JB Pritzker, Governor, State of Illinois

2023-24 MAP Payment

{ISAC Rules, Sections 2735.30 and 2735.40}

2023-24 Payment Processing
Reminders
Payment Proration Methodology
Calculating a Term Award
Payment Offset and Reconciliation

Monetary Award Program (MAP) grants are paid directly to the approved institution of record which certified the applicant's eligibility. Schools may begin requesting payments for MAP ten days before the beginning of the semester. Payment of grant benefits is requested by the school through ISAC and sent by the State Comptroller directly to the institution. Schools receive award announcements via the MAP system on all Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) transactions, which assume full-time enrollment. When students enroll less than full time, payment adjustments are based on the most recently announced award.

2023-24 Payment Processing

Colleges can request MAP payment utilizing the file extraction feature of the MAP system or by sending payment requests via File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Payment Reports can then be generated from the Reports screen in the MAP system. If a college submitted a 2023-24 payment request file via FTP prior to August 21, 2023, that file must be resubmitted because payment requests submitted prior to ISAC announcing they are accepting data for that academic year are not held in a queue.

A listing of students included with any Payment Voucher(s) can be viewed and/or and printed by accessing the Payment Results/Summary Invoice Detail in the Reports section of the MAP system. The MAP Payment Results and Reject Codes document (PDF format) can be a handy reference to explain payment results. The Payment Results/Exceptions report should be reviewed the day after submitting payment requests to see which requests, if any, did not process as expected.

Reminders

  • Verify that the ISAC Gift Assistance Programs (GAP) Access Administrator at your college has established the appropriate MAP system access level for all impacted staff. Instructions for establishing access to the MAP system may be found on the GAP Access page.
  • Refer to the MAP Electronic Processing page for details about accessing the MAP system. To access the payment function of the MAP system, select the "Payment" tab that appears at the top of the MAP system screen.
  • When submitting claims, remember that ISAC has suspended the announcement of 2023-24 MAP award announcements for all students whose initial 2023-24 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) was received by the Central Processing System (CPS), or whose initial Alternative Application for Illinois Financial was received by ISAC, on or after September 23, 2023.
  • Refer to the 2023-24 MAP Payment Claim Deadlines page for payment request deadline dates for all terms.
  • The payment process is unchanged from prior years, and colleges will continue to receive MAP funds directly from the State Comptroller's Office.
  • Colleges submitting payment requests via FTP are reminded that a GAP Access user ID and password are required to access ISAC's Secure File Transfer System (located at https://transfer.isac.org/). As a result, encryption (password protection) of files is not necessary. Additional information and instructions are provided in the FTP Process Using GAP Access Credentials Guide.
  • Payment may be requested for MAP-eligible students who are enrolled a minimum of three hours per term in credit bearing certificate programs that are offered at public institutions and are less than one academic year in length.
    • A Short-Term Certificate Program indicator identifies students who are receiving MAP due to their enrollment in a short-term certificate program.
      • If requesting payment in GAP, the indicator can be provided on the:
        • Student Detail screen,
        • Input Enrollment screen, and
        • Payment Generation screen.
      • If requesting payment via the FTP process, an indicator of "Y" may be provided in field #24 of the FTP file.
  • Be sure to review the Payment Results/Exceptions report in the Reports section of the MAP system the day after submitting payment requests to see which requests, if any, did not process as expected.
  • A report for tracking payment vouchers and warrants is available via the MAP system. The report (which may be accessed via the Reports section, and is identified by the same red PDF icon that appears with the “Payment Results/Exceptions” report) provides payment voucher and warrant information, dependent upon where the payment is in the process.
    • Once ISAC processes a payment request and sends it to the State Comptroller, the report will appear with the following title format: (Program) Voucher INV mm-dd-yyyy SCH xxx.
      • At this time, the “WARRANT NO.” and “WARRANT DATE” fields on the report will be blank.
    • The last page of the report provides invoice information, including the amount due to the school and the invoice number.
      • This same invoice number also will be referenced on the voucher from the State Comptroller, authorizing payment.
    • The voucher number will be referenced on the check (payment).
    • The “WARRANT NO.” and “WARRANT DATE” fields will populate on the report after the State Comptroller has authorized payment for the voucher.
      • Once this happens, the title format will be: (Program) Warrant INV mm-dd-yyyy SCH xxx.
    • Because colleges may track payment vouchers and warrants via the MAP system, ISAC does not send e-mails with MAP voucher data to financial aid directors.
  • The MAP system provides the option of generating a "MAP Payment Request Submitted Without Results" report that should be created and retained for every payment request submission. If a subsequent request is submitted for a record that is already being held in queue, the held record will display a result code of "4 – Request superseded by another request." When payment processing begins, the last record received will be the record processed. This report can be used when completing reconciliation after the payment process has begun. Specific instructions for generating MAP payment reports may be found starting on page 20 of the "Payment" chapter of the MAP User Guide.

Payment Proration Methodology

Payment proration methodology is based on credit hours. Payment will be made according to the number of credit hours enrolled by applying a fraction, according to the student's credit hours claimed with a maximum of 15 and a minimum of 3, to each student's calculated term award amount. The student must be enrolled for the equivalent of at least 15 credit hours to receive the maximum award amount for which they qualify each term.

Calculating a Term Award

Calculating a Term Award – Semester Schools
Calculating a Term Award – Quarter Schools

Payment Offset and Reconciliation

Information about the MAP payment offset process and reconciliation is located in the Refunds and Unpaid Claims section in the Processes area.