Introduction

This Business Process Analysis (BPA) and System Configuration document describes the functionality and configuration settings related funds and packaging philosophies in Regent Award. 

This page defines the following associated with Funds, Packaging Philosophy and Disbursement Schedules:

• Fund

  • Budgets, Fees and Configurations

• Packaging Philosophy

  • Packaging Limits, Packaging Grids, Packaging Order, Packaging Limits, and Auto-packaging

• Disbursement Schedules

  • Disbursable fund, Multiple Disbursement, and Configuration

• Specifications for the school’s specific configuration of the following:

  • Data requirements

  • Communication

  • User Roles

  • Programs and Terms

  • Breaks

  • Documents

  • Tasks

  • Additional Configuration 

Process Overview

Regent Award takes all funds for which the student is eligible into consideration when determining the student’s overall package.  When packaging is executed for a student, Regent Award uses the fund configuration and packaging philosophy to determine the order to package the funds and the amount to allow for packaging.

Regent Award enables schools to provide Federal, state and/or institutional funds that will be assigned to the student through the packaging/awarding process or via award wizards in Regent Award.

Some of the Fund configuration settings will have already been configured at the “Institution” or “Campus” level and may be inherited down to the Fund level where another option can be selected if necessary for that fund. Once a fund is added in Regent Award it cannot be deleted but can be made inactive.   

Fund Budgets

Regent Award allows for the configuration of budgets to accompany the fund.  Fund budgets are configured to follow the student’s Academic Year (AY) or the Federal Award Year (FAY).  This scope period is set when the fund is initially configured.  Funds configured with an FAY scope period have the total fund allotment granted by the FAY such as campus-based Title IV funds (FSEOG and Federal Works Study). Funds configured with an AY scope period have the total fund allotment granted by the AY such as institutional or other awards.  The fund budget manages those allotments for payment periods that fall within the scope period.  The fund period and the scope period must be aligned.

Portions of the total fund allotment (for example, FSEOG for a specific FAY) may be reserved for students starting later in the scope period by managing multiple budgets with staggered effective dates for students starting later.  When there are multiple budgets for a single fund, funds allocated to a student come from one budget.  The budget from which funds are awarded is determined by the date in which the student’s eligible period started.  The eligible period is either the student’s payment period or AY.  FAY-scoped funds must use payment period for the eligible period, but AY-scoped funds may use either.

Open

If the first day of the eligible period falls within the date range of the configured Period Start Date and Period End Date, that budget applies to that student.  A student will not be awarded from more than one budget for a fund during a scope period.

Once the fund budget is exhausted eligible students can no longer be funded from the fund in the eligible period.  The award shows on the student’s package as “Unfunded”. This displays in Regent Award on the Academic Plan and Awards tabs and is visible to the school for a user with the appropriate permissions. If funds are returned to the budget, e.g. a previously funded student withdraws, and the funds are returned, an unfunded student may be subsequently awarded the fund.

Fund Fees

Regent Award is configured with fund fees for designated fund types within setup. Fund fees include origination fees, interest percentages, and interest rebates with the ability to configure set values by Federal award year at the fund level.

Required changes to fund fees must be updated via the Fund Fee step up screen.

Once configuration changes are completed for Title IV funds, the automated ‘Run Fund Fee Cancel/Recreate Process’ executes as part of batch packaging and cancels and re-originates unpaid awards, at COD, for which a fund fee change is required based on configuration settings. The ‘Run Fund Fee Cancel/Recreate Process’ can also be initiated manually by users with the appropriate permission.

Consistent with current Direct Loan Origination Fee requirements, fund fees may be configured to be effective as follows:

• First Disbursement

• Beginning of Loan Period

• Beginning of Federal Award Year

Note, that if the first disbursement of the award has not occurred prior to the new fund fee effective date, the award will be eligible for the fund fee change and be updated by the automated ‘Run Fund Fee Cancel/Recreate Process’.

Fund Configuration Options

The fund configuration provides the awarding and disbursement rules for the fund scope defined (i.e. Academic Year or Federal Award Year) to determine how and when the fund should be awarded.  For example, if the fund is a non-need-based fund, it will be configured with the ‘Replaces EFC’ option selected, and the fund will be packaged accordingly.  If the fund is configured with the ‘ISIR Required’ option selected, the fund will not be packaged until an ISIR exists.

Fund Distribution Options

If the ‘Award Distribution Options’ are configured for a fund that is a “Federal Award Year” fund scope, schools can determine how the fund will award within a FAY as long as the fund does not have a custom fund rule.  Schools can choose to divide the fund evenly across payment periods (PPs) in a FAY or divide the fund evenly across PPs in a FAY not to exceed cost per the term/ payment period.

Open

 If “Divide Evenly Across PPs in the FAY” is chosen, the total award amount is divided evenly across the PPs, in the FAY, with an even portion awarded to each PP.  

If “Divide Evenly Across PPs in the FAY, Not to Exceed Cost per PP” is chosen, the total award amount is divided evenly across the terms/ payment periods, within the FAY, giving consideration to the cost cap configured per the Packaging Philosophy "Package To" and "Package To Amount" values.  Reference the Packaging Philosophy section below in this document.

Fund Groups

Fund Group Limits allow Regent Award to apply a total combined maximum amount per award period, for two or more funds together. Users may select two or more funds to be associated together in a Fund Group. Users may then specify a maximum combined limit across the group. When Regent Award packages a student for any of the selected funds, the Regent Award ensures the total award amounts do not exceed the maximum limit.

During packaging, the system applies the fund group limit as an additional packaging constraint. Regent Award calculates the combined total of all award amounts from grouped funds in a given Award Period. The Regent Award adjusts individual award amounts to avoid exceeding the group’s annual combined limit. If a fund’s amount would exceed the total combined limit, then Regent Award only packages that award up to the limit. 

If a school configures multiple Fund Groups, and an award would be limited by two or more groups, Regent Award uses the lowest group limit that applies. 

Regent Award maintains its existing Packaging Philosophy and Fund behaviors. If a Fund is configured to use a certain distribution pattern, Regent Award applies that fund’s settings. For example, if a fund is configured to not exceed cost per payment period, the system limits the PP amount based on the PP COA.

Packaging Philosophy

Packaging Philosophy defines the awarding sequence (the order in which funds are considered for packaging) for funds at a given campus. It also provides a means for schools to configure basic packaging rules such as whether the fund is to be auto packaged and whether the fund should be awarded up to total cost of attendance or financial need (award 100% of COA).

Packaging Limits

The amount packaged for the fund is limited by the “Packaged To” options set for the fund in the packaging philosophy which identifies the type of packaging target for the specific fund – in conjunction with the “Package To Amount”, it specifies the maximum amount of the fund, when considered on top of all other funds already awarded for the period, that may be awarded. ‘Packaged To’ configuration options include:

This configuration determines the limit of the award amount based on the student’s cost of attendance or need criteria. For example, a fund configured to package to 100% of FM Need would limit the award amount to FM Need for the student.   In addition, Regent Award takes into consideration the student’s EFC and the fund configuration to replace EFC when determining a student’s eligibility for the fund. Also, if configured, Regent Award will take into consideration the aggregate limits, minimum/ maximum limits and financial award period.

Packaging to Net Loan Amounts for Direct Cost

Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans can be configured to package using the net loan amounts instead of the gross loan amounts. If the “Package to the Net Loan Amount for Direct Costs” is not selected, Regent Award packages these funds using the gross loan amounts. 

The Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized funds must be configured with two additional options that are available in the "Package To" dropdown field:

• % of Amount of Direct Cost

• Within $ of Amount of Direct Costs

Packaging Using Additional COA Requirements

Schools can configure the Packaging Philosophy to only include specific Cost Groups for automatically awarding specific funds because certain funds (by federal, state, institutional or external rules) may be used only for specific costs. For example, some funds can be used to pay tuition and fees, while others are designated solely to pay tuition costs (and not fees).  Regent Award allows schools to identify specific Cost Groups to use when determining an award's maximum amount for a specific fund. To accommodate this, a school must configure the "Additional COA Requirements" on the Fund Setup where the user may configure specific Cost Groups that are used to determine awarding for the selected fund.

If the "Additional COA Requirement" option is configured on a fund, two additional options are available in the "Package To" dropdown field:

• % of Additional COA Requirement

• Within $ of Additional COA Requirement

When one of these options is chosen, Regent Award packages that fund to the amount of the Cost Groups configured under “Additional COA Requirement” on the Fund Setup. When using additional COA requirements the Regent Award system logic is:

• Totals up the sum of the costs associated to the Cost Groups assigned to the "Additional COA Requirements", for the period being evaluated to determine the amount to "Package To."

• Ignores Cost Groups configured for the fund whose effective dates do not apply at the time of packaging.

• Uses only applicable items from the specified Cost Groups when determining the amount maximums (as designated in the Packaging Philosophy.)

• Applies new configuration if the Cost Group is updated when packaging runs after the changes are saved.

• Ignores packaging a student if the Cost Group or fund does not apply due to the student not being in the site and/or program associated to the Cost Group.   

Additional COA Manual Cost Adjustments

If configured on a fund, users can apply an additional COA adjustment when using the Adjust Cost Wizard. Regent Award determines if any of the cost items in the “Additional COA Requirement” cost groups are “billed by school” or “direct cost” and will apply the cost adjustment accordingly.

Manual adjustments may be required to be made to fund for which the cost adjustment should not apply. 

For additional details on the Cost Groups and Cost Adjustments reference the COA BPA.

Multiple/ Alternative Packaging Philosophies

Regent Award provides schools with the option to configure one or more Packaging Philosophies in addition to the Default Packaging Philosophy. An Alternative Packaging Philosophy supports the school’s need to support different “Package To” targets.

If configured, users with the appropriate permissions can select an alternate philosophy on a per student basis using the ‘Packaging Philosophy Override’ in the Modify Academic Plan (MAP) wizard or via User Defined Field (UDF.)

When a user overrides the current Packaging Philosophy and subsequently repackages a student via MAP, Regent Award will create an Activity Log Entry. For example:  Student's Packaging Philosophy was overridden from "Packing Philosophy A" to " Packing Philosophy B" beginning with AY2. The current Packaging Philosophy for the student is displayed on the student's Awards tab.

Schools must have the “packagingPhilosophyId” UDF configured on the Institution Setup.

Packaging Order

It is critical that the packaging sequence of funds be properly set up, or funds will not be properly considered in the awarding process. The Packaging Philosophy determines the awarding sequence for the funds that are available.

When the student is packaged, Regent Award evaluates the student’s eligibility for each fund in the order specified and within the packaging parameters defined for the fund.  A lower priority fund cannot replace a higher priority fund without a manual override. 

Although, the packaging philosophy order is configurable Regent recommends the following guidelines which are consistent with the U.S. Department of Education: 

Auto-packaging Funds

The Packaging Philosophy determines whether Regent Award will attempt to package a fund automatically.  If the fund is not configured with the “Auto-package” flag, the fund can only be manually packaged by the user using the “Add Award Wizard” (AAW).  Manually packaged funds are subject to the packaging philosophy, and Regent Award will adhere to the eligibility limitations of the fund configuration, unless eligibility override is selected when adding the fund. Refer to Manually Packaged Awards in the Awarding BPA for more information on Manually packaged funds.

Disbursement Schedules

Disbursement Schedules define how a fund will be disbursed in Regent Award.  Regent Award uses the disbursement schedule configuration criteria to determine the initial disbursement date for the fund when creating the student’s package.  The schedules can be associated specific sites and programs.

All funds in Regent Award must have a corresponding disbursement schedule, including non-disbursable funds.  Disbursable verse Non-Disbursable

Disbursable

Disbursable funds are defined as funds that Regent Award’s Export Student Transaction (EST) process is responsible to update as paid.

Title IV (with the exception of FWS) example:

• Pell disbursements are sent to COD as DRI true

• COD response file is imported in Regent Award with an ‘Accepted’ disbursement status

• School exports the EST process and updates SIS with actual paid amounts

For non-term students that progress more slowly than expected, subsequent payment period start dates are rescheduled as the current payment period extends.  When this happens, the disbursement is rescheduled along with the new payment period start date, and the scheduled date of the disbursement is updated accordingly. Non-term slow progression is further defined in the Academic Structure BPA.

Non-Disbursable

Non-disbursable funds are defined as funds that Regent Award’s Export Student Transaction (EST) process is NOT responsible to update as paid.

• Institutional funds example:

  • Placeholder fund to not over award a student

  • Disbursements will not be included on the EST

Originations

Schools can determine when originations should be sent to COD by configuring a number of offset days.  For example, a school may want to originate COD funds as soon as the fund is accepted by the student therefore this field can be left blank.  However, in another example, a school may only want to originate COD from 60 days prior to the start of the award period.  Therefore, this would be configured with a negative number (e.g. -60) to set the number of days prior to the start of the award period.

In addition, schools can choose to originate based on enrolled Program Applicable Registered units or Program Applicable Attended units.

First Time Borrowers

Regent Award provides the ability to delay disbursement for first time borrowers by 30 days to meet regulatory requirements. Regent Award determines first time borrower status from the imported Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) and the National Student Loan Data Systems Financial Aid History (NSLDS FAH) files. Students with a $0 existing aggregate loan balance who are in their first term of borrowing and are below Grade Level 02 are considered ‘First Time Borrowers’. When a fund is configured with the Delay First Disbursement 30 Days option set to ‘Yes’, the fund is required to have an alternate ‘First Time Borrower’ disbursement schedule.

Multiple Disbursements

Regent Award provides the ability to schedule multiple disbursements if a school is subject to the requirement to disburse a single term loan in two disbursements. The multiple disbursement schedule is used, and the disbursement schedule would be setup to disburse the first disbursement after the term start date and the second disbursement would be setup to disburse at 50% of the payment period.

A disbursement schedule is also available for schools that are subject to the first-time borrower requirements as well as for a single term loan. The disbursement schedule would be setup to disburse 30 days after the term start date and the second disbursement would be setup to disburse at 50% of the payment period.

Abbreviated Periods- Non-Term

If the abbreviated period (which is a single Payment Period (PP)) is greater than four months, the school must make multiple disbursements even if the school is not required to make multiple disbursements. The disbursements must be made at the beginning of the PP and at calendar midpoint of the PP.

For abbreviated periods less than or equal to four months in length. If the abbreviated period (which is a single PP) is less than or equal to four months in length:

• If the school is not required to make multiple disbursements, then the full amount of the award can be disbursed in a single payment at the beginning of the PP.

• Schools who are required to make multiple disbursements must make multiple disbursements at the beginning of the PP and at calendar midpoint of the PP.

Disbursement Start Date

Regent Award allows schools to determine when the disbursement schedule should begin to take effect.  Regent provides three options:

• Payment Period Start Date
  If the "Payment Period Start Date" is chosen, then by default, disbursements for this fund will be scheduled based on an offset from the payment period start date. This can be inherited, by default, from the Campus level Title IV or non-Title IV setting as appropriate and can be changed on the Disbursement Schedule setup for each individual fund, if needed.

• Earliest Program Applicable Course Start Date
  If the "Earliest Program Applicable Course Start Date" is chosen, then by default, disbursements for this fund will be scheduled based on an offset from the start date of the earliest program applicable course in the payment period. This can be inherited, by default, from the Campus level Title IV or non-Title IV setting, as appropriate, and can be changed on the Disbursement Schedule setup for each individual fund, if needed.

• Earliest Non-Program Applicable Course Start Date
  If the "Earliest Non-Program Applicable Course Start Date" is chosen, then by default, disbursements for this fund will be scheduled based on an offset from the start date of the earliest non-program applicable course in the payment period. This can be inherited, by default, from the Campus level Title IV or non-Title IV setting, as appropriate, and can be changed on the Disbursement Schedule setup for each individual fund, if needed.

Required Attendance

Schools can configure the disbursement schedule to require attendance prior to disbursement.  If the attendance is required, disbursements for this fund will require attendance to be posted for the disbursement to be released once the payment period or course start date (depending on the disbursement scheduling option chosen) has been reached. Any "EST Release Requirements" for attended units or weeks, that have already been defined on disbursement schedule setup, will override the attendance requirement implemented with this setting, which is 1 unit OR 1 week of attendance once the payment period or course start date has been reached. This value is inherited, be default, from the Campus level Title IV or non-Title IV setting as appropriate and can be changed on the Disbursement Schedule setup for each individual fund, if needed.

Confirming Current Attendance

If configured, Regent Award will ensure there is current attendance in any term/ payment period prior to disbursing a fund. Regent will apply the following logic:

As of TODAY, the student has at least one course with:

• A start date greater than or equal to TODAY, and

• An end date equal to or greater than TODAY, and

• Attended equals “yes”, and

• The withdrawal date for the course is blank, and

• A Program Applicable course is equal to true OR a Qualified Remedial course is equal to true

• A Remedial Disqualified course is equal to false

• A Repeat Disqualified course is equal to false

  • OR

• The disbursement is a PWD resulting from a finalized R2T4

Disbursement Based on Attendance (Pell Only)

Many schools disburse Pell based on an enrollment status that includes all registered credits for the term.  They then later refund a portion of that initial Pell disbursement if the student does not attend enough credits to support the registered enrollment status.  Paying the lump sum up front streamlines disbursing for most of the students but can also result in students with unexpected tuition balances due when their Pell is reduced near the end of the term.  Regent Award provides an option that will allow schools to disburse Pell to students only for the enrollment status supported by credits the student has attended.

This feature applies to term-based programs only, and only to Pell awards.

Disbursement Release

Each time attendance is added to a course, Regent Award calculates the student's Attended Census Program Applicable Units for the term.  Then, using the Campus Enrollment Level setup, those units are compared to the configured enrollment levels to establish the Attended Census Program Applicable Enrollment Level (ACPA EL) for the student.  Regent Award uses the student's ACPA EL to determine the amount of Pell Award the student could be disbursed, per the Pell Tables for the FAY.  For example, the student was awarded Full-time Pell for the year.  For the term, the student has ACPA EL of LTHT.  The LTHT amount from the Pell chart is the amount the student may be eligible to be disbursed.

Subsequent Disbursements

As the student progresses through the term, Regent Award will determine additional disbursements by comparing the amount of Pell the student has already been paid to the student's current Attended Census Program Applicable Enrollment Level (ACPA EL).  If the Paid Award Amount for the term is $0, and the ACPA EL would allow the student to be disbursed the Full-Term Award, a Full-Time disbursement will be made (one disbursement).  Otherwise, each disbursement will use the following formula: ACPA EL Disbursement Amount (-) Paid Award Amount

If the result is a positive amount, Regent Award will allow the release of a new positive disbursement for the term.  If the result is a negative amount, Regent Award will reduce the most recent actual disbursement(s) for the term by the negative amount.  Note: these downward adjustments will be controlled by Fund Setup "Allow Adjustment of Paid Disbursements."  If, after making a negative adjustment, the student's eligibility for disbursement increases at a future point in the term, a new disbursement will be created for the increase.  

If enrollment fluctuates while up and down prior to the next paid disbursement being released, Regent Award will modify the amount of a scheduled disbursement up and down until the point that it's paid.

 Attendance in All Program Applicable Units

When this option is selected, before exporting a positive student transaction for the fund, the system will check that the student has posted attendance in all non-withdrawn registered units in the payment period.

The system checks for attendance in all non-withdrawn, non-transfer courses that are either Program Applicable or Qualified Remedial. The system disregards any units in courses that are withdrawn, transfer, disqualified repeat, or disqualified remedial courses.

This setting does not limit negative transactions (refunds). It also does not limit post-withdrawal disbursements resulting from a Finalized R2T4.

Note: Both “Disburse on Enrollment Level Units” (a Pell-only setting) and “Confirm Attendance in All PA Units Prior to Disbursement” can be configured to yes. 

• If a Pell disbursement schedule already has “Disburse on Enrollment Level Units” configured then the new setting for Confirm Attendance is always No and cannot be set to Yes.

Standard Disbursement Schedules Settings

Regent allows for additional settings for the disbursement schedule to include:

• Adjust Offset Days- If a disbursement is delayed, checking this box automatically adjusts the remaining disbursements to occur the same number of days later (instead of keeping their original scheduled date), as the first disbursement occurred.

• Disbursement Percentage- Used to determine the percentage of the total payment period award amount to release as each offset is satisfied. The total offset percentage amounts must equal 100%.

• Days Offset or Percentage of Payment Period- Used to determine the number of days from the start of the payment period or the percent of the payment period to schedule the disbursement. Federal regulations do not allow disbursements more than 10 days prior to the beginning of the payment period.

• Offset Type- Either by Day or Percent

• Release Units and Units Required- Used to determine the type of unit to be calculated to release the disbursement e.g. Anticipated, PA Registered, PA Attempted, etc.

• Operand-The operand field allows the school to use both units and / or weeks to determine release requirements for the disbursement.

• Release Weeks and Required Weeks- Used to determine the type of weeks to be calculated to release the disbursement.

• Progression Percentage Units and Progression Percentage Weeks- The percentage of progression units required to release the disbursement or the percentage of progression weeks required to release the disbursement. 

Configuration

The initial configuration of Federal, state, institutional and outside aid will be configured by Regent Education and subsequently maintained by the school post go-live.

Data Requirements

There is no data integration required for funds and packaging philosophy.

Communications Template

There are no Communications related to Funds and Packaging Philosophy.

Users & Roles Template

Refer to the school’s UserRoles_Setup_Template for configuration details related to Funds and Packaging Philosophy permissions.

Documents Template

Refer to the school’s Document_Setup_Template for configuration details related to Funds and Packaging Philosophy permissions.

Tasks Template

Refer to the school’s Task_Setup_Template for configuration details related to Funds and Packaging Philosophy permissions.

Funds, Packaging Philosophy, and Disbursement Schedule Template

Refer to the school’s Funds_Setup_Template for configuration details related to Funds and Packaging Philosophy permissions.