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Tips from a Troubleshooter: Aiding (But Not Financially) with Financial Aid

Posted: Jun 22, 2009 by Sean Long | with 1 comment(s)
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I'm calling an emergency posting of Tips from a Troubleshooter, because I know a lot of you are awarding financial aid to students right now.  I'll return to my series on Student Billing 6 vs. Student Billing 7 soon, I promise.

The Financial Aid Billing Item describes the accounts the financial aid affects in the General Ledger, the schedule of financial aid credits, and a date range for the item.  Also, if the Financial Aid type has an awarded default amount, you define it on the Billing Item itself.

If you want to generate your financial aid credits alongside your Tuition charges, you can create separate financial aid items that mirror your tuition charge schedules.  For example, this screenshot shows a 10-pay Tuition item.  Of course, with an amount of $0.00, the student wouldn't be very grateful.

So how do we give each student the financial aid they deserve?  There's a few different ways of doing this, so pick the  best for your organization's structure.

  • Financial Aid Applications tab - Use this tab if the Registrar's Office or Admissions Office determines the financial aid amount and recipient. This tab is visible from both Registrar's Office and Student Billing, so the Registrar's Office can determine the amount students receive for each financial aid type.
    Tip: Make sure to use a different financial aid type for each billing item.
  • Add transactions to a group of records - If the financial aid amount is determined outside the software, use the Add Transactions to a Group of Records utility to add Financial Aid schedules to all of your students at the same time. Knowledgebase solution BB203392 guides you through the steps and you can use it for Financial Aid schedules as well!
  • Import - Good with spreadsheets? Use Import to put all of the schedules on the students' records.

Have more questions or additional clarification about financial aid?  Leave a comment!


Comments

Anthony Tomaino said:

Well put Sean.  The biggest piece of this post that always trips people up is how fiancial aid applies when it's generated.  Unless I'm sadly mistaken, financial aid is always less than tuition but usually follows the same schedule.  If you don't use this new option to have them apply by period, the future months of aid will apply back to old months of tuition. It doesn't hurt anything per se, but it makes the activity tab harder to read.

Ex.  If tuition is $10,000 for the year and they are on a 2 payment plan it will generate 2 charges: $5,000 and $5,000.  If financial aid is $5,000, it will generate 2 credits: $2,500 and $2,500.  So if you leave it as is, the entire $5,000 of financial aid applies to the first charge in the plan.

I say DEFINITELY use application restrictions, but always test on one record first before you add it to everyone to ensure you have it set up right.      

# June 25, 2009 2:35 PM
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