4.7.0.0 - Product Brief

Product Release Summary

This Product Brief includes a summary of Release 4.7.0.0 and direction to additional documentation and information.  The last major release was 4.6.0.0.  These materials include some critical items that were part of the 4.6 MR1 and 4.6 MR2 releases Regent made available after Release 4.6.0.0.  

Product Release Description

Release 4.6 MR1

This release was a small maintenance release that addressed some critical product defects included in the "Bugs" section of the Release Notes.

Release 4.6 MR2

This release was a small maintenance release that addressed some critical product defects included in the "Bugs" section of the Release Notes.

Release 4.7.0.0

This release addresses product defects as listed in the “Bugs” section of the Release Notes, and also enhancements and new features including:

• Support for 2019-2020 Processing
  • 2019-2020 Pell Schedules
  • COD Support
• Phase 1 of R2T4 Automation
• New Nonterm R2T4 Payment Period Length Calculation Option
• Disbursement Option to Confirm Current Attendance

Release Notes

Further details on enhancements/new features and a complete list of bug fixes can be found in the Release Notes.   The Release Notes are made available externally via Customer Zone.

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 the 4.7.0.0 version for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Any client currently using Regent Review may take the 4.7.0.0 version for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Any client currently using Regent Access may take the 4.7.0.0 version for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

New Features Overview

• Support for 2019-2020 Processing:

With the addition of the 2019-2020 Award Year Federal Pell Grant Program Payment and Disbursement Schedules and support for 2019-2020 COD processing, Regent Award now supports full 2019-2020 Title IV processing.

• Phase 1 of R2T4 Automation:

Regent Award can now be configured to automatically finalize R2T4s for students who have a "Review R2T4" task, and for whom aid for the R2T4 Period is fully earned and fully disbursed.

The first level of automation will apply to all cases where basic "Review R2T4" task trigger information is included in the SBL integration file.  Regent Award will evaluate these potential R2T4s to see if they can be closed without finalization for reasons such as a student not having any Title IV funding for the R2T4 period or a student returning to school before the R2T4 finalization deadline.  In such a case, and when any automated action is taken by Regent on an R2T4, the student's Activity Log will be updated and the action will also be reflected in summary and in detail in post-processing reporting. To allow for late data entry, returning students, etc., clients will configure the number of days Regent should wait from the Date of Determination before either closing an R2T4 as "Not Required" or before finalizing an R2T4. 

The second level of automation will address autofinalizing R2T4s remaining open after the initial review noted above.  R2T4 results are divided into three buckets: those with refunds, those with post-withdrawal disbursements (PWDs), and those for which neither refunds nor PWDs are needed.  This initial rollout will give clients the option to fully automate those with neither refunds nor PWDs - these are R2T4s for which the student attended more than 60% of the R2T4 payment period and all Title IV disbursements have already been paid.  Clients can elect to have these R2T4s finalize once the configured number of offset days have elapsed, or can elect to have staff notified via task that an R2T4 is ready for review and finalization. In either case, related tasks will auto-close when the R2T4 is finalized.

• New Nonterm R2T4 Payment Period Length Calculation Option

Clients with nonterm programs may now opt to use the nonterm denominator length formula detailed in the example on page 5-83 of the 2018-2019 Federal Student Aid Handbook. This formula evaluates the length of time it took the student to complete any units in the R2T4 period, and then assumes the student would have proceeded at the same pace to complete additional units needed to arrive at half of the configured units for the program's academic year.  A new nonterm Program configuration option allows users to add a specific number of days for use as the denominator length when a student in that program has not completed any units in the R2T4 period.

• Current Attendance Confirmation Option for Disbursing:

In addition to existing Disbursement Schedule configuration options, clients now have an option to also require confirmation of attendance in a current course prior to disbursing a fund. This feature should result in a significant reduction of inadvertent overpayments for students who are subsequently identified for R2T4s.  When this new option is selected, current disbursement validation will still take place, but an additional check will confirm that the disbursement is scheduled to occur during a course for which the student has begun attendance.  Users will have the ability to use Disbursement Overrides to push through disbursements (such as eligible late disbursements) that are blocked by this validation.  This check will not apply to R2T4 Post Withdrawal Disbursements. 

Known Issues for Release 4.7.0.0