When creating a program catalog, the exchange option for outgoing and incoming programs can be turned on or left off. If the exchange option is enabled, this has the following effects on the program:
- It gets listed in the program catalog with an 'exchange' label.
- The program's participants can be selected to be included in the exchange balances.
- The applications for the program will have a flag indicating whether or not the application is considered in the exchange or out of the exchange.
For programs that have both exchange and non-exchange participants, there are two options for building them in the program catalog:
- If the application processes and materials for both the exchange and non-exchange applicants in the program are very close to being identical, it is recommended to have only one program in the catalog for the program and use the 'exchange' flag on the applications to indicate which are the exchange applicants and which are the non-exchange applicants. The application searching and reporting tools will allow filtering based on this distinction.
- If the application processes and materials for the exchange and non-exchange applicants in the program are quite different, it is recommended to have two programs in the catalog. One that is developed for the exchange processes, and another that is tailored for the non-exchange processes.
Another criteria that may require the two programs to be separate are the dates of deadlines for participation. A single program cannot have multiple application deadlines and/or start and end dates for the same application cycle. If this information must be different for non-exchange and exchange applications to the same program, two programs will need to be created.