South Alabama's usage of the total encumbered award amounts on opportunity applications grids is such that the total reflected there is not accurate. They award based on certain aid years (award periods) like "1516" or "1617". So, the award amount is flagged specifically for a certain aid year.

Since they award two years in advance, they have two aid years active at the same time. Therefore, the total encumbered amount on the applications grid is MORE than what the student is actually getting this award cycle. Their OAs then might see that the applicant is getting too much and decide to hold off with another award. But, the fact is that the student might only be getting a little bit for that aid year.

Does that make sense? So, Brooke Moore suggested that ideally, the total would only reflect the appropriate aid year. She would need to tell the system what the appropriate aid year is and then, as they set award periods on awards, if the award is NOT in the current system aid year, the amount would not get rolled up to the total.

Or, perhaps have any easy way to see a more granular list from within the grid - so, it would just be the total, but maybe like if you hovered over the total, you'd see a list of the granular award amount and award periods. This would help their OAs see how much the person is really getting in any given year.