4 Ways to Boost Compliance in Your Financial Aid Office

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4 WAYS TO BOOST

COMPLIANCE IN YOUR FINANCIAL AID OFFICE

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Ah, compliance.

The critical part of student financial aid for schools that is also occasionally (frequently) the bane of financial aid admins’ existence.

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How can financial directors make it easier for staff to maintain compliance?

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 Below, we discuss how a financial aid director can improve compliance office wide (short of public

floggings.)

Kidding.

Directors put forth huge efforts to support staff with compliance-related issues.

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Our job is to make this even easier.

Read our four best tips for painlessly reducing compliance issues...

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 1. AUTOMATE YOUR PROCESSES

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 1. AUTOMATE YOUR PROCESSES

 Humans make mistakes, especially when they are rushing to meet deadlines and juggling multiple tasks.

Where compliance is concerned, a “mistake” can be costly, both for the school and for students.

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 1. AUTOMATE YOUR PROCESSES

Software rarely makes mistakes.

The perfect combination for meeting compliance standards

= Financial Aid Software

+ Experienced

Financial Aid Administrator.

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 1. AUTOMATE YOUR PROCESSES

For example, AutoReconciliation is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) that allows FA counselors

to reconcile COD and SIS data in mere seconds.

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 1. AUTOMATE YOUR PROCESSES

FA admins simply request their monthly SAS report in the following classes:

• DSLF (for Direct Loans)• PGRC (for Pell grants)

• THSY (for TEACH grants)

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 1. AUTOMATE YOUR PROCESSES

This request must take place during the week before the first full weekend in a month.

For example, the February 2015 request would need to be submitted to the Department of Education by

February 5.

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 1. AUTOMATE YOUR PROCESSES

Once the school has the SAS files, it’s as simple as importing SAS and SIS files into AutoReconciliation.

The software does the work from there, almost instantly generating a report identifying

all discrepancies.

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 1. AUTOMATE YOUR PROCESSES

Then financial aid admins may sort discrepancies to quickly and easily see where adjustments

need to be made.

Sure beats poring over Excel spreadsheets!

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2. COMMUNICATE ACROSS DEPARTMENTS

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2. COMMUNICATE ACROSS DEPARTMENTS

It’s crucial to lead the way for your team to communicate with the other departments that support

financial aid.

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2. COMMUNICATE ACROSS DEPARTMENTS

Lack of communication can lead to other departments using outdated information, which creates more discrepancies and issues down the road for the

financial aid department.

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2. COMMUNICATE ACROSS DEPARTMENTS

You must set the example of being cooperative with other departments, especially accounting, enrollment

and the other administrative functions.

Be sure to update other departments in a timely man-ner when compliance regulations change.

Avoid fostering an “us vs. them” mentality, even on the days when that feels like the reality.

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2. COMMUNICATE ACROSS DEPARTMENTS

Adam Castro wrote a great piece from the admissions perspective about how transparency, cooperation and

shared learning between departments contribute to the success of the system as a whole, as well as produce

more knowledgeable, valuable staff members.

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3. DETERMINE AREAS OF WEAKNESS

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3. DETERMINE AREAS OF WEAKNESS

The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) offers a Standards of

Excellence (SOE) Review Program.

A Standards of Excellence Review means experienced, currently practicing financial aid professionals will come

into your office and provide:

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3. DETERMINE AREAS OF WEAKNESS

• Peer reviews of your office’s operations to assess strengths and weaknesses

• Access to the most current and accurate

information about financial aid

• Answers or clarification from the Department of Education

• Unbiased advice on staffing, benchmarking, electronic services, student service and more

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3. DETERMINE AREAS OF WEAKNESS

Whether you choose the NASFAA review program, or to QA your staff internally, it’s crucial to find out your

areas of weakness.

Then you may provide additional training in those areas.

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3. DETERMINE AREAS OF WEAKNESS

Do your best to create an environment where people feel safe to be open with their mistakes so everyone

can learn from them.

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 4. ACT ON THE METRICS

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 4. ACT ON THE METRICS

Nearly every financial aid director tracks metrics (find out here if you’re tracking the right ones).

Most schools have more data than they know what to do with, and this ends up being the problem.

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 4. ACT ON THE METRICS

How does an institution turn the collected data into actionable information?

The financial aid director must be the driving force behind this.

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 4. ACT ON THE METRICS

Review the data to find answers to questions like

“What activities contribute to peak processing times, and which of these can be streamlined or automated?”

“Are we targeting the right students in the right way?”

“In which areas do we have the most audit findings?”

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 4. ACT ON THE METRICS

Once these types of analytical questions are answered, they can be translated into department directives to

drive efficiency.

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THANK YOU.

campuslogicfrom the team at