Publication Date: April 23, 2007 Author: William Leith, Acting General Manager, Application, Operations and Delivery Services, Federal Student Aid Summary: 2006-2007 ACG and National SMART Grant Reconciliation Reports to Reporting Schools Beginning April 28, 2007 Posted on 04-23-2007 As explained in an Electronic Announcement posted on April 4, 2007, during the period April 13-14, 2007, we implemented Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) reports for the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) Program and the National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant) Program for the 2006-2007 Award Year. Two of these reports, the Reconciliation Report and the Year-to-Date (YTD) Record, will assist schools as they complete both the ongoing and year-end reconciliation processes for ACG and National SMART Grant awards. The Reconciliation Report and the YTD Record for the ACG and National SMART Grant programs are just like the Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant) versions of these reports. The Reconciliation Report is a student summary of processed records. The YTD Record contains detailed origination, disbursement, and summary information at a transaction level. As we informed schools in the April 4th announcement and earlier communications, we want to assist schools with the reconciliation of ACG and National SMART Grant award data that schools have submitted to the COD System since ACG and National SMART Grant award processing began in December 2006. To do this, we will send a 2006-2007 ACG Reconciliation Report to the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) mailboxes of all reporting schools with at least one funded 2006-2007 ACG disbursement. Likewise, we will send a 2006-2007 National SMART Grant Reconciliation Report to the SAIG mailboxes of all reporting schools with at least one funded 2006-2007 National SMART Grant disbursement. 2006-2007 ACG and National SMART Grant Reconciliation Reports to Reporting Schools Beginning April 28, 2007 We will begin sending 2006-2007 ACG Reconciliation Reports and 2006-2007 National SMART Grant Reconciliation Reports to the applicable reporting schools on April 28, 2007. Schools will receive the reports during the following week. Key information about the 2006-2007 ACG Reconciliation Reports and 2006-2007 National SMART Grant Reconciliation Reports that we will send to reporting schools is as follows:
Note: While we will automatically send 2006-2007 ACG Reconciliation Reports and 2006-2007 National SMART Grant Reconciliation Reports to schools beginning April 28, 2007, in the future, a school can request an ACG Reconciliation Report and/or a National SMART Grant Reconciliation Report via the COD Web site or by submitting the batch data request for the appropriate program/award year message class via the SAIG. For information about how to request these reports, refer to Volume VI, Section 8 of the 2006-2007 COD Technical Reference. Using 2006-2007 ACG and National SMART Grant Reconciliation Reports to Identify Discrepancies Upon receipt, the 2006-2007 ACG Reconciliation Report and the 2006-2007 National SMART Grant Reconciliation Report can each be downloaded and then viewed, printed, or imported into a spreadsheet for comparison with a school's data. For example, the file can be imported into a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel (XLS). Since the file is not in XLS (spreadsheet format), the spreadsheet program will automatically prompt the user to convert it by following the directions displayed. Once the file has been imported into a spreadsheet, the column widths and data formats must be reviewed and adjusted to meet the user's needs. Note: The format of any dollar value data element will need to be updated to numeric with two decimal places. Using 2006-2007 ACG and National SMART Grant YTD Records and the COD Web site to Assist in Resolving Discrepancies After a school completes a comparison of its ACG and/or National SMART Grant data and the data in the COD System, the school must resolve all discrepancies by either updating the school database or submitting updates to the COD System. To assist in the resolution process, a school can request a 2006-2007 ACG YTD Record and/or a 2006-2007 National SMART Grant YTD Record. A YTD Record can be requested for one given student, for all ACG recipients, or for all National SMART Grant recipients at the school. The YTD Record contains detailed ACG or National SMART Grant origination and disbursement data at a transaction level. This detailed information can assist in the determination of the appropriate resolution. A school can request a 2006-2007 ACG YTD Record and/or a 2006-2007 National SMART Grant YTD Record via the COD Web site or by submitting the batch data request for the appropriate program/award year message class (AGRQ07IN for the ACG YTD Record and SGRQ07IN for the National SMART Grant YTD Record) to the COD System via the SAIG. The school will then receive a data request acknowledgement and the requested report in the corresponding program/award year message class (AGYR07OP for the ACG YTD Record and SGYR07OP for the National SMART Grant YTD Record) via the SAIG. Note for EDExpress Users: To identify discrepancies, a school can use EDExpress to run a comparison between a 2006-2007 ACG YTD Record or a 2006-2007 National SMART Grant YTD Record and the school's ACG or National SMART Grant database. For more information about using the comparison feature, refer to the 2006-2007 Desk Reference for EDExpress Release 2.0 under the Software and Associated Documents link on the Federal Student Aid Download (FSAdownload) Web site. A school can access the desk reference, by completing the following steps:
Additionally, a school can use the COD Web site to view current ACG and National SMART Grant award origination and disbursement information in the COD System. Contact Information If you have any questions about the Reconciliation Report and the YTD Record for the ACG and National SMART Grant programs, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/4PGRANT (800/474-7268) for ACG, National SMART Grant, and Pell Grant. You may also e-mail CODSupport@acs-inc.com. If you have any questions about using EDExpress to run a comparison between a YTD Record and your school's database, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947 (TDD/TTY 800/511-5806) or by e-mail at CPSSAIG@ed.gov. |