Guidelines For All Payments to Students for Temple Departments

All payments to students (scholarships, awards, stipends, fellowships, reimbursements, graduation gifts, prizes, etc.) must be processed through Student Financial Services (SFS) since all are considered financial assistance per U.S. Department of Education student financial aid regulations. As an educational institution, we at the university cannot award funding directly to our enrolled students via Accounts Payable, Diamond Dollars, etc.

All payments to students that do not require service (i.e., compensation is provided via W2) must come through the Student Financial Services office for processing to the student’s account. It is up to the school or college to communicate to students from the beginning that the funding will go against all billable charges (tuition, fees, housing and meal plan) first and then be refunded, if possible.

In general, a student’s total financial assistance from federal and non-federal sources, including these funds, may not exceed the student’s financial need (as determined by the FAFSA). Receipt of scholarship assistance may reduce a student’s eligibility for federal and/or institutional loans, grants, scholarships, and/or work-study. The specific impact is determined by each student’s individual financial circumstances and financial aid eligibility. Temple University is liable for any overpayment or over-award made to an individual student and must immediately resolve the overpayment/over-award. Failure to comply with these regulations may result in institutional fines and loss of federal funding.

Process for Disbursing Payments to Students

Utilize the Payments to Student Excel templates for fall/spring semesters, or for summer only, to ensure all necessary information is reported.

• Templates are found in the University Forms section within the Staff Tools tab of TUportal (search payment to student).
• Departments set up and approved to use Blackbaud do not use the Excel process. In both cases, the funding will be posted and applied to the student’s account.

Make sure the Excel is complete—incomplete requests cannot be processed and will be returned to the department for revision. Please include the following.

• Aid year for posting (2022–2023 or 2023–2024)
  • Do not include multiple years on the same spreadsheet.
• TUid
• Student’s full name
• Scholarship/award/stipend name 
  • If this is a new fund that has never been awarded in Banner, let us know by indicating NEW and we will then work to create it in Banner. Let us know what you want the funding to be called in Banner.
• Banner Fund ID 
  • Schools/colleges must keep their own master list of Banner four-digit Fund IDs.
    • If this is NEW, please indicate that in this column.
    • Keep a master list of your school/college Banner Fund IDs with FOAP.
• FOAP
  • Include FOAP—and per the bursar, we will create new funding in Banner with account code 7611 or 7001.
• Semester amount
  • Use separate spreadsheets (one for fall/spring and a separate one for summer).
    • Do not include multiple years on the same spreadsheet
      • Example: one spreadsheet is sent in June for the upcoming fall/spring aid year; one spreadsheet is sent in March/April for upcoming summer term(s).
• Enrollment Requirements
  • We ask if full-time enrollment is required because Banner defaults to full time when creating a new Fund ID. If your school/college allows a student enrolled less than full time to recieve the funding, please let us know.
• New funding? Let us know if we need to create a new Banner Fund ID and please note this will take a couple of days.

Considerations

Accounting

• It is the department’s responsibility to do the following.
  • Submit a funding spreadsheet with the correct FOAPAL to be charged.
  • Submit funding spreadsheets with correct SFS Fund IDs for each fund and maintain a master copy within the department. 
  • Review the cost center for each fund and work with General Accounting regarding all accounting questions/concerns prior to submitting to SFS for posting.
  • Process any journal entry transfers that may occur if incorrect fund information is submitted to SFS.
  • Keep track of all funding spreadsheets sent to SFS—including recipients, accounting and award amount lists organized within the department. It is strongly recommended that there be a backup person within the department for submitting funding information to SFS.

Timing

• SFS begins notifying new students of their financial aid offers (first year and transfer) for an upcoming academic year in February. We encourage your department send SFS new student funding to post as early as January.  
• SFS notifies our returning students of their financial aid offers the last week of June. We encourage your department send SFS returning student funding to post as early as May.
• Summer funding should be sent over in April. 
  • If the student isn't enrolled during the summer term, SFS will apply funding to the prior spring semester. 
  • Funding can only apply to a student’s account if they are enrolled.
• SFS is not authorized to remove late registration, late payment, installment or any other fees that result in the late submission of scholarship spreadsheets for posting. 
• During peak periods, it can take 10–14 business days for SFS to post the funding.

Duration

• Financial aid offers are processed for the academic year (fall/spring) at the time of initial notification. Therefore, it is always in the best interest of the students to offer funding for both semesters of the academic year. This eliminates late and confusing revisions to the financial aid offers that are necessary when full year awards are submitted by semester, rather than for the full year.
• SFS will not automatically renew departmental funding. A new spreadsheet request is required for each aid year.

Disbursement

• All financial aid funding is able to begin to disburse to an enrolled student’s account two business days before the start of the semester.  
• Delayed disbursements can occur if a student is enrolled less than full-time (please indicate on spreadsheet if a certain enrollment is required); last minute submission of a funding spreadsheets to SFS and/or financial aid requirements not fulfilled by student recipient.   
• SFS will review all unapplied scholarships after the drop/add period ends.

Eligibility

• Full time enrollment (12 or more credits for undergraduate and nine or more credits for graduate students) is assumed by SFS when posting funding unless the department notates otherwise.
• If financial need is a requirement it should be specified on the scholarship spreadsheet.
• Departments should contact [click-for-email] with any revised spreadsheets if a recipient’s eligibility changes during the year. Please mark the updated spreadsheet as ‘Revised’ to avoid confusion.