Understanding a Student’s Tracking Status

The student tracking status is a feature available in PowerFAIDS that is used to indicate each student’s progress throughout the financial aid cycle. The tracking status is displayed on the student record header for the most recent academic year, along with a View All option that displays a list of the tracking statuses for all academic years assigned to the student.

PowerFAIDS automatically determines a student's tracking status. When you change student data or run certain processes against a student record, the system dynamically evaluates the changes made and updates the tracking status accordingly. The tracking status is also used by the system to evaluate a student’s eligibility for inclusion or exclusion from processing.

Status Description

Incomplete for Packaging

Student has outstanding packaging requirements.

Ready for Packaging

Student has no outstanding packaging requirements.

Not Awarded

Student was included in an automated packaging process but no funds were awarded.

Packaging in Progress

The packaging process is currently in progress for the student. This status is set by the system to prevent the student from being included in other processes while the packaging process is running.

Warning: This is an internal processing status. If it is displayed more than momentarily for a student it may indicate an issue with the latest packaging process. If this occurs, be sure to consult the packaging results for additional information and try packaging the student again.

Awarded

Student has been manually or automatically packaged and at least one fund has been awarded.

Incomplete for Disbursement

Student has been awarded funds but has outstanding disbursement requirements.

Ready for Disbursement

 Student has been awarded funds, a financial aid offer communication has been generated, and has no outstanding disbursement requirements.

Requires Review

Student has already been packaged, but subsequently either their Pell Grant award, cost of attendance, or student aid index (SAI) changed, or a new payment period was added to their record.

Cancelled/Declined

Student has been awarded funds, no awards have been disbursed, and all awards have subsequently been set to a status of Declined or Cancelled.

Disbursement in Progress

The disbursement process is currently in progress for the student. This status is set by the system to prevent the student from being included in other processes while the disbursement process is running.

Warning: This is an internal processing status. If it is displayed more than momentarily for a student it may indicate an issue with the latest disbursement process. If this occurs, be sure to consult the disbursement results for additional information and try running disbursement for the student again.

Disbursements Made

Student has been manually or automatically packaged, disbursements have been processed, and at least one fund has been disbursed.

In Disbursement, New Award Created

Student has been manually or automatically packaged and disbursements have been processed, but a subsequent award has been added to their aid package.

In Disbursement, Fund Requirements

Student has been manually or automatically packaged and disbursements have been processed, but disbursement of at least one award is pending receipt of an outstanding fund-specific requirement.

Disbursement Suspended

Student has been manually or automatically packaged and disbursements have been processed, but a subsequent disbursement requirement has been added and is outstanding.

In Disbursement, Requires Review

Student has already been disbursed, but subsequently either their Pell Grant award, cost of attendance, or student aid index (SAI) changed, or a new payment period was added to their record.

Disbursement Cancelled

Student has been awarded funds and disbursements have been processed, but all awards have subsequently been set to a status of Declined or Cancelled.

Hold

Student’s advancement through the financial aid process has been manually placed on hold. This is done by selecting the Hold button next to the tracking status in the Academic Year and Payment Periods page. To remove the hold, select the Resume button; the system will automatically determine the correct status to advance into.

Student Tracking Status Progression

While there are many paths for the tracking status based on individual student scenarios, the status for a typical student will likely move through the following flow:

A student typically starts a new academic year with the Incomplete for Packaging status. This status indicates the student has outstanding packaging requirements.

The status progresses to Ready for Packaging once the student has no outstanding packaging requirements.

  1. The status progresses to Awarded once the student has been manually or automatically packaged and at least one fund has been awarded.
  2. Under certain circumstances, the student’s record may not progress directly to Awarded. Instead a Not Awarded status may be displayed if the student was included in an automated packaging process but no funds were awarded.
  1. The status progresses to Ready for Disbursement once the student has been awarded funds, a financial aid offer communication has been generated, and has no outstanding disbursement requirements.
  2. Under certain circumstances, the student’s record may not progress directly to Ready for Disbursement. Instead an Incomplete for Disbursement status may be displayed if the student has been awarded funds but has outstanding disbursement requirements.
  1. The status progresses to Disbursements Made once the student has been manually or automatically packaged, disbursements have been processed, and at least one fund has been disbursed.
  2. Under certain circumstances, the student’s record may not stay in the Disbursements Made status. Instead an In Disbursement, Fund Requirements status may be displayed if the student has been manually or automatically packaged and disbursements have been processed, but disbursement of at least one award is pending receipt of an outstanding fund-specific requirement. Other post-disbursement statuses include:
    • In Disbursement, New Award
    • Disbursement Suspended
    • Disbursement Cancelled
  1. The Requires Review status indicates the student has already been packaged, but subsequently either their Pell Grant award, cost of attendance, or student aid index (SAI) changed, or a new payment period was added to their record..
  2. The In Disbursement, Requires Review status indicates the student has already been disbursed, but subsequently either their Pell Grant award, cost of attendance, or student aid index (SAI) changed, or a new payment period was added to their record.

Trigger Tracking Status Evaluation

To trigger the system to evaluate the tracking status for the student record, complete the following steps:

  1. Search for and select the student record you want to update the tracking status for. For more information see Searching for Student Records.
  2. Expand the Academic Profile option in the middle navigation menu and select Academic Years & Payment Periods.
  1. Select the academic year for which you want to recalculate the tracking status from the Academic Year dropdown list.
  2. Under the Tracking Status field in the header, select the Pause button.

    The Academic Years & Payment Periods page header with the Tracking Status field highlighted to show the Pause button.

  3. Wait for the page to reload and the tracking status to change to Hold.

Under the Tracking Status field in the header, select the Play button.

The Academic Years & Payment Periods page header with the Tracking Status field highlighted to show the Play button.

The system automatically evaluates the student record and sets the appropriate tracking status.

Batch Update Tracking Status

The tracking status for one or more student records can be set through Update Field Values within the Batch Processing module using the Academic Year for which you want to update the tracking status and the Field Alias of AcademicYear.TrackingStatus. For more information, see Batch Update Field Values.