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Fund Group Setup

Fund Group Setup

Jul 26, 2019

See Fund Group Setup Data Elements for an explanation of each of the items in Fund Setup.

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Overview

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

General Functionality

  1. All selected funds in a group must share the same Award Period. For FAY-based funds, Alternative FAY Schedule must have the same Alt-FAY dates.
  2. Limit constraints are unique. For example, there cannot be multiple, overlapping limits that would all apply to the same FAY or effective date range.

Fund Grouping

  1. An administrator may select two or more funds and set a maximum combined limit for the total funds. Regent Award does not exceed that limit for the combined funds in any given award period.

  2. All funds in a Fund Group must all have the same award period scope. For example, if the first selected fund is FAY-scoped and uses an Alternative FAY Schedule Jan 01 - Dec 31, then all additional funds in that Fund Group must also be FAY-scoped with the same Alt-FAY dates Jan 01 - Dec 31.

  3. Fund Groups are optionally program-specific. Administrators may configure a Fund Group to apply to all programs, one program, or several selected programs. The program restrictions are applied at the payment period (PP) level.

    1. For example, a Fund Group is configured as program-specific. A student has a payment period in one of the group's selected programs. All awards in that program's PPs that are from the grouped funds would be constrained by the fund group's limits. If the student had a program change, and the new program's payment period was in another, non-selected program, then the awards in the PPs for the new program would not be affected by the Fund Group limits.

    2. In another example, a set of funds might have different combined annual cap amounts for different programs; or for some programs, those funds might not have any limit. The school would create separate Fund Groups for each different benefit cap, selecting only the programs affected by each Fund Group's limits. The unlimited programs would not be selected in any Fund Group.  

  4. A given fund may be linked to more than one Fund Group.

  5. For the initial implementation, Fund Groups cannot group any federal funds or funds with custom-coded rulesets.  

Packaging

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 system 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 the system only packages that award up to the limit. 

For example: 

  • "ABC Group" contains two funds: Fees Benefit fund and Tuition Benefit fund, with a combined cap of $5250. 
  • A student has $190 in Fee COA and $6000 in Tuition COA. 
  • Packaging Philosophy precedence is first the Fee Benefit fund (100% of Fee COA), then a per-unit Discount fund, then the Tuition Benefit fund (100% of Tuition COA)
  • The system awards $190 Fee Benefit amount, and $600 per-unit Discount amount
  • The Tuition Benefit amount is the minimum of:
    • $5400 remaining COA
    • $6000 Tuition COA
    • $5060 remaining from Group limit ($5250 group total cap - $190 Fee Benefit already awarded)

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. 

Example of a fund in two groups:

  • "ABC Group A"
    • Contains two funds: Fees Benefit fund and Tuition Benefit fund
    • Group A's combined limit is $5250
  • "ABC Group B"
    • Contains three funds: Fees Benefit fund, Tuition Benefit fund, and Books Benefit. The Books Benefit fund has a FAP limit of $100.
    • Group B's combined limit is $10000. 
  • A student has $190 in Fee COA and $6000 in Tuition COA. 
  • Packaging Philosophy precedence has the Fee Benefit fund (100% of Fee COA), then a per-unit Discount fund, then a Books Benefit ($100 max), then a Tuition Benefit fund (100% of Tuition COA).
  • The system awards $190 Fee Benefit amount, $600 per-unit Discount amount, and $100 in a Books Benefit amount.
  • The Tuition Benefit amount is the minimum of:
    • $5300 remaining COA
    • $6000 Tuition COA
    • $4960 remaining from Group A limit ($5250 group total cap - $190 Fee Benefit already awarded)
    • $9710 remaining from Group B limit ($10000 group total cap - $190 Fee Benefit already awarded - $100 Books Benefit already awarded)


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.

The group-based limits only apply for packaging current and new awards. The limits do not apply retroactively for awards and disbursements that cannot be adjusted. For example, some funds might be configured to freeze past payment period amounts; or the funds might not allow adjustment of paid disbursements. If any existing award amounts have already exceeded the combined annual limits, but those amounts cannot change, Regent Award does not adjust those existing amounts. However, the system zeros out any remaining, future awards and disbursements. Regent Award does not create any new awards or disbursements for the award period.

Note: for the Limits, the system tries to enforce only one limit applying at a point in time. The goal is to prevent any overlapping or duplicated ranges. 

Manual Packaging

Standard AAW/MAW behavior still apply. Users may add or edit awards from grouped funds, using Add Award Wizard (AAW) or Modify Award Wizard (MAW). AAW and MAW include the group's adjustments in the Calculated Eligibility amount.  For example, if an award's eligible amount would normally be $7000, but only $2000 remains after the group limits, MAW shows a Calculated Eligibility of $2000. If a user changes an award amount, and it becomes Manual, the system no longer makes automatic adjustments to that award. AAW/MAW edits also repackage any awards sharing the same award period. For example, a user may add or edits an award from a grouped fund higher in the packaging philosophy, and another, non-manual award is grouped with it and comes later in the packaging philosophy. Regent Award automatically repackages and adjust that later award to not exceed the group limits.

Program Changes

If a student has a Program Change and funds are linked to program-specific fund groups, the system applies the limits based on the currently active program in each payment period. For example, The ACME Company's undergraduate students have lower benefit limits than Graduate students. An ACME Company student could be an Undergraduate in a Spring term, then a Graduate student in the Fall. The student could exhaust their maximum Undergraduate Tuition Benefit in the Spring term. The remaining amount from the higher Graduate benefit limit would be applied in the Fall PP only.

Regent Award still uses Fund Setup's selected programs for awarding (i.e., for determining eligibility and creating awards from each fund). The Program association in the Fund Group does not determine which programs are awarded the funds; however, the group's Program does determine which programs are subject to an awarding amount limit based on the fund group's annual maximum amount.  Fund groups are used for constraining the total amounts across all grouped funds, after packaging.  

Example: ACME Company Limits for Different Programs

  1. The ACME Company has several different annual benefit caps. The differences are determined by the program:
    • $5,250 for most Undergraduate programs
    • $10,000 for Graduate students
    • No limit for specific undergrad programs.
  2. Administrators would configure two fund groups, each with a different FAY-based annual limit:
    1. Group 1: ACME Company Undergrad Group, annual max amount $5250
      • Selected funds are all possible ACME Company funds that, when added up, cannot exceed $5250 total per year.
        • Book Reimbursement Benefit
        • ACME Company Fee Benefit
        • ACME Company Graduate Tuition Benefit (see note)
        • ACME Company Other Tuition Benefit
        • ACME Company Undergraduate Tuition Benefit
          • Note: Even though the group is undergrad, the graduate funds must also be in the group's Selected Funds. The reason is that if a student happens to have an award from those Grad funds, those grad funds' amounts would still count toward the $5250 total group limit.
      • Selected programs only include programs that are restricted to a $5250 annual cap.
        • Selects only specific Undergraduate programs
        • Does not select the undergrad programs that are not subject to the limit
    2. Group 2: ACME Company Grad Group, annual max amount $10,000
      • Selected funds include all possible ACME Company funds that, when added up, cannot exceed $10,000 per year.
        • Book Reimbursement Benefit
        • ACME Company Fee Benefit
        • ACME Company Graduate Tuition Benefit
        • ACME Company Other Tuition Benefit
        • ACME Company Undergraduate Tuition Benefit 
          • Note: Again, both Grad and Undergrad funds count toward the group limit. If a student has any awards from an Undergrad fund, those Undergrad amounts still count toward their $10,000 limit.
      • Selected programs only include programs that are restricted to a $10,000 annual cap.
        • Selects only Graduate programs
        • Does not select the undergrad programs that are not subject to the limit.
    3. The administrator would not configure any third group for no limit.
  3. An ACME Company student is an undergraduate in a non-BA program in the spring term.
    • Regent Award packages the student's Spring awards in the non-BA program.
      • The system awards funds having the Undergrad program selected in Fund Setup (e.g., ACME Company Undergraduate Other Tuition Benefit)
      • During packaging, Regent Award sees the student is in an active program in Group 1 (ACME Company Undergrad). 
        • As each fund is packaged, Regent Award checks the total amounts against the $5250 group maximum. 
        • Once the awards across all funds reach $5250, the system reduces or zeros out the remaining amounts to not exceed the max amount.
  4. The student graduates at the end of the Spring term and has a program change to a Graduate program in the Fall semester. The student is still an ACME Company employee.
    • Because the student is now a Graduate student, ACME Company allows them $10,000 per year. However, the student's previous $5250 still counts against their total annual benefits cap, because Spring is in the same calendar-year award period (Alt-FAY Jan 01-Dec 31).
    • Regent Award packages the student's Fall awards for the MBA.
      • The system awards funds having the Graduate program selected in Fund Setup (e.g. ACME Company Graduate Tuition Benefit).
      • During packaging, Regent Award sees the student is in an active program in Group 2 (ACME Company Grad).
        • As each fund is packaged, Regent Award checks the total amounts against the $10,000 group maximum. 
        • Once the awards across all funds reach $10,000, the system reduces or zeros out the remaining amounts to not exceed the max amount.

Data Requirements


Screenshots

General tab


Programs tab