Importing data for IRS 1098-T forms

This article describes how to get your school up-and-running with IRS 1098-T forms.

The problem

Populi automatically generates 1098-Ts based on the billing and financial aid information entered for each student. If all of a given calendar year's information is entered in Populi, you barely even need to think about 1098-Ts. But if you start using Populi in the middle of a year, you could find yourself in a situation where you need to generate 1098-T's using partial data stored in two different systems.

How to get all of your 1098-T data into Populi

Fairly simple, actually:

1. Contact Populi customer support about importing 1098-T data.
2. Prepare your 1098-T data in XLS or CSV format:
   • It needs to include, at minimum, Student ID and Name, Box 1 data (Payments Received), and Box 5 data (Scholarships/Grants).
   • Data for other boxes may be provided if desired.
3. A Populi Data Manager will import your 1098T data.
4. Once imported, you can review it in Financial Aid > Reporting > 1098-T. If any amounts need to be adjusted, you can do so right in the 1098-T report without affecting anything else on the GL. Depending on circumstances, you may want to postpone any such adjustments until January 1 of the following year.

If your implementation phase involves migrating legacy SIS (etc.) data into Populi, the best time to do the 1098-T import is shortly after your school's Populi site goes live with your imported legacy SIS data.

If your implementation phase does not involved a legacy data import, you can import your 1098-T data at any time.

Either way, we strongly recommend importing this data well before January of the following year (when you'll need to review 1098-T data in earnest ahead of releasing forms to students).