Maintained for Historical Purposes

This resource is being maintained for historical purposes only and is not currently applicable.

Negative Pell Grant Disbursements

PublicationDate: 8/20/99
Summary: Negative Pell Grant Disbursements
Author: CPS - Central Processing System (CPS)

Posted on August 20, 1999

TO: All Destination Points
FROM: CPS Customer Service
RE: Negative Pell Grant Disbursements

We wish to advise you of a recently identified issue regarding entering negative Pell disbursements into EDExpress Version 5.3. The EDExpress software is currently exporting invalid data on the disbursement record which causes the record and/or batch to reject. This issue will be corrected with the next release, which will be announced shortly. Until then, CPS is advising that institutions manually edit these disbursement files after export to remove the "-" and replace it with a "0".

Below are detailed instructions on how to correctly edit your disbursement files using a DOS/Text Editor. To fix negative disbursements please do the following:

1) Make a copy of the pgdr00in file before editing.
2) Open the file in DOS/Text Editor.
3) Go to the Search menu and select Replace or Change. In the "Find What" field enter a
dash "-". In the "Change To" field enter a zero "0". Click OK.
4) Go to the File - Save and then go to File - Exit.
5) Transmit the file.

If you are concerned that any of your student records have a dash in the name ID (the first two letters of the last name), we recommend you take the following steps to edit your files.

1) Make a copy of the pgdr00in file before editing.
2) Open the file in DOS/Text Editor.
3) Make sure your cursor is a blinking square by hitting your insert key. This is so you
won't change the record length of the file when replacing the negative sign with a zero.
4) Look within the detail records for field positions 41-47. Use your down arrow to scroll
through all your detail records. If you see a (-) 'negative sign' in any field between field
positions 41-47 replace it with a zero. (The negative sign will actually only ever appear in
field positions 41,42, 43 or 44.)
5) Scroll down to the trailer record.
6) Find field positions 47-57.
7) If you see a (-) 'negative sign' in any field between positions 47-57 in the trailer record replace
it with a zero.
8) Save the file.
9) Transmit the file.

We apologize for any inconvenience. If you would like assistance, please contact CPS Customer Service at 1-800-330-5947.