SF April DL Blast 4/16/2026
Hello, April! 🌷
Spring is in full bloom, making it the perfect time to pause and check in. This month’s DL Blast includes important updates, timely reminders, and helpful resources designed to support your day to day work and keep operations running smoothly.
We encourage you to take a few moments to explore what’s new this month there’s a lot of important information to share!
As always, thank you for the essential work you do to support students and your campuses.
📢General SF Updates
- 1098-TS tatements
- Annual Survey
- We kindly ask that each college submit at least one response to this year’s survey. The survey consists of just eight questions and will help us confirm each college’s primary contact for this important annual process, as well as identify opportunities for improvement.
- 2025 1098-T Survey Link
- Reprint
- Please see messages sent to elists on 4/3/2026 about a DES printing issue potentially impacting certain 1098-T statements.
- We appreciate the work performed by DES to investigate and correct the issue and have established a plan for shared proofing of future print batches.
- We can confirm that this was not the result of any college or state board processing.
- Annual Survey
- CyberSource
- “Secure Acceptance End of Life Notification...”
- The State Board Team is continuing to analyze the impact of CyberSource’s requirement to move to a new Unified Checkout process.
- This update will necessitate configuration changes for our system.
- Currently, we anticipate changes to college configuration beginning early August and completed by the end of August with heavy consideration of avoiding local tuition payment deadlines.
- Additional details regarding this update to be provided before the end of this month.
- Payment and Receipt Issue from Monday 4/13
- This past Saturday, the State Board implemented a technical update unrelated to Student Financials or payment processing. The change was intended to resolve a production stability issue involving file copying on application servers.
- Although the update was tested in a non-production environment, an issue was not identified during testing. As a result, the update did not perform as expected in production, and some required application files were inadvertently removed from the servers which is what caused payment posting/receipt issues.
- The issue has been resolved, thank you for providing swift/detailed responses so that we could work to solve this issue.
- “Secure Acceptance End of Life Notification...”
- Running Start updates
- Note that the“Home Schooled”check box has been added onto the ctcLink page found at:Student Financials > Tuition and Fees > CTC Custom > Student Running Start
- Per the new 2026/2027 RunningStart legislation, the maximum units have been updated in both the production & testing (PCD) environments to Fall term forward.
- Waivers allowed to waive tuition and fees
- To support cleaner SMARTer error reporting, we’re updating how certain waivers are structured. Beginning in Fall(2267), each of the waivers listed below will be split into two item types one dedicated to tuition and one dedicated to fees.This update simply helps us organize waiver activity more cleanly behind the scenes while keeping the student and staff experience the same. Nothing will change in how the waivers are assigned. All existing eligibility rules and criteria will continue to work exactly as they do today.
- You’ll see these new waiver codes follow a simple naming pattern:
- WxxTUTfor tuition-related waivers
- WxxFEEfor fee-related waivers
- Waivers included in this update:
- W70: Eligible Veterans or National Guard Waiver
- W71: Other Military/Naval Veterans Not Qualified as “Eligible”
- W72: Children/Spouse/Domestic Partner of a Totally Disabled or POW/MIA/Deceased Eligible Veteran
- W84: Wrongfully Convicted Person
- You’ll see these new waiver codes follow a simple naming pattern:
- To support cleaner SMARTer error reporting, we’re updating how certain waivers are structured. Beginning in Fall(2267), each of the waivers listed below will be split into two item types one dedicated to tuition and one dedicated to fees.This update simply helps us organize waiver activity more cleanly behind the scenes while keeping the student and staff experience the same. Nothing will change in how the waivers are assigned. All existing eligibility rules and criteria will continue to work exactly as they do today.
- The CS/SF query QCS_SF_ACCTNG_LN_W_PROMPTS_SJS has been changed as follows and should been available in production as of Friday, April 10, 2026.
- The output will now show both item type number and item type description (e.g.911000000000 Federal Pell Grant)
- The prompt for item type number will allow for wild cards (e.g.911% or 92%)
- The prompt for period has been corrected and is now functional
- SFRA (Student Financial Responsibility Agreement)
- All colleges are now live with the 2026-2027 SFRA jobs in ctcLink.
- Most colleges went live on 3/16/26, while the second group had to be delayed to 4/13/26 because of using date-based AENR configuration.
- For additional details, please refer to the SFRA QRG in the ctcLink Reference Center.
- QCS_SF_COLLECT_AGREE_PYMNT_RCN - Now looks at collection agreements made under the payment plan page. Or more precisely returns for all non-calculated payment plans and has an option to prompt for active or not.
😎System Environments
- PCD Data Refreshes normally take place on the first Monday of every month. The next PCD data refresh is scheduled for Monday, May 4.
- HCX Versions. We are currently on Version 25.2, deployed November 2025. Our next adoption will be scheduled in 2026. HighPoint delivers releases three times a year, corresponding with the PeopleSoft Image Update schedule.
- PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Update Image. We are currently on Image 35, deployed November 2025. Our next image update will be in 2026. Oracle delivers CS Image releases three times a year.
- PeopleSoftPeople Tools Updates. We are currently on 8.61.08, deployed April 26, 2025. The next minor patch adoption will be May 2026. Oracle delivers PeopleTools releases every 12-18 months. PeopleTools provides the underlying technology for PeopleSoft applications, including Campus Solutions. PeopleSoft applications are built, deployed, and maintained using PeopleTools.
📚SF Resource Updates
If you come across a QRG that needs updating or have an idea for a new one, we’d love your input! Please submit a request in SolarWinds by navigating to: ctcLink Support → Training → Reference Center → SF Reference Center.
Updated QRGs-
- Student Financial Responsibility Agreement Exemptions New QRG on applying exemptions to students for the SFRA.
- Create or Copy Third Party Contract - Added alert box with information on Nodes that should not be used when creating a TPC.
- Process Student Write Offs- added new videos for mass select transactions and quick post.
- Reverse a Corporate Payment/Charge- added info box on reducing an amount or issuing refund.
- Assign and Cancel a Student from a Third-Party Contact- added Tip box on how to use Assign/cancel.
- Review and Close a Cashier's Office- Updated Warning box on processing order for closing session.
- Understanding Item Types-Added Item Type Range table.
- Maintain/Update BEdA Course Lists and Course List Fees-added tip box regarding term-based, effective dated rows.
- Generate Student Statements- Added info regarding Student Statement Report.
- Create/Update an Adjustment Calendar-updated the tip box under step 12 and updated language regarding using calendar days.
- Third Party Contract Invoice Query- added info for Use Legal Name prompt and updated video.
- Added warning box with info on TPC/Waiver timing:
- Assign a Waiver for an Individual Student
- Apply/Update Student Waivers Through Equation Variables and Student Groups
- Create or Copy a Third-Party Contract
- Calculate and view Tuition for an Individual Student
- Process Running Start-added the new home-schooled checkbox to the steps(updated video coming soon).
- Add/Update/Delete a Cashier Configuration-updated QRG to include steps on deleting a cashier and deleting valid tender key cashiers.
- Miscellaneous Charges NEW Student QRG on how to pay for miscellaneous charges via Student Portal.
- SFRA 3Cs Communications- Updated event ID info and added tip box.
- Review and Close a Cashier's Office-updated section titles for easier navigation.
- Assign a Senior Audit Waiver-NEW qrg on applying senior audit waivers.
- Assigning a Batch of Students to a Payment Plan-NEW qrg on steps to batch assign students to a payment plan.
- Financial Aid Refund Adjustments- Updated file mapping information.
- Assigning a Batch of Students to a Third-Party Contract- updated file mapping information.
🎓Learning Opportunities
Recent
You must be registered and logged into Canvas to access these recordings
Upcoming
- April 20, 1pm, SF Work Session: SFRA Review and Updates
- May 4, 1pm, FA/SF/FIN Cross-Pillar Training: End to End Reconciliation
- May 11, 1pm, SF Work Session: WWSFD -AR Series #1
🤓Today I learned
It is illegal to ride an ugly horse in the town of Wilbur in Washington State. You could be fined $300. (Thank you Tamara and Google!)
-Your State Board SF Team
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