Recently HESC asked financial aid professionals throughout New York State how we could improve our electronic funds transfer system. We used their recommendations to create HESC EFT Express. EFT Express gives your school more control over disbursements than you’ve ever had before. Used instead of or with HESC Escrow EFT, EFT Express is an option for receiving funds for loans guaranteed by HESC. It lets you determine the timing of disbursements, simplify processing, and expedite the transfer of funds to your school.

With Escrow EFT, lenders initiate disbursements to HESC. With HESC EFT Express, your school determines which loans to disburse, conveys the information to HESC, and receives the funds the following morning with no three-day delay. As part of this process, HESC will reconcile disbursements each day and report any errors to your school.

EFT Express has the flexibility to allow you to make adjustments including cancellations and reductions up to the time you submit your pre-disbursement request, reducing refunds. It allows you to create a roster one business day in the future, gives you multiple options for processing, and allows multiple rosters and multiple bank accounts by program type. In addition, HESC does all loan reconciliation so your school doesn’t have to.

HESC EFT Express gives your school three ways to generate a pre-disbursement request. You can log on to the HESC web site, generate a pre-disbursement request for processing, submit your request and receive all the guaranteed loans in an Excel spreadsheet. You can also send HESC a school-generated disbursement file request for processing. HESC will provide the proprietary record layouts. Or your school can log on to the HESC Web site and request a pre-disbursement list. The records display online, and you can edit and submit them in real time.

To access EFT Express, visit hesc.org, click the link for our secure Transaction Center and log on with your user ID and password. Click on the Loans tab, then the School tab. HESC EFT Express is found under the School Tasks on the left side of the page.

The View/Create Pre-Disbursement Requests page shows you pre-disbursement requests created online or on spreadsheets for the current day, and gives you the option to create new pre-disbursement requests.

On this page you can create new pre-disbursement requests, and HESC will notify you when your requests are available. You can use the parameters on this page to narrow or reduce the number of disbursements displayed on your pre-disbursement request, and you can sort the request in various ways. Required fields such as Processing Mode, Program Type, and School Code must be filled in.

The Update Pre-disbursement Requests page allows you to view some or all accounts on the pre-disbursement request. You can choose between viewing all accounts, those on a roster, deferred accounts or account with no action. You can also opt to resort your request. If any fields are left blank, the pre-disbursement request will be displayed in the order you chose when you created the request. To view the request, click “View.”

On the View/Update Roster Transactions page, you’ll see a listing of all the disbursements your school has requested during the current processing day. You can sort transactions by a variety of criteria, and show the transactions meeting those criteria by selecting “View.” You can also search for individual records, and update transaction status by selecting a record and choosing the appropriate action. This page also lets you cancel any subsequent disbursement and remaining loan balance.

The View/Update deferred transactions page allows you to see and update the status of deferred transactions. When you generate a pre-disbursement transaction request you can create a large number of transactions, which you may not be able to view in one day. You can place the transactions you can’t view on the deferred list. These disbursements will not be released until you move them to the roster. You can also remove records from the deferred list if you don’t want the funds dispersed. In addition you can change the transaction sort order at any time.

This screen displays the file requests that have been made in the last 30 days. To access these requests you simply download the file from HESC’s Web file Transfer.

On this page you’ll find the list of participating HESC EFT Express lenders by lender name and code. Each listing also includes the date the lender joined. You can change the sort order by lender name or code.

The View Rebate Information page lets you see the details on every lender’s rebate offers for your school at a glance. EFT Express accommodates zero or reduced origination fees offered by lenders based on the class year and program type. EFT Express can also accept rebates based on the student or parent’s state of residence regardless of the school attended.

Here, you can view your school’s HESC EFT Express profile information. This page features a listing of lenders who have requested that HESC activate the PLUS Credit Check override. Your school can also designate who can receive email updates for each roster, error reports and contact information. This page also includes file account information listing the loan program type found in each file. You can also request an email alerting you to a disbursement request file failure.

HESC EFT Express is a more flexible, faster and simpler alternative that gives your school unprecedented control over what loans are disbursed and when they are disbursed. Whether you use our Escrow EFT or EFT Express disbursement process, you’ll still use the same loan origination and guarantee process. You can participate in both Escrow and EFT Express.

Nobody works harder to make your job easier. HESC we help people pay for college.

View the transcript from the HESC EFT Express tutorial.