Summary: G5 Implementation Update #3 - Phase 1 Implementation Planned for December 17, 2007 with Impact on Funds Availability

Publication Date: November 7, 2007

Author: William Leith, Acting General Manager, Application, Operations and Delivery Services, Federal Student Aid

Summary: G5 Implementation Update #3 - Phase 1 Implementation Planned for December 17, 2007 with Impact on Funds Availability

Posted on 11-07-2007

This is the third in a series of communications about the development of G5—a state-of-the-art electronic system for grants management and payments. In June 2007, the Department of Education (the Department) announced that G5 will replace the current Grant Administration and Payments System (GAPS), including the e-Payments functionality used by schools to draw down Campus-Based, Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG), National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant), Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant), and William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) funds. G5 will provide a number of performance, processing, and customer enhancements.

G5 Phase I Implementation Date and Online Training

As previously explained, the Department will implement G5 in three phases over several years. Phase I of G5 will address e-Payments and provide improved drawdown functionality. Full implementation of Phase I is planned for December 17, 2007. This date for Phase I implementation supersedes all preliminary implementation information provided by the Department at earlier points in time.

The Department has posted the December 17, 2007 implementation date as well as an updated "G5 Phase 1 Implementation Overview" presentation on the GAPS e-Payments Web site. In addition, G5 online training is now available at the following URL:

http://www.g5.gov/

G5 Phase I Implementation Impact on Funds Availability

The service outage associated with the December 17, 2007 G5 Phase 1 implementation will impact how the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System will process financial data and when schools can obtain funds for the Federal student aid programs as follows:

• Wednesday, December 12, 2007 through Sunday, December 16, 2007 - The COD System will accept ACG, National SMART Grant, Pell Grant, and Direct Loan disbursements, but Current Funding Level (CFL) changes and funding will not be processed by G5 until Monday, December 17, 2007.

  All actual disbursements with a disbursement date from December 12, 2007 through December 17, 2007 must be received and accepted by the COD System no later than 10:00 P.M. (ET) on Tuesday, December 11, 2007, in order for them to be included in the drawdown prior to the shutdown. Disbursements submitted after this time and disbursements with a disbursement date after December 17, 2007 will be funded after G5 is implemented on December 17, 2007.

• 7:00 P.M. (ET) on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 through 6:00 A.M. (ET) on Monday, December 17, 2007 - Neither the GAPS e-Payments Web site nor the new G5 Web site will be available. Schools will not be able to draw down Campus-Based, ACG, National SMART Grant, Pell Grant, or Direct Loan funds during this period.

Note: The new G5 Web site will be available after 6:00 A.M. (ET) on Monday, December 17, 2007. We expect financial processing to be caught up by Thursday, December 20, 2007.

Please share this information, as appropriate, with others at your school/organization.

Contact Information

Thank you for continuing to work with us as the Department implements G5. If you have any questions about the December 17, 2007 G5 Phase I implementation and/or the online training, contact the GAPS hotline at 888/336-8930 or e-mail G5admin@ed.gov.