Posted Date:September 25, 2015
| Author: | Pamela Eliadis, Service Director, System Operations & Aid Delivery Management, Federal Student Aid |
Subject: Guidance for EDExpress 2015-2016 Direct Loan and TEACH Grant Users Following October COD System Implementation
As will be fully described in an upcoming electronic announcement posted to the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site, the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System will implement additional functionality for the 2015-2016 Award Year during the period October 9-11, 2015. In addition to other changes, the COD System implementation will include an enhancement to enable users to submit Direct Loan and TEACH Grant actual disbursement adjustments to multiple financial and non-financial data elements in the same sequence number (i.e., submit within a single transaction). The 30-Day Warning Report will also be renamed.
It is important for EDExpress software users to note that EDExpress 2015-2016, Release 3.0 and prior releases will not be updated for either of these COD System enhancements. EDExpress 2016-2017, Release 2.0, scheduled for release in spring 2016, will include enhancements to the Direct Loan and TEACH Grant modules that build upon these COD System disbursement and report updates.
In the following sections we provide guidance to Release 3.0 users on how to address these temporary gaps in functionality between the software and the COD System, when working with Direct Loan or TEACH Grant records after the October 9-11, 2015 COD System implementation.
Direct Loan and TEACH Grant Actual Disbursement Adjustments
Beginning October 11, 2015, the COD System will allow adjustments to multiple financial and non-financial data elements in Direct Loan and TEACH Grant actual disbursements in the same disbursement sequence number. Prior to this change, adjustments to actual disbursement amounts and disbursement dates had to be submitted in separate disbursement sequence numbers.
However, EDExpress 2015-2016, Release 3.0 users should not change their procedures for actual disbursement adjustments, following the upcoming COD System release. End-of-entry edits in EDExpress 2015-2016, Release 3.0 will continue to require that you submit adjustments to Direct Loan and TEACH Grant actual disbursement data elements in separate sequence numbers. This includes actual disbursement adjustments entered manually on the Disburse tab or using Multiple Entry, as well as disbursement data imported in external files such as the Direct Loan External Import Change (DIEC16OP) or the TEACH Grant External Data Add/Change (TGED16OP).
Important Note: In addition, EDExpress 2015-2016, Release 3.0 users should exercise extreme caution when entering Direct Loan or TEACH Grant actual disbursement adjustments on the COD Web site after the October 9-11, 2015 implementation. Do not submit adjustments to multiple data elements (i.e., disbursement amount, disbursement date, CIP Code, Enrollment Status, Payment Period Start Date) in the same actual disbursement sequence number, even if the COD Web site allows you to do so. We anticipate that importing the Web-Generated Response (CRWB16OP) you will receive based on your Web activity will create significant, potentially irreparable issues in your EDExpress database, including calculation issues that may prevent you from making further updates to the affected Direct Loan or TEACH Grant disbursements in the software. Your ability to reconcile or rebuild your Direct Loan data using DL Tools, Release 15.0 may also be affected.
Renaming the Direct Loan 30-Day Warning Report
The upcoming COD System release will also include changing the name of the 30-Day Warning Report to the Direct Loan Booking Warning Report. The renamed report will be sent under the same message class (DIWR16OP) as the 30-Day Warning Report. For more information on the Direct Loan Booking Warning Report, see Volume VI, Section 8 of the 2015-2016 COD Technical Reference.
If you receive a Direct Loan Booking Warning Report for the 2015-2016 Award Year, you can use the existing 30-Day Warning Report import type in EDExpress 2015-2016 to import the file. To do this, choose 30 Day Warning Report as the import type in the Direct Loan Import dialog box (File, Import, Direct Loan), click the File… button, locate the DIWR16OP file you want to import, select it, and run the import.
Contact Information
If you have any questions regarding EDExpress 2015-2016, Release 3.0, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947 (TDD/TTY 800/511-5806) or by e-mail at CPSSAIG@ed.gov.
You can also post questions regarding EDExpress on FSATECH. FSATECH is an
electronic mailing list for technical questions about Federal Student Aid systems, software, and mainframe products. For more information on subscribing to FSATECH, go to http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/services/fsatechsubscribe.html.
If you have any questions about the COD System, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/474-7268 for Grants or 800/848-0978 for Direct Loans. You may also e-mail CODSupport@ed.gov.