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

Anthony Tomaino — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:35:30 GMT

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.