Verifying whether a software package designed to calculate EFC (Expected Family Contribution) is implemented in compliance with a specification provided by the US Federal Government for a specific year. In one embodiment, a set of sample ISIRs (Institutional Student Information Records) provided by the US Federal Government is received, with each sample ISIR containing the details of a student and a corresponding expected set of EFC values pre-calculated based on the specification for that specific year. The digital processing system then sends the details of the student contained in a sample ISIR to the software package and in response, receives the corresponding values of the EFC calculated by the software package based on the details of the student. The calculated values of the EFC and the expected values of the EFC are then compared to determine if the software package is implemented in compliance with the specification.