Purpose

To create the eCAF file for submission to DIISRTE.

SubSystem

Statistics

This job identifies STUDENT_ECAF_COMPLETION records where the initial creation date falls between the submission period start and end dates (displayed in the parameter form and defined in STAF1350). These records may be included in the Electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (PO) file that is reported to DIISRTE and validated by HEPCAT. Where a record has been subsequently updated, the most recent update of each record is used for the extract.

The Electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (PO) file contains the information that the student has provided on the electronic Commonwealth Assistance form. Either the Request for Commonwealth Support and HECS-HELP form, or the Request for FEE-HELP Assistance form.

The data reported in each record in the PO file is the minimum data requirement to enable the reconstruction of the relevant Commonwealth Assistance form if required. Each record in the file provides information for a particular student/courseattempt/student status combination. Usually there will be only one record for each student in the file. However, if a particular student is doing more than one course of study, or has more than one loan scheme within a course of study, then there may be more than one record for that student in the file.

Note that students are able to update their eCAF and may do so after the the end date of the period for which it was initially created, therefore the job may correctly extract records where the creation date is greater than the submission period end date.

Submission type, year and number will be the input parameters, start and end date will be derived from the govt snapshot control table.

This job is accessed via the main menu.

The Create ECAF File (PO) block contains:

Tab

Parameters

• Submission Year
• Submission Number
• Start Date
• End Date

Rules/Notes

All parameters are mandatory.

To Create an eCAF PO File:

Select the Submission Year and System Submission Number and then run the job.

The file is created in a secure directory specified by the 'KEEP' environment variable.

File Name:

The file name is: HHHHXXYYYY.PNNNNN
where:

• HHHH = Higher Education Provider Code - (Institution code)
• XX = File Type abbreviation code - (file type code is not case sensitive), i.e. PO
• YYYY = Reporting Year - (must be >=2011)
• P = Reporting Period - (1 or 2)
• NNNNN = Submission Number - (00001 – 99999)

For example, 1234PO2011.100001

Note: The Submission Number used in the file name is the Submission Number defined in STAF1350 – Government Snapshot Control.

Rules/Notes:

Output is in the format as specified by DIISRTE (see following table).

Submission Year and Number combination must exist as a Government Submission Control record with a System Submission Type of ECAF in STAF1350. There must not be a Completion Date set for this record.

If the output file cannot be opened or if the specified KEEP directory cannot be found, then the job will fail and a message will be displayed in the run log.