Edit Automated Awarding Cost of Attendance Options
You can edit the details of a Cost of Attendance (COA) budget on the Cost of Attendance Options tab of the Edit Automated Budget and Packaging Options form.
Prerequisites
You must have:
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Common - Configuration - View authorization
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Financial Aid Automation - Configuration - Automated Budget and Packaging Options - Edit, Save, and View authorization.
Access Method
Select the Configuration tile > expand Financial Aid > select Automated Budget and Packaging Options.
Procedure to Edit Automated Budget Packaging Options
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Under Automated Budget and Packaging Options, specify the values.
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Select the Apply Filters button.
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Review the following values in the results grid.
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Select the link on a Program Version name.
The Edit Automated Budget and Packaging Options form is displayed. The Campus, Program Version Code, Area of Study, and Student Group are displayed at the top of the form.
The form always opens displaying whichever enrollment status is selected as the Default COA ( Default COA check box is selected). To work in an enrollment status other than the default COA, select the appropriate enrollment status tab located over the Default COA check box. The tabs are:
- Full Time
- Three-Quarter Time
- Half Time
- Less than Half Time
Review the following values and edit as needed.
The date field to the right of COA Budget Methodology is enabled only when you select COA as of in the COA Budget Methodology field. Configure this field when enabled as necessary.
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If the Copy Current Default COA link is displayed below the Default COA check box, you can copy the current default enrollment status budget fields and replace any one or all the other current enrollment status budget(s). The link is only enabled for use on the Default COA. If you modify the Default COA prior to saving the updates, the hyperlink will allow you copy those updated field values to the other enrollment status budgets. When you save the program version budget, then all updates will be saved at that time. The link can be seen on the Past, Current, and Future COA Budget Methodology but it will only copy from the Current budget values into the enrollment status selected for that Current budget grid. The copy will not update the Past or Future budget values.
When invoked, a pop-up dialog with the message "All copied Payment Period Effective Date(s), Common Fees, On Campus, Off Campus, and With Parents fees will overwrite all existing dates and fees within the Current Budget values”, lets you choose which enrollment status budgets should have the Default COA values to be copied to which other enrollment tabs, including Full Time, 3/4 Time, 1/2 Time, and Less Than Half Time budgets. You can select one, some, or all the statuses to be updated with the default COA budget values. All configured Current Cost of Attendance items from the Payment Period Effective Date, Common Fees, On Campus, Off Campus, and With Parents will be copied from the Default COA and updated onto the same program version's budget for the enrollment statuses selected.
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Five collapsible sections appear under the Default COA check box:
- Payment Period and Effective Date
- Common Fees & Charges
- On Campus Residency Fees & Charges
- Off Campus Residency Fees & Charges
- With Parent Residency Fees & Charges
Sections with configured fees and charges are expanded, with all columns visible. Sections with no configured fees and charges are collapsed. Select the chevron icon (
) to expand a section.
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In the Payment Period and Effective Date section, edit the following fields as needed.
In the grid below these fields, you can edit the Default Hours for listed payment periods by selecting in that field. You can add new Payment Periods by selecting Add in the toolbar. You can also remove configured Payment Periods by selecting the Payment Period in the grid and selecting Remove in the toolbar.
When the Calculate button is selected to update a student's academic year budget and the automated budget's cost of attendance payment period configuration does not match the number of payment periods present in the academic year sequence term association configuration for that student's program version and start date, the following message is displayed: "Invalid number of payment periods between the automated budget and the program version's term association to calculate budget."
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Review the remaining four sections. If there are entries in any of the grids in these sections, review and edit the values as needed. The columns and fields are the same in all four sections:
Other Fee Priority
Read
Note 2.
Repackage Method Functionality
The Repackage Method options include Default, Billing, Allocate, and Simulation. Select he Auto Repackage check box to enable the enable the Billing, Allocate, and Simulation choices in the Repackage Method field.
Default
The Default Repackage Method performs the same process as Auto Packaging.
Billing
The Billing Repackage Method recalculates the budget based on the actual amounts posted to the ledger card (e.g., Tuition, Tuition Discount, Tuition Military, Tuition Out of State, Tuition International). Auto Repackaging will then sum up all of the student account transaction codes configured into the one COA budget fee for Tuition. This is a term by term calculation that is applied after the billing has been posted to the students ledger card. Until then the COA will apply the budget fee amount as configured on the Automated Budget COA grid for each term.
Allocate
The Allocate Repackage Method allows for ranges of how billing is set up to be configured to calculate fee amounts before billing is run based on the students registered credits to get a more accurate COA for each type of fee this is configured for. This can be configured for credit hour or flat rate, along with ranges of Low/High and Cost.
You can configure a specific Budget Allocation for a selected Fee Type. Select the link in the Budget Allocation column to open the Budget Allocation pop-up. Choose a Distribution Type of Credit Hour or Flat Rate and configure the credit amount range for the allocation with a Low Credit Hour and High Credit Hour amount. In the Flat Rate or Credit Hours column, add the tuition amount to charge the student, either a per credit hour amount or a simple flat rate tuition amount.
Flat rates can be configured up to two decimals. The lowest range is 0.00 while the highest range is 9999.99. The system includes all credit ranges to the exact decimal.
Simulation
The Simulation Repackage Method uses course credits in a payment period/term to calculate the fee amounts based directly on the standard fee amount awarded to a student. After choosing Simulation, you can adjust the dollar amount in the Fee Amount field. The student's total fee charge will be adjusted accordingly based on the number of credit hours the student is registered for within the payment period.
When a student is not registered for any courses of a term the calculation will use the Default Hours as configured in the Automated Budget and Packaging Options within the Payment Period and Effective Date grid. So that only when 1 course is registered for that term will the Auto Repackaging of that terms budget fee be recalculated. If all courses are unregistered, the default hours will be used to calculate the budget fee amount again.
The system performs calculations to ensure that the actual fee charge per credit hour is at a rate that is based on the corresponding percentage of the fee charged for a standard full-time course load. This simulation of charges can be performed in all Fees & Charges sections:
- Common Fees & Charges
- On Campus Residency Fees & Charges
- Off Campus Residency Fees & Charges
- With Parent Residency Fees & Charges
These simulations allow you to adjust different fee amounts for the credits taken by a student, based directly on the standard fee amount awarded to a student, and project what future awarding would be based on those credits.
The fee amounts are configured in the COA Options Fee Amount Per field. You can choose from:
- Fee Amount Per Credits
- Fee Amount Per Enrollment/Program
- Fee Amount Per Months
- Fee Amount Per Payment Period
The system first determines the Default Cost Per:
Multiple separate calculations are then completed by the system to determine the budget Repackage Simulation totals and shown below:
- Fee Amount per Academic Year
- Fee Amount Per Payment Period
- Fee Amount Per Credits
- Fee Amount Per Enrollment/Program
- Fee Amount Per Months
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If you need to add any new fees or charges in any of the sections, select Add in the toolbar and select the Fee Type you wish to add:
If the automated budget grid has filters applied and you select to Add in another fee, the filters will be cleared as well as all line items displayed in the grid.
- Tuition
- Fees
- Books
- Room
- Board
- Travel
- Personal
- Other
After selecting the Fee Type, configure the fields appropriately (as you did in Step 7 above).
To create a cost of attendance budget for an enrollment status that is not currently configured, select the tab of the enrollment status (Full Time, Three-Quarter Time, etc...) for which you wish to create a COA budget. All five of the sections below that enrollment status will be displayed in collapsed view. Configure all necessary field values starting at the top of the form. Follow the procedure starting in Step 4.
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If you want to save and:
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Continue making changes, select the Save button
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Close, select the Save & Close button
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Select the AUTOMATED BUDGET AND PACKAGING OPTIONS link at the top of the page to return to the Automated Budget and Packaging Options form.

The Automated Awarding process awards the remaining award year eligible Pell grant in a subsequent academic year when the prior academic year (of the same award year) is not locked at the academic or fund source level.
Automated awarding provides the exception AWARDPOP0037 "The cross over Pell grant is not able to be awarded because the Automated Budget and Packaging Options field for Package by Academic Years is not configured as Multiple."
AWARDPOP0037 occurs when:
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The "Package by Academic Years" configuration is Single, and the Pell grant was awarded in a prior AY (1), but the user is packaging in a current AY (2)
AND
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The Pell award is not locked, but the configuration does not allow the system to auto-package the remaining Pell amount in the cross-over for the current AY (2).
The system does NOT create the AWARDPOP0037 exception for past academic years if "Package by Academic Years" is configured as Multiple on the Packaging Options and:
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The user selects the Auto Package button on a current academic year.
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The Auto Package job's population only awards on a current academic year that starts after the original Pell grant was awarded.