Automating the Certification of Alternative and PLUS Loans PA BUG November 19, 2007 Carole Kushner- Applications Support Analyst, LIS Rick Heckman- Sr Assoc Director, Fin Aid Dickinson College

Where we started Datatel Colleague user since 1992 Processed Loans electronically since 2001 Certified Loans on ELM website Created Loan application in Colleague Imported Response and Disbursement files from ELM Colleague matched on SSN and loan type to import Unique ID and other data

Institutional Changes Concerns about our ability to get accurate, timely data from Colleague RFP process Review of proposals Loan processing a big red flag for Financial Aid Banner selected Transition as quickly as possible

Our Goals Continue to use Certification Request for processing PLUS and Alternative Loans Automate the processing to the extent possible using Banner rather than external website Minimal changes to vanilla Banner Limit the amount of manual data entry, dual data entry and cutting and pasting Process Loans from multiple lenders/guarantors Maintain use of original unique ID

Our Plan Import SP2 file from ELM (contains Cert Requests only) Populate an intermediate table Produce a report of loans needing to be processed Develop matching criteria to match imported record with Banner record Import into Banner table (RPRLAPP) all fields needed to certify loan

Challenges Learning to read response files (Ultra Edit) Loan term dates- correct aid year Different matching criteria for PLUS and Most Alternative Loans Alternative Loans with parent as borrower (NJ CLASS) Switch from ELM to eCourier, but still using ELM Communicating with lenders - new loan set-up

Banner Set up New fund for each alternative loan program (RFRBASE/RFRMGMT) –be sure to populate alt loan program type Corresponding Detail Code (TSADETC) Lender/Guarantor codes (SPAIDEN) Lender identification (RPRLNDR) Loan Options (RPRLOPT) Add codes to RPRELAP (electronic loan creation) Add codes to appropriate RPRELAX (loan extract)

Logging Table Data Par_state Batch_date Par_zip Status Par_phone_no Par_driver_lic_no Par_stat_code_lic Par_birth_date Par_citz_ind Par_in_default El_loan_id Request_amt Lender_id Guar_id Loan_per_beg_date Loan_per_end_date Alt_stud_borrow_ind Batch_date Status Last_name First_name Ssn Loan_type Alt_loan_prog_type Par_ssn Par_last_name Par_first_name Par_mi Par_address Par_addr_line2 Par_city

Matching Criteria PLUS- Student SSN and first letter of last name Alternative- Alternative Loan Program Type, Borrower SSN and first letter of last name (many alternative lenders do not populate student name/ssn fields) Additional discussion about NJ Class alternative loans with parent as borrower

Day to Day Process (eCourier) Download Response file(s) from AES Concatenate Two copies into Banner directory (rpop_rprlapp and elupdtop) Import response file into Banner (RPRELRU) Run script to load new @1C records to Log table and attempt to match (Golden) Run script to get list of unmatched loans loaded today (Golden) Create loan in Banner Run script to populate fields in new RPRLAPP record (Golden) Run RPRELAX Send file RPOP_RPRLAPP is our naming convention for the file used for populating our logging table. Process is similar for ELM files, except runs on separate SP2 file, which would not be loaded into Banner as a response file.

Populated Fields (RPRLAPP) Alternative EL Process type = ‘CR’ EL Record type = ‘C’ Lender ID Lender PIDM Guarantor PIDM Requested amount EL Loan ID Banner required fields on Alternative Loan tab Alt borrower loan debt = 0 Credit in different name ind = N Alt Loan SB indicator Y or N PLUS EL Process type = ‘CR’ EL Record type = ‘C’ Lender ID Lender PIDM Guarantor PIDM (based on ID) Requested amount EL Loan ID Parent demographic data Last name First name Middle initial Address City state zip Phone Driver’s License # State code DOB Citizenship ind Parent in default SSN

Logging Table New entry every time matching process is run unless matched, purged or previously processed Possible statuses: Unmatched Processed Loan ID previously processed (manually processed) Error-Alt unmatched fund Error-PLUS multiple records found Error- Alt multiple records found Purged

Reports/Scripts Loan Apps Loaded Today Loan Apps Processed Today All Unmatched/Error Loans Reprocess unmatched records (procedure) View to show most recent entry for each loan ID View (specific student name search)

Conclusion Reduced data entry error Resolution of multiple parents processing PLUS loans Lender neutral (as long as they use eCourier or ELM) No alterations to standard Banner processes, so very low maintenance

Resources/Tools NCHELP-- www.nchelp.org File layouts Lender/guarantor/alt loan codes Banner Bookshelf-- Electronic Loan Manual SQL editor (Toad, Golden) Ultra Edit

The Future Move to Common Record Changes in Loan Industry Inclusion of Stafford processing?

Questions