Budgets

To add a new Budget to the system, under Budgets, select Manage budgets followed by Add. You will then need to fill out the following information:

• Budget name: Provide a unique name for each budget. This could be the name of a Scholarship fund or could indicate where the money for this budget is coming from.

• Budget type:

  • Traditional: Select if the budget starts with a set amount that can be distributed to students.

  • Tracking: Select if there is no set budget and award as needed.

• Budget total: If you have selected a Traditional budget, you will need to enter in a Budget total amount.

• Reserve amount: If you have selected a Traditional budget, you will need to enter in a Reserve amount and date. The Reserve amount cannot be awarded until the provided date. For example, you may want to keep some funds in reserve until after most students have accepted the terms of their contracts. You might also keep some funds available for families with unexpected hardships later in the school year.

• Calculation method:

  • Dollar value: Select this calculation method to distribute student awards based on the total budget amount and the total calculated need for all students. Use the Min and Max amount fields to set the minimum and maximum award amounts.

  • Percentile: Select this calculation method to calculate student awards based on percentages. Use Percent type to select if the awards should be based on Need or Tuition and use the Percentage field to select the percentage awarded.

  • Tiered by dollar value: Select this method to set up Tiers based on either Household refined income or Need. For each Tier, you will need to set a Min amount, Max amount, and Award amount. Meaning if the Household refined income or student Need is between the Min and Max amount for a Tier, they will receive the Award amount suggested for the Tier. When you are done, select Done and then select Add a tier to add additional tiers.

  • Tiered by percentile: Select this method to set up Tiers based on student Need and distributed by if the need for the family is within a specific percentage. Once you have added a percentage along with the Award amount, you can select Done and then select Add a tier to add additional tiers.

Eligibility criteria: You can opt to limit your budget to specific students based on:

• Grades

• Application statuses

• Family codes

• Student codes

• Internal codes

• School decisions

Once you have provided the needed information, select Save budget to save the budget.

You can edit settings for a specific budget from Budgets > Manage budgets. Select the context menu next to the budget, then select Edit settings. This will open the Edit budget dialogue box and you can edit the existing budget settings. For example, if the budget decreases, you may need to edit the budget to change the Total budget amount.

Once you have created your budget, you can map it to discounts in Blackbaud Tuition Management. This step must be done in order to use Send to TM. To map a budget, select Budgets, then Manage budgets. Select the name of the budget, then select More > Map budget. Then select the available drop down and search for the discount in the available list. You will select the Blackbaud Tuition Management discount and then select Select to save your choice.

Warning: Multiple budgets cannot be mapped to one Blackbaud Tuition Management discount.

When you run your budget, the system looks at the most recent student data and suggests awards for students. You need to run your budget before you make any awards to students. To run your budget, use the context menu for your budget to select Run budget. This will generate the Grant distribution report in the Report column. You can open and view it in Excel by selecting XLS for the budget under Report. When you select to run a budget, you will get a pop up letting you know the budget is being run and once it is finished, you will receive another pop up letting you know you have successfully run your budget. In addition, if you select the name of the Budget, you can view the students within the budget along with the system's suggested awards.

You can view a budget by using the context menu to select View or select the name of the budget. You will be dropped onto the View budget page. At the top, is a budget summary for the budget to provide a quick glance at key settings for the budget such as Budget type and Total remaining.

You can use the available Columns and Filters to show additional information and filter for a specific group of students in the budget. Filters include:

• Grades

• Application status

• School decision

• Candidate decision

• Enrollment

• Student codes

• Family codes

• Internal codes

• Need

• Suggested award

• Awarded amount

• Last year awarded amount

They can also use the Search bar to search for any student by their name. They can also sort their budget by selecting one of the available columns.

You can edit student awards from the View budget page. To make individual awards to students, select Edit awards, then scroll to the right in the table of eligible of students until the Awarded amount column is reached. Select the student’s respective Awarded amount field and enter the correct amount of their financial aid award. Once entered, select anywhere on the page or press enter on your keyboard to log the amount. Select Save at the bottom of the page when finished making individual awards. In addition, you can also use Batch awards or Mirror suggested awards to update the Awarded amount column.

Batch awards

Tip: Batch awards will only be available if two or more students are selected.

Batch awards lets you award multiple students at the same time. These students will all be awarded the same amount. Once Batch awards is selected, you can enter in the Awarded amount in the available field. The system will multiply this amount by the number of students to show you the Batch award total. In addition, it will show you the Previous remaining amount along with the New remaining amount. Once you are done, select Save to update these awards.

Mirror suggested awards

Mirror suggested award allows you to update the Award amount field with the Suggested award. Once Mirror suggested awards is selected, the system will update the Award amount field and you will receive a pop up message letting you know Mirror suggested awards was successful.

You can delete a budget as long as Send to TM has not been performed for the budget and no amount has been awarded to students within the budget. Meaning, if a student has been awarded aid within a budget, the awarded amount will need to be changed to $0 in order to delete the budget. To delete a budget, use the content menu for the budget and select Delete. You will need to select Yes in order to delete the budget.

Warning: Once a budget has been deleted, you will need to manually re-add it to your system.

Once you have finished adding awards for your students, you can lock your budget. To lock a budget, select the name of the budget, then select Lock budget. When the page finishes reloading, you will have the Send to TM option. Send to TM allows your school to send award amounts to Blackbaud Tuition Management where they are posted as discounts.

Note: You must map your budget before using Send to TM.

After you select Send to TM, you will need to select Yes on the available pop up. This is simply confirming you want to use Send to TM and letting you know the any existing awards in Blackbaud Tuition Management will be overwritten by any awards in the current budget. Send to TM can be used multiple times as changes are made within a budget. However, keep in mind these changes will only apply to students whose award amounts have not already been sent to Tuition Management through the budget.

Finally, this will generate the Send to Blackbaud Tuition Management Results modal. From here, you can see the number of Successfully awarded students and the Successfully awarded amount as well as the Unsuccessfully awarded students and the Unsuccessfully awarded amount. You have the option to Download success report or Download error report to view the students and their awarded amounts. The error report also includes the error message. In addition, there is a grid below the Download error report button that shows all the students that received errors and the error message. You can select the student name to view their Family detail page.

Individual send to Tuition Management

You can also use Send to TM for an individual student. Once the budget is locked, a context menu will appear for each student record. Select the context menu for the student then select Send to TM.