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FAQ

Q: How do I get a login to DAX?
Q: What is the difference between IPEDS race and DAX race? Why is race presented differently between reports?
Q: How does the error email system work?
Q: Where can I find the DAX Error Pickup Code for my institution?
Q: I do not know how to code permanent residents as related to legres, citizenship, resident and/or tuitpd fields.
Q: I am having FICE code problems/errors.  I need to have a code added or cannot find a ficecode for a college. What can I do? 
Q. I do not have any DAX errors, so why is the DAX generated report incorrect for my college? 
Q. I am receiving an error in the high school graduation date (hsgraddate) for a student. The student graduated from high school in January 2010 and started college in January 2010. Why isn't DAX accepting this high school graduation date in my Spring DAX submission? 
Q. I am receiving an error in the hsgraddate field of the student file in DAX for a student with a high school graduation date (hsgraddate) = 999905.
Q. We have added a new program and/or award?  How is this added to our academic inventory in DAX? 
Q. We are receiving a DAX error that states "ColCode, RptTerm, RptYear, DeptCode, CourseNum, Section must match a record in SCHMST." What does this mean?

 

Q: How do I get a login to DAX? 

A: DAX access comes typically in two forms: 1) Username and password access and 2) Error Viewing access.  Username/password access is restricted to institutional presidents, DAX primary contacts and institutional research officers.  Error Viewing access provides viewing of data errors for specific files.

To have Error Viewing access, please contact your institution's DAX primary contact.  To have Username/password access, please have your institution's president email the request to daxsteeringcommittee@accs.edu.  Please be sure that the requested role is included in the request. 

Q: What is the difference between IPEDS race and DAX race? Why is race presented differently between reports?

A: Unless a report specifies "IPEDS race," persons coded in the college's DAX STU/PER file in more than one of the five federal racial categories are reported as multi-racial. Additionally, ethnicity and citizenship are not considered in the determination.

However, a report that specifies "IPEDS race" uses the IPEDS definition which categorizes Hispanics of any race, persons who are non-resident aliens, and/or persons who are multi-racial in separate categories. The remaining persons are reported based on their single race category.

 

Q: How does the error email system work?

A: This system allows DAX primary contacts to specify an email address(es) for each DAX file that will receive related error notifications from the DAX system on a weekly basis.  DAX picks up data each night and/or on demand, but only sends error emails weekly on Monday morning.  These emails contain a link to the DAX Error Viewing page.  To protect access to this data and prevent institutions from having to manage many DAX usernames and passwords, this page requires the entry of an assigned institutional DAX Error Pickup Code before the errors can be viewed.

Q: Where can I find the DAX Error Pickup Code for my institution?

A: Contact the DAX Verifier at your college. This code can be found by your DAX primary contact/Data Verifier in the "My Data" section of the DAX website on the "Error Emails" tab in the upper right hand corner.

Q: I do not know how to code permanent residents as related to legres, citizenship, resident and/or tuitpd fields.

A: The fields citizenship status (citizenship), tuition paid (tuitpd), residency status (resident), and legal state of residence (legres) are fields required by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.  There are several cross-checks between these fields.  The DAX validations for these fields are the exact validations required by ACHE.   Therefore, see the documentation on ACHE’s web-site (state student database file: http://www.ache.alabama.gov/InstResearch/InstUsers.htm) as well as the DAX web-site if you require additional information regarding the coding of the data.

Examples:

  • If a student is coded as 03 Resident Alien (permanent resident) in the citizenship field and has a legal state of residence of 'ZZ', then his/her tuition paid (tuitpd) code must be either out-of-state (02) or in-state, other (03).
  • A Resident Alien (permanent resident) who pays in-state tuition based on residency within Alabama (tuitpd = 01) must have a legal state of residence code of ‘AL’.
  • A Resident Alien (permanent resident) who pays in-state tuition but does not meet Alabama residency requirements,must have a tuition paid code of 03 (In state Other) and a legal state of residence of ‘ZZ’ or of any other state code except ‘AL’.
Q: I am having FICE code problems/errors.  I need to have a code added or cannot find a FICE code for a college. What can I do?
 
 A:  First, look for the college in the DAX FICE code table.  To find a FICE code in DAX:
1. Log into DAX.accs.edu
2. Click on Validations in the menu bar
3. Click on the Validation Data button
4. Select "ficecodes" from the drop down box
5. Click in the box beside “Show Top Filter Row” at the bottom of the screen.
6. Type a portion of the college name in the box under colname
7. Click the key beside the colname box and select one of the following options:
 Begins with
 Contains
 Doesn't contain
 Ends with
 Equals
 Doesn't equal

If the college is in the DAX table, use the FICE code displayed for that college.  If the college is not in the table, search within the ACHE edit system (https://highered.alabama.gov/sdb) for the college by logging in with your college’s ACHE ftp username/password.  Click the "Reference files:" link and then click "FICEcodes."  This will download a list of valid FICE codes and college names.

If the FICE code is found in the ACHE system but not in DAX, email dax.help@accs.edu with the college name, city, state and FICEcode with a subject of [FICE code in ACHE not in DAX] and the code will be added to the DAX validation table.

If the college is not listed in the ACHE system, email help@accs.edu with the college name, city, state and any FICE code documentation for this college. A request will be sent to ACHE requesting that they add this college to the ACHE system.  Until the college is added by ACHE, you must report a value of 999999 in the FICE field for this college in DAX.


Q. I do not have any DAX errors, so why is the DAX generated report incorrect for my college?

 
A.  A lack of DAX errors means that the DAX system did not identify invalid codes or discrepancies between fields or across files. Inaccurate data could be submitted by the college even though no DAX errors were generated. For example, if a student is reported in the financial aid file, but there is no record for this student in the student file, a DAX error is generated. However, if an incorrect financial aid amount is reported for a student in the DAX financial aid file, no DAX error would be generated as DAX is unable to validate specific financial aid amounts.
 
Q. I am receiving an error in the high school graduation date (hsgraddate) for a student. The student graduated from high school in January 2010 and started college in January 2010. Why isn't DAX accepting this high school graduation date in my Spring DAX submission?
 
A.  The hsgraddate is an ACHE required field. This DAX edit reflects the following requirement from ACHE: “Currently, a student’s record fails the edit if the student graduated from high school in the same reporting year.  Basically, if the student graduates from high school in the same year as the reporting year, but earlier than the traditional May graduation month, (which falls after the Spring term) a student’s record fails the edit if the reporting term is Spring , i.e., HSGDATE = RPTYR, and RPTTRM=SP. In order to allow these students to pass through, the high school graduation year must be changed to ‘9999’ for the Spring term and if the student returns the following FA term, their actual high school graduation year will then be submitted.” In May 2010, ACHE staff indicated they would review this edit and send notification of any changes.
 
DAX Note: If a high school graduation year of 9999 is reported, the month MUST also be reported as 99.
 
Q. I am receiving an error in the hsgraddate field of the student file in DAX for a student with a high school graduation date (hsgraddate) = 999905.
 
A.        If the student's high school graduation date is unknown/not reported or if the student graduated from high school before May of the reporting year for the Spring submission, this field MUST be reported as 999999. DAX Note: If a high school graduation year of 9999 is reported, the month MUST also be reported as 99.
 
Q. We have added a new program and/or award?  How is this added to our academic inventory in DAX?
 
A.  Before a program CIP and/or award can be added to DAX, it must be approved by ACCS and, in many cases, approved by ACHE and added to the ACHE academic inventory at http://www.ache.alabama.gov/Acadaffr/ProgInv/institu.htmEven though ACHE updates its academic inventory after every commission meeting, their Edit System is updated annually; the CIP and/or award cannot be added to DAX until ACHE updates their Edit System. Otherwise, student or completions records are rejected by the ACHE Edit System. If you are receiving CIP and/or award errors and have the appropriate approvals, email help@accs.edu and dax.help@accs.edu attaching copies of the approvals to expedite the process.
 
Q.  We are receiving a DAX error that states "ColCode, RptTerm, RptYear, DeptCode, CourseNum, Section must match a record in SCHMST." What does this mean?
 
A.     A course section is reported in the schedule detail (SCHDET) file or schedule instructor (SCHINS) file but the course section does not exist in the schedule master (SCHMST) file. A master record for this course must be reported in the SCHMST file. After verifying that the  course section is in the SCHMST file, there could have been a ‘hiccup’ in the DAX system while files were downloaded. Additionally, if individual files have been manually downloaded and the SCHMST file was not included in the manual download, the record may be missing from the DAX database. Download all of the DAX files again to see if this error rectifies itself.

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