{
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    "title" : "Improving the Experience of Federal Grant Reporting |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Improving the Experience of Federal Grant Reporting",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2020/01/28/improving-experience-federal-grant-reporting/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Improving the Experience of Federal Grant Reporting","deck" : "A 10x project to investigate opportunities to make the grant reporting process more efficient.","summary" : "The 10x Federal Grant Reporting project team at GSA is investigating opportunities to make the grant reporting process more efficient.","date" : "2020-01-28T15:00:00-05:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"ben-peterson" : "Ben Peterson"},"topics" : {
        
            "content-strategy" : "Content strategy",
            "open-data" : "Open data",
            "research" : "Research"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2020-01-28-improving-experience-federal-grant-reporting.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2020/01/2020-01-28-improving-experience-federal-grant-reporting.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2020/01/2020-01-28-improving-experience-federal-grant-reporting.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2020/01/2020-01-28-improving-experience-federal-grant-reporting.md","slug" : "improving-experience-federal-grant-reporting","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2020/01/28/improving-experience-federal-grant-reporting/","content" :"\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"image image-right\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/10x-logo_w200.png\" \n    srcset=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/10x-logo_bu.jpg 48w,https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/10x-logo_w200.png 200w\"\n    sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 40vw, 400px\"\n  /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe 10x \u003ca href=\"https://github.com/18F/federal-grant-reporting/blob/master/README.md\"\u003eFederal Grant Reporting project\u003c/a\u003e team at GSA is investigating opportunities to make the grant reporting process more efficient. The project, which is receiving its third phase of seed-funding through GSA’s \u003ca href=\"http://10x.gsa.gov\"\u003e10x program\u003c/a\u003e, is building towards a prospective shared solution to improve the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Audit\"\u003eSingle Audit\u003c/a\u003e finding resolution process for managing grants at federal agencies.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n  \u003ca class=\"usa-button usa-button--outline\" href=\"https://github.com/18F/federal-grant-reporting/blob/master/README.md\"\u003eView the full project »\u003c/a\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 id=\"challenge\"\u003eChallenge\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe’ve spoken with over 50 people from 10 agencies in this phase of the project and several themes have emerged.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst, manual data entry is a pain point for many in grants management because it slows down the audit resolution process immensely and is generally error prone and untrustworthy. As one agency’s audit team put it, “anything manual is subject to error. If [our staff] misentered a date, we’d be missing information.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSecond, we identified the importance of surfacing data quicker. Each month, it can take agencies anywhere from a few hours to three full days just to locate the Single Audits PDFs that are relevant to them, before they are entered into their grants management tools.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"solution\"\u003eSolution\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStarting from rough prototypes—with input from people we interviewed—we’ve prioritized two aspects of the grants management journey to simplify the way federal agencies obtain and leverage \u0026lsquo;Single Audit finding data\u0026rsquo; that we believe would save time and reduce manual input errors.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe “Distiller”\u003c/strong\u003e streamlines the process of identifying the audits on the Federal Audit Clearinghouse that are relevant to specific agencies.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe “PDF Audit Data Extractor”\u003c/strong\u003e prototype tool could be particularly useful to two different phases of the grants management process. When uploading a Single Audit PDF, the PDF Audit Data Extractor could extract and pre-populate audit findings into the data collection form so that auditors and grantees only have to review and confirm the data being uploaded, instead of manually entering the critical data themselves.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen agencies are ready to review audits, the PDF Audit Data Extractor could deliver data in a machine-readable format so that it could be imported directly into agency audit reporting systems.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"impact\"\u003eImpact\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTogether, the Distiller and PDF Audit Data Extractor, provide easier access to data — reducing processes from hours to minutes. This will allow grantees, auditors, grant managers, agency, and Offices of Inspector General (OIG), to spend more of their time and money on delivering grant outcomes rather than on reporting and monitoring.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"wed-like-to-chat\"\u003eWe\u0026rsquo;d like to chat\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe are interested in hearing from those who need to access and use Single Audit data, to learn what other obstacles are in the way of their goals. Since different agencies use unique tools and processes, we want to make sure our solution works for multiple agencies.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTo participate in the limited pilot group\u003c/strong\u003e, or to make sure your agency’s use case is taken into consideration for new functionality, please reach out to Ben Peterson at \u003ca href=\"mailto:federal-grant-reporting@gsa.gov\"\u003efederal-grant-reporting@gsa.gov\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://10x.gsa.gov/\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e10x\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e funds, supports, and develops ideas from federal employees about how technology can improve the public’s experience with the government. \u003cspan class=\"highlight-text\"\u003eTheir next submission deadline is January 30, 2020.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}