Tagging is a core platform capability in Nelnet Payment Services (NPS) that allows clients and partners to attach flexible metadata to entities and have that context travel with data across services.
Tags enable traceability, auditing, reporting enrichment, and operational insight without requiring schema changes or custom integrations.
Tags are simple key/value pairs that can be attached to supported entities across the platform.
{
"sourceSystem": "legacy-sis",
"migrationBatch": "2026-01",
"programCode": "BIO-401"
}Key idea:
Tags capture business context that should survive service boundaries.
Tags capture business context that should survive service boundaries.
To avoid misuse, it’s important to understand what tags are not:
- ❌ Not schema extensions
- ❌ Not validation rules
- ❌ Not permissions or access control
- ❌ Not transactional state
Tags are descriptive, not prescriptive.
Across the NPS platform, data flows through multiple services:
- Profile → Billing → Payments
- Billing → Invoices → Receipts
- Payments → Settlement → Reporting
Tags ensure that important context is not lost as data moves through these workflows.
- Tags are created on source entities
- Tags are consolidated as entities are referenced downstream
- Consolidated tags are emitted in events and webhooks
- Tags are surfaced in reporting and reconciliation
- Tags are flexible metadata
- They are designed to propagate downstream
- They provide visibility without coupling systems