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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-09-19
Concept: Actual Enrollment Usage Start Date

Concept: Actual Enrollment Usage Start Date

The Actual Enrollment Usage Start Date (AEUSD) is a critical date control in Workday for standard academic periods. Based on this date control, Workday determines when to stop using a student’s projected load status and begin using their actual load status for financial aid processing, which affects cost of attendance (COA), packaging, disbursement, and other downstream processes. You can set the AEUSD for an academic period using the
Maintain Academic Period Date Controls
 task.
We recommend setting your AEUSD as early as possible, or at the latest 2 days before the date occurs. If the AEUSD has passed when nightly orchestration runs, students will be omitted from AEUSD-related processing.
Successful AEUSD processing relies on Workday’s Reaction Framework, which recognizes a value change between a student’s projected load status and their actual load status, then initiates reprocessing of COA and merit or need packaging.

Attendance Plan

On the
Attendance Plan
 report of a student’s Financial Aid profile, Workday automatically changes the value of the
Actual Enrollment
 field on the
Load Status
 tab from
No
 to
Yes
, indicating only that the AEUSD has been reached for the period.

Student Nightly Job Orchestration

All AEUSD processing occurs during the Student Nightly Job Orchestration, which begins at 1:00 A.M. tenant time and runs a set order of jobs. Each job relies on previous jobs to both refresh and flag certain financial aid data to ensure updated student records.
These jobs in the nightly orchestration affect AEUSD processing:
Job
Description
Financial Aid Date-Based Processing
As the first job in the nightly orchestration, this job flags certain financial aid processing once date controls are reached. Once the AEUSD is reached, this job flags the following changes:
  • Class standing refresh
  • Load status refresh
  • Cost of attendance reevaluation when 1 already exists for the period. When the student doesn’t have a COA instance for the academic period, Workday has no information to reevaluate based on actual enrollment and doesn’t flag or process any data. This doesn’t process the student for COA for the first time for this academic period, which is the purpose of the job schedules.
  • Merit packaging reevaluation when 1 already exists for the period
  • Need packaging reevaluation when 1 already exists for the period
At this point in the nightly orchestration, Workday has set the flags that subsequent jobs will pick up in the same instance of nightly orchestration.
Refresh Attendance Plans
This job processes records with Class Standing or Load Status refresh flags set in the Financial Aid Date Based Processing job and clears those flags. For the AEUSD, it’s important to have an accurate load status that’s reflective of all current, actual enrollment, as Workday uses this information to process financial aid for the remainder of the academic period.
Assign Cost of Attendance
This job processes records with COA reevaluation flags set by the Financial Aid Date Based Processing job and clears those flags. Note that Workday doesn’t refresh all flagged records through the COA job. Instead, Workday reevaluates the records through the Reaction Framework to determine how to process any changes that occurred.
When a change occurs, Workday initiates these processes according to the reaction method configured on the associated reaction policy:
  • When the reaction method is
    Manual Review
    , Workday includes the record on the
    Cost of Attendance Reaction Review
     report for administrator review and doesn’t process it through the COA job.
  • When the reaction method is
    Auto
     and the date specified in the Manual Review Date Control:
    • Has passed, Workday includes the record on the Review report for administrator review and doesn’t process it through the COA job.
    • Hasn’t passed, Workday processes the record through the COA job.
Package Merit Financial Aid
Operates like the Assign Cost of Attendance job, but with the
Merit Packaging Reaction Review
 report.
Package Need Financial Aid
Operates like the Assign Cost of Attendance job, but with the
Need Packaging Reaction Review
 report.
Disburse Payments
Disburses eligible awards based on your configuration.

Use Case

In the example outlined below, Workday automatically adjusts a student's financial aid package on the AEUSD to account for their change in load status.
Prerequisites:
  • Set the AEUSD for January 16.
  • Set up reactions for need and merit packaging.
  • Enable a
    Reaction Reason
     of
    Auto
     and a
    Manual Review Date Control
     of
    Actual Enrollment Usage Start
     for the Academic Period (POS) Load Status reaction reason.
Date
Event
January 1
A financial aid administrator runs the
Run Student Financial Services Processes by Student
 report to create the initial packaging instance for a student enrolled full time.
January 9
The student changes their load status to
Half-time
.
January 16
When the AEUSD is reached at 12:00 A.M.:
  • The
    Actual Enrollment
     field value changes from
    No
     to
    Yes
     on the student’s attendance plan.
  • Workday’s Reaction Framework engages and repackages the student with a revised financial aid package due to the change in their load status.