Feature Spotlight: Budget Calculator

Have you ever found that an “official” financial aid calculation doesn’t accurately capture a student’s financial circumstances? If your institution factors financial need into awarding decisions, then it’s critical that you find a way to properly assess each applicant’s finances. AwardSpring’s newest feature, the Budget Calculator, is designed to help you do just that.

The Budget Calculator is a simple, customizable calculator that documents a student’s incoming and outgoing funds to establish cash flow - and financial need. When the Budget Calculator is activated, students will see it within the application flow. There are two sections to the calculator, initially named “Resources” and “Expenses” (administrators can rename these sections if desired). The “Resources” section is designed to include fields like income, scholarships, grants, and parental or spousal contributions. The “Expenses” section is designed to include fields like housing, groceries, utilities, and child care. Administrators can create, label, and customize as many fields as they like under each section. In addition, administrators can provide introductory and field instructions as needed.

We expect the Budget Calculator to be particularly useful in areas with high costs of living, where government estimates aren’t always accurate. You may also want to use the Budget Calculator if you suspect that your students’ EFC numbers aren’t telling the full story. You can always add the Budget Calculator for a cycle or two to see if it helps you make better awarding decisions. If you already use a different method of assessing student financial need, you don’t have to replace that method with this calculator - just use both, and see if you get any new insights!

If you’d like to try the Budget Calculator, we recommend adding it between award cycles. Contact us at support@awardspring.com and we’ll be happy to walk you through the configuration.

Want to learn more?

Join our Budget Calculator Webinar:

Screen Share Link: Click Here

Audio by Phone: 1-773-231-9226

Use Code: 911 234 9065#