Update Historical Fund Information (HFI) Message to Support 24/25 Pell Conversion

The existing Historical Fund Information (HFI) message is enhanced to support new values required for sending 24/25 Pell Grant Originations. The new fields are added within the <HistoricFundDisbursement> element and are these tags:

  • <PaymentPeriodStartDate> This field is optional and should be sent in as a date; for example, 2024-08-01.
  • <PaymentPeriodEndDate> This field is optional and should be sent in as a date; for example, 2024-12-01.
  • <EnrollmentIntensity> This field is optional and should be sent in as a positive integer 1-100; for example, 100.

These new fields are saved, stored and sent in all outbound COD files for the <FinancialAwardType> and <FinancialAwardYear> associated to the Pell Grant disbursement communicated in the HFI within the Disbursement block. Note! If SFA subsequently calculates different dates or enrollment intensity for the payment period, the values sent in via the HFI message continue to be used for that disbursement.

For converted students, this feature allows Pell Grant originations to contain Pell Grant disbursements disbursed in an outside system to be sent to COD for the 24/25 and future award years.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Student Financial Aid

Opt In for this feature is enabled via integration message:

  • Send in the Historical Fund Information Message for 24/25 Pell Grant disbursements using the new optional fields.

Tips And Considerations

  • For affected students, Oracle recommends that the HFI message be sent prior to the SAFI when possible. This allows SFA to automatically create sequential Pell Grant disbursements to disbursement numbers communicated in the HFI message. For example, the HFI is sent with D1S1 and when the SAFI is sent, SFP creates Pell D2S1 and D3S1 sequentially if the student is Pell Grant eligible. 
  • If the HFI message isn't sent prior to the SAFI, a validation error occurs, and the user will have to first update any existing disbursements numbers to be subsequent to the disbursement number communicated in the HFI. For example:
    1. The SAFI is sent and creates D1 and D2 for a Pell Grant eligible student.
    2. The HFI is sent in for D1S1 and a validation error occurs for the received message due to D1 already existing in the system.
    3.  The user must then update D1 and D2 in SFP, D1 must be updated to D2, and D2 must be updated to D3 using the Disbursement Admin UI or API.
    4. The HFI can then be resent in with D1S1.
    5. Subsequently, when an origination is triggered, D1, D2, and D3 will be communicated to COD. 
    6. If values communicated within the HFI do not align to previously communicated and accepted values for the outside system, the HFI may need to be resent to avoid COD rejects. 

Key Resources