Federal Award Processing (COD)

The Federal Award Processing (COD) Import/Export feature in PowerFAIDS performs a variety of functions to share student award and disbursement data for federal aid between PowerFAIDS and the Department of Education. Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) is commonly used after students have been awarded Title IV aid and when it's time to disburse funds to student accounts. Although COD provides an online portal to manually enter data, PowerFAIDS uses their file-based data transfer method so that groups of changes can be processed at once and the two systems can remain in sync. PowerFAIDS provides the ability to generate files you can send to COD as well as import the files you need to process your students’ federal aid. Financial aid administrators can notify COD about student awards and request COD to release the funds so they can authorize the disbursement of the award using the PowerFAIDS COD Export feature. The COD Response Import feature can then be used to import the response files, along with other COD system-generated files, such as the Master Promissory Note response and the PLUS Application response files, just to name a few.

Some of these COD import and export processes are used to:

For the origination reporting process, you'll use PowerFAIDS to create files that contain award and disbursement data used to process Title IV awards. Origination records are used to establish students, awards, and anticipated disbursements in the COD System. When you create an origination file, you can report Direct Loans, Pell Grants, and TEACH Grants in a single file or report information for each program separately by selecting the funds you want to include in the export.

Once you have created an origination file, download it from the File Manager, and transmit it to the COD System. The COD System will process the records in the file then send a response file indicating whether the records were accepted or rejected. That file can be imported into PowerFAIDS.

An origination record can only be reported to COD one time. After an award origination has been reported to COD, all updated information for an anticipated or actual disbursement is reported to COD using either the update or disbursement process.

Note: In previous versions of PowerFAIDS, rejected origination files were corrected with a maintenance record. In PowerFAIDS Cloud, if an origination is rejected, you can simply correct the data and then originate again.

Note: In previous versions of PowerFAIDS, origination files only contained award level data. In PowerFAIDS Cloud, origination files also contain disbursement level data. The results report must be expanded to view the disbursement level data; if an origination file is rejected, both the award level data and the disbursement level data should be reviewed. For more information see COD Export Dashboard and Results Report.

For the update process, you'll use PowerFAIDS to create files that contain changes made to an award previously originated or disbursed. Update records are used to report changes to any award or disbursement information already reported to the COD System in an origination or disbursement file.

When you export an update file, you can report Direct Loans, Pell Grants, and TEACH Grants in a single file or report information for each program separately by selecting the funds you want to include in the export.

The Update option is used create a file that:

  • Reports changes to information previously reported to the COD System in an origination file.

  • Reports changes to the disbursement amounts and dates of actual and anticipated disbursements.

Note: Users familiar with COD and users of previous versions of PowerFAIDS may know the file generated from the update flow as a maintenance record. The update flow produces this maintenance record.

Using the Federal Award Processing (COD) Export you can report actual disbursements for Title IV awards up to seven days before the disbursement date. Reporting actual disbursements is date-driven, and controlled by the As of Date you specify. When you run the disbursement process, the update process is run simultaneously so awards and disbursements that successfully pass either process are included, saving you time.

The Disbursement option is used to create a file that:

  • Reports changes to information previously reported to the COD System in an origination file.

  • Reports new actual disbursements. An actual disbursement is one exported in Real mode and has a Disbursement Release Indicator (DRI) of True.

  • Reports changes to the disbursement amounts and dates of actual and anticipated disbursements.