FACTS Financial Aid Tips: Getting Ready for the Financial Aid Application Year

To help set yourself up for a successful year, we recommend reviewing your FACTS Financial Aid Management setup before the business of admissions season really hits. Here’s how to get started.

Tip 1: Update Deadlines in FACTS Financial Aid

Before the start of the financial aid application year, be sure the FACTS Financial Aid Management landing page, your school’s website, and communications all accurately reflect deadlines and any process changes.  Let your FACTS account manager know about your different deadlines so that we can have those recorded for our teams taking your families’ calls.

Tip 2: Review Your FACTS Application Questions

To review your school’s current FACTS Financial Aid application, go to Financial Aid Management >> Term Setup >> Form Preview. Ask yourself some of these questions:

• Are there questions asked on your application that you never review that you could get rid of?
• Do you need to rephrase or eliminate custom pandemic related questions?
• Are there things that you are following up consistently with applicants for that you could ask on your application?
• Are there questions that could be tucked under a conditional question to shorten your application?

Email your FACTS account manager to request any changes to your school’s financial aid application.

Tip 3: Check Supplemental Document Requirements

Supplemental Documents allow you to collect and review documents outside of the tax documents that FACTS processes. For schools with supplemental documents in their FACTS Financial Aid Management application, review to ensure you still want to collect those documents and consider adding help text if your parents have previously had questions on the documents.

For schools not using the supplemental document feature, consider if there are documents you are collecting from parents that you could add to your FACTS Financial Aid application process. Email your account manager to request changes to supplemental documents.

Tip 4: Remove Outdated Internal Tracking Fields in FACTS

Once your school’s 2024-2025 term has been created in FACTS Financial Aid Management, remove any internal tracking fields you won’t be using.   For any fields that you want the data to roll over from last year, be sure to go in and select “enable term-to-term data rollover” before applications are submitted.  After the first year selecting the rollover setting, you will not have to go back in each year, unless you want to stop the data rollover.

You can set up and edit internal tracking fields in FACTS Financial Aid Management by going to Financial Aid Management >> Term Setup >> Internal Tracking (under Data Management heading).

Tip 5: Clean up FACTS Financial Aid Custom Reports

To successfully leverage the FACTS Financial Aid Management reporting functions, first, get rid of any custom reports you no longer use so that you have less noise during the year. Then, think about data points that you are consistently reviewing, adjusting in the formula, or marking internal tracking fields for that could be done in mass. Consider ways that you could automate processes within a custom report and get those built before the application season starts.

Tip 6: Automate the Awarding Process in FACTS Financial Aid

Before you can make your awarding process more efficient, start by reviewing your eligibility criteria in FACTS Financial Aid Management for accuracy. Evaluate if there are additional criteria that could help automate your awarding processes, for example, an internal tracking field that you mark for a customized status that indicates if they are ready for awarding. Taking this step can help you quickly and effectively funnel students into the appropriate buckets or funds.

If you aren’t using FACTS Financial Aid Management’s eligibility criteria feature already, now is a great time to go in and enter (or import!) your 2023-2024 awards so that you can use prior year awarding information in the 2024-2025 school year. For a training on how to use FACTS Financial Aid Management, check out this on-demand webinar

Tip 7: Communicate Clearly With Returning Families

Returning families sometimes need to be reminded (and re-reminded) to submit their application in FACTS Financial Aid Management year after year. If deadlines for returning families differ from new families, make sure that this is communicated clearly, especially for families in their first year as returning families. To help automate this, set up a student-based report in FACTS Financial Aid in the 2023-2024 year in the applications area. Add the field “has applied to new term.”  This field gives a yes/no on whether you have an application in the 24-25 term for that student.  Then filter down to the “no,” select all, and email reminders for families to apply.

With tips like these and the right team in place, we’re confident you’ll be ready to make the most of FACTS Financial Aid Management and tackle the 2024-2025 financial aid application year with ease!