DIRECT LOAN
RECONCILIATION
It
IS as easy as 1-2-3!
PRESENTERS
Eric E. Lane
Subject Matter Expert – FA WEST
NC Community College System
lanee@nccommunitycolleges.edu
828-694-4709
Karen Britt Statler
Subject Matter Expert– FA EAST
NC Community College System
statlerk@nccommunitycolleges.edu
919-209-2181
Bandit
NC Community College System
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Established in 1963
800,000 Enrollment
58 Colleges
1000 Curriculum Programs
246 Virtual Learning Center Programs
4 Direct Loans schools in 09/10
25+ schools will migrate beginning 10/11
PURPOSE
To provide financial aid professionals
information and tools necessary to assist
them in reconciling Direct Loans.
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OBJECTIVES
1. Direct Loan Reconciliation obligations to the
Department of ED
2. Preparing for Reconciliation & the SAS Report
3. Resources for Reconciliation
WHAT IS RECONCILIATION?
The process by which records from one system
are compared to records from another, and any
discrepancies are identified and resolved.
Example: Balancing a checkbook
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DIRECT LOAN RECONCILIATION
The process by which the Direct Loan Cash
Balance recorded on the Department of
Education system is reviewed and compared
with a school’s internal records on a monthly
basis. The school must:
• identify and resolve discrepancies, and
• document reasons for their Ending Cash
Balance
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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
“Reconciling our Direct Loans is no more difficult than reconciling
our Pell program. Since all records are within our system, we can
track disbursements and cash at any time. By monitoring activity
frequently, reconciling records monthly has been simple.”
Tony Erwin, Northeastern University
“Reconciliation of the Direct Loan program was relatively easy for
my previous institution. We were able to reconcile a $90 million+
program to zero every year with little effort and time. I look forward
to using the same strategies at my new institution where the loan
program is significantly smaller. I don’t anticipate a need for more
staffing to perform this function.”
Michelle Saigh, Mt. Vernon Nazarene College, OH
" The COD website offers wonderful tools to make the reconciliation
easier. One example is the 'Pending disbursement list" which can be
used to identify disbursements to be used in funding calculations".
Christine Porchia, Fayetteville Tech, NC
WHY RECONCILE?
• Schools that participate in the Direct Loan Program are
required to reconcile funds received (from the G5 system) to
pay its students with the actual disbursement records that it
has forwarded to the Common Origination and Disbursement
(COD) system.
• A school is expected to reconcile monthly and complete final
reconciliation and Program Year Closeout as soon as possible
after the end of the award year on June 30, but no later than
the final Program Year Closeout Date (13 months after the
end of the award year). So, for the 2010-2011 program year,
you have until July, 2012 to complete the closeout.
WHO IS INVOLVED?
Common
Origination
and
Disbursement
Financial Aid
Office
G5
Business
Office
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COMMON ORIGINATION & DISB
• COD is person-centric
– Pell, ACG, SMART, TEACH, DL
• School sends information to COD
• COD processes/edits and returns response
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SUBMITTING RECORDS TO COD
• Document
– COMMON RECORD
– Via SAIG mailbox
– Picked up by periodic “sweeps”
– Typically transmits many student records
• Online at COD Web site
– Transactions almost “real time”
– Involves one student record at a time
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Understanding COD Process
VENDOR
TDCLIENT
SAIG MAILBOX
EAI BUS
COD
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Common Record
Entity Information
Person
Award
Disbursement
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Response
Response
Response
Response
G-5
• Maintains school’s Direct Loan account
• Allows schools to request money via the G-5
Web site
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G5 – RETURNING FUNDS
• Returning funds electronically through G5 is
preferred
–Amounts > $100,000 must use G5
• Designated Refund Bank Account
• COD Disbursement Record may need
updating
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VIEW ACCOUNT BALANCES
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G5 Online Training
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WHO RECONCILES?
Reconciliation is required on a monthly basis and at the
end of the Program year
• Who will perform this function at your school?
• Which office will reconcile the cash detail or will it
be a coordinated effort?
• Which systems will be used for the reconciliation
process? i.e. Financial aid, Business office, COD,
General Ledger, and G5
RECONCILIATION PROCESS FLOW
School
Receives
SAS
Compare
Cash
Summary
NO
Compare
Cash Detail
Resolve
Issues
Match
?
YES
NO
Resolved
Compare
Loan Detail
YES
DONE
(Documentation)
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?
GET READY
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Set up SAS Report Options on COD
Export loan data (CODE)
Import (DOEI)
Problem Solve –
– Run COD Missing Response Report (CDMR)
– Run Direct Loan Variance Report (DLVR)
– Run DL COD Reject Report (DCRR)
– Export/Import
SET SAS OPTIONS
Set your SAS options
correctly on COD:
 School
 Report Selection
 Modify SAS Options
IF COLLEAGUE, MUST BE SET TO:
FIXED LENGTH
YEAR TO DATE
DISBURSEMENT DETAIL
SAS OPTIONS
DSDF
DSLF
DL RECONCILIATION
• Monthly activity
– School reconciles internally, FAA and Business offices
– School reconciles externally with COD
• Reconcile cash, loan summary, and loan detail
– Document your reconciliation
• Aids to Reconciliation
– COD screens and reports
– School Account Statement (from COD)
– Direct Loan Tools Software (FSA Download site)
– COD Reconciliation specialists
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SCHOOL ACCOUNT STATEMENT
• School Account Statement (SAS)
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•
Report of all disbursement records on COD
Generated by COD the 1st weekend of month
Sent to SAIG mailbox with a message class of DSDF and DSLF
Must be imported into your system
Contains data through the end of the previous month
Separate SAS for each open award year
• Example: DSRR Form in Colleague
• Generates reports comparing imported SAS data to Colleague
data on AIDE-AR-COD Response
TOOLS AND RESOURCES
• School Account Statement
• COD Website
• DL Tools
• Student Files
• Financial Aid Office Reports
• Business Office Reports
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TOOLS
• COD Customer Service
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–
–
–
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Customer Service Representative
Reconciliation Team
Weekly monitoring e-mails
Issue identification and resolution
Adhoc Reports
– 1-800-848-0978
‒ COD website, https://cod.ed.gov
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TOOLS
• Direct Loan Tools Release 9.0 software available
on www.fsadownload.ed.gov
– Cash Management
– Import External Disbursements
– Internal Ending Cash Balance
• Vendor Software (Colleague)
– Disbursement Variance
– DL SAS Reconciliation
– COD Rejects & Missing Responses
TOOLS
• 30 day Warning Report (COD)
• Booked Status Report (EDExpress or custom)
• Pending Disbursement List
(EDExpress List – Anticipated Disbursements, Pending Actual
Disbursements)
• Actual Disbursement List
(EDExpress List – Actual Disbursements, Booked and
Unbooked)
• Disbursement Measurement Tool Report (DL Tools)
• Cash Summary Report (DL Tools – optional)
• Ledgers, Bank Statements, Cancelled Checks
• Other Internal School Reports
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SAS REPORT OPTIONS
SCHOOL SUMMARY INFORMATION
Watch your
cash balance
on COD.
SCHOOL SUMMARY FINANCIAL INFO
Another screen
that shows a
good picture of
the status of your
disbursements.
Cash Activity
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ENDING CASH BALANCE
–
Total Net Drawdowns
Total Net Booked Disbursements
=
Ending Cash Balance
SCHOOL BALANCE CONFIRMATION
• When you are reconciled to a ZERO cash balance –
• Complete the School Cash Balance Confirmation on
COD
• This completes your PROGRAM YEAR CLOSE
• SAS for that year will be discontinued
• You will no longer send or receive records for that year
• You will receive a Close Out Letter from ED
Disbursement Information
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Importing SAS Data
• Direct Loan SAS data is imported from SAIG
(DOEI)
• Setup of SAS import flag (FAUP)
• Other set up required for your system??
THE COLLEAGUE PERSPECTIVE
Setting flag on FAUP form
Updates Colleague database
• Removes existing data and updates new data
in the FA.DL.SAS file which contains all the
reconciliation data for the entire processing
year.
• Note: If you select ‘Both’ Monthly and Year to
Date for your SAS Report setup, and you
import the Monthly after the YTD, you will
overwrite the YTD info.
DL SAS RECONCILIATION REPORT
The DSRR report will
show the amount of a
Disbursement on AIDE,
on the student account,
the COD response, and
the SAS report.
DSRR NOTES
• Report Display Option
– A All Shows all loans in the system
– C COD (COD vs. SAS) Shows only
mismatches between the COD response and the
SAS report.
– T Transmit (Xmit vs. SAS) Shows only mismatches
between the AR and the SAS report.
DSRR NOTES
Loan Type
–
–
–
–
S Subsidized only
U Unsubsidized only
P PLUS only
Leave blank for ALL
School Code
– Leave blank or enter DL
school code.
Booked/Unbooked
– B Booked only
– U Unbooked only
– A All
SSN Display Option
– S Show SSN
– L Last 4 Digits
– N No SSN
DSRR REPORT
February 09 2010
Page
1
SAS Reconciliation Report
Year to Date through October 2009
Student ID Name
Disb High
COD
SAS
Var
Loan ID
Typ Award
No Seq
Awarded
Transmitted
COD Response Seq
SAS Reported Seq Bkd Code
--------------------- --- ----- ---- ---- -------------- -------------- -------------- --- -------------- --- --- ---0004169 Able, Mary
*****2829S10G99999001 S SUBDL
1
1
1,750.00
1,724.00
2,737.00
1
B
6
0002605 Andalooza, Leslie
*****1023S10G99999001 S SUBDL
1
1
1,167.00
1,150.00
1
5
0002591 Carson, Sandra
*****1009S10G99999001 S SUBDL
1
1
1,750.00
1,724.00
1
5
0002595 Clemons, Loron
*****1013S10G99999001 S SUBDL
1
1
1,750.00
1,724.00
0002585 Cratch, Jasmine
*****1003S10G99999001 S SUBDL
1
1
2,750.00
2,709.00
0002583 Crutchfield, Deirdra
*****1001S10G99999001 S SUBDL
1
1
2,250.00
2,217.00
$11,417.00
$11,248.00
Report Totals
Total Unduplicated Student Count =
2,709.00
1
2,737.00
1
B
1
$2,709.00
3
5
$5,474.00
6
Var Code Key
## (these codes indicate a potential variance)
** (informational only)
** Blank: Your most recent COD Response has the same sequence number as the SAS report.
## 1: You have a more recent COD response with a date before the SAS end date, but that seq num is not on the SAS
report.
** 2: You have a more recent COD response, but the date is after the SAS end date. This does not affect your
reconciliation.
** 3: Your COD response has the same seq num as the SAS report, but it has a date after the SAS end date.
## 4: No SAS data. The seq num shown is from the most recent COD response that is before the SAS end date.
** 5: No SAS data. The seq num shown is from the most recent COD response, which is after the SAS end date.
## 6: The COD response seq num shown is blank or lower than the SAS report because you have disbursements that have
not been imported.
MAINTENANCE REPORTS
There are
several COD
reports
available to
assist you in
your loan
management
in Colleague.
The CDMR,
DCRR and
DLVR should
be run
regularly.
COD MISSING RESPONSE REPORT
Use this report to be
sure you have received
all of your responses
from COD.
DL COD REJECT REPORT
Use the DCRR report to
pinpoint rejected records
and correct them.
DIRECT LOAN VARIANCE REPORT
The DLVR report is a quick
way to see records that are
out of sync with COD. They
are usually new or changed
records that need to be
exported.
RESOURCES
– http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DirectLoan/p
articipating.html
– www.ifap.ed.gov
– www.studentloans.gov (resource for students)
– www.cod.ed.gov
– www.direct.ed.gov
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RESOURCES
Federal Government:
– http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DirectLoan/p
articipating.html
– www.ifap.ed.gov
– www.studentloans.gov (resource for students)
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RESOURCES
– www.direct.ed.gov/participating.html
• Complete setup information
– CODSupport@acs-inc.com
• Request completion of FSA setup
• 800-848-0978
– DLEnrollment_FSA@ed.gov
• FSA Transition Team
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RESOURCES
DL TOOLS SUPPORT:
• Phone: 800/330-5947
• TDD/TTY services: 800/511-5806
• Email: CPSSAIG@ed.gov
• Representatives are available Monday through
Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET