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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-05-15
Assign Financial Aid Packages

Assign Financial Aid Packages

  • Assign packaging strategies to academic units, academic levels, or programs of study.
  • Students have a financial aid attendance plan.
  • Students have ISIRs for need packaging.
  • Calculate cost of attendance (COA) for need packages or merit packages that require COA.
  • Security:
    • Set Up: Merit Packaging
       domain in the Financial Aid functional area.
    • Set Up: Need Packaging
       domain in the Financial Aid functional area.
Each academic period, you can configure Workday to package financial aid awards to students automatically. You can specify the date to award financial aid packages and which students to award.
If a student's information changes after they receive a financial aid package, Workday repackages their financial aid for the affected academic period and the other periods in the same packaging period. Repackaging is done according to the packaging reaction policy of their academic unit or program of study.
  1. Access the relevant task:
    • Create Merit Packaging Job Schedule
      .
    • Create Need Packaging Job Schedule
      .
  2. Enter the
    Start Date
     and
    End Date
     to determine the date range for this schedule.
  3. (Optional) Enter the selection criteria to specify the students for whom this schedule applies.
    Students must meet all of the criteria you select in order to receive a package.
    As you complete the task, consider:
    Option Description
    Entering for Academic Period
    Select to restrict the job to only package students who are entering your institution in the award year you select for the job schedule.
    ISIR Review Status
    (Need packaging only) Workday packages students with this ISIR review status.
    Federal Verification Status
    (Need packaging only) Workday packages students with this federal verification status. This status indicates whether the student's ISIR was selected for federal verification, and if there has been any processing.
    Registered for Courses
    Select to include students who are registered for courses.
    SAP Status (Last Period with Enrollment)
    Select to include students who had this SAP status in the last academic period with course enrollment.
    SAP Status (Last Period with Enrollment and SAP Evaluation)
    Select to include students who had this SAP status in the last academic period with course enrollment and SAP evaluation.
    Total Income Minimum
    Total Income Maximum
    (Need packaging only) Workday packages students with a Total Income in this range.
  4. (Optional) For need packaging, define the
    Student Packaging Priority Order
    .
    Workday prioritizes students for need-based financial aid according to the order in the grid. If there’s a tie, Workday uses the next priority to break the tie, and so on. If the final priority still results in a tie, or if you don't define any priorities, Workday processes students in a random order.
    As you complete the grid, consider:
    Option Description
    Earliest ISIR Application Receipt Date
    Students who submit their ISIR applications on an earlier date have priority. This date is based on the
    Application Receipt Date
    , which is a field on the ISIR.
    File Completed Date
    Students who submit all verification documents on an earlier date have priority.
    Highest Need
    Students who have the highest financial aid need amount have priority. Workday calculates financial aid need by subtracting the student's Student Aid Index (SAI) from the cost of attendance.
Workday automatically evaluates each student's data and financial aid eligibility, and begins processing financial aid packages for your selected start date. If multiple financial aid processes are in effect, Workday picks up all students who meet the selection criteria for any of the processes.
You can view your configuration on the
View Merit Packaging Job Schedule
 or
View Need Packaging Job Schedule
 report.
(Optional) Use the
Edit Merit Packaging Job Schedule
 or the
Edit Need Packaging Job Schedule
 tasks to broaden the selection criteria to make sure that all students are accounted for.