ConnectCarolina User Conference - GradStar Beverly WyrickSockie West The Graduate SchoolITS October 21, 2015.

ConnectCarolina User Conference - GradStar

Beverly Wyrick Sockie West

The Graduate School ITS

October 21, 2015

Agenda

GradStar Basics The GradStar TeamPlanning Overview

GradStar Life Cycle

GradStar MaintenanceBasic Edits on Maintenance PageEnhancements

Other InterfacesBudget CheckHR/Payroll and AP InterfacesStipend Calculations

Q&A

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GradStar Basics

What is GradStar?

ConnectCarolina Student Administration application used to provide departmental financial aid to students, including non-service fellowships, tuition, and fee awards. GradStar interfaces with the Finance and Human Resources components of ConnectCarolina.

The Team

Functional: Beverly Wyrick, The Graduate School

Michael McDuffie, Office of Scholarships and Student Aid

Diana Malinsky, Student Accounts and University Receivables

Technical:Sockie West, ITS – planning, system management, remedy tickets, troubleshooting

Jeroen Soeurt, ITS – reporting, technical enhancements

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GradStar Basics

Planning Overview

1) Identify students who receive funding from your department

2) Determine type of funding – Service or Non-Service

3) Enter service payments in HR/Payroll, Disbursement Services

4) Enter non-service payments in GradStar

5) Enter instate, tuition remission and fee awards in GradStar

Other Tasks Check student’s enrolled hours – drops/adds that affect tuition rate! Remove remission award IF student receives NC residency Run reports to verify information in GradStar matches your records

Awards by funding department (004b) Awards by student by PID/TERM (013a)

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GradStar Life Cycle

Campus Solutions

GradStarCustom Tables

GradStar Journals generated Current academic year MWF

Prior year TTHFinance

HR, AP Stipend Files Load to CS

Nightly Loads

HRDepartment enters Hire

Setup ePar

Journals post to GL,Department accounts debited

Grad Student is admitted in CS

AP

Department enters Non Service,Instate Tuition, and Fee awards into GradStar

Department enters vouchers for AP payments

Non Service, Instate Tuition, Fee and Remission awards export to Financial Aid

Current academic year MWFPrior year TTH

Disburse to Student Account(Cashier’s Office)

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GradStar Maintenance

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GradStar Maintenance

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Basic Edits on Maintenance

Chartfield Check

Minimum Stipend

Amount Check

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GradStar Enhancements

Amount Validation

If a zero or if the Amount field is left blank, the following message shows:

If a 3-digit or non numerical entry is made:

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GradStar Enhancements

Budget Project ID Validation

Inability to add an ‘Inactive’ row

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Runs dailyNot aid year specific, it selects all new entries Errors will trigger an email communication to userIt revalidates all that are in error in every runAward will not export to Financial Aid and to the journal till the

budget has been corrected.

Budget Check Batch Process

Budget Check

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Tips to ResolveMake sure that your account is set up correctlyUse the Chartfield CheckerYou can check the status of your award:

Budget Check

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Updates to HR and AP Worked closely with the HR Technical team to fix issues- Past term stipends were eliminated;- Exclusion of payroll status of W (short work break)- On the GradStar end, we fixed the calculation of stipends to

satisfy the minimum requirements

In progress, AP fix for canceled vouchers, currently being tested

HR and AP Interfaces

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Sample Scenario

Stipend Calculations

File format from HR

Formula:

(Nbr of days * comprate * 12)/365

(122 * 603.34 * 12)/365 = 2419.97

The count of days takes in consideration the following:• The greater between the Begin Date from GradStar System Availability and the Assignment Start

Date on the HR side. 

 • As an example, for Fall 2015 (2159), GradStar System Availability is set to 8/4/15.  For most

students, it was 8/17.  It will use 8/17 as Start Date as part of the calculation of number of days.  In this example, it is defined as 9/1/2015

 • The End Date is determined by the lower between System Availability End Date and Assignment End

Date, 12/31/2015 vs. for example, 7/1/2017 and 7/1/2018 for your students.  In this case, it will use 12/31/2015

Number of Days:

September = 30

October = 31

November = 30

December = 31

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Q&A

Questions?