Skip to main content
Documentation
Documentation
Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-02-06
Concept: Loading ISIRs

Concept: Loading ISIRs

ISIR Integrations

Workday provides 2 integrations for Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) processing:
  • An inbound integration that loads ISIRs into Workday for a specific financial aid award year.
  • An outbound integration that generates an output file of corrected ISIRs that are ready to transmit to the Department of Education.

Associating ISIRs with Students in Workday

Workday looks for students or applicants who have an ISIR for the same award year with the same FAFSA universally unique identifier (UUID).
When there's no match with the FAFSA UUID, Workday matches incoming ISIRs to existing students or applicants by their:
  • First name
  • Last name
  • Social Security Number (SSN)
For ISIRs before the 2024-2025 financial aid award year, Workday looks for students or applicants who have an ISIR for the same award year with the same SAR ID. When there's no match with the SAR ID, Workday matches existing students or applicants by their first name, last name, and National ID.
Workday compares the transaction numbers and federal school codes on the ISIRs. If this information:
  • Is the same, Workday doesn't load the ISIR and logs an error for the transaction.
  • Differs, Workday associates the incoming ISIR with the student.
When Workday doesn't find a student or applicant who has an ISIR with the same FAFSA UUID, the Duplicate Management Framework or Match and Merge process initiates, depending on which one you've enabled. Both processes look for an exact or suggested match with whom to associate the ISIR. If the student or applicant doesn't have an SSN on their profile, both processes update their profile with the SSN from their ISIR.
  • When using the Duplicate Management Framework, Workday updates the contact information on a student's profile if they don't match on their ISIR.
  • When using Match and Merge in award years 2024-2025 and later, Workday merges ISIR records for a matching student and federal school code separately for graduates and undergraduates. Example: For a source student with 1 active undergraduate ISIR and a target student of 1 active graduate ISIR, Workday merges the ISIR records into the target student with 1 active graduate ISIR.

ISIR Classification and Activation

Workday categorizes imported ISIRs by Grade Level Group. For award years 2024-2025 and later, imported ISIRs have a Grade Level Group of
Undergraduate
 or
Graduate
. For award years 2023-2024 and earlier, all imported ISIRs have a general Grade Level Group of
Undergraduate or Graduate
. See Concept: Midyear ISIR Progression.
In order for an ISIR to become active for a standard academic period, the Grade Level Group value must be consistent with the student's federal student aid (FSA) grade level based on the class standing policy in effect for the student's program of study for the applicable period. This table shows the relationship between Grade Level Group, FSA grade level, and an ISIR's
Grade Level in College
 field:
Grade Level Group
Grade Level in College
FSA Grade Level
Undergraduate
  • 1 = First Year (Freshman)
  • 2 = Second Year (Sophomore)
  • 3 = Other Undergraduate (Junior or Senior)
  • (unspecified)
  • 1st year, attended college before
  • 1st year, never attended college
  • 2nd Year (Sophomore)
  • 3rd Year (Junior)
  • 4th Year (Senior)
  • 5th Year (Other Undergraduate)
Graduate
  • 4 = College Graduate, Professional or Beyond (MBA, M.D., Ph.D., etc.)
  • 1st year graduate or professional
  • Continuing graduate or professional
Example: Workday imports a student's ISIR with a
Grade Level in College
 of
4
, but the student's FSA grade level is
4th Year (Senior)
. The ISIR status is
Inactive
, and the student must submit a corrected ISIR with a
Grade Level in College
 of
3
. See Reference: ISIR Transaction Statuses.

Students Created by an ISIR Load

When you load an ISIR for someone who has no application or recruitment information in Workday, Workday adds the person and their ISIR.
Workers with access on the
Reports: Financial Aid ISIRs
 domain can use the
Find Students Created via ISIR Load
 report to view these students. Depending on their security, they might be able to:
  • Add recruitment information.
  • Add applications for admission.

ISIR-Only Records

When a loaded ISIR doesn't have matching application information, recruitment information, or satisfies a match rule, Workday creates an ISIR-only record. ISIR-only records store ISIR information, which isn't editable or actionable until you properly load or activate the ISIR.
All ISIR-only records appear on the
Find Students Created via ISIR Load
 report.

Assigning Financial Aid Action Items

When you load ISIRs for students who haven't matriculated yet, Workday assigns an initial ISIR transaction status of
Inactive
. Workday progresses the status to
Active
 according to the ISIR processing policy of a student's academic unit and level.
After an ISIR transaction is active, Workday assigns action items according to these business process configurations:
  • Federal Verification Event
  • ISIR Action Items Event