Common Origination and Disbursement

COD Processing Update

ACG, National SMART Grant, and

Pell Grant Programs

September 15, 2006

ACG, National SMART Grant, and Pell

Grant Programs
COD News
COD System Maintenance Planned For Sunday, September 17, 2006 (09/13/06)
The COD System will undergo routine maintenance on Sunday, September 17, 2006 from
12:30 A.M. until 12:30 P.M. (ET). In addition, the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) will be
unavailable from 3:00 A.M. until 11:00 A.M. (ET) due to its regular Sunday morning
maintenance. The impact of these overlapping outages is as follows:
• Users will not be able to submit or retrieve data via the COD Web site between
12:30 A.M. and 12:30 P.M. (ET).
• Batches submitted by schools via the SAIG between 12:30 A.M. and 3:00 A.M. (ET) will
be held and not acknowledged back to schools until after COD comes back up at 12:30
P.M.(ET).
• Schools attempting to transmit batches via the SAIG between 3:00 A.M. and 11:00 A.M.
(ET) will receive an error message informing them that the SAIG is unavailable and that
the data must be transmitted at a later time.
• Batches submitted by schools via the SAIG between 11:00 A.M. and 12:30 P.M. (ET)
will be held and not acknowledged back to schools until after COD comes back up at
12:30 P.M. (ET).
Federal Student Aid apologizes for any inconvenience these outages may cause. If you have any
questions about the COD System, contact the COD School Relations Center. If you have any
questions about the SAIG, contact the CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947 or e-mail
[email protected].

Unlocking And Resetting COD Web Site Passwords (09/15/06)

NEW! COD would like to remind COD Web site users that Security Administrators (COD Web site
User Level 5) are able to unlock and reset passwords for the users (User Level 1-4) they
established at their school or organization. However, if the Security Administrator needs his or
her password unlocked or reset, the Security Administrator must contact the COD School
Relations Center.

In order to unlock users, a Security Administrator should log in to the COD Web site,
www.cod.ed.gov, and complete the following steps:

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Step 1: From the Welcome to Common Origination & Disbursement Web Site screen, click on
the User tab on the blue bar at the top of the screen. The User Search screen displays.
Step 2: Enter the search criteria for the user and click on the submit button at the bottom of the
User Search screen. The Search Results screen displays and lists users that match the
search criteria.
Step 3: On the Search Results screen, select the name of the user that needs to be unlocked. The
User Information screen displays.
Step 4: Click on the Modify button at the bottom of the User Information screen. The Update
User Profile screen displays.
Step 5: The Locked Out box on the Update User Profile screen contains a checkmark. Click on
the Locked Out box to remove the checkmark.
Step 6: If a new temporary password is not needed, skip this item and go to Step 7. If a new
temporary password is needed, enter the new temporary password in the New Password
field. Then re-enter the new password in the Re-enter New Password field to confirm.
The user will need to change this password to one of his or her choosing.
Step 7: Click on the submit button at the bottom of the Update User Profile screen. The Update
Your Profile screen displays.
Step 8: On the Update Your Profile screen, click on the Submit button to confirm the updates
made to the user’s profile.

This information is also posted on the COD Web site in a document entitled “Unlocking And
Resetting COD Web Site Passwords.” To access the document before you log in to the Web site,
click on the “Click here if you are looking for more information on Common
Origination and Disbursement” Link. To access the document after you log in to the Web site,
click on the “Today’s Updates” link at the bottom of the page.

Schools can refer to the Electronic Announcement on the IFAP Web site,
http://www.ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/0201UpdatedCODWebsiteSchools.html, for information
regarding COD Web site access. Third party servicers can refer to the Electronic Announcement
on the IFAP Web site at
http://www.ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/UpdatedCODWebsiteThirdPartyServ.html.

Issue Alert: EDExpress for Windows 2006-2007, Release 3.0 Reposted to FSAdownload
Web Site to Resolve Import/Export Directory Issue (09/11/06)
Federal Student Aid has alerted all schools to a software issue in the version of EDExpress for
Windows 2006-2007, Release 3.0 posted to the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student
Aid Download (FSAdownload) Web site on August 30, 2006.

This software issue only impacts schools that modified the default Import and Export data
directory locations established in an earlier EDExpress 2006-2007 version (Release 1.0 or
Release 2.0) to a path other than C:\IAM\DATA and then upgraded to Release 3.0 between
August 30 and September 5, 2006. The complete announcement regarding the issue and solution
is available on the IFAP Web site.

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2006-2007 COD Technical Reference September 2006 Updates Now Available (09/08/06)
The 2006-2007 COD Technical Reference September 2006 updates are available on the IFAP
Web site. These updates include additional updates related to the Higher Education
Reconciliation Act of 2005 (the HERA), Pub. L. 109-171. For a complete list of updates, refer to
the “0607 COD Technical Reference September 2006 Change Tracking Log.” If you have any
questions regarding information contained in this document, please contact the COD School
Relations Center.

2005-2006 Pell Grant Processing Deadline is October 2, 2006 [09/05/06 (Updated 09/07/06)]
The deadline for electronically transmitting Pell Grant records for the 2005-2006 Award Year to
the COD System is Monday, October 2, 2006. To meet this deadline, a school’s transmissions
must be completed by midnight (in the school’s local time zone) on October 2, 2006.

To assist schools with final reporting before the October 2nd deadline, COD sent a Reconciliation
Report for the 2005-2006 Award Year (message class PGRC06OP) to the Student Aid Internet
Gateway (SAIG) mailboxes of all Pell Grant reporting schools with at least one funded 2005-
2006 disbursement.

For additional information about the deadline, refer to the Electronic Announcement available on
the IFAP Web site.

New Financial Operating Environment— Impact on Funds Availability for Campus-Based,

ACG, National SMART Grant, and Pell Grant (EDCAPS/GAPS and COD) (08/24/06)
The Department of Education (the Department) is transitioning to a new financial operating
environment in conjunction with the year-end close out of Fiscal Year 2006. As a result, some of
the Department’s core financial systems, including the Grant Administration and Payment System
(GAPS), will be shut down and unavailable while the Department completes the transition. This
shutdown will impact how the COD System will process financial data and when schools can
obtain funds for their Federal Student Aid programs as follows:

• Monday, September 18, 2006 through Friday, September 29, 2006

Financial processing between the COD System and EDCAPS/GAPS will be reduced to only
once every evening (instead of the normal twice-a-day, morning/evening processing). As a
result, early morning processing will be completed in the evening. Current Funding Level
(CFL) changes and funding could be delayed by a day.

• Saturday, September 30, 2006 through Monday, October 9, 2006

The COD System will accept Pell Grant disbursements, but CFL changes and funding
requests will not be processed by EDCAPS/GAPS until Tuesday, October 10, 2006.

Actual disbursements must be received and accepted by the COD System no later than
10:00 A.M. (ET) on Thursday, September 28, 2006, in order for them to be included in a
drawdown prior to the shutdown. Disbursements submitted after this time will be funded
after EDCAPS/GAPS resumes processing on October 10, 2006.

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Notes:
1. A school is not yet able to submit Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and National
Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant)
records to the COD System. However, the school is allowed to draw down and disburse
ACG and National SMART Grant funds.
If a school will need additional ACG and/or National SMART Grant funds during the
shutdown period, it must request the funding increase by 5:00 P.M. (ET) on
Wednesday, September 27, 2006. The school must submit this request per the guidelines
we provided in an Electronic Announcement posted on August 9, 2006.

2. A school on Heightened Cash Monitoring 2 (HCM2) or Reimbursement should

notify its Payment Analyst as soon as possible of the amount of disbursements that it
expects to make during the shutdown period. If, in the view of the Payment Analyst, the
requested amount is reasonable, we will provide those funds to the school prior to the
shutdown period and in advance of receiving the formal reimbursement requests. To
ensure that funds are available to the school when needed, the school must notify its
Payment Analyst no later than Friday, September 8, 2006.

In addition, prior to the shutdown period, we will advance to a school Federal Student
Aid program funds related to pending reimbursement requests.

• 8:00 P.M. (ET) on Saturday, September 30, 2006 through 8:00 A.M. (ET) on Tuesday,
October 10, 2006
The GAPS e-Payments system (the GAPS Web site) will not be available. Schools will not
be able to draw down Campus-Based, ACG, National SMART Grant, or Pell Grant funds
during this period.

Note: In some cases, a school will be unable to operationally comply with returning cash to
the Department within the timeframes specified in the Cash Management regulations at 34
CFR 668.166. We will consider the school to be in compliance with the excess cash
requirements provided that the school disburses such funds to eligible students (or parents) by
the end of the shutdown period and/or promptly returns such funds to the Department when
EDCAPS/GAPS resumes processing on October 10, 2006.

An Electronic Announcement with this same information is posted on the IFAP Web site. Thank
you for your patience and understanding as the Department completes this important activity.
The Department expects financial processing to be caught up by Tuesday, October 12, 2006.

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Reports And Data Requests

This section contains important notices regarding reports and/or data requests. While we
NOTICES encourage you to review this section, note that some schools may not be impacted by the
information presented below.

• Pell Year-to-Date (YTD) Records— The YTD Record can be used to assist a school with
its year-end and ongoing reconciliation processes.
Schools also use the YTD Record for the purpose of
rebuilding a complete student record or Pell Grant
database.
• For rebuilds for the 2005-2006 and 2006-
2007 Award Year, the school can submit the
data request via the COD Web site or batch.
• For rebuilds for the 2004-2005 and earlier
award years, the school must contact the
COD School Relations Center by e-mail to
[email protected]. The school
should include "Pell YTD" in the subject
line. If a school is unable to e-mail its
request, it can contact the COD School
Relations Center by phone. [10/03/05
(Updated 10/27/05)]

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