March Maintenance Pack for 22A
This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:
| Date | Product | Feature | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 FEB 2022 | Created initial document. |
HAVE AN IDEA?
We’re here and we’re listening. If you have a suggestion on how to make our cloud services even better then go ahead and tell us. There are several ways to submit your ideas, for example, through the Ideas Lab on Oracle Customer Connect. Wherever you see this icon after the feature name it means we delivered one of your ideas.
GIVE US FEEDBACK
We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at oracle_fusion_applications_help_ww_grp@oracle.com.
DISCLAIMER
The information contained in this document may include statements about Oracle’s product development plans. Many factors can materially affect Oracle’s product development plans and the nature and timing of future product releases. Accordingly, this Information is provided to you solely for information only, is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.
This information may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Oracle specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this information. Refer to the Legal Notices and Terms of Use for further information.
Column Definitions:
Report = New or modified, Oracle-delivered, ready to run reports.
UI or Process-Based: Small Scale = These UI or process-based features are typically comprised of minor field, validation, or program changes. Therefore, the potential impact to users is minimal.
UI or Process-Based: Larger Scale* = These UI or process-based features have more complex designs. Therefore, the potential impact to users is higher.
Features Delivered Disabled = Action is needed BEFORE these features can be used by END USERS. These features are delivered disabled and you choose if and when to enable them. For example, a) new or expanded BI subject areas need to first be incorporated into reports, b) Integration is required to utilize new web services, or c) features must be assigned to user roles before they can be accessed.
| Ready for Use by End Users Reports plus Small Scale UI or Process-Based new features will have minimal user impact after an update. Therefore, customer acceptance testing should focus on the Larger Scale UI or Process-Based* new features. |
Customer Must Take Action before Use by End Users Not disruptive as action is required to make these features ready to use. As you selectively choose to leverage, you set your test and roll out timing. |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature |
Report |
UI or |
UI or |
|
||
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
You can download additional documents and attachments to update and maintain your Student Financial Planning implementation. To view and download these documents, see Oracle Vocado Student Financial Planning Cloud: Release Notes 22A (Doc ID 2826436.1) on My Oracle Support at https://support.oracle.com.
The supporting documents can include these:
- Release preview slides and video
- Resolved defects
- Configuration for new and updated baseline fields
- API updates
- Data model updates
- Reporting subject documentation
- Product report updates
- Operation report updates
- Known issues
Enhanced Summer Term Automation
The summer term automation was enhanced to provide you greater configuration and flexibility in determining when a summer term is evaluated and how that evaluation affects awarding for standard and summer terms.
Summer can now be evaluated based on configurable triggers. Providing you with the ability to leverage baseline configuration, which utilizes courses, dates, and documents, or update your configuration based on institutional policy to add, edit, or delete these evaluation requirements.
Baseline Configuration has been updated to add three evaluation criteria triggers to determine when a summer term will be evaluated. If you choose not to add any of these new baseline updates, summer will continue working as it does today. Baseline configuration updates are as follows:
- Enrolled in a Summer course - Summer Term must have at least one course in a status other than "Projected"
- Configured System Date - Summer term start date must be within 60 days of the calendar date
- Summer Application - An award year specific Summer Application has been added to the Documents workbook
- Baseline updates require the presence of the document but does not include any metadata requirements
Furthermore, after the evaluation triggers are met, how the system calculates summer awarding is also configurable. Delivered baseline configuration evaluates what has been disbursed and what has been accepted in the standard terms to adjust accordingly and award summer the remaining eligibility. However, this calculation can be updated as needed, based on your institutional policy. See the Improved Direct Loan Configuration Flexibility section of the release notes to identify different methods to prioritize Standard Terms and any Summer terms available for a student.
Steps to Enable
- Update Award_Overriding_Criteria groovy within the FAS_FUND_CONFIG.csv with updated summer term evaluation criteria based on your college or universities policy
- If requiring a document to trigger Summer evaluation, update the DOCUMENTS.csv workbook to included new Summer Application
- If you require metadata for the new document, the DOCMETADATA.csv workbook would also need to be updated to include the Summer Application
Tips And Considerations
- Review the baseline configuration update in this release for an example configuration reflecting the best practice use of this feature.
- In the event all three baseline configuration criteria are met, Summer awarding will be evaluated upon the next repackage trigger.
- If Summer is already awarded for a particular student when new configuration is added, updated criteria will be reviewed upon a repackage and summer award will update accordingly. This may cause summer awards to be removed if they do not meet the newly instated Summer configuration.
Key Resources
Improved Direct Loan Configuration Flexibility
This feature provides enhanced flexibility and consistency in distributing Direct Loans according to institutional policies. A new Minimum or Maximum limit can be set within the Award Override Criteria configuration. Previously, using this script meant “freezing” the award and overwriting all system calculated eligibility limits set for the fund type. Using the new min/max feature, a user can define additional constraints based on institutional policy while still allowing for the final amount to be adjusted using the various predefined regulatory limits, such as annual or aggregate remaining eligibility, overlapping loans, and term cost of attendance, among others.
A new phase feature allows a customer to define layered priorities when distributing loan amounts. When utilizing this feature within Award Override Criteria script groovy configuration, customers will define criteria to do the following:
- Determine the terms that apply to that phase.
- Add new limits to each term in that phase.
The system will attempt to use the full remaining loan eligibility within that phase and attempt to apply the distribution of the eligibility equally across all terms within that phase. If any additional eligibility remains after the phase is completed, the system moves to the next phase and apply that additional eligibility across the terms defined within the subsequent phase.
This feature can also be used to define the ordering of loan returns when a total loan eligibility has been reduced, ensuring that undisbursed funds are canceled first, followed by a reduction of the most recent disbursements by disbursement dates, thus preventing unnecessary disbursement returns or returns on disbursements that have occurred past 180 days, if possible.
Steps to Enable
Within the Configuration Scripting API, review the IOptimizerConfigAPI and the new IOptimizationPhaseAPI sections for technical implementation details for this feature.
Tips And Considerations
Review the baseline configuration update in this release for an example configuration reflecting the best practice use of this feature.
Key Resources
Student/Parent Self Service (Portal)
The College Financing Plan has been enhanced per the updated guidance provided by the Department of Education for 2022-2023. With this enhancement, the configuration of the College Financing Plan (CFP) in SFP has been updated to support the updated template structure and allows institutions to leverage separate CFP templates for their Undergraduate and Graduate/Professional student populations.
FUND_CFP.csv Workbook
- The Fund_CFP.csv workbook has been updated to include VA Education Benefits as an accepted CFP_Category value.
NOTE: SFP will not deliver any VA related fund codes as part of the baseline configuration for the FUND_CFP.csv workbook
- For all fund codes that a Financial Aid Administrator would like to be included in the CFP, the Fund_Code, Aid_Year, and CFP_Category columns are required to be populated with valid values
- The Award_Year column will allow for multiple award years to be listed
- The CFP_Category correlates to the location within the CFP template where the projected, estimated, and awarded fund amounts will appear
- Validation rules are leveraged when loading the FUND_CFP.csv workbook to verify that an accepted value is entered in the CFP_Category column. If a value entered is not accepted, an error message will be displayed.
- CFP_Category Accepted Values and template applicability
CFP_Category
CFP Template Applicability
Assistantship Graduate/Professional Employer Paid Tuition Benefits Undergraduate Federal Direct Subsidized Loan Undergraduate Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan Undergraduate Federal Pell Grant Undergraduate Grad Plus Federal Loan Graduate/Professional HRSA Loan Graduate/Professional Income Share Agreement Undergraduate Institutional Grant Undergraduate Institutional Loan Undergraduate Other Campus Job Undergraduate Other Forms of Grant Aid Undergraduate Other Scholarship Undergraduate Parent Plus Federal Loan Undergraduate Private Loan Undergraduate Scholarship For Disadvantaged Students Graduate/Professional Scholarship from School Undergraduate Scholarship from State Undergraduate School Paid Tuition Benefits Graduate/Professional State Grant Undergraduate Tuition Remission Waiver Graduate/Professional VA Education Benefits Undergraduate Work Study Undergraduate
Portal Settings Configuration Update
- Within the Portal Settings configuration, financial aid administrators will be able to enable each CFP template based on award year.
- The following information can be set on a per award year and per CFP template type basis:
- Loan Options Section
- Interest rate and origination fee for the funding types listed in the Loan Options section
- Work Options Section
- Estimated work-study hours per week
- Work-study amount per year
- Other campus job amount per year (Undergraduate CFP)
- Assistantship amount per year (Graduate/Professional CFP)
- Configurable Content Option Section
- For More Information
- Next Steps
- Customized Information
- Loan Options Section
Steps to Enable
Workbook Configuration
- COA.csv Workbook
- Unique Item_Title will be required for Room and Board On and Room and Board Off
- It is recommended that financial aid administrators review and update the default groovy script in the Cost_Value column in order to determine which COA Item_Title value should be returned.
- Unique Item_Title will be required for Room and Board On and Room and Board Off
- COA_CFP.csv Workbook
- Unique COA_Item_Title will be required to indicate if room and board COA item is for on campus or off campus
- It is required that the same value is used as listed in the COA.csv workbook for Room and Board On and Room and Board Off.
- Location column
- Effective 2021-2022 and forward, Financial Aid Administrators are required to indicate the placement of the COA_Item_Title values in the Total Cost of Attendance section of the College Financing Plan.
- Unique COA_Item_Title will be required to indicate if room and board COA item is for on campus or off campus
NOTE: The On and Off value should only be used for the Room and Board COA_Item_Titles. If used for another COA_Item_Title, then that respective item's value will be placed in the corresponding column within the CFP template
- FUND_CFP.csv Workbook
- Fund_Code, Aid_Year, and CFP_Category are required columns to be defined for all fund codes in use and to be displayed in the CFP
- The CFP_Category will drive the placement of that awarded fund value in the CFP template
Portal Settings
- Configuration section
- Enable each CFP template for the 2022-2023 award year
- Loan Options section
- Enter the interest rate and origination fee for each listed loan based on CFP template
- Work Options section
- Enter the Work-Study hours per week and amount per year based on CFP template
- Enter the Other Campus Job amount per year for the Undergraduate CFP template
- Enter the Assistantship amount per year for the Graduate/Professional CFP template
- Configurable Content section
- Enter in applicable text based on CFP template
Tips And Considerations
- The College Financing Plan for 2022-2023 will be delivered as disabled. Users will need to opt in and complete all required setup/configuration to leverage the College Financing Plan templates for 2022-2023.
- The 2022-2023 College Financing Plan has been delivered leveraging the default template colors provided by the Department of Education. The ability to update the default template color will be delivered in a future enhancement to the CFP.
Key Resources
22/23 Packaging and Awarding Updates
With this feature you have the ability to package and award funds for the 22/23 Award Year. This includes leveraging the 2022-2023 Federal Pell Grant Payment and Disbursement Schedules provided by the Department of Education in a baseline configuration update as well as having the ability to originate and disburse Title IV funds with COD.
- Pell Updates include:
- The 2022-2023 Federal Pell Grant Payment and Disbursement Schedules provided as a baseline update within the PELL_SCHEDULE.csv workbook
- The baseline leverages the enrollment, COA_Min, COA_Max, EFC_Max, and Pell_Amount value combinations to determine a student's 22/23 Pell Scheduled / Annual award.
- The 2022-2023 Federal Pell Grant Payment and Disbursement Schedules provided as a baseline update within the PELL_SCHEDULE.csv workbook
- COD Updates include:
- System supports COD Common Record XML Schema Version 5.0a COD origination / disbursement requests and responses:
- The following new values are provided in outbound COMRECIN / CRDLMYIN files according to the COD 5.0a schema definition:
- New <DirectLoanAttendanceCost> tag is sent within the Direct Loan Award Type section:
- Applies to all Direct Loan Types
- Applies to 2022-2023 and forward
- Valid Schema Values = Value must be between 0-999999999
- Inclusive of the COA for the Loan Period being communicated to COD
- New <PaymentPeriodStartDate> tag is sent for all Pell and TEACH disbursements for the 2022-2023 award year and forward within the Disbursement Type section:
- Applies to all Title IV Fund Types (Pell, Direct Loan, and TEACH programs):
- SFP already sends for Direct Loan Types for all award years
- For Pell and Teach Applies to 2022-2023 and forward
- Valid Schema Values = CCYY-MM-DD
- The start date provided aligns to the start date of the payment period / term start date associated with the disbursement.
- Updates to this value will create a COD communication for the date change.
- Applies to all Title IV Fund Types (Pell, Direct Loan, and TEACH programs):
- New <PaymentPeriodEndDate> tag is sent within the Disbursement Type section:
- Applies to all Title IV Fund Types (Pell, Direct Loan, and TEACH programs)
- Applies to 2022-2023 and forward
- Valid Schema Values = CCYY-MM-DD
- The end date provided aligns to the end date of the payment period / term end date associated to the disbursement.
- Updates to this value will to create a COD communication for the date change.
- New <DirectLoanAttendanceCost> tag is sent within the Direct Loan Award Type section:
- The following new values are able to be received in inbound COMRECOP / CRDLMYOP files according to the COD 5.0a schema definition including the following fields:
- New <DirectLoanAttendanceCost> tag is received within the Direct Loan Award Type section.
- New <PaymentPeriodStartDate> tag is received within the Disbursement Type section.
- New <PaymentPeriodEndDate> tag is received within the Disbursement Type section.
- New optional <IncarceratedStudentIndicator> can be received within the Grant Disbursement Type section:
- Applies to Pell and IASG
- Applies to 2022-2023 and forward
- Valid Schema Values are true, or false
- System can accept new Reject Edits 226, 227, and 228
- The following new values are provided in outbound COMRECIN / CRDLMYIN files according to the COD 5.0a schema definition:
- All new values are viewable on the outbound and inbound sections of the Common Record UI page.
- System supports COD Common Record XML Schema Version 5.0a COD origination / disbursement requests and responses:
Steps to Enable
- Load the PELL_SCHEDULE.csv workbook into the Configuration Administration UI underneath the Administration screen.
- Load the REGULATORY_DEADLINES.csv. into the Configuration Administration UI underneath the Administration screen and set the COD_Origination_Disbursement_Start_Date_TIV_Grants_Loans value to a date that the institution would like to begin using the new 5.0a schema as well as begin originations for the 22/23 Award Year:
- The current baseline date is set to 7/1/22.
Tips And Considerations
Since both the Pell and COD updates are handled by configuration, institutions can determine when they would like to utilize either feature update.
Key Resources
February Maintenance Pack for 22A
This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:
| Date | Product | Feature | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 JAN 2022 | Created initial document. |
HAVE AN IDEA?
We’re here and we’re listening. If you have a suggestion on how to make our cloud services even better then go ahead and tell us. There are several ways to submit your ideas, for example, through the Ideas Lab on Oracle Customer Connect. Wherever you see this icon after the feature name it means we delivered one of your ideas.
GIVE US FEEDBACK
We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at oracle_fusion_applications_help_ww_grp@oracle.com.
DISCLAIMER
The information contained in this document may include statements about Oracle’s product development plans. Many factors can materially affect Oracle’s product development plans and the nature and timing of future product releases. Accordingly, this Information is provided to you solely for information only, is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.
This information may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Oracle specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this information. Refer to the Legal Notices and Terms of Use for further information.
Column Definitions:
Report = New or modified, Oracle-delivered, ready to run reports.
UI or Process-Based: Small Scale = These UI or process-based features are typically comprised of minor field, validation, or program changes. Therefore, the potential impact to users is minimal.
UI or Process-Based: Larger Scale* = These UI or process-based features have more complex designs. Therefore, the potential impact to users is higher.
Features Delivered Disabled = Action is needed BEFORE these features can be used by END USERS. These features are delivered disabled and you choose if and when to enable them. For example, a) new or expanded BI subject areas need to first be incorporated into reports, b) Integration is required to utilize new web services, or c) features must be assigned to user roles before they can be accessed.
| Ready for Use by End Users Reports plus Small Scale UI or Process-Based new features will have minimal user impact after an update. Therefore, customer acceptance testing should focus on the Larger Scale UI or Process-Based* new features. |
Customer Must Take Action before Use by End Users Not disruptive as action is required to make these features ready to use. As you selectively choose to leverage, you set your test and roll out timing. |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature |
Report |
UI or |
UI or |
|
||
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
You can download additional documents and attachments to update and maintain your Student Financial Planning implementation. To view and download these documents, see Oracle Vocado Student Financial Planning Cloud: Release Notes 22A (Doc ID 2826436.1) on My Oracle Support at https://support.oracle.com.
The supporting documents can include these:
- Release preview slides and video
- Resolved defects
- Configuration for new and updated baseline fields
- API updates
- Data model updates
- Reporting subject documentation
- Product report updates
- Operation report updates
- Known issues
Additional Audit Logging for SAML and IP Addresses
The Application Audit Logging feature, which was introduced in 22A, was enhanced to include SAML log entries, and the addition of IP address to existing System Access events.
SAML Audit Logging
- A new SAML System Access Event was introduced so you can audit successful login and logout attempts via an SSO attempt. For an unsuccessful entry, you now have access to a specific message indicating why that login attempt was unsuccessful. This new message will help triage potential configuration issues or differences between your IDP and what SFP/Portal is expecting.
- Audit logs pulled via the REST API will return a JSON format, and users also have the ability to run a new BI Publisher Report for SAML System Access logs (SAML Audit Log Report).
System Access Event
- The originating IP Address has been added to all System Access Event Audit logs; this includes the new SAML Audit logging as well as the previously released System Access Audit logs.
- Updates were added to the existing Login Logout Report, as well as the new SAML Audit Log Report.
Updates to Audit Log Events
| |
||
| Event Type | Record Types | New Data Fields |
| SAML System Access Event |
Access | Entity ID, Created On, Last Modified, Version, Log Entry ID, Log Entry Source, Log IP Address, Log Entry Specification Version, Log Entry Date Time, Log Entry Type, Name ID, Status, Status Message, Action, Origination IP Address, Module Accessed |
| System Access Event | Access | Origination IP Address |
Steps to Enable
- To run the report use the following path in BI Publisher:
- Catalog > Shared Folders > SFP Reports > Audit > SAML Audit Log
- REST API can be called using the credentials provided with 22A
Key Resources
- Watch Application Audit Logging Readiness Training for more information on functionality delivered in 22A.
- For more information on the Idea, see these resources:
- Idea Lab: 538689
This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:
| Date | Product | Feature | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 DEC 2021 | Created initial document. |
Oracle Student Financial Planning allows institutions to manage each financial aid package individually and provide real-time visibility into a student's entire program to support more responsible financial decisions and academic outcomes.
HAVE AN IDEA?
We’re here and we’re listening. If you have a suggestion on how to make our cloud services even better then go ahead and tell us. There are several ways to submit your ideas, for example, through the Ideas Lab on Oracle Customer Connect. Wherever you see this icon after the feature name it means we delivered one of your ideas.
GIVE US FEEDBACK
We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at oracle_fusion_applications_help_ww_grp@oracle.com.
DISCLAIMER
The information contained in this document may include statements about Oracle’s product development plans. Many factors can materially affect Oracle’s product development plans and the nature and timing of future product releases. Accordingly, this Information is provided to you solely for information only, is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.
This information may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Oracle specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this information. Refer to the Legal Notices and Terms of Use for further information.
Column Definitions:
Report = New or modified, Oracle-delivered, ready to run reports.
UI or Process-Based: Small Scale = These UI or process-based features are typically comprised of minor field, validation, or program changes. Therefore, the potential impact to users is minimal.
UI or Process-Based: Larger Scale* = These UI or process-based features have more complex designs. Therefore, the potential impact to users is higher.
Features Delivered Disabled = Action is needed BEFORE these features can be used by END USERS. These features are delivered disabled and you choose if and when to enable them. For example, a) new or expanded BI subject areas need to first be incorporated into reports, b) Integration is required to utilize new web services, or c) features must be assigned to user roles before they can be accessed.
| Ready for Use by End Users Reports plus Small Scale UI or Process-Based new features will have minimal user impact after an update. Therefore, customer acceptance testing should focus on the Larger Scale UI or Process-Based* new features. |
Customer Must Take Action before Use by End Users Not disruptive as action is required to make these features ready to use. As you selectively choose to leverage, you set your test and roll out timing. |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature |
Report |
UI or |
UI or |
|
||
Additional Student Experience Capabilities for Verification Worksheets |
||||||
Enhanced Self Service PLUS Fund Validations for Post-Withdrawal and Late Disbursements |
||||||
Accept 5.0a Schema Formats for Unsolicited Inbound COD files |
||||||
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
You can download additional documents and attachments to update and maintain your Student Financial Planning implementation. To view and download these documents, see Oracle Vocado Student Financial Planning Cloud: Release Notes 22A (Doc ID 2826436.1) on My Oracle Support at https://support.oracle.com.
The supporting documents can include these:
- Release preview slides and video
- Resolved defects
- Configuration for new and updated baseline fields
- API updates
- Data model updates
- Reporting subject documentation
- Product report updates
- Operation report updates
- Known issues
Student/Parent Self Service (Portal)
Self Service Customer Branding Capabilities
This feature provides institutions with more flexibility when managing branding settings in Self Service environments. An administrative user, with the appropriate role permission access, can now configure the branding options, including the logo, color scheme, and institutional name label from the Settings screen in the Self Service user interface.
Use the new branding settings configuration to define these details:
- The preferred institutional name label that's displayed in the page footer, as well as when viewing the "about" prompt, accessed from clicking the main logo in the page header, can be entered as a string value.
- The primary color scheme can be entered in a valid hexadecimal color code value.
- A logo image can be uploaded in an acceptable format, including, png, jpeg, gif or svg extensions.
- The logo height can be entered in a valid number of pixels, up to an optimized display value of 82 pixels.
When updating branding settings configuration, the user can view a preview of the changes in a staging area to confirm proposed values before they are persisted to the environment. The staging preview will provide a view of the uploaded logo image, within the view of the requested color scheme.
This new capability also provides institutions with the ability to optimize the size and placement of the logo that displays in the Self Service UI. Advanced settings are available to further customize logo placement, along with helpful text to provide suggested values and best practices. In addition to entering a value for the logo height, an administrative user can enter a value for the display of the logo considering the top and left margins, both entered in a number of pixels. Also, a maximum height value can be entered for logos that may extend past the optimized logo height value entered in the standard settings options.
The ability for institutions to self-manage the branding of their self service environments will help ensure students and parents experience a seamless user interface experience when navigating between school systems. Branding settings can be dynamically updated by an administrative user with the appropriate permissions, on demand and reflected in the environment, in real time. This capability minimizes any delays in completing branding requests on behalf of new institutions using the Student Financial Planning product, as well as any branding changes needed for existing customers.
Steps to Enable
- This feature can be accessed using the existing self service permissions for an administrative user to manage settings, "Manage Self Service UI Settings."
- Additionally, a new permission has been created to control access to manage branding settings, "Update Branding."
Watch a Demo.
Tips And Considerations
- Upon release of this feature, all environments will persist their existing configuration, and allows for changes to be made leveraging the new configuration options.
- For any new environments, the default branding will show the Oracle corporation logo, and a color scheme that adheres to the Oracle Redwood design theme.
Key Resources
Enhanced Academic Year Default for Continuing Students
The Self Service UI will now default the home and financial tab information to the subsequent academic year for continuing students, so that students and parents can easily see action items to complete as they progress to the upcoming academic year in their program.
The Self Service UI will use the academic year-end date for the student's program, to determine the default display year. For example, if a student's academic year ends after the spring term (in May), and the subsequent academic year starts with the fall term (in August), when the student is viewing their Self Service UI anytime between the end of the previous academic year, and the start of the next academic year (for example, June), the user interface will populate all necessary action items and financial information for the subsequent academic year. At the end of a student's program, when there are no other future academic years, the system remains in the context of their last academic year information.
Steps to Enable
You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.
Key Resources
- For more information, see these resources:
- BugDB
- Bug 33125746
- BugDB
Additional Student Experience Capabilities for Verification Worksheets
This feature provides these additional improvements for students when they're completing verification worksheets in the Self Service UI:
- Display of additional messaging when submitting the Dependent Verification Worksheet, to guide the user of their required actions
- FAFSA Parents without a Social Security number (SSN) can complete the Dependent Verification Worksheet, without requiring manual intervention by a financial aid administrator
When a dependent verification worksheet is initially submitted, the message to verify document submission now contains additional text to alert the user on the next steps to complete the two-step signature process for dependent verification worksheets. For example, ensuring that the parent has access to the student’s financial aid record. Additional messaging appears on the document tab in the status column, when the document is in a status of pending signature, as well as in the header of the smart form, if reopened from the document history. This messaging will help students and parents be better informed when submitting dependent verification worksheets, without requiring additional assistance by their institution.
For dependent students with international parents, if on the received ISIR, one or both parents don't have a Social Security number, the parent submitting the dependent verification worksheet can now seamlessly complete the required document validation. Within the required electronic signature section of the dependent verification worksheet, the parent user is provided with a link labeled, “No SSN”, where they can override the Parent SSN e-signature requirement. Once this value is overridden, the parent must complete the remaining required fields: student ID, last name and date of birth, to submit the verification worksheet. If both parents have a Social Security number on the ISIR file, the “No SSN” link won't be available within the verification worksheet and the existing e-signature requirement to enter the last 4 digits of the Parent social security number, will remain.
By helping to ensure students and parents understand the required actions to move forward in their financial aid process and reducing administrative burden of working with parents with nonstandard data (such as international parents) outside of the Self Service UI, this feature helps to reduce potential delays in completing the ISIR verification process, as well as becoming eligible and receiving funding.
Watch a Demo.
Steps to Enable
You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.
Tips And Considerations
- Existing Self Service Permissions to view and submit documents are required to complete the document process in the Self Service UI.
- Related Permissions: View Documents Tab, Submit Student (or Spouse) Requested Documents, Submit Parent Requested Documents
Key Resources
Enhanced Self Service PLUS Fund Validations for Post-Withdrawal and Late Disbursements
This feature provides the ability to restrict a user from accepting a PLUS Post-Withdrawal or Late Disbursement in which they can't identify themselves as the responsible borrower on the Self-Service UI.
When entering the PWD/LD workflow, the system validates the user email on either SSO or guest user accounts against the borrower email in the PLUS application prior to entering the Late Disbursement or Post-Withdrawal Disbursement Acceptance screen in the Self-Service UI. Previously, the system validated the parent’s last name against the student’s ISIR prior to accessing the workflow. However, since the source of PLUS loans is the PLUS application, the validation has been updated to reflect the specific business processes unique to this fund type.
When automated validation is unsuccessful, a prompt is generated for the user to manually enter the Borrower SSN or Date of Birth fields to be validated against the Borrower values from the PLUS application. When successful, the PLUS PWD or Late Disbursements associated with the borrower are displayed to accept on the PWD/LD Wizard. When unsuccessful, the user is restricted from accepting Post-Withdrawal or Late Disbursements associated with that PLUS award.
In addition, the PLUS Disbursement acceptance screen has been updated to display the Borrower name and Application ID as is currently shown in the Financial Screen of the Self-Service UI so a student or guest user can distinguish between multiple PLUS loans.
Watch a Demo.
Steps to Enable
- Existing Accept Student Disbursements permission to view and submit Late Disbursement and Post-Withdrawal disbursement acceptance in the Self-Service UI.
Tips And Considerations
- When automated validation is successful and multiple PWD/LD disbursements are eligible, the home screen notification will display as completed when all PLUS disbursements matched to the borrower have been accepted.
- When automated validation is unsuccessful and multiple PWD/LD disbursements are eligible, the home screen notification will display as Pending until all eligible disbursements for the student have been accepted.
Key Resources
- For more information, see this resource:
- Idea Lab: 537539
Accept 5.0a Schema Formats for Unsolicited Inbound COD files
Student Financial Planning now supports receiving and processing the new COD 5.0a schema format received for unsolicited inbound COD files (such as MPNs, Credit Decisions, Entrance Counseling, and so forth).
This lets you process files for the new award year prior to the delivery of the 22/23 Packaging Award Year updates, ensuring that students' funding is not delayed.
- Inbound files to be supported include:
- Supports the file layout format CRPN23OP
- Supports the file layout format CRSP23OP
- Supports the file layout format CRCS23OP
- Supports the file layout format CRECMYOP
- Supports the file layout format CRAC23OP
- Supports the file layout format CRAT23OP
- Supports the file layout format PGLE23OP
- Supports the file layout format CRIB23OP
- Supports the inbound file layout format CRDLMYOP
- Supports the inbound file layout format COMRECOP
Watch a Demo.
Steps to Enable
- Using existing functionality, a user can enable and disable the award year file formats that contain the COD 5.0a schema on the DOE File Management screen. This includes files for the 22/23 award year within the file name (for example, CRPN23OP).
- Non-award year files, such as the CREC, don't require enablement and will automatically be received, matched, and processed by SFP.
Tips And Considerations
- Previously institutions that wanted to load in COD files prior to the New Award Year being supported in SFP, would edit the file to update the schema version to the old schema in order to load them. With this feature, editing the files is no longer necessary.
- As the 2022-2023 COD Technical Reference was published on December 6, we will be releasing a subsequent release shortly to support sending files for the new award year.
Key Resources
Reporting to Assist with Continuous Monitoring
This feature introduces new reports, as well as updates to existing reports, to assist in the continuous monitoring of your student populations. These reports contain summaries that provide insight into how students are progressing through automation and the student lifecycle. Continuous monitoring reports offer assistance in troubleshooting potential issues while providing information to help guide your decision making process in determining if a student should be reviewed.
Fund Acceptance Report
This report provides an overview of fund acceptance per fund code, award year, and enrollment status to provide a holistic view of your student populations acceptance statuses and allows you to drill down into each category to view detailed student information.
Navigation to Report:
- BI Publisher > Catalog > Shared Folders > SFP Reports > Product Reports > Operational > Fund Acceptance
Suggested Monitoring Frequency:
In the weeks leading up to a disbursing milestone at your college or university, it's recommended to run this report daily to review student behavior related to fund acceptance and reduce the risk of delaying any Title IV funding from disbursing due to fund acceptance. After the milestone is reached, running the report weekly helps monitor for any outlying populations.
Recommended Run Parameters:
- Start Date – Use the current or upcoming Academic Year Start date, this ensures that all funds with an anticipated disbursement date in the Academic year will be displayed.
- Fund Accepted Status – Pending_Acceptance and Pending_Additional_Acceptance are a recommended place to start research, this provides insight into students that have yet accepted funds for the upcoming Academic Year.
- Fund Codes – Limit to fund codes configured to require acceptance at your college or university.
The Fund Acceptance report consists of two tabs:
- Summary tab provides an overview of fund acceptance status broken down by Award year, fund code and disbursement status:
- Award Year
- Fund Code
- Disbursement Status
- Fund Status
- Number of disbursements
- Number of students
- Detail tab allows you to drill down to student level disbursement information:
- Disbursement Status - Status of the first sequence for the disbursement
- Anticipated disbursement date - Will display the anticipated disbursement date for non-disbursed funds or the disbursement date if the fund is disbursed
These use cases are examples of what can be identified with the report:
- Student (or population of students) don't have fund acceptance and their anticipated disbursement date is approaching
- Student (or population of students) don't have fund acceptance and their anticipated disbursement date is in the past
- Student (or population of students) require additional fund acceptance as their award has increased
Watch a Demo.
Awarding Status Report
This report provides an overview of awarding statues in order to help you understand how funding is progressing through the awarding process. This helps to understand any underlying issues that potentially exist and allows for further triage. A secondary detail tab can be utilized in order to break down populations at a student level.
Navigation to Report:
- BI Publisher > Catalog > Shared Folders > SFP Reports > Product Reports > Operational > Awarding Status Report
Suggested Monitoring Frequency:
Leading up to both disbursing and awarding milestones, this report should be run daily. Monitoring the awarding progression of funds will help alleviate any potential delays for awarding and disbursing Title IV funds and Non Federal Funds. This report can help diagnose if a configuration issues exists delaying or stopping the awarding process.
Recommended Run Parameters:
- Award Year: Select Open Award years to limit review to eligible funding.
- Academic Year Start Date: Use the start date of the upcoming or current Academic year. This will pull in all awards that fall on or after the start date.
- Academic Year End date: Use an end date on or after the upcoming or current Academic year to limit the awards being returned to only relevant academic years.
The Awarding Status report consists of two tabs.
- Summary tab provides an overview of Awarding criteria for a given Award Year, fund code and overall program enrollment status.
- Plus Application on File - Number is indicative of only Plus and GPlus funding and does not account for non Plus or GPlus funds
- NSLDS/FA History on file within 30 days and Non Valid ISIR for the award year checks are student level checks and are not displayed per fund
- Detail tab allows you to drill down to student level disbursement information
These use cases are examples of what can be identified with the report:
- Student (or population of students) doesn’t meet a configured awarding criteria
- Student (or population of students) don’t have an NSLDS on file within 30 days
- Fund or COA isn't configured for the applicable Award Year
- There isn't a Valid ISIR for the applicable Award Year
- PLUS Application isn't received for projected PLUS funds
Watch a Demo.
Delayed Package Report
The Delayed Package Report displays students that have received a packaging trigger that has not resulted in a new package version. This report has been updated to include all packaging triggers. Running this report daily can help avoid substantial delays in all aspects of delivering financial aid to a student.
Navigation to Report:
- BI Publisher > Catalog > Shared Folders > SFP Reports > Product Reports > Operational > Delayed Package Report
Recommended Run Parameters:
- Set the duration time to 480 minutes. This will help alleviate any students that are naturally delayed due to communications with COD.
How to read the Delayed package report:
- Trigger Type - Displays the latest Repackaging trigger event received for the student.
- Student Record Hold Date/Hold Description - Columns will only populate information when a student is currently on a student record hold.
- Application Error Date/Error Description - Columns will only populate information when a student has an application error.
- If none of the columns above have data populated, navigate to the Packaging UI within FAS to review the hold reason.
These use cases are examples of what can be identified with the report:
- Packaging Holds due to:
- Origination or Disbursement messages delayed with COD
- R2T4 pending in a prior enrollment
- Enrollment Review task is pending
- Student is on a Student Record Hold
- Packaging Errors due to:
- Client configuration or Corrupted Data
- Data included from SAFI Integration
- Identify when key integration messages including NSLDS, Fund Acceptance, SAFI, and so forth have not resulted in a package.
Watch a Demo.
ISIR Reconciliation Report
The ISIR Reconciliation Report provides a holistic top down view of loaded ISIRS, as well as the ability to take a deeper dive into ISIRs at a student level. This report can be used to be proactive in determining any ISIR load issues, delays in ISIR matching, or to simply get a view of ISIRs that failed to load due to an error for a particular date range.
Navigation to Report:
- BI Publisher > Catalog > Shared Folders > SFP Reports > Product Reports > SAIG Management > ISIR Reconciliation Report
Suggested Monitoring Frequency:
It is recommended to run the report daily during any peak awarding periods. This will help your college or university ramp up for the awarding cycle; Title IV funds rely on a student having an ISIR load and accurately match to their account. Since ISIRs are received in SFP all year and not just during peak awarding times, we recommend a weekly check in, to ensure there isn’t an issue blocking any current or newly enrolling students from successfully obtaining title IV funding.
These use cases are examples of what can be identified with the report:
- ISIRs are not being matched to a student:
- Fail matching criteria incorrectly
- Fail matching criteria correctly (user can utilize the unmatched ISIR workflow)
- ISIR file(s) didn't load successfully
- Student is matched to an ISIR, however the SSN on the ISIR and student account don't match
- Review students that have pending documents or need a manual ISIR review
Watch a Demo.
Disbursement Status Report
The Disbursement Status Report contains a summary and a detail report. The summary allows users to see a count of disbursement statuses by fund code, award year, and program enrollment status while the detail tab provides student level disbursement information.
Navigation to Report:
- BI Publisher > Catalog > Shared Folders > SFP Reports > Product Reports> Operational > Disbursement Status Report
Suggested Monitoring Frequency:
- Running this report in the weeks leading up to any disbursing milestones can help aid in determining what disbursements are progressing towards disbursing. This information can help provide a forecast for the upcoming payment period.
These use cases are examples of what can be identified with the report:
- Population of disbursements that are in a particular status of interest, that is if there are a large number of disbursements in a Sent to COD status or in Held for QC Review.
Document Information Report
The document status report has been enhanced to provide more information related to both requested documents and unsolicited documents. A new Summary tab has been added to give you a top down view of documents within the given parameters, and the detail tab dives into the student level detail related to each document.
Navigation to Report:
- BI Publisher > Catalog > Shared Folders > SFP Reports > Product Reports> Operational > Document Information Report
Suggested Monitoring Frequency:
- Running this report in the weeks during ISIR processing and leading up to awarding and disbursing milestones can help aid in determining whether there are documents that need to be reviewed that may block downstream processes.
These use cases are examples of what can be identified with the report:
- Population of documents that are in a particular state of interest, that is if there are a large number of documents in a Pending state.
Steps to Enable
You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.
Tips And Considerations
- While the ISIR Reconciliation and Awarding Status report are updates to prior reports, you will still see the old versions in BI Publisher after this release:
- ISIR Loading Integration Report
- Award Status Criteria Report
Key Resources
- Watch Awarding Status Report Readiness Training
- Watch Fund Acceptance Readiness Training
- Watch Delayed Package Report Readiness Training
- Watch ISIR Reconciliation Readiness Training
With this enhancement, you can view audit logs via delivered product reports or by generating custom reports based on institutional need and preference. Audit logs are now available for access attempts and user management for the portal and the Admin UI, as well as updates to FAS regulatory and roles management. This will help to comply with compliance requirements, monitor business activity, and obtain data for risk analysis.
You can view a record of the event type, record type and applicable contextual data field/values per audit entry. An event type contains audit events in a certain functional area. For example, an event type may capture an audit of user account management activities from the Admin UI or the Self Service UI. Within the audit record, the system captures data field and values associated with the updating, creating and/or deleting of user account records. These data points allow you to define who completed that action, when it was completed, as well as the previous and current values of the user account.
Audit logs pulled via a rest API will return a JSON file.
| Event Type | Record Types | Data Fields |
| Fas User Account Management | Update, Create, Delete | Entity ID, Record ID, Created On, Last Modified on, Version, Event Triggered By, Log Entry ID, Log Entry Date Time, Log Entry Specification Version, Source, Log Entry Date Time, Log Entry Type, Current (User Name, Email, First/Last Name, User Type, Roles), Previous (User Name, Email, First/Last Name, User Type, Roles), Log Entry Properties |
| Fas Regulatory Management | Update, Create, Delete | Entity ID, Created on, Last Modified on, Audit Record ID, Version, Event Triggered By, Log Entry ID, Log Entry Source, Log Entry Specification Version, Log Entry Date Time, Logentry Type, Current (Award Year, FAFSA Completion Start Date, FAFSA Completion End Date), Previous (Award Year, FAFSA Completion Start Date, FAFSA Completion End Date), Log Entry Properties |
| Portal Role Management | Update, Create, Delete | Entity ID, Created on, Last Modified on, Audit Record ID, Version, Log Entry ID, Entry Date Time, Entry Type, Entry Source, Log Entry Specification Version, Event Triggered by, Current (Name, Category, Code, Description, Permissions), Previous (Name, Category, Code, Description, Permissions), Log entry Properties |
| Portal User Account Management | Update, Create, Delete | Created on, Last Modified on, Log entry Date Time, Log Entry Type, Audit record ID, Event triggered by, Version, Log Entry ID, Source, Version Number, Current (School Student ID, UserName, Email, First/Last Name, Roles, Status), Previous (School Student ID, UserName, Email, First/Last Name, Roles, Status). Log Entry Properties |
| System Access Event | Access | Entity ID, Created on, Last Modified on, Audit Record ID, Version, Log Entry ID, Event Triggered By, Log Entry Date Time, Log Entry Type, Log Entry Source, Log Entry Specification Version, Module Accessed, Access Status, Log Entry Properties |
With the introduction of audit logging, we have created 5 new Audit Log product reports, as well as 5 new data models in BI Publisher.
- Audit Log Report: This report pulls all audit log into the same report including the JSON file.
- Audit Login Logout Attempts: This report pulls all login attempts, both successful and failed attempts, to the Admin UI and the Student Portal.
- Audit Portal User Role Management: This report includes two tabs, the Audit Portal User Role Management tab and the Audit Portal Role Management tab. The first tab pulls records related to updates for a specific user, while the second tab pulls records when the role itself has been updated.
- Audit Regulatory Management: This report will pull records for any regulatory updates that are made through the Admin UI (Administration > FAS Management > Regulatory Management).
- Audit FAS User Role Management: This report includes all records for updates made to a user's account in the Admin UI.
Watch an Audit Logging Demo and an Audit Logging Reporting Demo.
Steps to Enable
- Your institution's admin will receive a new user name and password to access the audit logging API.
Tips And Considerations
- This framework will allow for further audit capability to be included in future releases.
Key Resources