Your Policies and Procedures Manual gives your financial aid team a day-to-day guide for compliance, operations and processes. It’s a good time to update.
By Rick Cox and Siobahn Arbogast
● One of the recommendations is to assign a particular procedure or policy to the person in the office that performs that task. This allows everyone in the office to participate in the development of the P&P Manual so that one person is not tasked with the entire manual.
● At the end of each year, review your policies and procedures to ensure they are still accurate and up to date.
● P&P Manuals should be award year specific, and you should maintain a separate one for each year.
● Block time on your calendar each week for reviewing the P&P Manual for updates.
● Create a folder for resources and notes. This folder could also be used for staging purposes until sections have been finalized. The notes could provide reasons for why a policy or procedure was updated. You might also include a list of policies that need to be reviewed again or certain policies that need to be updated such as those that need to be updated each year.
● Train using your Policies and Procedures. You could use the P&P Manual for new employee training. One idea is to pre-record this so the recording can be used for training throughout the year
● The manual should be available to all Financial Aid Office members, but the college should limit who can actually edit the manual.
Rick Cox is Global’s Executive Director of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance. Siobahn Arbogast is Director of Title IV Accounting.
July 16, 2025
You can find more information on our Consulting services here.
For more information on topics affecting federal student financial aid, please visit our blog page.