6.2.0.0/6.2.1.0 Product Brief

Product Release Summary

This Product Brief includes a summary of Regent 6.2 and 6.2.1 releases, information on key enhancements, and direction to additional documentation and information.

Product Release Description

The 6.2 and 6.2.1 releases address product defects as listed in the “Bugs” section of the Release Notes, and also enhancements and new features including:

Release 6.2

• Remainder of 2023-2024 ISIR Processing Functionality (most 2023-2024 ISIR processing was released in 6.1.1.0)

• TEACH Sequestration Reduction Amount

• Focused Batch Packaging

• Ability to Limit EST File Size

• 2023-2024 Verification Worksheet

Release 6.2.1

• Regent Fund

  • Fund Awarding Dashboard

  • Linking Queries, Funds, and Awarding Cycles

  • ‘Export Fund Awarding Information File’ Export Process and ‘Thank You Note’ Smart Form

• Document Assignment by Query

• Additional Query Fields

Further details on enhancements/new features and a complete list of bug fixes as well as any new scripts and data views can be found in the Release Notes. 

The Release Notes also contain information on new configuration options, and a list of updates to the Admin Guide and User Guide.

Other Documentation 

In addition to the Product Brief, the following documentation is also available: 

System Requirements

Any client currently using Regent Award may take Regent 6.2.x for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Any client currently using Regent Review may take Regent 6.2.x for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Any client currently using Regent Access may take Regent 6.2.x for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Any client currently using Regent Award may take the Regent 6.2.x version of Student Experience for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

• Please note that if upgrading Regent Award from a release prior to 6.1.1.0, a build script will be executed as part of an upgrade to the 6.1.2.0 release.

• The script will identify and fix existing Nonterm students for 180 days and abbreviated periods by identifying students with a 180-days since the last attended period and abbreviated periods that have not been hard-closed and setting the flag to close the period if the flag is not already set.

• Batch Packaging will need to be executed after the upgrade for schools with Nonterm programs either based on the scheduled process or manually in order for the resolution to apply and Academic Plan to update.

• If Batch Packaging does not include ‘Inactive’ students, the ‘Inactive’ students would require a user to MAP the student(s) before updates are realized.

• A client with a high volume of nonterm students will need to expect the script to take up to a couple of hours to run.

Any client currently using Regent Review may take the Regent 6.2.x version of Student Experience for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Some Regent Access clients may take the Regent 6.2.x version of Student Experience for UAT and ultimately production upgrade. Please work with your Account Manager for additional information. Note: All current customer-specific functionality in the legacy portal may not be available in the new Student Experience portal at this time.

Clients using Regent Award for Salesforce will not need to upgrade to a new Salesforce application version in order to continue current functionality. However, an upgrade to the new version is recommended to benefit from improvements in performance and sync logging for diagnostic purposes.  

New Feature Overview for Regent 6.2

Remainder of 2023-2024 ISIR Processing Functionality (RS-21775, RS-21773)

The majority of the 2023-2024 ISIR processing support was included in the 6.1.1.0 Release. That included updates to the ISIR Details display, Verification/Corrections Wizard, ISIR Comparison Tool, ISIR-related message classes, ISIR import and export functions, ISIR print function, and the 2023-2024 EFC calculations. Please remember that the new message classes are dynamically set as Active for SAIG process for the new 2023-2024 year if the related classes were configured as Active for the 2022-2023 FAY.

This 6.2 release updates the SAR Comment Code Text Definitions per the U.S. Department of Education 2023-2024 SAR Comment Codes and Text document.  These items display in ISIR Details, the Compare ISIR Wizard, and in the ISIR Print function. 

This release also updates the ISIR Assumption and Reject codes for the new 2023-2024 year.

Important Reminders:

• Ensure your 'Set Verification Status' configuration on the Institution Setup Tab is set to assign 'N' (Needed) status to 2023-2024 V1, V4, and V5 ISIRs as they are imported into Regent. 

• Ensure you do not import any 2023-2024 ISIRs until you have upgraded to 6.2 and configured any documents to be assigned upon import of 2023-2024 ISIRs (see below for document updates in support of the Verification Worksheet).

TEACH Sequestration Reduction Amount (RS-21769)

The TEACH sequestration reduction amounts for awards first disbursed on or after 10/1/2022 will reflect the same amounts as those that were in effect for the previous year. The reduction rate remains 5.70%.

Focused Batch Packaging (RS-19779) - Updated 12/20/2022

Standard batch packaging in Regent Award packages all students meeting the selected parameters on each run whether or not their data has changed, and creates new Activity Log entries for each student included in the run.  As student populations in Regent increase for a client, batch packaging runtime can be affected.  Additionally, if there was no change to the student’s data, the new Activity Log entries have been redundant and unnecessary.

Regent is introducing a new, Focused Batch Packaging option for a more limited run that will only include students identified as requiring packaging because their awards may be affected by new data. The criteria to identify a student as ‘queued for packaging’ has been expanded to better ensure this new, focused packaging run captures all necessary students.  The ‘queued for packaging’ flag will remain on the student until successfully packaged, whether through a standard BP run, the new Focused BP run, or via MAP. As has been the case, a student who is queued for packaging and has not yet been packaged will receive an EST-0059 edit during EST. Once the student has been packaged, the flag will be removed and the student will no longer receive the EST-0059 validation edit.

The criteria to identify a student as ‘queued for packaging’ now includes changes to student data through import or manual activity, assignment of or status updates to documents or tasks, finalization of an R2T4, passage of key payment period dates (such as Begin Actual, Autowithdrawal and End Date), and changes to configuration (such as COA, Fund, Program, Term, or Packaging Philosophy setups).  The updated list of data changes that will queue a student for packaging is available at Batch Packaging - Customer Zone Knowledge Base.  Students will be flagged as ‘queued for packaging’ when any of the listed criteria are met, whether a client intends to use the Focused Batch Packaging option or not and will need to be resolved via a method of packaging.

To use the Focused Batch Packaging option, check the ‘Process Students with Data Changes Only’ checkbox at the bottom of the batch packaging parameters list.  Only students who have been ‘queued for packaging’ will be included in the run.  If the ‘Process Students with Data Changes Only’ checkbox is not checked (the default setting), a standard batch packaging run will include all students meeting the other selected parameters whether or not they have been ‘queued for packaging’.  Clients can schedule the standard or ‘all students’ option to run on the weekend or at another time of lower system demand.  

IMPORTANT:  All clients should run a full BP upon first upgrade to a Regent version that contains this functionality whether or not they plan to use ‘Focused BP’.

 NOTE: Award packaging Activity Log Entries will only populate if there has been a change to an award amount, paid amount, award status or FAY for standard Batch Packaging or new Focused Batch Packaging.

Ability to Limit EST File Size (RS-23151)

The EST file partitioning options in Export EST Options are replaced with enhanced options to limit EST file size.  These new options include Fund, Institution, Campus, Site, FAY, Transaction Type (separates positive and negative transactions), and Number of Students. If more than one option is selected, all selected options will be applied for each file created.  For example, if ‘Fund’ and ‘Campus’ are both selected for Export EST Options, a separate file will be created for each Fund for each Campus.  The resulting EST files will reflect the selected options.  For our example, the resulting files will include ‘Fund_Campus’ in the file name.

2023-2024 Verification Worksheet (RS-23568)

All year references have been incrementally updated for the new Federal Award Year.

Important Reminder: As verification is now required for the 2023-2024 FAY, ensure your 'Set Verification Status' configuration in Institution Setup is set to assign 'N' (Needed) status to 2023-2024 V1, V4, and V5 ISIRs as they are imported into Regent. 

      Contact Your Regent Account Manager to upgrade to the new Verification Worksheets

Annual Document Updates in Support of the Verification Worksheet:

Each year, annual documents must be added to a client's Document Setup before ISIRs are imported for the new year in order for Regent Review's Verification Worksheet to function properly. Please be certain to test this first in a QA environment before updating your Production instance. 

A list of the current Regent Review documents for existing clients can be found here: 2023-2024 Verification Support Document Configuration List

ISIRs for the NEW aid year should not be imported into Regent Award until this Document Setup is complete.

Please follow the steps below to update the Regent Review document requirements for the 2023-2024 FAY.

Document Updates Step 1:

1. Confirm the following document requirements are configured in your Regent instance:

   1. Verification Worksheet

   2. Verification Worksheet - Changed

   3. Verification Worksheet -V5

   4. Verification Worksheet-Revised Request

2. Update the four document requirements listed above:

   1. If the document requirements above are configured and if the 'All FAYs' is not selected, add the FAY association for the new year.

   2. If the document requirements above are configured and the 'All FAYs' is selected, no further action is required for these requirements.

   3. If the document requirements are not configured at all, please create a Customer Zone ticket to receive guidance for adding or updating the document requirements.

3. Update the following documents, if necessary, to account for any changes you made when the 2022-2023 verification requirements were waived:   

   1. Verification Worksheet

   2. Verification Worksheet -V5

   3. Verification Worksheet -Change

4. Depending on what changes you made for the 2022-2023 year, you may need to update the 2023-2024 Verification Worksheets requirements as follows:

   1. On the General tab, update the Initial Status from Waived to Needed

   2. On the General tab, update the Scope by removing FAY 2022-2023 and adding FAY 2023-2024, if applicable

   3. On the General tab, if you used the expiration date, review the setup to see if any updates are necessary for your 2023-2024 processing

   4. On the ISIR assignment tab, enable the ISIR Assignment

   5. On the ISIR tab, update the Initial Status from Waived to Needed

   6. On the ISIR Tab, confirm the Correct FAY years are selected for Scope (excluding 2022-2023 as appropriate)

Document Updates Step 2:

Select one of the following two methods for this step.

Method 1:  Adding Documents via the Regent Award Export/Import Processes

1. Download documents in XML format from Regent Award:

   1. Click on the Export Processes under the Processes menu tab

   2. Select 'Export Setup Configuration' under the Process Type 

   3. Select 'XML' for Format

   4. Select Enterprise

   5. Select All or applicable Institutions

   6. Select All or applicable Campuses

   7. Select All or applicable Sites

   8. Add the Document, DocumentAssignmentISIR, and DocumentRequirementsSBLUDF templates

   9. Click Export

   10. Click on the Process Log under the Processes menu tab 

   11. Click on the Download File(s) on the Export Setup Configuration Process Type for the process ran above

2. Update the XML document export file for the 2023-2024 FAY:

   1. Remove all documents that you will not be updating for the 2023-2024 FAY.  For example, if you have added other student-scoped or 'All FAY' documents to your system that will not need updated for the 2023-2024 FAY, remove them from the XML file. 

      1. Your current document configurations for these documents will remain unchanged in your Regent instance.

      2. Hint:  You will likely be removing any documents that do not have 2022-2023 or 2020 in the document name.

   2. Update the Document externalId for each document remaining in the XML document.

      1. These will be the new externalids for the new document requirements you are creating.

      2. The externalIDs must must be unique across all documents.

3. Update Document Names and add the 2023-2024 FAY: 

   1. Search all FAY-scoped documents that do not have a year reference in the Document Name and have 2023 in the 'FAY List' and add the 2024 FAY to the 'FAY List'.

      1. Search all documents with a ‘name' (document name) that contains 2023 and replace 2023 with 2024

   2.  Then, search for documents with a 'name' (document name) that contains 2022 and replace 2022 with 2023

      1. Search for documents with a 'name' (document name) that contains 2020 and replace 2020 with 2021

   3. Upload documents in XML format into Regent Award:

   4. Click on the Import Processes under the Processes menu tab

      1. Select 'Import Student Documents XML' under the Process Type

      2. Select the updated XML file under the Import File

      3. Click Import

      4. Review documents under the Document Setup in the Regent Award User Interface

Method 2:  Adding New Documents Manually

1. Manually add new 2023-2024 document requirements under Document Setup in the Regent Award User Interface for the forms on this list: 2023-2024 Verification Support Document Configuration List  

2. Important notes:

   1. The Document Name must not be modified on these documents or it will affect the functioning of the Verification Worksheet in Regent Review.

   2. Create a new, unique externalID for each new document requirement.

   3. However, a customer can update the Document Message and can update the Document ID.  A Document ID is provided in these files and is required for the import process to work.  

   4. Also, take note that any file attachments needed for these documents must be added manually through Document Setup. 

   5. Finally, ISIRs for the NEW aid year should not be imported into Regent Award until this Document Setup is complete.

Other Annual Document Updates

Each year, our customers must also make Document Setup updates that pertain to general Financial Aid and Student processing, that are not specific to Regent Review's Verification Worksheet Functionality.  Clients are encouraged to do this work themselves, or they can engage with Regent under a paid SOW to complete the work. 

If you wish to assign due dates or expiration dates to specific documents, please see Document Setup Data Elements for more information on configuring those dates.

New Feature Overview for Regent 6.2.1

Regent Fund- Fund Awarding Dashboard (RS-24107)

A new ‘Fund Awarding’ Dashboard gives Regent Fund licensed users a Fund Awarding Summary and Fund Awarding Detail view of FAY-based awarding data. The Dashboard displays awarding data by fund for the selected FAY and selected Institution. The dashboard displays information related to awarding of funds other than Direct Graduate PLUS Loan, Direct Parent PLUS, Direct Subsidized Loan, Direct Unsubsidized Loan, TEACH, IASG, and Pell Grant, based on Institution/FAY selection. The Fund Awarding Summary is a clear and simple way for an institution’s scholarship managers to view and analyze the Total Amount Awarded, Budgeted Funds Awarded, Budgeted Funds Remaining, Percentage of Total Budget Used, and Unbudgeted Funds Awarded. The dashboard also includes a Fund Awarding Summary grid that displays the breakdown of individual funds and the number of students awarded, total awarded amount, and budget remaining. Users can click a fund in the summary to display budget-level and student-level information for the fund in the Fund Awarding Details section. To display the Fund Awarding Dashboard, Fund users will navigate to User Setup, General, and select the ‘Fund Awarding’ checkbox under ‘Dashboards’.

Regent Fund- Linking Queries, Funds, & Awarding Cycles (RS-24106)

This enhancement adds the ability to link a query to a fund to determine eligibility during the automated packaging process. Users must ensure that Funds and Payment Periods are accurately configured to use a query. If the fund is FAY scoped and the Query Eligibility checkbox is selected, only the FAY and Payment Period columns will display when adding a query. If the fund is AY scoped and the Query Eligibility checkbox is selected, the Academic Year and Payment Period columns will display instead. The query is inserted into the fund eligibility ruleset, thereby allowing for the autopackaging of funds determined via query eligibility. The funds will be awarded using Packaging Philosophy, Fund Setup, and Packaging Grid configurations. The fund will not be awarded if no query criteria is present or the query is not active.

Users will check the ‘Auto Package’ box in the Packaging Philosophy for the funds to autopackage. 

NOTE: Please be aware that funds for which you plan to use Ranking and Priority options should not be set to autopackage with 6.2.1. This capability is scheduled for a future release. With the 6.2.1 release, queries are available to all clients, but the Ranking and Priority capabilities are limited to Regent Fund licensees.

Regent Fund- ‘Export Fund Awarding Information File’ Export Process and ‘Thank You Note’ Smart Form (RS-22397)

Several institutions require students to submit thank you notes to the donors of their awarded scholarships. Regent created a ‘Thank You Note’ Smart Form to allow students to enter a personalized note of thanks to be communicated by the school to a donor in a consolidated format at the end of the awarding cycle. The document requirement will be assigned for student completion by packaging of Donor-sponsored funds, based on Document Setup. The document must have a ‘Smart Form Type’ of ‘Thank You Note’. In Document Setup, an AY-scoped Thank You Note is needed, with associations to AY-scoped funds AND a separate FAY-scoped Thank You Note is needed, with associations to FAY-scoped funds. Enforce Scope Uniqueness can be set to ensure document is only assigned once per FAY or AY.

The body of the student’s message will be included in the output of the new 'Export Fund Awarding Information File' process for clients to communicate to donors as needed. Selection parameters for the process include Institution/Campus/Site, Scope, and Funds. There is also an option to limit the Fund selection options to funds that have Donor Information configured in Fund Setup. Only non-Title IV funds are included in the selection options. The output for the process will include student data, award data, and Donor Information data, based on the selected parameters. Donor Information data includes the status of the ‘Thank You Note’ Smart Form associated to the award. With this new functionality, a financial aid office is able to supply a Thank You Note file to other departments for donor relation purposes. The export process name is ‘Export Fund Awarding Information File’ and it is found in the Export Process menu under the Processes menu as a CSV file.

Document Assignment by Query (RS-21231)

The Document Assignment Tool allows users to execute a new process that assigns selected documents in bulk to students based on a pre-defined query. Users are presented with the 'Document Assignment' option in the Tools section of the Regent Award menu, if the user has ‘Document Assignment Tool’ permission enabled. (Clients can enable this permission within Roles>Permissions>Global Permission>Tools Permissions>Document Assignment). Users will select an Institution and Query then choose Documents to be assigned to students returned by the selected Query. Based on Document Setup, if the scope of a selected document is ‘Federal Award Year,' user will select a FAY. If the scope of the selected document is Payment Period or Academic Year, user will enter ‘Start Date From’ and ‘Start Date To’ values. The Status field for each document will default to the ‘Set Initial Document Status to’ value in Document Setup, but can be changed. After selections are complete, user will ‘Execute’ the Document Assignment process and documents will be assigned to students. Information about the Document Assignment process run will be available in the Process Log and the student's Activity Log, indicating a document requirement was added by the Document Assignment Tool.

This ability to assign documents by query is open to Fund and non-Fund licensed clients. Clients can refer to https://regenteducation.atlassian.net/l/cp/W1k3Y3AF for further information on the use of queries.

Additional Query Fields (RS-24109)

The following ISIR data fields are now available within the Query tool.

• FTI: FISAP Total Income

• HS Diploma or Equivalent Received

• High School Name, City, & State

Known Issues for Regent 6.2.x