Important FY2009 Payment Processing Considerations

At its September 19, 2008 meeting, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission approved FY2009 priority payment claim deadline dates for the Monetary Award Program (MAP) and the Silas Purnell Illinois Incentive for Access (IIA) Program. These dates are the deadlines by which initial payment requests (claims) for each term must be submitted to ISAC to be considered timely. Initial claims submitted after these dates for each term are considered late and will only be paid if funding is available after paying timely claims.

FY2009 Priority Payment Claim Deadline Dates for MAP and IIA

Term                                                   Deadline
1st semester or quarter                         January 10, 2009
2nd semester or quarter                        April 1, 2009
2nd semester starting after 2/15/09         June 1, 2009
3rd quarter                                          June 1, 2009

Late Claims Payment Unlikely

This year application volume is up (7% for MAP and 12% for IIA) while funding levels for both programs remain the same as last year. Typically, this means a faster expenditure of program funds. This could impact the ability to pay late claims. Also having an impact on whether late claims will be paid is the number of late claims submitted. Considering these two factors, it is unlikely that funds will be available to pay late claims as in the recent past. In order to benefit the most students, it is imperative that MAP and IIA claims are submitted timely and as accurately as possible.

Payment Processing Considerations

As you process payment for MAP and IIA, be mindful of the processing tips below that can potentially eliminate the necessity for late claim processing.  

• Make sure the payment request is verifiable and auditable before submitting it.
  • Avoid submitting a large number of  "estimated" payment requests with the plan to adjust them later during reconciliation. This practice obligates funds that could be used to pay other eligible students.
  • Submitting estimated payment requests could also cause an unnecessary or early depletion of MAP and IIA funds, resulting in the disruption of payment processing.
  • Run the "Payment Requests Not Yet Submitted" for MAP and IIA prior to completing the payment submission steps. Review the report to confirm the student records intended for submission.

• Make payment requests according to a schedule.
  • Creating a schedule for payment request submission will allow you to complete your initial requests with the deadline dates in mind. It can also assist you in making sure all the initial payment requests are submitted in a timely manner.
  • Schedule your requests to gain better control of the data. You may be able to batch your requests according to a schedule so that you can tell which students are in each batch.
  • Making requests according to a schedule makes research easier. Scheduled payment requests provide specific payment processing dates to research for reconciliation and auditing purposes. You will not have to take extra steps to find out when payments were requested.

• Make initial payment requests in a timely manner.
  • Making timely initial requests will eliminate the need for late claim processing.
  • Display the priority payment claim processing deadline dates prominently in your office as a reminder.
  • Processing late claims often involves a flurry of processing activities (including ISAC requesting the return of "Amounts Due To ISAC") late in the year when most offices are busy attempting to close out the year fiscally. These late-year, late claims processing activities will not be necessary if initial claims are timely.

• Plan ahead. Avoid making large payment request submissions on the deadline date.
  • In particular, schools using FTP should make every effort to make large payment request submissions well ahead of the priority payment claim deadline dates.
  • Submitting requests early allows time to resolve any processing issues that can occur. Early resolution prevents negative impacts to student records.

• Reconcile data after each payment processing.
  • Use the Payment Reports and the Payment Result Summary/Invoice Detail Report available in MAPnet after each payment request to verify that the enrollment hours and dollar amounts processed are still valid.
  • Retain an electronic or paper copy of these reports for your records.
  • Reconcile each payment request to obtain a snapshot of adjustments that need to be made. This will make subsequent reconciliation easier.

• Adjust student records as soon as possible after the payment processing reconciliation.
  • This is especially true for award reductions (partially reduced awards and full cancellations). Submitting reductions during periods of active payment processing allows the MAP-IIA payment system to automatically offset (adjust) future payment amounts, reducing any amounts owed to ISAC by the school.
  • Submitting reductions to some awards while processing positive payments for others will reduce the "Amount Due To ISAC" at the end of the year. If you wait until, for example, July (July 1st is when ISAC stops accepting positive payment requests) to process reductions/cancellations, the “Amount Due To ISAC” will be greater because there are no positive payments to be offset.

• Reconcile payment at the end of each term and at the end of the year.
  • As stated earlier, if you reconcile data after each payment processing, reconciling at the end of each term and at the end of the year will be much easier.
  • At a minimum, reconcile according to the ISAC rules referenced below, although you may wish to reconcile more frequently to help simplify the process at the end of the year.