Manage Financial Aid Budgets

For each scholarship fund or account that you use as a source of financial aid, you can create a Budget to track how much money is in the fund, students awarded from the fund, and the amount awarded to each student. Budgets should be used to award families with the Verified status, meaning they have completed their application, sent in all supporting documentation, and their application and documentation has been reviewed.

You can also send award information from your budgets to Blackbaud Tuition Management or to Blackbaud Enrollment Management if your school uses these solutions.

To add a new budget, select Budgets, then Manage budgets, followed by Add new budget. Then configure your budget settings on the General, Eligibility criteria, and Mapping tabs.

  1. Enter a Budget name. This may be the name of a scholarship fund or a reference to how the budget is funded.

  2. Select a Budget type:

    Traditional: The budget starts with a set amount that will be distributed to students. With a Traditional budget, you also enter the following:

    • Budget total: This is a required field.

    • Reserve amount (optional) and Reserve till date (required if Reserve amount specified): The Reserve amount cannot be awarded until the Reserve till date. For example, you may want to keep some funds in reserve until after most families have accepted the terms of their contracts or for families with unexpected hardships later in the school year.

    Tracking: There is no set dollar amount and awards are granted as needed.

  1. Select a 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. Under Percent type, 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 set a Min amount, Max amount, and Award amount. Meaning if the Household refined income or student Need is between the Min amount and Max amount for a tier, the student receives the Award amount suggested for the Tier. When finished defining a tier, select Done. 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. Enter a Percentage and Award amount for the first tier, then select Done. Select Add a tier to add additional tiers.

You can opt to limit your budget to specific students based on criteria you define.

  1. Select the Application type to include in the budget:

    All: Awards from this budget can be applied to both students who have submitted a need-based application and imported students who did not submit an application.

    Need Based: Limits awards from this budget to students who have submitted the need-based application.

    Imported: Limits awards from this budget to students that were imported to the system so they can receive non-need-based awards, such as merit scholarships or vouchers.

  1. Select an item to add criteria in that category. Choose from:

  1. Select the specific criteria for that category.

  2. Select Save.

  3. Repeat for additional categories if needed.

If you plan to send award information from your budget to Blackbaud Tuition Management or Blackbaud Enrollment Management, first you must map your budget.

Note: You cannot re-map a budget after sending awards in that budget to Tuition Management or Enrollment Management.

Note: Enrollment Management is only available for mapping if your school uses Blackbaud Enrollment Management.

  1. On the Mapping tab, select:

    • Do not map to another product: You are not sending data to Tuition Management or Enrollment Management.

    • Enrollment Management: You are sending award data to Enrollment Management. Enrollment Management is only available for selection if your school owns Enrollment Management.

      • Under Mapping option, select the financial aid type to assign to awards from this budget in Enrollment Management.

    • Tuition Management: Select if you are sending award data to Tuition Management.

      • Under Mapping option, select the discount to assign to awards from this budget in Tuition Management.

        Note: You can only map a discount to one budget. You cannot map multiple budgets to the same discount.

  2. When finished, select Save.

You may need to make changes to an existing budget, such as increasing or decreasing the budget amount.

  1. Select Budgets, then Manage budgets.

  2. Select the context menu next to the budget, then Edit settings.

  3. Make the appropriate changes.

  4. Select Save.

You can only delete a budget with no amounts awarded. Additionally, you cannot delete a budget if Send to Tuition Management or Send to Enrollment Management has been performed on the budget.

Warning: You cannot restore a deleted budget. You must recreate it manually.

  1. Select Budgets, then Manage budgets.

  2. Select the context menu next to the budget, then Delete.

  3. Select Yes to confirm the deletion.

When you run your budget, the system looks at the most recent student data and suggests award amounts. You need to run your budget before making any awards to students.

  1. Select Budgets, then Manage budgets.

  2. Select the context menu next to the budget, then Run budget. While the budget is running, Running report is displayed under the Report column.

  3. When the budget is done running, the Grant Distribution Report is accessible under Report. Select XLS to download the report. You can also select the budget name to review the students in the budget and their Suggested award amounts.

View a budget by selecting the context menu next to the budget, then View or by selecting the budget name. A summary at the top of the page displays key settings, such as Budget type and Total remaining.

To locate a specific student in the budget, search using the Find Student Name/Application ID field.

Select Columns to modify the information displayed and select a column header to sort the budget by that field.

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

Before editing awards, you must run your budget to calculate suggested awards based on the most recent student data.

To edit student awards

  1. Select Budgets, Manage budgets.

  2. Select the budget name.

  3. Select Award students.

  4. You have the following options for updating student awards:

    • Batch awards: Award the same amount to multiple students at once.

    • Mirror suggested awards: Update student's Awarded amount to match the Suggested award amount calculated by the system.

    • Individual student awards: Manually enter awards for one or more students.

Note: Batch awards is only available if two or more students are selected.

  1. Select the students to edit.

  2. Select Batch awards.

  3. Enter the New award amount. This is the amount that will be awarded to each student selected in step 2.

    Note: If any of the selected students already have an existing award amount, it will be overwritten with the New award amount.

  4. The system will multiply the New award amount by the number of students selected to show you the Awards total for the batch. You can also review the Previous remaining and New remaining amounts for the budget.

  5. Select Save to complete the batch award and update the Awarded amount for the included students.

  1. Select the students to update.

  2. Select Mirror suggested awards.

  3. A message indicates that Mirror suggested awards was successful and the Awarded amount is updated for the selected students.

  4. When finished, select Save.

  1. Locate the student to update and enter their award under Awarded amount.

  2. Repeat for additional students as needed.

  3. When finished, select Save.

Tip: When viewing a budget, you can also edit the Awarded amount for a single student by selecting the Edit icon at the beginning of the student row.

After running your budget and finalizing student awards, you can lock your budget. You must lock your budget before running Award or Denial letters and before using Send to Tuition Management or Send to Enrollment Management.

  1. Select Budgets, then Manage budgets.

  2. Select the budget name.

  3. Select Lock budget.

Note: You must unlock a budget to run it again or make changes to student awards.

If your school also uses Blackbaud Tuition Management or Blackbaud Enrollment Management, you can send award data from a budget to one of these Blackbaud products. Before sending data, you must map your budget.

Note: You cannot re-map a budget after sending awards in that budget to Tuition Management or Enrollment Management.

Note: Enrollment Management is only available for selection if your school uses Blackbaud Enrollment Management.

Map your budget to specify the discount billing item Tuition Management will apply to awards received from the budget.

Note: You can only map a discount to one budget. You cannot map multiple budgets to the same Tuition Management discount.

  1. Select Budgets, then Manage budgets.

  2. Select the context menu next to the budget, then Edit settings.

  3. On the Mapping tab, select Tuition Management.

  4. Select the discount that Tuition Management will assign to award information it receives from this budget.

    Note: Only active discount items created in Blackbaud Tuition Management are available for mapping.

  5. Select Save.

Map your budget to specify the financial aid type that Enrollment Management will assign to awards received from the budget.

  1. Select Budgets, then Manage budgets.

  2. Select the context menu next to the budget, then Edit settings.

  3. On the Mapping tab, select Enrollment Management.

  4. Select the financial aid type that Enrollment Management will assign to award information it receives from this budget.

    Note: Only active financial aid types created in Blackbaud Enrollment Management are available for mapping.

  5. Select Save.

For more information on sending awards to Tuition Management or Enrollment Management, see: