Process financial aid applications quickly and accurately with a content services platform
By replacing paper-based processes, your institution can send out financial aid packages sooner — resulting in higher student acceptance rates and achievement of enrollment goals.
Financial aid offices are facing a rising number of applicants and greater pressure to secure best-fit students, but with less staff and reduced budgets.
OnBase, Hyland’s content services platform provides institutions with automated tools to quickly process high volumes of applications without the cost of adding extra staff — even in peak periods.
The OnBase solution helps with:
- Streamlines the collection of verification documents
- Captures data to compare to ISIR information
- Provides thorough comparison for final verifications and packaging
What is the real issue behind financial aid breakdowns?
Financial aid processes designed to handle a smaller applicant pool are getting overwhelmed with record numbers of applicants. And with less money to be awarded, it’s that much more important to give it out to the right students.
OnBase minimizes the risks of overburdened processes to ease verification, get packages out faster and remain compliant.
You no longer risk losing best-fit applicants because staff can’t keep up.
You also improve the speed and quality of customer service, helping to ensure that students are registered for classes on time.
OnBase captures key data from verification documents
Processors scan paper documents or students upload files securely online and the solution indexes them with key verification data.
As verification documents come in, the checklist in your SIS or financial aid system is automatically updated.
With updated checklists in the SIS, it’s easy to answer student/parent questions about what documents have been received or are still due.
If your SIS includes portal functionality, checklists of received and still outstanding documents can be viewed directly in that online portal so that students can see their status at any time.
By providing students with an easy, self-serve option, you can reduce the number of calls that come into your financial aid office.
“OnBase allows us to image our student and parent verification forms. Retrieval is much easier and we’ve eliminated the time spent filing documents in folders.”
—Patricia Arauz, Executive Director, Student Financial Aid Office University of Louisville
Once all verification documents are received, they are automatically routed to the student’s record for review.
In a side-by-side comparison, the ISIR data from the SIS is displayed alongside the corresponding captured data from the verification documents and alerts users when individual fields do not have equal data.
This allows advisors to assess the situation, make necessary changes in the SIS and leverage SIS functionality to report changes for compliance.
In addition, during critical processing time, load balancing is easy so that staff continue to move through this important step efficiently.
Start facilitating compliance with quick access to files
With Hyland’s Financial Aid solution, it’s easier to make the changes that pending legislation may bring to protect your institution’s good standing and remain in compliance with federal requirements.
If auditors come around, you can produce the documents and reports they need quickly and easily. Staff also gain more time to dedicate to customer service and other student-facing initiatives.