Student Financials & Financial Aid

Workday’s Student Financials and Financial Aid functionality ensures students receive accurate tuition bills and can view fees and financial aid that have been posted to their accounts.

This functional area encompasses student accounting, disbursement, collections, student charges, payments and refunds, managing financial aid requirements, processing of the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR), award packaging and disbursement, and assessment of financial aid needs. 

Workday Student will allow WashU schools and Student Accounting to:

• Correctly calculate tuition and fees based on a student’s program of study, financial cohort and class load
• Apply discounts, waivers, exemptions and refunds to student accounts
• Set up automatic calculations of tuition and fees at regular intervals, reducing administrative burden and improving the student experience by ensuring students see their most up-to-date information
• Track and accept payments from students and third parties (such as parents)
• Ensure student and third-party payments are applied accurately in a timely manner to the appropriate charges
• Track balances due

Key changes  

Automated processes

Currently, WashU staff members manually perform several financial functions, including tracking and removing financial holds, posting charges to student accounts, and processing sponsor contracts, currently known as third-party billing. (Unlike scholarships, sponsor contracts are funding given to students with an expectation of something in return from the student. This generally means an employer pays for a student’s education with the expectation that the employee will continue their employment with the company and their additional education will be used to further company goals.)

Workday Student will either fully or partially automate and align these manual processes, including the removal of past due balance holds. Individual schools currently use various criteria for applying and removing holds.

Faster hold processing

Holds in Workday will be processed in real time, so when a hold is placed on a student account, the student is immediately prevented from completing the associated action (for instance, registering for classes). When a hold is resolved, it is also automatically lifted off a student’s account, allowing them to complete the associated action.

Fees assessed automatically

Workday Student will tie course fees to the course or course section, allowing these fees to automatically be applied to the student’s account once they register for that course or section. Students will also be able to view a breakdown of course fees, which they cannot do today.

Determining charge order

Using Workday, we will also be able to control which charges on a student’s account are paid first and which funds or aid may be used to pay which charges. This control will help us both provide a better student experience and ensure regulatory compliance.

Systems

PowerFAIDS is WashU’s primary tool for financial aid management, and all aspects of the financial aid process – including applications, disbursements, award distribution and federal work study – are managed in PowerFAIDS.

The Student Sunrise project has already completed the implementation of PowerFAIDS to manage financial aid administration for students on the Danforth campus. The School of Medicine uses a separate instance of PowerFAIDS. Both instances of PowerFAIDS will integrate with Workday Student.

We will use PowerFAIDS to share information with and receive information from the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR), the U.S. Department of Education’s Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) website, and the National Students Loan Data System (NSLDS).

PowerFAIDS also will be used by:

• Students to view a full picture of their total financial aid award package and to accept their packages
• Financial Aid staff to organize and track students’ award packages, assess students’ financial aid needs, offer aid to students, and award and manage federal work study
• Parents to accept Parent PLUS loans, if applicable

Workday will:

• Provide students a view of their anticipated aid (funds that are expected but have not yet arrived or been applied to student accounts). This will allow students to view a breakdown of their anticipated aid, making it easier to plan financial payments and understand their true financial responsibilities.
• Disburse aid to the appropriate students
• Refund extra money available after students’ WashU balances have been paid (generally used by students for living expenses such as rent, food, transportation, etc.)

Contacts

Questions?

Please contact Andrea Androuais, our Financial Aid and Student Financials change manager, who serves as a liaison between the WashU community and the project.

Alternatively, you can submit questions or comments through this form.

Project team members 

• Vivian Eberhardt, Student Financials functional lead
• Jeff Herman, Financial Aid functional lead
• Kristi Cunningham, Student Financials business analyst
• Andrea Androuais, change manager
• Anne Fisher, communications specialist
• Olivia Johns, instructional designer
• Grace Marker, technical writer