| PublicationDate: 9/10/99 Summary: Update on the Recipient and Financial Management System (RFMS) Author: PSS - Program Systems Service Posted on September 10, 1999 To: All Destination Points From: Tom Pestka, Acting Director Program Systems Service, Office of Student Financial Assistance Subject: Update on the Recipient and Financial Management System (RFMS) This message - Announces the RFMS Webpage Updates you on Testing Tip of the Week THE RFMS WEBPAGE IS AVAILABLE We are pleased to announce the start-up of the RFMS website. The address of the website is: https://www.pellgrantsonline.ed.gov This site will allow schools to check batch status and their authorization levels. Users will also be able to link with other Department of ED sites on the Internet. Please note the website uses 40-56-128-bit encryption that requires Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher or Netscape 3.0 or higher. This encryption protects the website from unauthorized users. The initial password and sign-on for the Financial Aid Administrator at each school has been established. The initial password is the school's IAS pin number and the Financial Aid Administrators User Id is the school's six-digit Pell ID number with the alpha code FA preceding it (i.e. FA999999). As part of the modernization effort of the Department of Education, RFMS will eventually be consolidating its user identification procedures with the Title IV WAN to use the same logon User-ID. You will be notified in advance when to expect these changes. In the future, the Financial Aid Administrator may add access for additional staff. If a Financial Aid Administrator does not have the IAS Pin number, please send a fax to 301-548-2396 on school letterhead including the name and address of the school, the six-digit Pell ID number, and the FAA's name, telephone number and fax number. TESTING CONTINUES We are in the process of putting Special Disbursements through an end to end test. Results of the previous portions of Special Disbursement Testing have been very good, and we anticipate completion of the end to end soon. We will complete our interface test with the Student Account Manager portion of Access America in the coming week. TIP OF THE WEEK Institutional Data Requests are not yet being accepted by RFMS. This includes MRR requests, Institutional Data Records, and requests for Year-to-Date and Statement of Accounts (99-00). An announcement will be made later this summer when these requests can be sent. WE WILL CONTINUE TO SEND YOU WEEKLY STATUS REPORTS Look for them in- - Title IV Wide Area Network (TIVWAN) - The Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) website located at http://www.ifap.ed.gov, and - Listserves: - FINAID-L - FINNET-L - MEDAID-L - BURSAR-L - SFATECH IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS - If you have questions, comments, or concerns about RFMS, please call Pell Customer Service at 1-800/474-7268 (select option 2) or send an e-mail to #Pell_Systems@ed.gov. - If you have questions about the 1999-2000 EDExpress Pell software, contact the Central Processing System customer service staff at 1-800/330-5947 or send an e-mail to CPS@NCS.COM. - If you have questions about RFMS message classes or problems connecting to the network, contact the TIVWAN customer service staff at 1-800/615-1189 or send an e-mail to T4WAN@NCS.COM. Reminder: Your TIVWAN EDConnect Desk Reference contains all the information you need about getting help by telephone or on the Internet. |