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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-10-17
Evaluate Satisfactory Academic Progress

Evaluate Satisfactory Academic Progress

You can evaluate Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) to determine whether students are eligible for financial aid. Example: Your institution only disburses financial aid award payments to students who pass SAP.
Workday recommends evaluating SAP after all registrations are graded for an academic period or financial aid award year, depending on the evaluation frequency of applicable SAP policies. If a student has ungraded registrations for an academic period and the evaluation frequency of the applicable policy is:
  • Academic Period: Workday assigns a status of
    Undetermined
     for the academic period.
  • Financial Aid Award Year: Workday assigns a status of
    Undetermined
     for all academic periods in the award year.
When the SAP status is missing from a previous academic period for a student, evaluate the SAP for the previous academic period before evaluating for the current academic period. Example: The current period is Fall. You can’t evaluate SAP for Eric for the Fall period because he is missing SAP status for Summer. First, evaluate SAP for Summer separately, and then for Fall.
However, when the SAP status is missing from a previous academic period for a student, and the current academic period has measure detail override, then you can evaluate SAP for the current academic period.
  1. Access the
    Run Student Financial Aid Processes by Period
     report.
  2. As you complete the report, consider:
    Option Description
    Student Type
    Select
    Student
    .
    Award Year
    Select the award year with the academic periods for which you want to evaluate SAP.
    Academic Period Type(s)
    (Optional) Select the academic period types for which you want to evaluate SAP.
    If applicable SAP policies have an evaluation frequency of
    Financial Aid Award Year
    , Workday recommends selecting all academic period types in the financial aid award year.
    Primary Program of Study
    (Optional) Select the primary programs of study for which you want to evaluate SAP.
    Student Cohorts
    (Optional) Select active student cohorts at the institution for which you want to evaluate SAP.
  3. Filter for and select the financial aid period records for which you want to evaluate SAP.
    Consider the evaluation frequency of the SAP policies that apply to the students that you want to evaluate. Example: If the evaluation frequency is
    Financial Aid Award Year
    , select all financial aid period records in the award year. Otherwise, Workday only assigns a status to the selected financial aid period records, though it will still evaluate SAP based on the award year.
  4. Select
    Evaluate Satisfactory Academic Progress
    .
  5. In the
    Satisfactory Academic Progress Evaluation Type
     prompt, select:
    Option Description
    Evaluate for Maximum Timeframe
    Evaluate only the Maximum Timeframe measure. If a student fails the evaluation for this measure, Workday assigns an SAP status of
    Fail
    . If a student passes this evaluation, their SAP status remains
    Undetermined
    .
    Official SAP Calculation
    Evaluate all 3 measures and assign
    Pass
    ,
    Fail
    , or
    Warning
     statuses. If a student fails any of the measures, they fail SAP. If configured on the satisfactory academic policy, a student’s first failure for a program of study results in a
    Warning
     status and their second failure for the same program of study results in a
    Fail
     status.
    Unofficial SAP Calculation
    Evaluate all three measures, but do not assign SAP statuses. When you run an unofficial evaluation, students do not pass or fail SAP. Their statuses remain
    Undetermined
    .
    Consider running unofficial calculations when you:
    • Test or update a new or updated SAP policy.
    • Want to identify students who are at risk of failing SAP.
  6. In the
    Communication Options
     section, select who to include in or exclude from communications for the SAP evaluation.
    • This functionality is available for evaluation types of
      Evaluate for Maximum Timeframe
       and
      Official SAP Calculation
      .
    • Workday sends communications to students who:
      • Have a status of
        Warning
         or
        Failed
        , including students who failed an
        Evaluate for Maximum Timeframe
         evaluation.
      • Previously had a status of
        Warning
         or
        Failed
         and are now passing.
    • Any exclusions on relevant financial aid communication policies continue to apply. Example: If a policy excludes international students, they don’t receive SAP communications even if you specify them as communication recipients for an SAP evaluation.
    • The
      Students With Unsent Communications
       group includes students who were eligible for but were excluded from communications in a previous SAP evaluation.
    • Workday sends the messages configured on the financial aid communication policies that apply to the recipients.
When you run an official calculation and the evaluation frequency of the applicable satisfactory academic progress policy is:
  • Academic Period: The SAP status displays on the evaluated financial aid period record.
  • Financial Aid Award Year: The SAP status displays on all academic periods associated with the award year.
    Example: At your institution, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, and Summer 2024 are part of the same financial aid award year. When you evaluate SAP at the end of Summer 2024 and a student fails, all three of their academic periods display an SAP status of
    Failed
    .
Workday notifies the students specified in the Communication Options about their SAP statuses.