DIRECT LOAN RECONCILIATION

It IS as easy as 1-2-3!

PRESENTERS

Eric E. LaneSubject Matter Expert – FA WEST

NC Community College Systemlanee@nccommunitycolleges.edu

828-694-4709

Karen Britt StatlerSubject Matter Expert– FA EASTNC Community College System

statlerk@nccommunitycolleges.edu919-209-2181

Bandit

NC Community College System• 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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OBJECTIVES1. 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.

ExampleExample: Balancing a checkbook

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DIRECT LOAN RECONCILIATIONThe 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?

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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

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TDCLIENT

EAI BUS

Disbursement

Award

Person

Entity Information

Common Record

Response

Response

Response

Response

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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

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

School Receives

SAS

Match?

Resolve Issues

Compare Cash Detail

Compare Loan Detail

NO

YESYES

Resolved?

Compare Cash

Summary

DONEDONE

RECONCILIATION PROCESS FLOW

NO

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(Documentation)

GET READY• 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 OPTIONSSet your SAS optionscorrectly on COD:

School Report Selection Modify SAS Options

IF COLLEAGUE, MUST BE SET TO:

FIXED LENGTHYEAR TO DATEDISBURSEMENT DETAIL

SAS OPTIONS

DSDFDSLF

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)• 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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• COD Customer Service– 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

TOOLS

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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 yourcash balanceon COD.

SCHOOL SUMMARY FINANCIAL INFO

Another screenthat shows a good picture of the status of yourdisbursements.

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 willshow 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 NOTESLoan 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 SAS Reconciliation Report Page 1 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 2,709.00 1 2,737.00 1 B 3 0002583 Crutchfield, Deirdra *****1001S10G99999001 S SUBDL 1 1 2,250.00 2,217.00 1 5 Report Totals $11,417.00 $11,248.00 $2,709.00 $5,474.00 Total Unduplicated Student Count = 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 topinpoint rejected recordsand correct them.

DIRECT LOAN VARIANCE REPORT

The DLVR report is a quick way to see records that areout of sync with COD. Theyare usually new or changedrecords that need to beexported.

RESOURCES– http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DirectLoan/

participating.html

– www.ifap.ed.gov

– www.studentloans.gov (resource for students)

– www.cod.ed.gov

– www.direct.ed.gov

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RESOURCESFederal Government:– http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DirectLoan/

participating.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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RESOURCESDL 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