Factors that Affect Budgeted Awards

Owned by Heather Smith
Last updated: Mar 11, 2022
3 min read

Introduction

Budgeted awards might be affected by Fund Setup, other configuration settings outside of the Fund Budgets screen, and other factors. Below is a summary of common factors to consider when configuring a fund that has budgets, or when troubleshooting an award from a budgeted fund. (See Regent Award Fund Budgets for information about Fund Budget functionality.) 

Student Factors

The student may have specific characteristics that affect their awards. For example, a student might need a Verified ISIR from the correct FAY, a Title IV-eligible SAP status, remaining COA, or remaining need. Students with crossover periods might have FAY-specific constraints. 

Manual Awards

A manual award amount will not automatically be adjusted during packaging. If a user tries to manually add an award when insufficient money remains in the budget, the system will prevent the user from adding the remaining amount beyond the budget's Balance. 

Custom Rulesets

Some funds have school-specific, customized rules. For example, many campus-based Federal Supplemental Grant (SEOG) funds use custom logic set by the school. These special rules determine a student's eligibility, amount calculations, award cancelation, and disbursing.  Custom rules will honor the configured budgets and will update the budgets as awards are packaged and paid. However, depending on the ruleset's custom code, the custom rules might not apply all the Fund Setup configuration settings.

Import Awards

The configuration setting ‘Offset Fund Budget Amounts for Import Awards' in Regent Award Institution Setup determines how the system handles budgets for funds that are added via the Import Awards and Disbursement (IAD) process. This setting allows customers to determine if they want to offset a budget’s ‘Balance Remaining to Offer’ when onboarding a customer that has budgeted awards, such as SEOG and other non-COD awards. (See Import Awards and Disbursements.)

Fund Setup

A Fund's configuration will directly affect its awarding. The Fund Setup configuration is especially important if a fund does not use custom rules (it is a "ruleset-less" fund.)

The following Fund Setup configuration settings can potentially affect awards from Budgeted funds:

  • Award amounts can be limited by FAP Limit, Aggregate Limit, and Award Minimum/Maximum.

  • Several settings control whether the system will change amounts if the student's calculated eligibility changes: 

    • Allow Auto-Adjustment of Paid Disbursements - Determines whether the system will alter paid disbursements.

    • Adjustments Allowed - For auto-accepted awards, determines how the system will alter awards if the eligible amount is changed.

    • Adjust After Census Date - For term-based students, determines whether the term amounts can change after a term's census date.

  • Auto-package Using Document(s) may require a specific document to be assigned for the student for a given scope period. If a student does not have that document, they cannot receive the award.

  • Cease Auto-Packaging controls the range when the system will auto-package a new award.

  • Cease Disbursement specifies a date when disbursements can no longer be paid.

  • Additional COA Requirements can limit award amounts based on specific Cost Groups. For example, a Books award might be limited to COA from the 'Books and Supplies' Cost Items.

  • Sites sub-tab - The student must be associated with the correct Site.

  • Programs sub-tab - The student's program must be linked to the fund. For example, if a school is configuring an undergrad-only SEOG fund, the graduate-level programs would not be selected in the Fund's Programs sub-tab.

See Fund Setup for more details on these settings.

Other Configuration Setting Factors

Other configuration settings might affect awarding for a budgeted award.