34 of the questions Banner teams ask most, each with a short direct answer and a full article behind it.
Banner Job Submission is the framework for running Banner reports and batch processes. Jobs are defined on GJAJOBS and their parameters on GJAPDEF. A user submits a job on GJAPCTL by entering the process name, choosing a printer (often DATABASEPRINT), entering or loading saved parameters and submitting. The job runs on the job submission server, and the output and log files can be reviewed on GJIREVO.
Read the full answerPopulation selection is Banner's built-in way to create a list of people (such as all students with a balance over a threshold) for use by letters, batch jobs and other processes. Rules are written on GLRSLCT, the GLBDATA process runs them to extract the list, the result can be reviewed or edited on GLAEXTR or GLIEXTR, and other jobs then use the population by its application, selection ID and creator ID.
Read the full answerBanner security grants access to objects (pages, processes and reports) through security classes. Each class is granted objects with a role such as BAN_DEFAULT_M (maintenance) or BAN_DEFAULT_Q (query-only), and users are assigned to one or more classes, usually on GSASECR. On top of object security, Banner supports finer controls such as fund and organisation security in Finance and fine-grained access control that limits which rows a user can see.
Read the full answerEllucian Solution Manager (ESM) is a web-based tool for managing on-premises Banner environments. It downloads Banner releases, applies database upgrades, builds and deploys Banner 9 web applications, and tracks which release of each product is installed in each environment, such as development, test and production.
Read the full answerBanner 9 applications can delegate authentication to an institutional identity provider using CAS or SAML 2.0. The user signs in once with their institutional account, the identity provider sends Banner a trusted assertion containing a user identifier, and Banner maps that identifier to a Banner user or person record. Banner security then decides what that user can access.
Read the full answerSlow Banner 9 pages are usually caused by one of three layers: the Oracle database (long-running SQL, stale statistics, locking or resource limits), the Java application servers (memory pressure, garbage collection, exhausted connection pools or too few instances), or the network path (load balancers, proxies, SSO redirects). The fix starts with measuring which layer the time is spent in before changing anything.
Read the full answerBanner Extensibility is a set of Banner 9 tools for tailoring the system without changing Ellucian's baseline code. It lets institutions hide, relabel or reorder fields on Admin Pages, add institution-specific fields, and build new pages with Page Builder. Because these changes live outside the delivered code, they are much easier to carry through upgrades than traditional modifications.
Read the full answerBanner Document Management (BDM) is Ellucian's document imaging solution for Banner, built on OpenText ApplicationXtender. It lets offices scan or upload documents such as transcripts, application materials, financial aid forms and invoices, index them with Banner data such as ID and term, and retrieve them from the related Banner record.
Read the full answerBanner institutions typically combine delivered Banner reports run through job submission, operational reporting tools such as Evisions Argos, Ellucian's Operational Data Store (ODS) and Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) for reporting-friendly views and history, and analytics or BI platforms such as Power BI or Tableau fed from those sources. In SaaS, reporting is usually based on Ellucian-supported data access options rather than direct production database queries.
Read the full answerTreat every Banner modification as technical debt with an owner. Keep a full inventory of each mod (what object it changes, why, who owns it, and how it is tested), re-evaluate it at every upgrade, and retire it whenever delivered functionality, Banner Extensibility or an API-based integration can do the same job. New requests should go through change control that prefers configuration and extensibility over code changes.
Read the full answerEllucian Banner is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system built for colleges and universities. It runs the core administrative processes of an institution (admissions, registration, academic records, student accounts, financial aid, finance, HR and payroll, and alumni relations) on a single Oracle database, with staff using Banner Admin Pages and students and employees using Banner Self-Service.
Read the full answerBanner 9 moved Banner's administrative interface from Oracle Forms (Internet Native Banner, or INB) to browser-based Admin Pages that run on Java application servers, and rebuilt Self-Service as modern web applications. The Oracle database and most business logic stayed the same, but the user interface, deployment model, single sign-on and extensibility options changed significantly.
Read the full answerApplication Navigator is the Banner 9 web shell that staff log in to. It provides a single search box and menu for opening Banner Admin Pages (for example SPAIDEN or FGAJVCD), keeps one authenticated session across Banner 9 applications, and lets users switch between open pages without logging in again.
Read the full answerPIDM stands for Person Identification Master. It is the internal, system-generated number Banner uses to link every record about a person or organisation across all modules. Unlike the Banner ID that users see, the PIDM never changes and is not shown on most pages, so it is the reliable key for joins in reports and integrations.
Read the full answerMost Banner object names have seven characters. The first letter is the product (S = Student, F = Finance, G = General, R = Financial Aid, T = Accounts Receivable, P/N = HR and Position Control, A = Advancement), the second is the module within that product, the third is the object type (A = application, I = inquiry, Q = query, V = validation, R = rule or repeating table, B = base table, P = process), and the last four letters describe the object.
Read the full answerBanner Self-Service is the set of web applications that let students, faculty, employees and other users interact with Banner directly. Students register for classes and view records, faculty enter grades and view rosters, and employees see pay and leave information, while Banner security and rules control what each person can do.
Read the full answerValidation tables hold the lists of allowed codes that Banner pages and processes use, such as terms (STVTERM), majors (STVMAJR), hold types (STVHLDD) or level codes (STVLEVL). They are usually named with a V in the third character, and every code entered elsewhere in Banner must exist in the matching validation table.
Read the full answerMost institutions do best with a fixed cadence: three or four planned upgrade windows a year between academic freeze periods, with releases bundled by module and regression-tested together, plus a fast-track path for security fixes and regulatory updates. The rhythm matters more than the exact frequency.
Read the full answerTwo weeks out, confirm term controls, time tickets, section rules and stale holds, and freeze non-essential changes. One week out, load-test Self-Service registration, check database and app server capacity, verify LMS sync and brief the helpdesk. On opening day, staff a shared bridge, monitor response times and errors in real time and communicate early with students.
Read the full answerA time ticket is the date-and-time window in which a student is allowed to register for a term. Institutions define registration groups with start and end times, then assign students to those groups, typically by class level, credits earned or priority status. When a student tries to register in Self-Service, Banner checks the term's registration controls and only allows registration inside the student's assigned window.
Read the full answerA hold is a flag placed on a person that blocks certain actions until it is released. Hold types are defined on the STVHLDD validation page, where each type is marked with the processes it blocks (such as registration, transcripts, graduation, grades or accounts receivable). Staff add or release holds for individual people on SOAHOLD, and holds can also be created automatically by processes such as AR collections.
Read the full answerGrade roll is the Banner process that copies final grades from a term's registration records into permanent academic history. Faculty enter final grades in Self-Service (or they arrive from the LMS), the registrar runs the grade roll process (SHRROLL), and Banner creates academic history course and grade records, after which GPAs and academic standing can be calculated.
Read the full answerDegree Works is Ellucian's degree audit and academic planning product. It takes student data from Banner (courses, grades, programmes, majors and transfer credit) and evaluates it against degree requirements written in Degree Works' Scribe language, showing students and advisors which requirements are complete, in progress or still needed.
Read the full answerA term code identifies an academic term and is defined on STVTERM. Most institutions use a six-character code made of the academic year plus a term suffix, such as 202610. A CRN (Course Reference Number) is the number that uniquely identifies one class section within a term; students register by CRN, and the same CRN can be reused in a different term.
Read the full answerBanner fee assessment reads a student's registration for a term, applies the institution's fee assessment rules (by level, campus, programme, credit hours, residency and other criteria) and posts the resulting tuition and fee charges to the student's account in Accounts Receivable using detail codes. It can run online when registration changes or in batch through the SFRFASC process.
Read the full answerA clean ILP rollout starts with business decisions (course shell strategy and timing), then cleans identity data so people match across Banner and the LMS, pilots with one department for a full term including add/drop and grade submission, and finishes with monitoring and runbooks so sync failures are caught before students notice.
Read the full answerYes. Banner can integrate with Moodle, Canvas, D2L Brightspace and Blackboard, most commonly through Ellucian's Integration for Learning Platforms (ILP). The integration creates course sections and enrolments in the LMS from Banner and can send midterm grades, final grades and last attendance dates back to Banner, so instructors and students work in the LMS while Banner remains the system of record.
Read the full answerEllucian Ethos is Ellucian's integration platform. It defines a common data model for higher-education data, exposes Banner and other Ellucian systems through REST APIs, and publishes change notifications so connected applications can react when data changes. Integrations authenticate with application-specific API keys instead of direct database credentials.
Read the full answerStart with a catalogue of every integration and score each by criticality and fragility. Then migrate one integration at a time using the strangler pattern: build the API-based flow alongside the legacy one, run both in parallel and compare outputs, and switch off the old job once results match. Add logging and alerting at the API layer as you go.
Read the full answerFOAPAL is the accounting string used in Banner Finance. It stands for Fund, Organisation, Account, Program, Activity and Location. Every financial transaction in Banner is coded with a FOAPAL, which tells the institution where the money came from (fund), who is responsible (organisation), what it was for (account), why (program), and optionally which activity or location it relates to.
Read the full answerBanner payroll runs as a sequence of processes for each payroll ID and pay period: extract time and earnings, calculate gross-to-net pay (PHPCALC), assign document numbers, produce cheques and direct deposit files (PHPCHEK and PHPDIRD), update employee history (PHPUPDT), and feed the results to Banner Finance (PHPFEED). Each step is run through job submission and its output is checked before moving on.
Read the full answerBanner Financial Aid is organised by aid year, so before packaging for a new year can begin, the institution rolls forward the previous aid year's setup: budgets, packaging rules, fund definitions, requirements tracking, satisfactory academic progress rules and similar configuration. Staff then review and update the new year for regulatory and policy changes, load new applicant data, and test packaging before awarding students.
Read the full answerPlan a Banner SaaS migration in five phases: inventory everything that touches Banner, classify each item (retire, reconfigure, rebuild or re-platform), rebuild integrations on Ethos APIs, rehearse the cutover with data validation at least twice, and run a hypercare period while the team adopts the new operating model.
Read the full answerWith on-premise Banner, the institution runs the servers, database, upgrades and customisations. With Ellucian Banner SaaS, Ellucian operates the infrastructure and delivers updates continuously, while the institution focuses on configuration, testing and business processes. The trade-off is less control over code and database access, so modifications, direct database integrations and reporting must move to supported extension points, APIs and data access options.
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