1. How do I structure a SAFI message?
  2. Charge Information Element

13Charge Information Element

Lists financial charges related to the student, such as tuition and fees.

Required Element? No

Can Repeat? Yes

Best Practices:Charges need to be communicated accurately for purposes of credit balance and Return to Title IV (R2T4) calculations in Student Financial Planning (SFP).

Field: External Charge ID

Description: Unique value that represents the charge or the student/charge instance

Impact on Financial Aid Processing: Charge data can have an impact on your Cost of Attendance (COA) depending on your configuration and within credit balance logic to decide whether the charge should be included in the credit balance, R2T4, and packaging.

Example Data Type Required XML Schema Validation Accessible via Configuration? Display Locations
123455 String Yes No Yes getExternalChargeId()
  • Packaging
  • Credit Balance

Field: Charge Type

Description: This is the charge type associated to the listed charge

Impact on Financial Aid Processing: Charge type data can have an impact on your COA depending on your configuration.

Resource charge type is used in credit balance calculation when parent/student has given Authorization to Hold (ATH) for Resource Fees.

Charge types that are to be used in the R2T4 calculation need to be configured within the R2T4_CHARGES.csv workbook.

Example Data Type Required XML Schema Validation Accessible via Configuration? Display Locations
Fees Enum Yes
  • Tuition
  • STRF
  • Taxes
  • Misc
  • Resource
  • Fees
  • Course
  • Book
  • Fees
 Yes getChargeType()
  • Packaging
  • Credit Balance
  • R2T4 Information

Field: Description

Description:Description of the listed charge

Impact on Financial Aid Processing: None

Example Data Type Required XML Schema Validation Accessible via Configuration? Display Locations
Course 101 Lab Fee String No No Yes getDescription()
  • Packaging
  • Credit Balance

Field: Date

Description:This is the date for which the charge is incurred or expected to be incurred.

Impact on Financial Aid Processing: This field is used to associate the charge to a payment period/term within the credit balance, COA, and R2T4.

If the charge isn't at the course level, we'll associate the charge to the appropriate academic year based on the date sent.

The charge must be within the Academic Year Start/End Dates to be included in an academic year.

Example Data Type Required XML Schema Validation Accessible via Configuration? Display Locations
2025-01-01 Date Yes No Yes getDate()
  • Packaging
  • R2T4 Information
  • Credit Balance

Field: Amount

Description: This is the net amount of the charge.

If the charge has any adjustments that were made to it (add/drop adjustment) then we'd receive the net amount for the charge within the Charge Element and if desired by the school they could send the associated adjustment in the Adjustment Element.

Impact on Financial Aid Processing: Depending on COA configuration, this can be used to find the total net charges.

Also used in credit balance calculation to decide how much on of a future charge should be considered when student/parent has given ATH.

Example Data Type Required XML Schema Validation Accessible via Configuration? Display Locations
240.43 Decimal Yes No Yes getAmount()
  • Packaging
  • Credit Balance

Field: Open Amount

Description: The amount of the charge that hasn't been paid off by a payment. For example, disbursement, scholarship, and so on.

Impact on Financial Aid Processing: We'll use this along with Financial Aid (FA) eligible indicator and status during the credit balance calculation.

Example Data Type Required XML Schema Validation Accessible via Configuration? Display Locations
5.00 Decimal Yes No Yes getOpenAmount()
  • Packaging
  • Credit Balance

Field: FA Eligible Indicator

Description: Identifies FA eligible charges

Impact on Financial Aid Processing: Credit balance calculation will only include FA eligible charges.

Example Data Type Required XML Schema Validation Accessible via Configuration? Display Locations
True Boolean Yes
  • True
  • False
 Yes getFinancialAidEligibleIndicator()
  • Packaging
  • Credit Balance

Field: R2T4 Only Indicator

Description: Identifies charges that should be used in the R2T4 calculation

Impact on Financial Aid Processing: If the R2T4 indicator is true and the charge type is included in the R2T4_CHARGES.csv workbook, then the charge will be included in the R2T4 calculation for that term.

Example Data Type Required XML Schema Validation Accessible via Configuration? Display Locations
False Boolean No
  • True
  • False
 Yes getR2t4OnlyIndicator()
  • Packaging
  • R2T4 Information

Field: Status

Description: Defines the status of the charge

Impact on Financial Aid Processing: Used in the credit balance calculation to identify if the charge has been posted to the student's account or is a future charge to consider when student/parent has given ATH.

Example Data Type Required XML Schema Validation Accessible via Configuration? Display Locations
Actual Enum Yes
  • Actual
  • Estimated
 Yes getStatus()
  • Packaging
  • Credit Balance