PowerFAIDS User Group Troy Davis The College Of The Elms Nicholas Zinser Northeastern University

Agenda Welcome & Introductions Current & Upcoming Releases Direct Loans & PowerFAIDS Contacts & Support

Welcome & Introductions Name Institution #1 question you want answered today

Current PowerFAIDS Release The current PowerFAIDS release is 14.3A Fixes significant problems found in the 14.3 release Direct Loan processing issues resolved Default Overpay Tag No $0 disbursements included Fixed an issue with previously disbursed funds disbursing again Fixed Web Response files allowing them to be imported again Any issues with 14.3A so far?

PowerFAIDS 15.0 Scheduled to be released this month Normal upgrades included Parameter Roll Forward / 2010-2011 Award Year Support PROFILE Import / IM Need Analysis Changes to PROFILE are big this year PROFILE files are now XML based rather than a flat file Support for International PROFILE has been included

PowerFAIDS 15.0 Beta testing Client-side beta testing will begin shortly If you can assist, it helps the PowerFAIDS staff Contact powerfaids@collegeboard.org Beta-testing involves the following Upgrade your test database to 15.0 Upgrade to 15.0 on one client PC Perform a series of processing steps (Parm Roll, PROFILE Import, IM Need Analysis, etc.) Report back to PowerFAIDS with your results 48 hour turnaround

PowerFAIDS 15.0 Beta testing is an important part of the release process Allows for “real world” environments to show potential issues in the software Gives the end user an idea of how the new release will perform Northeastern has been involved in beta testing for nearly 2 years Huge help in identifying performance issues and testing functionality Not a large commitment of staff time Limited to the small testing audience on staff

Direct Loan Processing Pop Quiz! How many users are currently using PowerFAIDS to process Direct Loans? How many are using the flat file to EDExpress? How many are using the COD XML file process? How many users will transition for 2010-2011? When would you begin that transition? How many users are hoping that FFELP will remain in some form after Congress reviews the bill?

Direct Loan Processing Focus on supporting DL in some for in 2009-2010 Could give you time to work with a sample population New students for Spring term Part-Time students Use this as a foundation to build best practices for the upcoming year Coordinate G5 drawdowns with your business office Refine your selection sets for disbursements to match DL Northeastern has gone through 5 versions! Determine your cash management and recon- ciliation practice

Direct Loan Processing PowerFAIDS summarized their upcoming DL plans last week in an e-mail to the forum They will continue to support both the flat file and XML formats for the upcoming year (15.x cycle) The goal is to eventually offer only the XML option If you currently use the flat file, have you thought about making the transition to XML? FDSLP response files contain a lot of data which updates PowerFAIDS Loan information Promissory Note data Credit decisions

Direct Loan Processing A new file type has been enabled for import Credit Override (CRCO) files can now be imported Begin the COD import process as normal Switch to “All Files” in the browsing window to see the CRCO files Load as a normal response file

Direct Loan Processing PowerFAIDS 15.1 DL Release enhancements Enhanced reconciliation tools Load COD SAS files back to 2008-2009 Load Reconciliation File for 2010-2011 onward New view in the Student module to compare deposits What you have processed with COD SAS file data (what has returned from COD) Disbursements from PF to the Business Office What the Business Office has on their system DL Net Disbursements will be fixed Option to continue sending the gross amount will be maintained New mnemonics to track data changes through the entire process

Direct Loan Processing PowerFAIDS 15.2 Release enhancements COD will upgrade their XML schema again this Spring New version will be 3.0c All COD files will have to be processed using 3.0c Not just DL – Pell, ACG, SMART, etc. Enables DL origination & disbursement for 2010-2011 and 2009-2010 using the 3.0c schema 2010-2011 Processing will not be available prior to 15.2

Direct Loan Processing PowerFAIDS 15.3 Release enhancements Import COD SAS files for 2010-2011 Standard reports to support DL reconciliation DL Net Disbursement Anticipated Aid Extract Can be used by the Business Office to plan for upcoming G5 drawdowns Import Booking Notice (CRBN) files Support for DL Rebuild File (2009-2010 and later) But wait…there’s more…

Direct Loan Processing PowerFAIDS 15.3 Release enhancements Support for Promissiory Note (CRPN) files! New staging table where you can load MPNs Load MPNs to student records – even when no loan is packaged Matching criteria will be set to process this data COD is changing MPN processing in mid-2010 to support borrower-initiated PLUS & Graduate PLUS loans Limited information is available PowerFAIDS is pushing back MPN solutions until that new process is in place

Direct Loans Open discussion

Direct Loans Priority List

PowerFAIDS & Direct Loan Use the conference sessions from this year’s PowerFAIDS National User Conference as a guide Go to the PowerFAIDS Community Site for the presentations Training -> National User Conference

PowerFAIDS Documentation The PowerFAIDS User Guide chapter on Direct Loans has not been updated to reflect COD XML processing Scroll to the bottom of the document Past all of the appendices Keep going Look for the “New Features & Changes” documents from the 13.2 release and onward Contains all the setup information for DL Make sure to check subsequent release notes for changes or other updates

Upcoming Events FSA Conference PowerFAIDS WebEx Training Wednesday, December 2, 2009 Thursday, December 3, 2009 Presidential North Room Time is TBA – check the conference schedule PowerFAIDS WebEx Training Register at the PowerFAIDS Community site Session on COD & DL – 1/19/2010 at 2pm EST

New England PowerFAIDS User Group A new listserv exists for the New England PowerFAIDS User Group Go to http://lists.neu.edu/mailman/listinfo/nepfug Subscribe using your e-mail address Confirm via e-mail response your subscription options This list will be used for announcements related to the User Group

Support PowerFAIDS Forum PowerFAIDS User Guide PowerFAIDS User Support pfaidsforum@cblist.org PowerFAIDS User Guide Press “F1” when you’re at the Welcome Screen in the PowerFAIDS Student module PowerFAIDS User Support 1-800-227-6734 pfaidssupport@cblist.org

Questions? Contact information: Troy Davis davist@elms.edu 1-413-265-2249 Nicholas Zinser n.zinser@neu.edu 1-617-373-5830