Anthology Student consulting
Hands-on help with Anthology Student (formerly CampusNexus and CampusVue) from someone who has worked in it since 2007, first as a user and then building on it.
Financial aid and Title IV automation: Financial aid automation that an auditor can follow
Tooling that takes the repetitive, error-prone steps out of financial aid work in the student system, and records what it did for every student. Your aid office stays in charge of every decision.
The problem
Financial aid is the part of a college where a data error becomes a federal compliance problem. It is also where staff spend a great deal of time on repeated steps: correcting awards, moving records between terms, reconciling what one system says with what another says.
Automation projects often avoid this area because the stakes are high. That leaves some of the highest-stakes work in the school being done by hand, under deadline, by the busiest people.
What I build
- Bulk corrections that are safe to run again. One command that brings a whole population of records into line, changes only what is not already correct, and can be re-run without harm.
- Check-only runs. A report of exactly what would change, reviewed by your aid office before the real run.
- Evidence for every student. A before-and-after record for each change, kept for audit.
- Exception handling that stops. Records the rules cannot decide are held for a person, with the reason shown. Nothing is guessed.
- Reconciliation and exception reports. So the aid office sees the records that need attention, not the thousands that do not.
I build this on Anthology Student (formerly CampusNexus and CampusVue), the system I worked in as a financial aid administrator.
Who stays in charge
Your financial aid office does. I build tooling and hand over evidence; your staff make the aid decisions and approve every change before it is applied. That division is deliberate. It keeps responsibility for Title IV administration with the institution, where it belongs, and it means nothing happens to a student’s aid that a person at your school has not seen.
Why I can do this
I was a financial aid administrator before I was an engineer. I know what an aid officer checks, what a reviewer asks for, and what a “small” data fix feels like the week disbursements go out. Since then I have built the migration engine described in the financial aid migration case study, which keeps before-and-after evidence for every student.
Try it
You approve, then it runs
The rule under “Who stays in charge”, in action. The tooling proposes, a named person at your school approves, and only approved changes are applied, with evidence kept. Eight made-up award records, four steps, and a check you can run twice. It runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.
Made-up records. Student 2001 to 2008 are not real students, and the programs and amounts are invented. A simplified model that runs in your browser. No AI here, on purpose: this part should be plain, predictable code.
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Check-only run
The tooling compares the old system with the new one and lists each change it proposes, with the reason and the before and after values. Nothing changes.
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Approve
You are the approver. Tick the changes you accept in the Approve column. The held row cannot be approved; it says why.
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Apply approved
Only the rows you approved change. The table shows the after state, and the evidence log records what changed, what was skipped and why.
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Run the check again
The rows you approved now read already correct, the ones you did not are proposed again, the held row is still held, and nothing changes.
Eight made-up award records are waiting. In the new system some amounts differ from the old system, some awards are missing, several are already correct, and one has two awards for the same term.
| Student | Program | Term | Old system | New system | Result | Approve |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Student 2001 | Associate of Arts | Fall 2026 | $2,500 | $2,500 | Not checked yet | |
| Student 2002 | Nursing (BSN) | Fall 2026 | $3,000 | $300 | Not checked yet | |
| Student 2003 | Applied science (AAS) | Spring 2027 | $1,750 | nothing | Not checked yet | |
| Student 2004 | Business (BBA) | Fall 2026 | $2,000 and $2,750 | $2,000 | Not checked yet | |
| Student 2005 | Psychology (BA) | Spring 2027 | $1,250 | $1,250 | Not checked yet | |
| Student 2006 | Computer science (BS) | Fall 2026 | $3,250 | $2,350 | Not checked yet | |
| Student 2007 | Medical billing certificate | Spring 2027 | $1,000 | nothing | Not checked yet | |
| Student 2008 | Accounting (BS) | Spring 2027 | $2,250 | $2,250 | Not checked yet |
Evidence log
Show the log as plain text
Nothing leaves your browser. The log is built on this page from the made-up records above, and the Copy button only puts it on your clipboard for you to paste where you choose. This page sends nothing on its own.
Show the technical detail
The engine is two small functions. The first looks at one record and says what the new system should hold and why: the amount differs, the award is missing, the record is already correct, or the old system has two awards for one term and the row is held for a person. The second changes a record only when its proposed change carries an approval, and writes one evidence line either way. Because the first function works from the end state and not from a list of steps, a check run after an apply finds the approved rows correct and proposes only what is still open. The run number goes up on every check and every apply, so the log reads in order. Plain JavaScript, no library, no AI: the engine is the first few functions in the file and the drawing is the rest.
Common questions
Questions people ask
Can you work in our test environment first?
Yes, and I would rather not work any other way. I build in your test environment in small steps, each with evidence that it does what it should. A migration is rehearsed on a copy of your data, with a check-only run that lists what would change before anything does. Production changes are rehearsed first and applied by a person, so the real run is not the first time the work has been tried. See data migration.
Can you complete a HECVAT and sign our FERPA or data security terms?
Yes. I will complete your vendor security questionnaire, including the HECVAT, and sign your data security or data protection addendum once we have agreed its terms. For student records I work as a contractor under your direct control, as FERPA’s school official exception describes, and I complete FERPA and information security training every year. There is no such thing as FERPA certification, and I do not claim one. The details are on the security and data handling page.
What happens if a migration goes wrong halfway through?
It is designed to be run again. A run that stops partway is restarted and changes only what still needs changing. You can try a small working model of that in the financial aid migration case study.
Other services
SIS integration
Connect your student system to everything around it, as changes happen, with a record of every change.
Reporting and dashboards
SSRS reports and Power BI dashboards your staff trust, including Crystal Reports rebuilt for the web client, by someone who has used those reports.
Data migration
Move student and financial aid data between systems with a rehearsal first and proof for every record.
Workflow automation
Take the manual steps out of admissions, registrar, aid and finance work with Workflow Composer and FormsBuilder, inside the system your staff already use.
Applied AI
Put AI agents to work on real operational tasks, with the controls and the audit trail a college needs.
Managed hosting
Nowhere to run an integration? I host and maintain it on Azure, in your subscription or a dedicated one.
All services
The full list, and the three ways an engagement can run.
Have a system that needs untangling?
Tell me what you run and where it hurts. The first call is 30 minutes, free, and you will leave with a clear next step whether or not we work together.