Financial Aid System
FAM Tracking Letters
SBCTC-ITD
3101 Northup Way, Suite 100
Bellevue WA 98004-1449
Phone 425.803.9700
http://www.cis.ctc.edu
Printing History
July 11, 2008
September 16, 2011
Table of Contents
1 Overview..................................................................................... 1
2 Creating Tracking Letters ......................................................... 3
2.1 Using the FAM Letter Template ....................................................................................... 4
To create a new tracking letter .................................................................................... 4
2.2 Generating Tracking Letters ............................................................................................ 8
To generate Tracking Letters ............................................................................................ 9
3 Running Reports ...................................................................... 12
3.1 Running the Tracking Report ........................................................................................ 13
To run the Tracking Report ............................................................................................. 14
3.2 Running the Tracking Analysis Report ......................................................................... 17
To run the Tracking Analysis Report ............................................................................... 17
Appendix A: Letter Template Options ......................................... 21
Appendix B: Additional Tracking Letter Options ........................ 24
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1 Overview
The Financial Aid Office may record which documents a student is to submit as well as
the date they are due in the Financial Aid Office. Different status codes may be
established to indicate that some documents are required, others are not required but
desired, and others have been waived. It should be noted that any student who has not
submitted a required document would not be packaged by the automatic packaging
program. As the Financial Aid Office notifies the student that the documents are due
using the tracking letters program, the program will automatically record the date the
student was last notified regarding the item. When the item is received by the Financial
Aid Office, the Received Date field must be completed on the student's record
The Tracking Letter Program (FAM056) can produce letters to be mailed or emailed to
students to notify them of missing items. The tracking letter shows the missing
documents as well as showing the date due and the date last notified. The text of the
tracking letter is established using the Tracking Letter Template. Tracking letters may be
run as needed. Options are available to exclude students who have been recently notified
from receiving another letter and to exclude reminders for items that may be due several
months in the future. Letters may be sequenced by ZIP code, alphabetically by last name,
or by ID number. Printed letters are designed for insertion into standard #10 window
envelopes.
The tracking report lists all students who are missing items, all documents they were
required to submit, as well as due dates and completed dates (if applicable) for the
documents. The report also displays the date the student was last sent a tracking letter.
The report may be sequenced by ZIP Code, by Student's Last Name, by Student ID, by
Alternate ID, or by SSN. The tracking report may be used as a document to assist the
Financial Aid Office.
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2 Creating Tracking Letters
This section provides information on the following:

Using the FAM Letter Template to create track letters

Generating tracking letters for students
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2.1 Using the FAM Letter Template
Page Title: Tracking Template List
Navigation: Application Setup  Letter Template
You have the option to create or edit tracking letters directly in FAM using the Tracking
Letter Template Create and Tracking Letter Template Edit pages.
To create a new tracking letter
1. From the Application Setup menu, select Letter Template:
2. Click the Insert icon
.
The Tracking Letter Template Create page is displayed:
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3. Complete the Name field to assign a name to the tracking letter you are creating.
4. The Email From Address and Email Reply-To Address fields are required,
whether or not you are planning to email the student. The Email From Name,
Email Subject, and Email Text fields are optional but must be completed if you
want to communicate with students via email.
Note: The contents of the Email Text field is used as the body of the email sent to
students. You can either type the text directly into the field box or create a
separate text file (.txt) and then copy-and-paste the text into the field. The Email
Text field can contain a maximum of approximately 500 characters.
Name of letter goes here
For email use
5. If you are going to use preprinted letterhead for the letter, you may need to set the
header margin to the appropriate spacing. Most letterheads require a two-inch
margin at the top. You can create this by using the Return or Enter key on your
keyboard to add extra space at the top of the Letter Text box. (Note that two
double-spaced returns are equal to approximately a 2½" margin from the top of
the letterhead.)
—or—
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If you are not using preprinted letterhead, include your institution’s name and
address at the top of the Letter Text box by clicking the left mouse button to
position the blinking cursor in the upper left corner of the text box. Then, from the
Select Merge-Fields drop-down list, select the $INSTITUTIONNAME command.
Press Enter to move the cursor to the next line and then select the
$INSTITUTIONADDRESS command from the Select Merge-Fields drop-down list.
Note: If you use the $INSTITUTIONNAME and $INSTITUTIONADDRESS
commands and are not satisfied with the position of the institution’s name
and address on the printed tracking letter, you can manually type your
institution’s information in the Letter Text box instead.
Click the appropriate command
on the drop-down list.
Student Name and Address will print in upper
and/or lower case depending on how the
student’s data is stored on the Student Tab.
6. Position the cursor within the Letter Text box where you want the date to appear
and then, from the Select Merge-Fields drop-down list, select the $DATE
command.
7. From the Select Merge-Fields drop-down list, select the student name and address
commands ($FIRSTNAME, $LASTNAME, $ADDRESS, $CITY, $STATE, and
$ZIP), positioning them where you want the data to appear on the printed letter
with appropriate spacing and punctuation between each command. (See example
in the above screen shot.)
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Tip: To create single spacing between lines rather than the defaulted double-
spacing, hold the SHIFT key down while pressing on the ENTER key.
8. Enter a salutation by manually typing the greeting followed by a space, the
$FIRSTNAME command, and a colon (:), for example, Dear $FIRSTNAME:
9. Following the salutation, type the body of the letter directly into the Letter Text
box. See Appendix A on page 21 for commands you can use within the body of
the letter.
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2.2 Generating Tracking Letters
Page Title: Tracking Letters and Report
Navigation: Award Processing  Letters  Tracking
You use this page to both print tracking letters and to run the Tracking Letters Report.
The procedure for running the Tracking Letters Report is described beginning on page 13.
Printed letters may be sequenced by ZIP Code, Student Name (the last name is used),
Student ID, Alternate ID, or SSN.
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To generate Tracking Letters
Complete the following steps to generate Tracking Letters:
1. Complete the Institution Code field (required) or click the Lookup icon
to
search for the institution code. (The lookup feature allows you to search by
Institution Code or Institution Name.)
2. Complete the Session field (required) with the code for the session to which the
tracking items pertain, or click the Lookup icon
to search for the session code.
(The lookup feature allows you to search by Session Code, Session Description,
Begin Date, or End Date.)
3. Use the Limit Selection by Due Date From option if you want to select students by
the value in the Due Date column who haven’t already received a letter and do not
already have a Date Received value on the Tracking Tab. Complete the Date Due
From and To fields to include documents that are due within a particular date
range. The dates must be valid dates in MM/DD/CCYY format. Or you can click
on the Calendar icon to select the dates from a calendar to populate these
fields. The end date (To) cannot be a date prior to the start date of the range. To
select all students , leave the Date Due From and To fields blank.
4. Use the Limit Selection by Date Notified From option if you want to select
students based on the date value in the Date Notified column of the tracking
screen who have previously received a letter and do not already have a Date
Received value on the Tracking Tab. Complete the date fields with a valid date in
MM//DD/CCYY format or you can click the Calendar icon to select the date
from a calendar to populate this field.
If you choose to enter a date value in both the Due Date From option and Date
Notified From option, this will select all students that have a due date within that
range and students notified on the specified date.
5. To select specific students, enter the students’ SSNs in the Student IDs field,
without dashes and separated by commas. You may enter SSNs vertically, for
example, 555555555,666666666,777777777
or in column mode, for example:
555555555,
666666666,
777777777,
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Note: When run on the foreground (using the GET LETTERS button), it has been
verified that up to 500 SSNs may be entered in either column mode or vertically.
When run on the background (using SCHEDULE LETTERS AS TASK button),
only 25 SSNs can be entered vertically and only 21 SSNs can be entered in
column mode.
6. Enter the Address Type (required). This is based on the Address Type stored on
the Student Tab.
7. Enter the Address Code (required). This is based on the Address Code stored on
the Student Tab.
8. Select a Sort By option. FAM sorts the letters by ZIP Code, Student Name,
Student ID, Alternate ID, or SSN. Sorting by Student Name is recommended,
since it makes finding a particular student’s letter easier once the letters have been
generated.
9. Click the Template drop-down list in the Letter Generation Options section of the
page and select a letter template.
10. If you choose to communicate to students via email, select the Send Via Email
check box and complete the Email Type and Code fields (similar to steps 6 and 7
above). Letters are sent via email only if the email address specified on the
Student tab is in the correct format (username@domain name). The procedure
does not check if the email address is actually valid. If the email address turns out
to be invalid, the email will bounce back to the email address included in the
Email From Address field of the Letter Template.
11. Once you have completed all the required fields, click either the Get Letters
button or the Schedule As Task button. The Get Letters button generates the
letters immediately. The Schedule As Task button generates letters once the
system’s resources are available. It is advisable to use Schedule As Task if you are
expecting there to be a large number of letters.
Note: When tracking letters are scheduled as a background task, values that were
entered in the selection criteria fields will remain in the fields until you
change them. The values will not be saved when run in the foreground.
A results screen is displayed, showing the number of students selected and the
number of students with incorrect or missing email addresses.
In the example below, there were 4 students processed and 2 have either an
invalid email address in the Email Address field or invalid Email Type and
Code on the Student Tab.
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12. Click the Import icon
to either open and view the file or save it to your PC; the
file is automatically generated in PDF format. The PDF makes it easier to print
particular students’ letters as necessary.
13. Running the Tracking Letters program automatically populates the Date Notified
field on the Tracking Data pages:
The Date Notified field is automatically
populated with the date on which the
tracking letter was generated.
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3 Running Reports
This section provides you with information on generating the following reports:
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Tracking Report (FAM056)

Tracking Analysis Report (FAM052)
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3.1 Running the Tracking Report
Page Title: Tracking Letters and Report
Navigation: Award Processing  Letters  Tracking
The tracking report lists all students who are missing items, all the documents they were
required to submit, as well as due dates and completed dates (if applicable) for the
documents. The report also displays the date the student was last sent a tracking letter.
The report may be sequenced by ZIP Code, Student Name (the last name is used), Student
ID, Alternate ID, or SSN.
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To run the Tracking Report
Complete the following steps to run the Tracking Report:
1. Complete the desired Institution Code field (required) or click the Lookup icon
to search for the Institution Code. (The lookup feature allows you to search by
Institution Code or Institution Name.)
2. In the Session field (required), type the code for the session to which the tracking
items pertain or click the Lookup icon
to search for the Session. (The lookup
feature allows you to search by Session Code, Session Description, Begin Date, or
End Date. Leave the From and To fields blank to choose all sessions.)
3. Select a Sort By option. FAM sorts the report by ZIP Code, Student Name,
Student ID, Alternate ID, or SSN. Sorting by Student Name is recommended,
since it makes finding information about a particular student easier once the report
has been generated.
4. Complete the Track Codes field in the Report Generation Options section of the
page. Enter as many track codes as you wish, separated by commas.
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5. Click the Get Report button or the Schedule Report As Task button. It is
recommended that, you use the Schedule Report As Task feature if you expect
your report to be fairly large.
6. Once the report is generated you are prompted to select a report format option.
Click the Format drop-down list to view the options. Select the format of your
choice then click the Submit button.
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7. The report appears in a separate window in the format you chose. Below is an
example of the report in PDF.
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3.2 Running the Tracking Analysis Report
Page Title: Tracking Analysis Report
Navigation: Reports  Tracking Analysis
The Tracking Analysis Report provides statistical information about documents, including
the number and percentage of documents due, past due, and completed. The detail report
includes the name and ID number of all students with the selected tracking item.
There are two different report layouts: the detail report and an accompanying statistical
report, which supplies information on all the tracking codes. The statistical report can
also be run separately by selecting the Skip Detail check box on the Tracking Analysis
Report page:
Tracking codes box
To run the Tracking Analysis Report
Complete the following steps to run the Tracking Analysis Report:
1. In the Session Start field, type the code for the beginning session. This must be a
valid code from the SAF_YR_SES_MAS table or an “Invalid Value” error
message will be displayed. Type the code directly in the field or click the Lookup
icon
to choose from a list of valid values.
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2. In the Session End field, type the code for the ending session. This must be a valid
code from the SAF_YR_SES_MAS table or an “Invalid Value” error message
will be displayed. Type the code directly in the field or click the Lookup icon
to choose from a list of valid values.
3. Complete the Institution Code field. Usually, this code will be 01. This must be a
valid code from the SAF_INST_MAS table or an “Invalid Value” error message
will be displayed. Type the code directly in the field of click the Lookup icon
to choose from a list of valid values.
4. To skip the detail report and only print the statistical report (see sample, below),
select the Skip Detail check box. If only the statistical report is being run, you do
not need to specify a Completion Status or complete the Tracking Codes section
of the page.
Sample of Statistical Report:
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5. If you are running a detail report (that is, you have not selected the Skip Detail
check box), specify a Completion Status by selecting one of the following radio
buttons:
 Completed/Received: Include completed or received items only
 Past Due: Include only items that are past due
 Due: Include only items that are due in the future
 All: Include all items
6. For the detail report, you can specify an unlimited number of tracking codes in the
Tracking Codes section of the page. Tracking codes must be a valid code from the
SAF_TRACK_CODE table. Type a code directly in the Track Code field or click
the Lookup icon
to choose from a list of valid values. Then click the Add
button to move the code into the tracking codes box. (To remove a code from the
tracking codes box, click to select the code and then click the Remove button.)
Repeat until all the codes you want are listed in the tracking codes box.
Note: Leaving the tracking codes box empty selects all tracking codes for the report.
7. Once you’ve completed all required fields, you can either click the Get Report button
or Schedule As Task button. The Get Report button runs the report immediately. The
Schedule As Task button runs the report when the system’s resources are available.
Use Schedule As Task if you expect a large number of letters.
Note: It is a known issue that this report currently sorts students in reverse alphabetical
order. The issue is already included on the FAS Maintenance List.
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Sample of detailed report for tracking code PR
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Appendix A: Letter Template Options
You have several options when establishing the template for the tracking letters. In
addition to descriptive paragraphs that describe the purpose of the letter, the template also
includes control lines that indicate such things as whether or not to print dates on the letter.
If a command is not used, the text (or paragraph) appears on all letters sent to the selected
students. Normally, the introductory paragraph and closing paragraph are treated this way.
Otherwise, you will want to include one or more of the following commands in the text of
your letter.
SHIFT key + ENTER key
Allows for single spacing between lines rather than double spacing
$TRACK XX,XX,XX...
Each XX is a tracking code to be included on the letter.
$END
Indicates the end of the tracking codes entered in the $TRACK entry.
Tip: As a general rule, the $TRACK xx command is entered before the paragraph
corresponding to the tracking code. The $END command is entered after the
corresponding paragraph.
$NODATE
Suppresses the printing of dates on the tracking letter.
$STATUS XX,XX,XX...
Indicates the tracking item statuses to be included in the tracking letter generation
process, as dictated by the SAF_NOTATION_CODE.
$NOITEM
Selects the letters based on the $TRACK and/or $STATUS entries, but does not print the
items on the tracking letter.
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Example of Letter Template created with
minimum commands of $TRACK and $END
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Results of this Tracking Letter template
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Appendix B: Additional Tracking
Letter Options
Page Title: Processing Table Search
Navigation: Application Setup  Processing Config  Processing Table
Below are some optional table entries you may choose to add to the processing table:

Tracking letters may be suppressed for students with selected status codes as
found on the Student Data (FAM501) screen. This feature can be used to prevent
printing letters for students who are inactive, ineligible, and so on. To suppress
students with selected status codes, use Processing Table Maintenance (CTL051)
to create the following entry:
System: SAF
Table ID: AGENCY
Value: SAF056-EXCLUDE
Description: A maximum of twenty (20), two-character student status codes for
which tracking letters should not be printed. There are no spaces or separators
between the status codes. If you have more than twenty status codes to be
excluded from the tracking letter process, create an additional entry with the
Value of SAF056-EXCLUDE2. These codes are listed on the screen next to the
“Students with the following status will be excluded” field on the Tracking Letters
and Report page.

Some tracking codes that are posted automatically from outside sources such as
the Department of Education may contain data in the comment area that you do
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not want to display on the tracking letter. To suppress these tracking codes, use
Processing Table Maintenance (CTL051) to create the following entry:
System: SAF
Table ID: AGENCY
Value: SAF056-EXCL-COM
Description: A maximum of twenty (20), two-character tracking codes. The
tracking codes specified would appear on the tracking letter, but any comments
associated with the tracking codes as found on the student’s tracking screen would
be suppressed from the letter.

System: SAF
Table ID: AGENCY
Value: SAF057-STD-STAT
Description: The statuses to be excluded. This entry excludes statuses from the
Student Data (FAM501) screen and the Student Financial Aid Data (FAM503)
screen. When this option is not set, the system uses the status from the Student
Financial Aid Data (FAM503) screen.

System: SAF
Table ID: AGENCY
Value: SAF-SUP-ID
Description: XXXXX9999 where X indicates the portion of the ID that is to be
suppressed and 9 indicates the portion of the ID that is to be displayed. In this
example, the system would only display the last 4 digits of the ID.

System: SAF
Table ID: AGENCY
Value: SAF056-CODE
Description: NO
This table entry suppresses printing of the tracking code on the detail of the letter.
The system only prints the description of the tracking code and the dates (if
selected).
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