Financial Aid Process Packages

Once queries are built, award methodologies are defined, budgets are assigned, Prioritized Packages can be applied to students. If desired, awards within those packages can be automatically updated when students add or drop classes if appropriate. A configuration option in the CAMS Manager module must be set in order for this to occur.

First, award methodologies must be associated with packages, then you will identify which packages to process. Next, the students qualifying for the packages will display. Then the methodology is applied, and the awards for the students display. After this, print an edit list to verify, and then process the Prioritized Package. Finally, print an award letter for each student packaged.

To Associate Award Methodologies to Packages:

From the CAMS Enterprise Home page click Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Package. The Packaging window displays.
Select the appropriate Academic Year and Financial Aid Year, and then click Find to display any packages already associated with the selected Academic and Financial Aid year. You must click Find first to add a new record.
Right-click in the upper data grid to add a package, or double-click an existing package to modify it. The Package detail window displays.
Enter the Package Description if creating a new package.
Click the search icon next to the Student Selection Criteria field to open the Student Selection Criteria window.
Double-click the query to associate with this package.
Assign the Priority and click Add to associate the methodology to the Package. The Award Methodologies for Package displays. Using Priority numbers such as 10, 20, 30, etc. will allow insertion of methodologies later without the need to renumber all methodology priority numbers.

Note: Award Methodologies MUST be grouped together by award and sorted by Priority number in Packages that contain Financial Aid Years with awards distributed over multiple terms. Awards should be prioritized in the order you want to award them; unsubsidized awards should be prioritized last. This ensures correct calculations for Remaining Need.

Select the Load Determination to be used for Remaining Need and Student Load. Use Package Load will allow pre-packaging of students based on the Packaged for Load field in the student’s Financial Aid Status record for the Academic and Financial Aid year. Use Student Load will package based on the actual number of hours registered.

Note: When pre-packaging awards using the Use Package Load option, you must run the package again after registration selecting the Use Student Load option in order to make adjustments to awards for those students whose load is different than their pre-packaged load.

Highlight the appropriate Package in the upper data grid. Any Award Methodologies already associated to the Package display.
Right click in the Award Methodologies for Package data grid to add a methodology to the package. The Package detail window displays.
Click the search icon next to the Award Methodology field to open the Award Methodologies window. Double-click the methodology to assign to the package.

To Initiate the Process:

Click the Initiate tab. The Initiate Run tab displays.
Right-click in the Selected Packages to Run data grid to view a list of available packages.
Double-click a single Package to run, or Click Select All to run all packages associated with this Academic Year and Financial Aid Year.
If you only want to apply packages to students who have not yet had a package applied, select the check box next to Only Show Students Without Package.
Click Initiate. The Students to Package tab opens. By default, the list of students displayed are those with Last Names From "A" to Last Name To "Z". This default exists to ensure the window renders the list quickly. To see all students that qualify for the package(s), change the Last Name To "Z" and then click Find. Once the Last Name From and Last Name To fields are modified, that criteria persists for the remainder of the process. If there are any students that should not receive the package, highlight that record and then click Delete.
The lower data grid of the Students to Package window displays the list of Exceptions. These are students who may meet some of the packaging criteria but not all of it. Click Print to print a list of exceptions. The list displays the exception reason, which could be one of the following:

Has Packaged Awards from Another Process - Awards exist on the students Financial Aid Maintenance window that were not packaged using the Prioritized Packaging process.
Has Status Record - Has a Financial Aid Status record assigned as part of another process.
Package on FinAid Status - Already has a Prioritized Package.
No Primary EFC - Does not have the Primary Expected Family Contribution in existing Financial Aid Status.
No Budget - The student does not have a Budget assigned.

Click Get Award Methodologies. The Methodologies tab displays the list of students.
Click Get Awards. The Awards tab displays the list of students. If there are any students that should not receive the awards, highlight that record and then click Delete.
The Totals data grid displays the total amount of the award being applied to all students after packaging. Use the scroll bar at the bottom of the data grid to scroll right to see the Total Fund Available, the Balance Before Packaging, and the Balance After Packaging. If removing any award from the Awards to Apply data grid, be sure to click Refresh Totals to see the true amounts being awarded. Awards that have reached lifetime limits or package limits will not be applied if it would result in over-awarding.
Click Print to print a list of all students, the methodologies, awards, and totals assigned.
Click the Process tab. If there are any locked awards in this Package, a message will display on the Process tab indicating that there are locked awards. Click Unlock Awards if you wish to apply the Package to the locked awards then click Yes on the pop-up to confirm you want to unlock the awards in this package or click No to keep the awards locked. Locked awards will not be packaged.
To restrict processing to a specific term or terms, select the term(s) then click Limit Processing. Limiting terms is useful to prevent re-packaging awards that have already been accepted by COD.
A dialog box displays indicating that the processing will be limited to the specified terms. Click Find on the Awards tab if you wish to confirm the term limitation. Click Get Awards on the Methodology tab to reset the term limitations.
Click the Process button (nothing displays on the Process tab until clicking Process).The Lifetime Max grid displays the Lifetime maximum of the award each student may receive as determined by their active ISIR. In order for the Lifetime Max to populate, the ISIR Direct import must be used – the EdExpress ISIR import does not include this information.
A Packaging Successful confirmation message displays. Click OK.

Note: New awards and awards where the amount has been updated the Financial Aid Maintenance Student Accepted and Student Accepted Time fields are set to NULL. This will allow the student to Accept or Decline the changed award from the Student Portal.

After packaging is successful, the Address Type drop-down and Report button display
Select the Address Type to which the Award Letter should be sent, and then click Report. Award letters are generated for each student packaged that has new awards or changes in their packaged awards.

Copy Packages

Because packages are attached to a specific Academic and Financial Aid Year, it is necessary to create them for each Academic and Financial Aid year. This can be done manually, or to save time, use the Copy button to copy all packages associated with one particular Academic and Financial Aid year to another Academic and Financial Aid year.

Note: When using the Copy Package function, Package Criteria queries, Award Methodologies, and Budgets associated with the Package are copied automatically. You should NOT copy Package Criteria queries, Award Methodologies, or Budgets when using the Copy Package function.

To Copy Packages:

From the CAMS Enterprise Home page click Financial Aid >Packaging >Prioritized >Package.
Select the appropriate Academic Year and Financial Aid Year, and then click Find to display any packages already associated with the selected Academic Year and Financial Year. You must click Find first to display the packages.
Click the Copy button. The Copy Packages detail window opens with the Academic Year From and Financial Aid Year From displayed.
Select the Academic Year To and Financial Aid Year To.
Click Copy to copy the packages to the new Academic and Financial Aid years or click Cancel to exit without copying.

Note: Be sure that all Packages for the Copy From Academic and Financial Aid years have been added prior to copying. If the Copy process occurs more than once, duplicate packages will be created in the Copy To Academic and Financial Aid years. If duplication occurs, highlight the unwanted package in the data grid and click Delete to remove.