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Better reporting capabilities

Jessi Harper

December 16, 2022 15:10

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We need the functionality of the data slicer available to all departments, with access to more data fields (keeping FERPA in mind). Also, it would be nice if the data slicer was under a major reporting tab instead of hidden under multiple levels of tabs. 

As a Fin Aid worker, I need data such as grade level, housing arrangements, GPA, etc but I don't need full access to their roles to be able to view their data. My colleague in billing would like to be able to pull reports based on scholarships or housing but she doesn't need full access to the FA role or Campus Life roles. And similarly, the registrar needs reports on who has outstanding balances or need-based aid. We don't need to be able to change the data, we just need to be able to view reports that are useful to us that contain LIVE data. I guess overall, this is a request for more useful report building tools. We spend a lot of time pulling UNuseful reports just to get 1 or 2 fields, exporting them, and then merging them line by line in excel. By the time we get that completed, the data is likely to have changed anyway.

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14 comments

• 1
  
  Jessi Harper March 08, 2023 18:41

  We need better reporting functionality ASAP. We are having to export multiple half-reports and then splice them together by hand in excel. This is SUCH A TIME WASTER. The data is in Populi. We need to be able to pull it when and how we want.

• 0
  
  Adam Sentz March 16, 2023 22:36

  Jessi Harper - I'd recommend requesting specific improvements to specific reports.

• 0
  
  Jessi Harper March 20, 2023 18:51

  Specific reports hinder us. We need the data slicer capabilities with more fields from all departments.

• 1
  
  Jessi Harper September 01, 2023 16:00

  It would be very helpful to be able to pull reports in the financial aid side that show program, credits enrolled, total credits earned, GPA, CGPA, ACD, LDA, residence, home address, outstanding balance. Reports we have needed just this week:

  • Students with a 0 EFC who live in a specific state
  • Students with specific award and a CGPA under 3.0
  • All pending/scheduled aid with current enrolled hours and total earned hours
  • Compare students' COAs and classifications with their residence
  • Students with 0 EFC who have open balance
  • Students in specific major who have an active aid application
  • Grad students who do not have an aid application
  • Awards and COA of students with an ACD this semester 
  • Awards detail of students with LDA in last semester

  It would also be helpful to view all fin aid data in one report. It is not efficient flip tabs between Awards, Disbursements, Aid Applications. Things we have needed just this week:

  • Compare award status with aid app status
  • Compare award status with verification status
  • Compare awards with EFC

  Many of these things would be nice for a quick look without having to open each student to look manually or without having to export multiple reports. Please just give us the ability to pull our data when and how we need it.

• 1
  
  James September 01, 2023 16:12

  We're thinking through reporting upgrades and the specific examples you gave are super helpful, thank you!

• 0
  
  Jessi Harper July 31, 2024 14:20

  We need these updates. It is absolutely ridiculous that data is in the software but that we have no way to pull it. I'm tired of pulling multiple reports and having to mesh them together to get the 1 report I need.

  More recent examples of needs:

  • Students with schedules for specific term who have a specific scholarship
  • Students in a specific state who receive a specific scholarship
  • Students in a specific major with 0 EFC
  • Students with aid who do not have an ISIR
  • Reports based on fields from ISIRs, such as Parent's AGI, transaction date, SAI change flag, professional judgement, first bachelor's degree, citizenship, etc
  • Student, COA, EFC, column for each aid
  • Student, W/D semester, LDA, column for each aid
  • Students who were First Time Freshman in a specific term
  • First Time Freshman in a specific term who received a specific scholarship
• 0
  
  Evan Donovan July 31, 2024 14:28

  I know it's not ideal, but we run a range of the reports described above by using tagging, since tags are accessible in the data slicer. That is more efficient than merging via Excel, I think, since you can tag the data on the report where it is accessible, and then use the tags in data slicer or elsewhere.

  In some cases, also, you can request from Populi to create automations that will tag students automatically with specific tags. For example, we have a tag that all students with a particular field from the Admissions form get now.

• 0
  
  Jessi Harper July 31, 2024 14:39

  Thanks Evan. On surface that sounds like a feasible workaround. However, that is still very inefficient and requires more work to verify that the tags are applied and accurate before the report is run. (The Populi tagging system inherently causes a lot of stale and inaccurate data--topic for another day.) The info I need is already in Populi, so I shouldn't have to create more/duplicate data (via tags) to get at the original.

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  Evan Donovan July 31, 2024 14:46

  Yes, I understand that it is not ideal. I would like better reporting capabilities for financial aid too. I just wanted to share with you what we were doing for now, since I know sometimes features requests take a long time to be addressed, particularly when they are more general.

• 0
  
  Evan Donovan July 31, 2024 14:47

  Oh, also, at times when it was mission-critical, we took the Populi CSV backup, imported it into a MySQL database (using a Python script) and then queried it via SQL. We have also sometimes been able to get similar results to that via the Populi API. But I know these are complex workarounds, and not something you would want to do on a regular basis.

• 0
  
  Jessi Harper July 31, 2024 14:50

  Those are great suggestions. I will look into them on our end.

• 0
  
  Jessi Harper October 08, 2024 15:28

  More reports I've needed in just the last few weeks:

  • Currently enrolled students who have scheduled aid (active student role isn't helpful)
  • Currently enrolled students who have unapplied aid in this term only
  • Currently enrolled students with specific aid
  • Male students from a certain state who have a remaining balance
  • View of current students with columns for: SAI, total semester charges
  • Students above certain age with loans
  • View current students with columns for: SAI, denomination, state
  • Students with specific GPA who received institutional aid
  • View of all enrolled students in a term with columns for: loans, institutional aid, SAI, semester charges; and ability to filter by specifics in the columns (specific scholarship or charge)
  • View of all enrolled students with columns for: ISIR received, SAI, tuition billed, fees billed, housing billed, food billed
  • View of current students with info from different years; columns each for last fall & this fall: federal aid, institutional aid, SAI, bill, attempted hours, completed hours, GPA
  • View of current international students with columns for: enrolled hours, campus, aid, and billed amounts
  • Current students with specific grade in specific courses from any term
  • Current students who were first-time full-time when they started
  • And who had specific aid and/or GPAs
  • Students who were first-time full-time in a specific semester and who did not return in another specific semester (ie: the following spring or fall)
  • Ability to select what columns appear on aid application tab; availability of any field to be a column: credential level, program length, CIP code, student eligibility (this is for quick comparison and to make sure all fields are filled out the way they are supposed to be instead of having to wait for errors to pop or having to go into each student manually to check)
  • Ability to view all ISIR fields for quick comparison and filtering; ie: students with specific error codes, students who reported homelessness, specific fields in the financial info, citizenship and DHS flag data
  • Students who have loans with columns for: dates received for ISIR, counseling, and MPNs
  • Aid applications with columns for stat us of each component
  • Students who have PLUS loans with columns for: MPN, credit check, attached borrower, additional unsub check
  • Withdrawn students who do not have exit counseling
  • Ability to look at awards tab for 1 term instead of the whole year
  • Ability to filter by new student in term vs returning student in term
  • All pending/scheduled aid with current enrolled hours and total earned hours
  • Compare students' COAs and classifications with their residence
  • Grad students who do not have an aid application
  • Awards and COA of students with an ACD this semester
  • Awards detail of students with LDA in last semester
  • Compare award status with aid app status
  • Compare award status with verification status
  • Compare awards with SAI

  *Note the distinction between all enrolled in a term and currently enrolled. We need to be able to search either/or.

  Edited by Jessi Harper October 08, 2024 15:42
• 0
  
  Evan Donovan October 08, 2024 15:36

  Hi Jessi, I think some of these could be done via Data Slicer, such as "Male students from a certain state who have a remaining balance" - there are financial fields on data slicer.
  
  It might be more helpful to Populi if you identified which ones could not be done with Data Slicer, such as some of the Financial Aid ones.

• 0
  
  Jessi Harper October 08, 2024 15:39

  None of them are able to be done in Populi with the exception of the withdrawn reports. I've had to hand-build all of the rest outside of Populi. The withdrawn ones just need to be standard report because they are necessary.

  Edited by Jessi Harper October 08, 2024 17:08