Documents

You can manage requested documents from students as part of the financial aid application process.

Overview

Documents are collected from students during all phases of a student’s life cycle. Student Financial Aid (SFA) provides a framework where many different types of documents can be collected and approved.

You can request and receive any documentation required to proceed with the financial aid application review process, including the ISIR Review and ISIR Verification processes. These include documents the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the institution require and have configured to clear assumptions, reject codes, ISIR data discrepancies, professional judgments, and verification to make Title IV Funds available to students.

These are the types of document data that are managed by SFA:

Document Type	Definition
Document	An official paper or computer file that provides information or proof about a student/spouse/parent borrower.
Metadata	Data that provides information about other data, for example, First Name, Date of Birth, Social Security Number, and so on.
Document Sub-Type	A document that requires multiple documents under one document name because each version contains different information or proof about a student/spouse/parent borrower, for example, W2s, Tax Returns, Student Statements, and so on.

You can use the delivered Student Self-Service or build your own portal to an external Document Management System (DMS) of your choice to meet your document application processing needs.

Document Statuses

These document statuses are used throughout the document management process.

Status	Description
Requested	Document request has been sent to the student or appropriate party/system. Document continues to be displayed in the Pending Requests screen unless you cancel the Document Request.
Received	Document message has been received and has not been accepted or rejected by SFA. Manual Review Required (either based on configuration or due to failing metadata acceptance logic). Document Remains in a required state and is only be updated to No Longer Required if the Manual Review results in the document being Approved or Canceled. Document continues to be displayed in the Pending Requests screen until Manual Review is complete and removed only if the Manual Review results in the document being Approved or the document request is Cancelled.
Acceptable	Document has been received and has passed validation and all acceptance criteria. Document does not require manual review (manual review may have been required, but has been completed and document was approved). Document is updated to No Longer Required Document is no longer displayed in the Pending Requests screen.
Unacceptable	Document Management System determined the document was Unacceptable upon receipt or the document has been manually rejected. Document is still required. Document continues to be displayed in the Pending Requests screen unless the document request is Canceled.
Inactive	Document has passed its expiration period (e.g. only active for their associated award year). Example: If a FAFSA for a closed award year is received after the configured Award Year ISIR Deadline Date, the document status is updated to Inactive.

Requesting Documents

Documents are requested based on system configuration. For example, in several of the ISIR-related Configuration Workbooks, there is a Documents Required field. This field is populated with a Groovy script containing logic that makes document requests. When an ISIR is received, the configuration creates the document request. You can view what documents have been requested automatically or manually on the Financial Aid System (FAS) administrative UI Pending Documents page. Based on your configured messaging, the student is notified of the document request with the related configured message.

To prevent duplicate document requests, Received Documents are checked before sending any requests. If the document status is Requested or Acceptable, the document isn't requested again. However, if the you configure a reminder notification to be sent after a defined number of days has passed, another request is sent at the appropriate time.

If the Document Status is Unacceptable:

• With Student Self-Service, the student can review the Documents page and make necessary changes.

• With an external DMS, another document request is sent automatically. You can manually request or re-request a document any time and an another notification is automatically sent.

SFA uses the configured document expiration date as metadata. If the document is configured as a Lifetime document, for example, a Social Security Card, the document isn't required if it is already saved to the student record, unless the document effective date has passed. If the document expires every award year, then a new document is required annually, for example, income tax information.

Receiving Documents, Document Metadata, and Document Sub-Types

You can use the delivered Student Self-Service or integration with an external DMS to receive and display documents, document metadata, and document sub-types:

• When using delivered Student Self-Service, you can view documents, document metadata, and document subtypes on the Received Documents page in the FAS UI when the student completes or uploads the document using the delivered Student Self-Service UI. You can review and approve documents using the Review Document for Approval task in the FAS UI.

• When using an external DMS, you can view documents, document metadata, and document subtypes on the Received Documents page when the external document ID is used in combination with a configured DMS URL address. When the student provides the document, the external DMS transforms the document into a FasDocumentReceiptEvent message and sends it to SFA.

You configure rules to accept documents, document metadata, and document sub-types. When documents are received, additional actions may be required upon examination of the document, document metadata, and document sub-type attributes. SFA automatically assigns documents, document metadata, and document sub-types to an appropriate document category and appropriate tasks using student identifier information:

• Documents: SFA uses the External Student ID Number to match the document to a student record. After evaluating the document name, document code, category, and data fields, related tasks are created. If you have configured the document to be manually reviewed, the document metadata is inaccurate, or the document is Unacceptable, SFA creates a Review Document for Approval task.

• Metadata: Metadata is captured and extracted from a document automatically through the delivered Student Self-Service or integration with the external DMS intake process. SFA validates the metadata received against Acceptance Criteria for all required metadata parameters and creates a Review Document for Approval task when metadata does not pass validation of the acceptance criteria.

• Document Sub-Types: If configured to do so, documents and metadata are evaluated to see if they should be stored with multiple versions as a document Sub-Type; for example, W2s for multiple employers, different Student Statements used to resolve different tasks, and so on.

Validating the Document Status and Assigning the Document Owners

Once a document is received, SFA evaluates the document to determine the document status and route it through configured Acceptance Criteria to determine if it is Acceptable or Unacceptable. If the document is considered Unacceptable, it's rejected, and SFA requests a new document from the student or appropriate party.

If the document is Acceptable, SFA evaluates the document to determine the Document Owner by checking the document receipt message. If a document receipt message is not available, SFA evaluates configured rules to establish the Document Owner. If it cannot be determined who the Document Owner is, the field is updated to Unknown. When the Document Owner is Unknown, SFA saves the document and doesn't replace or overwrite any existing document until the Document Owner field has been properly updated.

SFA uses the ISIR logic to determine if the Document Owner is assigned to the:

• For the 2024-2025 and future Aid Years:
  • Student
  • Student Spouse
  • Parent
  • Parent Spouse
• For the 2023-2024 and prior Aid Years:
  • Student
  • Spouse
  • Parent 1
  • Parent 2

If a document is received by SFA with a student's name and there is no ISIR, the student is assigned as the Document Owner. If the document is received and does not match the student's name and there is no ISIR on file, the Document Owner can't be assigned and is updated to Unknown.

If the Document Owner value is Unknown, SFA determines if an ISIR has been matched to the student record. If an ISIR has not yet been matched, SFA waits until the appropriate award year ISIR has been received, saved, and matched to the student record before creating a Review Document for Approval task to make sure ISIR corrections are made appropriately. If the document is not award year specific, any ISIR award year matched to the student record fulfills this criterion. Upon matching of the ISIR, SFA checks for any other documents without a Document Owner that are pending a manual review and create task queue alert for manual review.

Within the Review Document for Approval task, the Document Owner field is editable. SFA flags the Document Owner field as a required update. If a Document Owner value is set to a valid value from Unknown, SFA updates the document on the student record. SFA determines if the document should replace an existing document on the student record based on the award year/lifetime value, document code, sub-type, and document owner or if it should be stored as a new version of the document.

Once a Document Owner value is set, SFA can use the document to fulfill any required Financial Aid Processing, for example, Valid ISIR Process - ISIR Code Clearing rules.

Assign Multiple Document Owners to a Document

When a document is received and SFA requests the same document for two Document Owners, for example, student and spouse, SFA saves the document for multiple owners based on your selection. For example, if a married couple file a joint return, only one tax document is received, but can be assigned to both the student and spouse in the FAS UI.

Evaluating Document and Document Metadata Acceptance Criteria

When a document is received, SFA uses the configured document and document metadata Acceptance Criteria to determine if all required parameters have been received:

• When using delivered Student Self-Service, documents are validated when submitted by the student to see that all metadata has been entered. If so, the document can be submitted and you can view the document and associated metadata fields.

• When using an external DMS, SFA creates a Review Document for Approval task if document or metadata information is missing. You can then view the source document, and update the associated metadata fields.

SFA takes appropriate action, for example, creating Student Notifications depending on if you select Approve or Reject upon completing the task.

If additional document requests are required, the document that caused the need for additional documentation is stored as a Primary document and SFA create a request for additional documents. All additional document requests are added to any associated processes of the Primary document; therefore, holding up a process from continuing until the Secondary documentation is received.

Once Secondary documentation has been Requested and SFA is pending receipt of requested Secondary documentation, the Primary document continues through the document collection life cycle. If the Primary document does not pass the Acceptance Criteria and there are no Secondary documentation requests the Primary document causes SFA to create a Review Document for Approval task.

Automatic Document Approval

SFA is configured to automatically approve or reject documents received. SFA updates the document status to Acceptable or Unacceptable. Based on configuration, documents are automatically be considered Acceptable when all required metadata fields have been received, and the document status is Acceptable. If the document has additional Acceptance Criteria, the criteria must also be met before SFA updates the document status to Acceptable.

If a document is not automatically accepted, SFA creates a Review Document for Approval task.

Providing Visibility to Documents, Metadata, and Document Sub-Types

The student record contains all documents and the document metadata that have been assigned to the student, regardless of method, internal or external. All document metadata is saved to the appropriate field. For example, a student's Social Security Number (SSN) is always be associated with the metadata field for the student's SSN, and similarly for the parent's SSN. SFA checks the metadata configuration and determines if the metadata value should be encrypted. If the attribute is flagged to be encrypted, for example, SSN, the value is stored appropriately in the Repository.

If a document contains all required metadata fields and has a status of Acceptable, the document metadata is saved to the Document Repository. If there are multiple submissions of the same document or there is an expiration date/period, the document and metadata with the most recent received date is considered active.

Note: If a subsequent version is received, the associated metadata is saved and overwrites the existing metadata, as applicable. If a document has an associated metadata attribute configured as a Document Sub-Type, SFA is able to store multiple documents with the same document name/code, either associated with a specific award year or to all award years, based upon the expiration date/period.

Managing Unsolicited Documents

When a document is received, SFA determines if the document is associated to a pending request. If the document hasn't been specifically requested and is not associated to a pending request, the document is considered to be an unsolicited document. Unsolicited documents and their associated metadata are held to the standard Acceptance Criteria for the Document Code. SFA checks the configuration to determine if the unsolicited document requires a Review Document for Approval task or can be automatically cleared.

Managing Unrecognized Documents

When using an external DMS, if a Document Code is not recognized or an unknown metadata attribute is received, the document is rejected and an integration validation error is returned.

If configured rules require a document to undergo supervisor approval, the document goes through a two-step process. The first step requires a non-supervisor to review and approve the document from the Review Document for Approval task queue. Once the non-supervisor user approves the document and completes the task, the document advances to the second step in the process. In the second step, the document is routed to a supervisor's task queue as a Review Document for Approval task to complete the secondary review and final approval.

SFA does not update the status of a document to Acceptable until all required document approvals are completed, for example, automatic, manual, supervisor.

Adding the Effective Dates of Documents

SFA adds an effective start date and end date to documents to inform you the student's documentation is valid and up-to-date.

Canceling Pending Document Requests based on Receipt of Related Documents

SFA cancels pending document requests when a requested document is no longer needed or the document has met a configured expiration date/period.

Once a document is received and updated to Acceptable, either automatically or manually, SFA evaluates configurable rules to determine if any other pending document requests should be canceled. SFA determines if any related document requests are pending on the student record and triggers the document cancellation process if the document request is no longer valid based on the configuration rule. Canceled documents are removed from any pending application processes and the process is triggered to move forward.

Note: All rules are based on the defined configuration.

Saving All Document Versions

All documents that are received are saved. The student record displays a historical view of all documents, metadata, and document sub-types for audit purposes. If the document has a Subtype defined in the Document Metadata configuration, it displays on the Received Documents page. Only the most recent version of the document is displayed. To see historical docs, go to Student History, find the message that created the document, and manually pull the message ID in the student entry.

Sending Outbound Student Notification Messages

Requested Documents

When a document is required from a student, SFA sends an Outbound Student Notification Message to inform the student what is needed and why. For example, if an institution configures SFA to request a Marriage Certificate when an ISIR is received for a married student, and there is a discrepancy with the student's last name. The student receives a notification when SFA initially determines the document is required, reminders based on a configured intervals, and if a document request is canceled.

Rejected Documents

Once a document is rejected, all comments entered during the Review Document for Approval task are included in the Student Notification. Documents in an Unacceptable status can't fulfill any pending tasks.

Overdue Documents

SFA creates and sends configured notifications when documents have been requested and are considered overdue.

Cancelled Documents

SFA creates and sends the appropriate Outbound Student Notification Message to inform the student when documents are no longer required as a result of receiving the document or a subsequent ISIR. Any document that was received prior to the cancellation is saved to the student record with the appropriate document status.

Configurable Attributes

Configure Acceptance Criteria for Documents Received

Authorized users can configure the Acceptance Criteria used by SFA to receive documents. Here are the configurable criteria:

• The Document Name, Document Code, and Category.
• Metadata associated to all documents.
• If the document can be Requested "At-Will" or not.
• If the document requires a Review Document for Approval task.
• The Acceptance Criteria that allows SFA to automatically approve a document.
• Document request messages.
• A URL used to display document images when using an external DMS.

Document configuration can be modified as the institution's policy changes.

Configure Student Notifications

The institution is able to configure the message sent to the student when a document is required, overdue, or canceled. Configuration for messaging is managed on a per Document Code basis.

If a document is manually reviewed and you determine the document is Unacceptable or as a result of the document review, the student is required to provide additional documents, you can re-request the document or request additional documents as needed, but SFA notifies the student.

Required Role Permissions

The user must have a role with the following general permissions through Roles Management in order to view documents within the SFA FAS UI.

• Dashboard
  • Required if you are working Review Document for Approval tasks associated with a document.
• Document Review Task
  • Required if you are working Review Document for Approval tasks associated with a document.
• NFF Forms Task Review
  • Required if you are working Process an NFF Document tasks associated with a Non-Federal Funds document.

The user must have a role with the following document permissions through Roles Management in order to view documents within the SFA FAS UI.

• View Document
  • Required for any document you need to be able to view.
  • You can request documents even if you don't have permission to view the document once received.
• Document Review Task
  • Required for any document you need to complete an associated Review Document for Approval task.
• NFF Forms Task
  • Required for any Non-Federal Funds document you need to complete Process an NFF Document tasks.

See Set General Permissions Matrix for additional information.