Financial Aid Known Issues in ctcLink ARCHIVED
The following are details on bugs with the delivered functionality in PRPs that have not yet been resolved by Oracle and details on known issues in CEMLIs and custom processes.
Last updated 4:51 PM 12/02/2025
Oracle-Delivered Known Issues
Known Issue: This issue will be seen for Dependent student with the Parent Information tab showing blank for the Family Size field, but exemptions are reported in the FTI section. On the Correction ISIR page for both Aid Years 2025 and 2026, after updating the Correction Status field to ‘Send Correction(s)’ and attempting to save the change, the page displays the following message, and the Correction Status reverts to ‘Pending’:
Warning -- Parent's number in family cannot be blank. (14410,6)
The Parent's number in family cannot be blank when the student's dependency status is 'Dependent' and has no dependency override specified.
OPERATOR ACTION: Supply a value for the parent's number in family; OR specify a dependency override and change the student's dependency status. Resubmit correction.
Disclaimer: This edit is unexpected, as the parent family size can be reported as blank starting in 2024-2025, as long as the number in family can be verified from the number of exemptions in the Federal Tax Information (FTI). The issue may occur in only a subset of cases with blank family size and not every case. Note that saving other changes, including invoking 'Calc SAI', does not produce the message.
Example:
Resolution: Bug fix applied in FA PRP 3.1
Status: Resolved
PRP 2.2 (2025-2026)
PRP 2.1 (2025-2026)
PRP 1.2 (2025-2026)
PRP 3.1 (2024-2025)
Known Issue: Message Nbr 96 ("Student's EFC is Unofficial") no longer displays a text after Aid Year 2024 because EFC no longer applies, however, the Authorization Failure error itself still exists. As a result, the delivered Authorization Failure Report is missing students who only have message number 96. If the student has other authorization failure errors, those errors will show up for the student but there is no indication of message number 96 also being on the student.
Oracle has logged it as a bug.
Bug 37160524 (QUERY FA913 NOT RETRIEVE ALL STUDENTS DUE THE MESSAGE 14441, 96 DOES NOT EXISTS)
Resolution: FA Support is updating the four ctcLink Auth Failure queries (CTC_FA913, CTC_FA913_LOAD, CTC_FA913_LOAD_ENROLLED_NOTSAP & QCS_FA913_WITH_ERROR_COUNT) to display failure messages even if it's a blank text so that students with error message number 96 will display on the queries.
Status: Resolved. Queries are updated and in PRD.
Known Issue: On the Student Budget Maintenance page for Aid Year 2024-2025, when making and saving any adjustments for a student with a negative SAI, the Need amount is updated incorrectly, inflating the Need amount to include the negative SAI value. With the bug fix to be delivered in Image 32, the issue is resolved, and the negative SAI value is treated as a 0.
Navigation: Financial Aid > Budgets > Maintain Term Budgets > Student Budget Maintenance
Image: BEFORE Student with -1500 SAI displays incorrect Need amount
Image: AFTER Student with -1500 SAI displays correct Need amount
Impacts: FA Processing
Resolution: Image 32 (expected 11/02/24)
Workaround: Identify students that are affected by the bug: Run query QCS_FA_UPDATE_NEED_SUMMARY_BUG
Priority: High
Status: Resolved.
We did not see this issue in ctcLink and were not able to replicate the issue.
Resolution: FA PRP 3.2 (1/30)
Status: Resolved
*Disclaimer: If the Pell Less Half Annual Amount field on select budget items are correctly reflecting the Full Time annual amount, there should not be many cases where the LTHT Pell COA is lower than $7395 and run into this bug.
See Aid Year Rollover Guide p.69
Known Issue: When students are enrolled for LTHT units for a term in the aid year, the Pell amount is wrong for that term for students whose LTHT Pell COA is below the student’s eligible amount.
Correct calculation
Pell eligible x Enrollment Intensity % = x amount / 3
Then adjust accordingly to not exceed LTHT Pell COA.
System calculation
(Pell eligible up to LTHT Pell COA) x Enrollment Intensity % = x amount / 3
Example
Student’s SAI is -1500 and Pell eligibility is $7395.
Student’s enrollment
Summer: LTHT with Enrollment Intensity 42%
Fall: LTHT with Enrollment Intensity 25%
Winter: Projected Full Time
Spring: Projected Full Time
With FA Load of L, L, F, F, let’s say student’s LTHT Pell COA is $6558.
Expectation for Pell awards
Summer: $7395 x 42% / 3 = $1035
Fall: $7395 x 25% / 3 = $617
Winter: $2465
Spring: $2465
Actual system results
Summer: $6558 x 42% / 3 = $918
Fall: $6658 x 25% / 3 = $548
Winter: $2465
Spring: $2465
The LTHT Pell COA ($6558) is being considered in the calculation at the wrong place. The LTHT Pell COA should limit an overaward, not be used for proration.
Oracle has logged it as a bug.
Bug 36776360 - AY2025 PELL NOT AWARDING CORRECTLY IF FA LOAD = L
Workaround: Adjust Pell manually. The query to identify potential students is QCS_FA_PELL_LTHT_COA_BUG is now in PRD.
Resolution: FA PRP 3.2 (1/30)
Status: Resolved
PRP 2.7
Oracle Bug: 36474036
Known Issue: On the Parent Spouse/Partner tab of the Correct ISIR Records component for Aid Year 2024-2025, the 'Non-US Tax Return' field is not displaying correctly for any non-blank values valid for the Aid Year, based on what is documented in the Federal technical layout. There are six non-blank values that are valid for the field for Aid Year 2025, and these match the values used for the same field on the Parent Information tab, where the field displays correctly.
Impacts: Federal aid awarding
Workaround: No workaround. The full range of translate values are correctly populated for the field on both the staging and application tables, so the issue is only with the display on the page.
Resolution Timeline: Resolved
Priority: High
Status: Patch in PRP 3.1
Known Issue: Loans are being canceled in Packaging evaluation for students who have not reached their aggregate loan limits.
The bug is causing the dependency status value to be X (dependent students) or Y (independent students) on the STUDENT_AID record.
Impacts: Online packaging, manual packaging
Workaround: Run this query QCS_FA_LN_DEPEND_STAT_BUG to identify these students, find the students with the incorrect dependency status value of X or Y. Once you have confirmed that a student has not reached their loan aggregates & has met all other eligibility to receive the loans, you should be able to award the loan on the Invoke Professional Judgment page.
To determine if a loan will need the dependency status value updated, navigate to Financial Aid > Loans > Direct Lending Management > Override Loan Application Data. Select the Direct Loan Demo Ovrd tab. If the dependency status value is X or Y, override it to D (dependent students) or I (independent students).
The override will then be included on your next outbound loan file.
Resolution Timeline: Resolved
Priority: Medium
Status: Resolved*
*NOTE* - Please be aware that FA Support did not adjust any loans that were previously originated with the incorrect dependency status. There may be a few students that will need their dependency status overridden on the Override Loan Application Data page (see above image).
PRP 1.3 - 2.6
For the 2024-2025 COD processing, the namespace 2021 should be 2023 as shown below:
<xsd:schema targetNamespace="http://www.ed.gov/FSA/COD/2023/v5.0b"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:cod="http://www.ed.gov/FSA/COD/2023/v5.0b" elementFormDefault="qualified">
However, the file that is generated in PS still shows 2021.
Oracle has logged it as a bug and provided a patch.
Bug 36594096 2024-2025 NAMESPACE IS INCORRECT AFTER APPLYING PATCH 35950393- 2024-2025 AID YEAR COD UPDATE (Doc ID 3021793.1)
As part of the 2024-2025 COD update, the namespace was updated as part of the 5.0b schema update. The initial 2024-2025 COD PRP updates did not include the correct update to the namespace, specifically updating the aid year reference from 2021 to 2023.
Latest Update: RESOLVED. FA Support tested the patch and it was applied in the production environment as of 06/21/2024.
When generating COD Pell outbound file to report disbursement of Pell, the process is populating the enrollment intensity at 100 for students who have an enrollment intensity value <1
Oracle has logged it as a bug.
Bug 36622653 COD PELL OUTBOUND DISBURSEMENT FILE ENROLLMENT INTENSITY INCORRECT IF LESS THAN FULL TIME
Latest Update: RESOLVED. FA Support tested the patch and it was applied in the production environment as of 06/21/2024.
SAIs are doubled on the Estimated Need page in Student Self Service for the 2024-2025 Aid Year. The logic on the page then reduces that doubled amount from the student’s Cost of Attendance, artificially inflating the student’s Estimated Need amount (if they have a negative SAI) or artificially deflating the student’s Estimated Need amount (if they have a positive SAI). This does not occur on staff-facing pages.
As of May 2024, Oracle has determined by way of Bug 36488556 and Doc ID 3015196.1 that a fix is scheduled for Image 33. Resolved
Navigation: Financial Aid > Awards > Award Processing > Assign Awards to a Student > Need Summary tab
Image below: Accurate -1500 SAI and Federal Need on the Assign Awards to a Student page
Navigation: ctcLink Student Homepage > Financial Aid tile > Financial Aid Summary link
Image below: Inaccurate -1500 SAI and Estimated Need on Financial Aid Summary in Student Self Service
Navigation: Financial Aid > Awards > Award Processing > Assign Awards to a Student > Need Summary tab
Image below: Correct 5216 SAI and Federal Need on the Assign Awards to a Student page
Navigation: ctcLink Student Homepage > Financial Aid tile > Financial Aid Summary link
Image below: Inaccurate 5216 SAI and Estimated Need on Financial Aid Summary in Student Self Service
Timeline: Resolves with PRP 3.1
For students with a rejected ISIR, the reject reasons/descriptions may be missing from the ISIR Reject Reasons link on 2024-2025 Suspense Management
Navigation: Financial Aid > File Management > ISIR Import > 2024-2025 Suspense Management
Image below: Student with three reject codes in the rejected ISIR transaction
Images below: ISIR Reject Reasons link on 2024-2025 ISIR Suspense Management page does not display the reject codes
Until this is resolved by Oracle, it is recommended for colleges to review the ISIR in the FAFSA Partner Portal to confirm the reject codes associated with the ISIR transaction.
Oracle Bug 36483199
Known Issue: Students who are being flagged for Mother and/or Father SSN Match in packaging.
Impacts: Federal aid awarding
Workaround: For these students, go to View Packaging Status Summary page and override the Parent(s') SSN on the DB Matches pagelet. Save. Package.
Resolution Timeline: Resolved
Priority: High
Status: In development at Oracle
ctcLink Custom Processes and *CEMLI Known Issues
*CEMLI = Configuration, Extension, Modification, Localization, and Integration
Known Issue: CBS equation engines are not packaging Okay to Award/Pay equal to '2-Year/Transfer'. CBS equation engines look for a value of Okay to Award/Pay of 'Y'. The equation engines need to be updated to include the new value.
Impacts: Accuracy of awards
Workaround: Run CTC_FA_CBS_ALL_RECORDS to find the '2-Year/Transfer' students and manually award them.
Resolution Timeline: By first week of September
Priority: High
Status: Resolved
Known Issue: WCG Family Income field incorrect in some cases
Some cases are a result of bad data that we were not expecting. For example, Dept of Ed allowed both the Student and Student Spouse or Parent and Parent Spouse to report the same income data even though they filed Married Filed Jointly. The CEMLI needs to be updated to work around this data and prevent doubling of WCG income.
Some cases are where colleges were expecting manually entered AGI to be used in the calculation versus the manually entered earned income. The logic is set up to pull AGI if it's 'FTI' AGI to be similar with previous year's logic of looking for an IRS data field value to determine whether to pull AGI or earned income. However, we've checked with WSAC and they confirmed they're going off a hierarchy and not worrying about values such as the IRS Response code. The CEMLI will be updated to match their hierarchy of 1) FTI AGI 2) Manually entered AGI 3) Manually reported income.
Impacts: Accuracy of WCG awards
Workaround: For these students, manually enter the correct WCG Income and then select Calculate on the WCG Eligibility View page.
Resolution Timeline: TBD
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED as of 12/19/2024 - Refer to the Overview Document of Updates to the WCG CEMLI for details
Known Issue: The FLF Process is an Enrollment Level Hold process for students who have a FA Load of Less Than Full Time. With the new Enrollment Intensity, different bands of enrollment for anything Less Than Full Time are not able to be tracked in the FLF Process because Enrollment Intensity % is not accounted for in the FLF query or Packaging Variables.
For example, if packaging variables are set to F for Full Time and student is enrolled T (Three Qtr Time) the Service Indicator will be assigned, but is assigned for T (Three Qtr Time), H (Half Time) or L (Less Than Half Time) enrollment values only. The FLF process is not capturing differences in Enrollment Band differences, which will require more manual review to determine if the award should be further reduced to reflect Enrollment Intensity differences (i.e., in 9, 10, or 11 units, Enrollment Intensity at 9 units is 75%, 10 units is 83% and 11 units is 92% of the Full Time award.)
Impacts: FLF Process, and the accuracy of disbursements if manual review is not taken
Workaround: Run the FLF process as usual, but manual Enrollment Intensity calculations need to be made for any student in any FA Load other than Full Time enrollment.
Resolution Timeline: July
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED
Known Issue: May not be able to be run at this time due to income values is populating with $0 when FAFSA contributors use FA-DDX, this must be fully tested at SBCTC.
Impacts: WCG & College Bound Scholarship Packaging & Bridge grant equations may be inaccurate and need manual adjustment before posting award. WCG & CBS Eligibility View page may be inaccurate.
Workaround: Log into WSAC's Secure Portal to review Quarters of Eligibility (QER) remaining and to view WCG/CBS Repayment information. For Continuing students, pull CTC_FA_CHECKLIST_LIST query to identify students who were in repayment in 2024 AY and check if that information is still current in WSAC Secure Portal for 24/25 awarding.
Resolution Timeline: June 17, 2024
Priority: High
Status: Do not run CBS Inbound Processes in ctcLink on Monday July 1 until FA Support updates the list serv.
Known Issue: WCG Income field is populated with $0 when FAFSA contributors use FA-DDX, requiring colleges to manually populate WCG Income for this population of students.
Impacts: Accuracy of WCG awards
Workaround: For these students run the query CTC_FA_SNG_ALL_RECORDS to identify students with $0 and manually update the WCG Income so that the WCG Eligibility View page calculates correctly.
Resolution Timeline: July
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED
Known Issue: WCG Family Size field is only pulling in manually entered data
Impacts: Accuracy of WCG awards
Workaround: For these students, manually enter the family size and then select Calculate on the WCG Eligibility View page.
Resolution Timeline: TBD
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED as of 12/19/2024 - Refer to the Overview Document of Updates to the WCG CEMLI for details
Known Issue: WASFAs cannot be loaded due to WASFA record containing blank values for some required fields. WSACs technical team is working to resolve this issue.
Impacts: Accuracy of State Aid awarding
Workaround: You can manually award these students without loading the WASFA by Aid Year Activating, Build FA Term, Build Budgets, and then award. To determine award amount, log into WSAC's Secure Portal, look up WASFAs on currently summer-enrolled students and manually calculate from MFI for state aid awarding.
Resolution Timeline: July 2024
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED
Known Issue: Batch CEMLI processes with coding issues will cause ISIR JobSet to run to No Success.
Impacts: Accuracy of data loaded in ISIR JobSet.
Workaround: Work the data you have in the system as of the most recently loaded up until 6/12/2024. For example, begin file review, checklist assignment, communications, awarding on the data already loaded into the system.
Resolution Timeline: Earliest, evening June 14th
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED
Possible Known Issue: Packaging equations for FWS & CBS are packaging only on enrolled quarters and inflating the amount awarded.
Impacts: Accuracy of awards
Workaround: May need to use Custom Split until it is determined this is a known issue affecting all schools, and until the packaging equation is adjusted.
Resolution Timeline: To be determined
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED
FAFSA-Related Known Issues
Known Issue: Globally-assigned unusual circumstances-related checklist (Exx162) assigning to students over the age of 24 and assigning on loaded FAFSAs.
Impacts: Unnecessary checklist assignment and extra communications, resulting on outstanding items on students' To Do list on students who are already independent.
Workaround: Run checklist query and filter on those students who are > 24 years old, and waive the checklist if already assigned. Locally-developed steps sent out to DirFinAid list serv on 6/14/24.
Resolution Timeline: 09/04/2024
Priority: Medium
Status: The following queries have been updated/created addressing the Exx162 query, to account for students that are 'Independent by Age':
UPDATED QCS_FA_SB_AD_162 – Updated criteria to select a student whose FAFSA has indicated Unusual Circumstances or Other Circumstances (Unsub Only has been removed and separated to it’s own query)
NEW QCS_FA_SB_AD_260 – Students with a FAFSA indicating ‘Unsub Only’
NEW QCS_FA_SB_WV_260 – Waiving checklists assignment of prompted checklist (Exx260) if a new FAFSA is loaded and the new FAFSA no longer has the indication of ‘Unsub Only’
The new QCS_FA_SB_AD_260 query will utilize a new Global Checklist; Exx260 – Unsub Only (xx being your Institution’s checklist identifiers) (https://ctclinkreferencecenter.ctclink.us/m/79552/l/942417-create-a-new-checklist-item-financial-aidwhich) will need to be setup. Also, for ISIR Jobset assignment, Exx260 will need its corresponding Event IDs: FISExx260I – Initiate & FISExx260W - Waive (xx being your Institution’s checklist identifiers) created as well. (https://ctclinkreferencecenter.ctclink.us/m/79552/l/1039523-3c-engine-event-definitions)
Dept. of Ed/File Layout Known Issues
Known Issue: On June 10, 2024, Dept of Ed released an updated NSLDS Transfer Student Monitoring & Financial Aid History User Guide and Record Layouts (June 2024)
The update included a change to the file layout, specifically the addition of the 'Student Aid Index' field. See page 7 on the FSA Partner's Transfer Student Monitoring User Guide (June 2024)
Impacts: FAH/TSM Processing
Workaround: Manually check NSLDS.
Resolution Timeline: Resolved
Priority: High
Status: Updates to FAH/TSM layout will be in PS the evening of August 29th
Known Issue: Disbursement Detail (DSDF) and Pell Grant Reconciliation Report (PGRC) files have field and file length changes starting 2024-2025
Impacts: Running the Pell Reconciliation Report process is impacted, DL Reconciliation Report not impacted
Workaround: Run report in COD, and compare manually
Resolution Timeline: Tentative September - Early/Mid October
Priority: High
Status: RESOLVED
0 Comments
Add your comment