Frequently Asked Questions

Select the line joining the functions and then press either the Delete or Backspace key on your keyboard.

When using the decimal function, you must include the leading zero in the value field. 85% would need to be entered as 0.85, not .85.

To capture the result of a custom process in a custom data field, you'll need to both create a custom process target and associate it with an academic year or payment period. This is done in the System Administration module. The custom process target can be created under Tools > Custom Process Targets, and then you can associate it from either Campus Information > Academic Years or Campus Information > Payment Periods, in the respective Custom Process Targets section.

Because custom process targets are year-specific, they can only be used with custom data fields on the Aid Package, Academic Year, Payment Period, Student Employment, and Other Custom Data pages.

Programs provide the ability for all the data needed for Federal award processing to be assigned to the student. After you've created a program (which can be done through the program import or manually in the System Administration module), you'll need to assign the program to the student from the Programs page of the student record, and then assign the program to the appropriate payment period(s) from the Academic Years & Payment Periods page in the student record.

For a program to be available to assign to a payment period, it must first be assigned to the student. This can also be done from the student record, under the Academic Profile > Programs page.

For schools using the Student Portal, text entered in the System Administration> Communications> Requirements> Display Description field will be visible by the student.

The student timeline fields are not available for selection sets or reporting, but the timeline data can be filtered on an individual student's record.

For a newly created custom data field to display it first must be associated with a page in the student record. This is done in System Administration module under Student Record Fields > Custom Data Views.

Locking a field prevents the data in that field from being updated, regardless of update method used. This includes manual updates, batch updates, and any other updates that would normally cause data to be recalculated or updated, such as receiving new data from an imported file or system integration (API).

See our Quick Reference Guide on Processing COD Updates and Disbursements.

See our Quick Reference Guide on Resolving COD Errors and Rejects.

For the Housing and Food entry to display a value on the CFP, the Housing for Reporting field must be populated on the student's Academic Years & Payment Periods page. This field can be updated manually, by batch update, or through the student information import process.

Award status doesn't directly impact tracking status. After awarding a student or adjusting an existing aid package, sending an award notification communication to the student is what will advance their tracking status. In situations where an award notification won't be sent, tracking status can be adjusted by setting the Aid Package Notification Completed field to Yes.

See the Searching for students with a posted ISIR within a specific award year example in the Example Selection Sets help article.

On the Select ISIR Files step of ISIR Import, upload all the files and then press the Control (Ctrl) key to select multiple files. You will receive a single results report and only the highest transaction included for each student will be posted. The lower transactions will still appear listed on the student record, providing the full history of all ISIR transactions.

For a fund to be available to select on the Aid Package, it first must be associated with the appropriate award year. This is done in the System Administration module under Packaging > Funds, in the Activity section.

Yes. You can remove or update any pre-configured funds to match your institutional practices.

The Scheduled Hours field on the Academic Years & Payment Periods page of the student record is used to calculate the enrollment intensity for the Federal Pell Grant award. If this field has a value greater than 0 and Federal Pell Grant is not awarded, the Federal Pell Grant page in the student record contains a Reasons Not Awarded section that can be referenced for further information.

To distribute the full amount of an award during a single term, first add an award (or locate an existing award) to the student's aid package and then enable the Manually Distribute field for the award. You can then adjust the distribution amounts so that the full amount is distributed in one payment period rather than across multiple payment periods. Make sure to leave the Manually Distribute field enabled after you've made your adjustments. The award will still process through disbursement authorization as normal.

If your school wants the name of each outside scholarship to be associated to the award (and appear in student communications), you'll need to create a fund for each scholarship. If you school doesn't have this requirement, you can create and use a single outside scholarship fund.

No, only one formula is used for each student. Within each packaging formula, you can create multiple fund groups to ensure that a student is evaluated against all awards they may qualify for.

See our Private Loans overview article for more information on processing private loans in PowerFAIDS.