, and a manual disbursement is performed in between batch processes of when Group Post (SF) is run, this can result in having some inadvertent disbursement fallout where the original award amount is disbursed through the batch process, but then the manual amount that is adjusted is creating a disbursement issue.
Consider the following scenario on how Customer Account errors happen:
Timing issues when someone manually adjusts and disburses after batch authorization and disbursement, but before Group Post runs, can result in extra clean up and inaccurate postings to accounts.

  *   (FA) An Award is reduced on 1/16
  *   (FA) Authorization is run in batch on 1/19 at 9 AM
  *   (FA) Disbursement runs in batch on 1/19 at 9:15 AM
  *   (FA) Winter portion of award is cancelled on 1/19 at 11 AM
  *   (FA) Manually authorized on 1/19 at 11:15 AM
  *   (FA) Manually disbursed on 1/19 at 11:16 AM
  *   (SF) Group Post is run on 1/19 at 1 PM

In the above scenario, it has been discovered that awards needing to have been pulled back entirely will just end up with the amount reduced being credited again to the student account.  Please always check Customer Accounts for during the clean-up process until the account is fully reconciled.  Take extra special care that batch authorization/disbursement is not running, and all group posts have successfully posted before doing any clean-up work to accounts.

If you find yourself in this situation, please file a ticket with FA Support as soon as you discover the issue.

We know a lot goes on behind the scenes and timing is always of the essence!  Keep doing the great work and just keep these timing considerations at the forefront.  You got this, FA!

[An iceberg in the water  Description automatically generated]

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Query Corner
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✨ Shining the light on this helpful query! ✨

A QUERY TO HELP WITH CUSTOMER ACCOUNT RECONCILIATION:  The query CTC_FA_SF_DISCREPANCY_LIST is a query that will pull students that have aid unapplied to Customer Accounts.  This could mean something as simple as Group Post hasn’t yet run, or it could mean something a little deeper to mean that the Payment Priority and/or Charge Priority List need to be reviewed and or adjusted.

The ideal time to run this query is during periods of disbursement, typically once a week.

In the highlighted example, note column Q for Unapplied Amt to Customer Accounts.  This is the column you need to find out why a payment has not applied to Customer Account.

You can do a quick sweep with this query to find students who need Customer Account review.

Tip!  This query typically has many results in it, so run it in Schedule Query for best results.

[A screenshot of a computer  Description automatically generated]

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Financial Aid Learning Opportunities
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Calendar invites with web ex log in information already sent out

Session:  The Adventures of the R2T4 Worksheet – Session 1
When:  Thursday, 1/25/2024, 1:00PM – 3:00PM
Audience:  Staff responsible for processing R2T4 calculations
Presenters:  Molly Groyer, FA Support Functional Analyst
Objectives:
·  Identify students to be reviewed for R2T4 by Mass Assigning F03 Service Indicator 
·  Find a student’s withdrawal information in ctcLink
·  Find a student’s institutional charges
·  Create & complete an R2T4 worksheet & understand the functionality of key fields on the Worksheet
·  Adjust federal aid & undisburse/re-disburse
·  Add an F05 Service Indicator
·  Review available R2T4 queries

Session:  Intermediate Loan Processing - Loan Troubleshooting
When:  Tuesday, 1/30/2024, 9:00AM – 11:00AM
Audience:  Staff responsible for awarding/managing the Direct loan program
Presenters:  Kelly Forsberg, FA Functional Trainer
Objectives:

  *   Understand how to work varying examples from the following reports:
  *   Loans on Hold Report
     *   Origination Hold
     *   Origination Changes Hold
  *   Rejected Originations Report
  *   Disbursement Errors Report
  *   Understand which ctcLink pages to navigate and how to read and update them when troubleshooting loan reject and loans on hold messages:
     *   View Loan Processing Actions page
     *   View COD Data page
     *   Hold/Suspend Change Data page
     *   Override Loan Data page
     *   Override Processing Status page

New!  Session:  FA Drop-In Debrief – How Did It Go?  Using the New Transfer Monitoring UEM Process
When:  Thursday, 2/9/2024, 9:00AM – 10:00AM
Audience:  Staff responsible for managing the NSLDS Transfer Monitoring process in ctcLink
Facilitators:  Kelly Forsberg, FA Functional Trainer

This hour-long Fin Aid Debrief Session is a ‘how did it go’ conversation with your Financial Aid colleagues in the system who have run this process for the Winter 2241 term.  Come to the session and chat amongst yourselves to talk through what you learned, what were some challenges, personal learnings and/or information you encountered during the new NSLDS Transfer Monitoring UEM process and anything else you think might be helpful to share with your college colleagues.

Additionally, in the session, Kelly Forsberg will briefly walk through the NSLDS Transfer Monitoring Guide<https://ctclinkreferencecenter.ctclink.us/m/92427/l/1375608-nslds-transfer-monitor-business-process-guide> to show updates as of 01/18/2024, reflecting the NSLDS technical and enrollment reporting guides so you can familiarize yourself with the information used to optimize your experience in working with TRNINFIN and FAHEXTOP files.

Session:  Intermediate Pell Processing - Pell Troubleshooting
When:  Tuesday, 2/13/2024, 9:00AM – 11:00AM
Audience:  Staff responsible for managing Pell payment
Presenters:  Kelly Forsberg, FA Functional Trainer
Objectives:

  *   Understand how to read and work examples in the Pell Reports
     *   Pell Records by Transaction Status
     *   Pell Records by Status
     *   Pell Origination Validation Report
     *   Pell Disbursement Validation Report
     *   Pell Disbursement Status Report
  *   Understand how to perform Pell troubleshooting using various pages in ctcLink
     *   View COD Data page
     *   Manage Pell Payment page

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Team Updates
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FA Support Team
It’s Aid Year Rollover season!  Aid Year Rollover calendar invites have made their way to their intended recipients in the FA offices.  Beginning near the end of January, and into March, the Functional Analysts will be working with your college FA team to roll tables and review items for the 2024/2025 Award Year.

Training Team
Updates to Canvas Training courses are ongoing and will be worked up to include screen updates from the FAFSA Simplification.  Announcements will be made in Canvas when these updates are completed.

The QRGs and BPGs are still currently undergoing a continual overhaul to accommodate the upcoming PeopleTools 8.59 system upgrade.  We expect these updates to continue through Aid Year Rollover season.  If you have guides or QRGs printed out, please continue to check the ctcLink Reference Center for the most current version.

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Just for Fun!
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Enjoy a global buffet and your best personality trait will be revealed! Food Quiz: Eat Food Reveal Best Personality Trait (buzzfeed.com)<https://www.buzzfeed.com/hazelyxlee/international-foods-best-quality-quiz>

TGIF,

[Compass]Kelly Forsberg
ctcLink Functional Trainer | Financial Aid
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
o: 360-704-1066

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