Commonly used terms and acronyms

Some of the terms and acronyms frequently used in reporting are listed in the table below.

CHESSN	Commonwealth Higher Education Student Support Number The CHESSN is a unique identifier that is issued by the department for each student who accesses Commonwealth assistance (e.g. FEE‑HELP, VET assistance) for their studies.
HEIMS Administration	Opens in a new window: HEIMS Administration is a department application that enables you to allocate a CHESSN to individual students. You can also check their HELP entitlement balance and access output alert notices on students who are nearing or have exceeded their entitlement to HELP assistance.
HEIMS	The Higher Education Information Management System HEIMS is an electronic information system that stores all higher education and VET data reported to the department. HEIMS also enables you to access to a range of information reports on your data.
HEPCAT	The Higher Education Provider Client Assistance Tool HEPCAT is an application that can be downloaded to your computer to enable you to prepare and validate data and then submit that data to HEIMS.
HEIMS Online	Opens in a new window: HEIMS Online HEIMS Online allows you to view data that has been reported to HEIMS. When you log onto HEIMS Online you will be able to access: Submission Reports – a detailed description of any errors occurring as a result of a Data Submission to HEIMS. For more information see the User Guides Submission and Summary Reports User Guide. HEIMS Data View – view live data records, reports and General reports that allow you to check your data. For more information see the HEIMS Data View User Guide. Data Verification – view your verification reports and check that your reported data for a year or half year is accurate. For more information see the Data Verification User Guide.
HITS	Opens in a new window: HELP IT System The department uses HITS to manage information about approved providers, including payment information and on‑going compliance requirements. For more information see the Opens in a new window: HELP IT system (HITS) user guide and training videos.

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