Publication Date: September 4, 2001
Author: General Manager: SFA School Channel
Summary: Temporary Change For Displaying The Obligation Or Obligation/Payment Amount On The Pell Grant Statement of Account
Posted on September 4, 2001
TO: All Destination Points
FROM: Federal Pell Grant Processing
SUBJECT: Temporary Change For Displaying The Obligation Or Obligation/Payment Amount On The Pell Grant Statement of Account
THIS MESSAGE: Announces a temporary change in how your obligation or obligation/payment amount displayed in the Federal Pell Grant Electronic Statement of Account is extracted from the RFMS database.
The Federal Pell Grant Program has made a change to the information that goes into the creation of the Electronic Statement Of Account (ESOA).
As we informed you on August 9, GAPS has now placed an edit in its system that prevents the creation of negative available balances. However, under both cash management and reporting requirements there are times when schools must be able to report negative adjustments to RFMS. In order to assist schools in reconciliation and in meeting cash management and reporting requirements when they have submitted negative disbursements, we have temporarily changed the ESOA produced by RFMS.
Previously, the obligation or obligation/payment amounts on the ESOA reflected not only what was received and accepted in RFMS but also what was accepted in GAPS. That will no longer be the case. The ESOA will look the same as it has in the past. However, the line on the ESOA that reads "Current Pell Grant Obligation" (Part A - advance funded schools) or "Current Pell Grant Obligation/Payment ( Part B - Just-in-Time Pilot schools) will now include the negative disbursements not included in GAPS. This means that the "YTD GAPS Posted Disbursement Amount" line on the ESOA may display an amount that is higher than the total of the accepted disbursement records in RFMS which include the negative disbursements.
A negative available balance occurs when negative disbursement records reduce your GAPS authorization to an amount below what your business officer has already drawn down in GAPS. These negative disbursement records are the result of changed student awards initiated by the school or, in some cases, system-generated by RFMS (such as when a subsequent origination record reduces the award to an amount lower than the amount already accepted for disbursement).
Because of the GAPS edit, these records will not process in GAPS until the negative balance is corrected. A correction occurs when cash is refunded in the amount of the negative disbursement record or when positive disbursement records that exceed the amount of the negative are submitted. Negatives will remain in GAPS as "unprocessed deobligations" that are not visible currently on the GAPS Web Site and will not be visible until changes in GAPS which are scheduled to take effect later this year have been implemented. At that time you will be able to view unprocessed deobligations in GAPS and more easily take corrective action to return funds or submit additional positive disbursement records.
Because of the new edit, the GAPS Web site will not display the negative amount. If you wish to verify the Pell Grant obligation (authorization) noted on the ESOA, call the Federal Pell Grant Hotline at 1-800-4PGRANT (1-800-474-7268).