At RECONNECT Dive Deep, a virtual conference for the PeopleSoft community that educates customers on the latest PeopleSoft updates and best practices, a Senior Business Analyst from Illinois Central College shared specific steps for setting up Veterans Processing with PeopleSoft so others can confidently use this tool in their own environments.
Veterans Reporting is an important part of honoring the men and women who have earned their veteran benefits. All colleges and universities are required to complete certain regulatory actions, and PeopleSoft Delivered Pages help analysts keep everything organized, tracked, and completed on time. Additionally, it makes the allows you to query the data in your system and provides convenience via online forms for students.
How to Set Up Veterans Processing with PeopleSoft
Veterans Processing requires a fairly intensive setup, including:
- Veteran Reporting Pages
- External Awards
- Budgets
- College Financing Plan (CFP)
- And the GT eForm
To navigate the right pages, you’ll need to go to Records & Enrollment, select Enrollment Reporting, and then find Veterans Benefit Reporting.
For Illinois Central College, the action that kicks off Veteran Processing cycle is the Service Indicator, but you can begin your process with a student walking into the admissions office, a form submission, or otherwise.
The Flow
Start with Setup of the following:
- Summary Page (CAF is part of this)
- Enrollment Reporting
- Tuition Reporting
- Service Indicator
- Budget and CFP impact
Then show workflow as “processor.”
When setting up your Common Attribute Framework values, you’ll create the CAF Name, click the Open CAF Value Setup, and then fill in the next slide. When you hit save on that slide, confirm that everything looks right. You don’t have to fill in all the pieces here. Simply enter a helpful description that shows the necessary information for your organization.
There are only two record contexts that you’ll use, and they are both delivered: Federal Attribute Set and State Attribute Set. Once you get your record contexts put together and hit save, you may see the error message below. This error is okay—it simply defines the next step in your process.
The error contains the path to the Entity Property Sync. This is a high-level process, so there may only be a couple of people in your organization with that level of access. Plan to run this sync later in the evening during an off-time—NOT when enrollment is going on or when you have job sets running already.
This sync is powerful but easy. You’ll just click “Sync All Entity Properties” and wait for it to finish.
Veteran Processing Benefit Setup Tips
- Veteran Benefit Setup > Veterans Instruction Mode Map: You may need to talk to Records or Curriculum to understand your school’s instruction modes so you can enter the appropriate Residential or Distance Learning selection. The Instruction Mode determines coverage for some benefits.
- Veteran Benefit Setup > Payment Mapping: This is an optional setup. It requires 1-to-1 Item Types (min 2 Item Types – Fed/State). Illinois Central College skipped this part as all 3rd party payments come into single Item Type.
- Veteran Benefit Setup > Net Tuition and Fees Setup: Even if you’re not using Payment Mapping, you can use this tool to figure out the tuition amount to receive payment or use as the waiver amount. Ensure Tuition/Fee Item Type is allowed for the veteran benefit and not specific only to a Title IV or other program.
- Student Financials > Item Types > Item Type Groups: You can create new Item Type Groups for a wide net of possible covered benefits. Illinois Central College uses three Item Types: Books, Fees, Tuition.
- Financial Aid > Aid Year Activation > Process Financial Aid Year: If the student files a FAFSA, this flows along easily. If not, you’ll have to activate the aid year on your end.
- Financial Aid > Budgets/Cost of Attendance: Budget (or COA) must be built for the CFP, which must be shown prior to enrollment for compliance. Illinois Central College created a No FASFA Housing category for “non-filers.”
- Financial Aid > College Financing Plan: Remember you must show CFP prior to enrollment for Veterans.You’ll need to update award info, item type inclusion exceptions, and cost group mapping.
- 3rd Party on Student Finance – Pull to Financial Aid to display on Awards page: Student Finance posts 3rd party amounts in contracts, which means Waiver/Payment is only shown on the Student Finance side. You can use External Awards to pull this information onto the Financial Aid side.
You may want to work with your Veterans Administrator, Financial Aid Administrator, and Bursar’s Office to ensure your Item Types are meeting their criteria for:
- FA Type and Source
- Meet Need/Cost
- Need Based
Make sure your Item Types are NOT able to be disbursed.
- Tab – FA Item Type 3
- Disbursem*nt Method = NO
Setting up Veterans Processing in your system will likely take you a couple of days, but it may take longer to get the answers you need from stakeholders in your institution.
Key Takeaways
Once you’ve completed your Veterans Processing setup, you’ll be ready to efficiently process veteran benefits within your PeopleSoft system.
Embracing Veterans Processing in PeopleSoft not only enhances the efficiency of benefit administration but also demonstrates a commitment to honoring the service and sacrifices of our nation’s veterans. By leveraging the insights and practical guidance shared in this post, you can navigate the complexities of Veterans Processing with confidence, fostering a more seamless and supportive experience for veterans seeking educational benefits.
Want More?
For more details on steps involved in setting up this process, you can view the full presentation from RECONNECT Dive Deep: Veterans Benefits from A to Z (Isakson and Roe Compliance in PeopleSoft).
For more PeopleSoft demos, check out all of the PeopleSoft content in the Quest Learn Library and be sure to attend RECONNECT Dive Deep – Virtual 2024, October 28th – 31st. You’ll walk away with insights and new ideas on how to best utilize PeopleSoft!
