Human Trafficking FY 2020-2022 Grantees: Performance Measurement Training

TINA DIMACHKIEH: I am Tina Dimachkieh. I will be your presenter for today. I am a Training and Technical Assistance Specialist.

I provide contractor support to OVC and OVC grantees around performance measures and performance

management of OVC grants. And I am part of the Performance Management Team who is also with us on this session.

I wanted to give you an overview of the session. We have some updates that we will be sharing around the reporting process.

We will talk about reports and due dates, and then we will spend the bulk of our session talking about the Performance Measurement Tool and showing you screenshots for the functionality of the Performance Measurement Tool and what you will be using this coming October 2022 reporting period.

We also will spend some time talking about the semiannual report and then we will talk about next steps and provide some resources and contact information.

Again, please put your questions in the Q and A box and our team will be able to assist you.

So, for the first section of our presentation, we're going to be discussing updates and I'm joined by my colleague, OVC Coordinator Ashley Russell, who will be speaking a little bit about the updated process for reporting for our FY 2020 and Forward Grantees.

ASHLEY RUSSELL: Hey, everyone. Thank you, Tina. As Tina said, I'm Ashley Russell. I am the Performance Management Coordinator for OVC and I first want to say thank you and welcome.

We are so glad you are here at this training. We hope it's beneficial and there's going to be a lot of information in this training as we always seem to provide. So don't worry, we'll have this recorded.

It'll be just a lot of information and I wanted to give some key takeaways and some background information to keep in mind as we go through this training. So hopefully it'll help maybe answer some questions beforehand.

I know we might have some new people in the audience as well as returning grantees, so I just wanted to go over a couple of things.

So first, why are we doing this? PMT is the best reporting system option at this time. As many of you will remember, we started the transition to JustGrants back in 2020.

And with this transition, we also revised the human trafficking performance measures so that they were standardized with other OVC programs as well as measured on an aggregate level rather than the individual level that TIMS reporting was at.

At this time, JustGrants did not have the capabilities to support the performance measures for the program and that's why we ended up creating the Excel document to capture data until JustGrants was ready. Really thinking it would just be a few months.

But because it has been almost 2 years now and JustGrants still isn't quite able to collect the data in the way we need it with the tables and some higher level technical skip patterns and validations and stuff.

And we know that the Excel document is burdensome. So, thank you for working with us through this time.

We decided to move the reporting into the PMT. Now eventually, down the road, all reporting will be in JustGrants. That's the goal.

But at this time, there is no determined timeline as to when that will happen. So, for now, PMT is our best reporting system option. The PMT has a number of features that will reduce burden when reporting, and so that's why we thought this would be better than the Excel document.

So, a couple of things that Tina will talk about and you'll hear more about. The PMT will auto generate the categories that you need to report under. So, you can always refer to the Solicitation map as a guide, but those things will kind of be built into the system, so, you don't have to think too much in coordinating your Excel document with the right categories in the questionnaire.

The PMT will also be set up with validations, and so this should help with data cleaning for everyone. For example, it should cut down on our verification emails that we send out, and the validations will be set up automatically within the questionnaire. And a list of validations will be in the PMT if you want to review them separately. But we think this is a great way to reduce burden and will really help everyone both with your reporting and us being able to cut down the verifications that we have to send back out.

So, we still encourage you to continue to use the Excel document as a job aid to collect your data throughout the quarter.

And that way, when it comes time for quarterly reporting, you can just take the data you've been collecting and put it into the system. But going forward, we will not have to upload the Excel document.

The performance measures are not changing. They are the same that you've been reporting the last few years. I know there was some concern that maybe this meant performance measure changes.

No, they're the same measures that you have been reporting on. One thing I will note is that through this process, we have gone through and clarified any confusing language in the measures or the instructions just based on the feedback that we have received from you all in the last 2 years.

And so, we're all to of cleaning up the questionnaire to match the PMT with those changes.

And once that is finalized, we'll put it on the website so that you have easy access to the questionnaire at any time.

If you're a grantee that has a 2018 or2019 award that is currently reporting in TIMS, in addition to a 2020 to 202award in the PMT, those older awards will continue to report in TIMS with the TIMS measures until close out.

So, if you happen to have one of those older awards, continue with those measures in that system until that award is closed out. But anything from 2020 going forward is in the PMT.

And then what we're really excited about, PMT reporting will open in October and you will be able to report on three periods of data covering January to September of 2022. And so, again, I know this is a lot of information, but just wanted to kind of bring these reminders at the beginning and hopefully that helps you understand why we're making this transition and how it will be beneficial to you all.

So, if you have any questions about this transition or about any of this background information, drop it in the Q and A, we'll be happy to talk about it. But that's all I have. So, thank you so much Tina.

TINA DIMACHKIEH: Thank you, Ashley, for those details. And as you said, I will be covering most of this again in greater detail. So please bear with us if there is a lot of information, if you think any of this is going too fast, we are here to support you.

We will be providing additional office hours during the reporting period, and I'll provide some additional resources at the end. But thank you for kicking this off. Ashley. Okay, so just some quick revisions of what Ashley said.

So, human trafficking grantees that have awards from FY 2020 or later will begin using the PMT, the Performance Measurement Tool, refer to it as the PMT. It's a reporting system that OVC uses. Those grantees will be reporting in the PMT their performance measure data starting October 2022. So, for that reporting period, your information will be entered into the PMT.

Awards from FY 19 and earlier will continue to report as they currently do. No changes will be made to those awards. So, if you report in TIMS or the BJA PMT, you will not be affected by this change. Only FY 20 and forward are going to be impacted by this change. Even though we are going into the PMT, we are still encouraging our grantees to use the Excel data spreadsheet that you have been using for the past year or year and a half to gather your data. This is going to be a great job aid where you can report your numbers throughout the reporting period when the reporting months are not open in the PMT and really just gathering information and working as a team to gather the numbers for when the reporting period is open.

So, what our grantees should know about the October 2022 reporting period is that Ashley said three quarters of data will be opened in the PMT for grantees to enter each separate quarter into the PMT, the data for each separate quarter into the PMT by October 30. So those three quarters are for the entirety of 2022, starting from January 1 to March 31 of 2022.

That is your quarter to Fiscal Year 2022. This data should already be available to you and you would be able to find it in your data Excel spreadsheet from when you collected that data back in April of this year. So, all you would be doing for that quarter is taking that data that is in the Excel spreadsheet and entering those numbers into the PMT.

The second quarter that you'll be responsible to report on in the PMT is FY 22 quarter three, which is for grant activity from April 1 to June 30. Again, this information was collected and should have been collected in July into the data Excel spreadsheet. However, we don't have access to that data and that is why we would like you to enter it into the PMT and that has become the requirement.

So that information should already be with you and you will be entering it into that quarter in the PMT. The third quarter is the quarter for activity grant activity from July 1 to September 30. This should be new data that you've collected that is not yet entered into that Excel data spreadsheet because it is for the current reporting period, which will open on October 1. So, this set of data that you will be entering to the PMT will not be in your spreadsheet.

Again, so, the requirement is that you report on three separate quarters of data starting from January 1 up until September 30 of this year. As Ashley said, one great feature about the PMT is that the topic areas in the PMT are going to be assigned based on solicitation. So, our grantees will no longer need to go to the Solicitation map in order to find out what exactly they are responsible for based on their solicitation and their award.

The PMT, when a reporting period opens up, will already align the topic areas that your award is responsible for to your account for that grant. So, it will already be in there. You will not need to skip through any of the questions that don't apply to you, as we used to do with the Excel data spreadsheet. However, it's very important to still look at that Solicitation map, because if you're not in a reporting month or if you want to get started on collecting data and tracking, you'll need access to what topic areas are for your award. And if you're using the Excel data spreadsheet as a job aid, you'll need to know those topic areas as well so you're not responding to questions that don't apply to your awards. So please keep that in mind.

 Okay, so we're going to talk a little bit about report type. So, as you all know, there are quarterly reports and semiannual reports. The quarterly reports are for 3 months of data on award activity, and this data for these quarters are going to be entered into the PMT. So, the PMT is the platform where the quarterly data will be entered and submitted.

For grantees that have any subgrantees or partners, you are responsible for collecting their data. They will not have access to the PMT. So as the prime grantee, you are responsible for collecting their data and incorporating it into your numbers as you enter those numbers into the PMT.

Now, the semiannual report includes the quarterly data, but in addition, you have narrative questions that will be related to grantee and subgrantee activity. And those narrative questions, there's eight of them.

We will talk about the semiannual report a little bit later, but those eight questions will cover progress towards goals and objectives for the previous 6 months and the upcoming 6 months of grant activity. Both of those reports, the quarterly report and the semiannual report, are in the PMT. You will enter your data in the PMT and you will respond to the semiannual questions in the PMT. Then you have the close out report, which is the final report. This report is submitted after all grant funds are expended or you've reached the end of your award.

So, once you spend all your funds, you will have a final report that aggregates all the data that you have entered into the PMT. So, you don't have to do that yourself. So, this is another great feature of the PMT.

I don't believe anybody is at the close out stage of their award, but it's always good to keep that in mind.

Okay, so the reporting schedule. We follow the federal fiscal year which starts on October and ends on September 30. And there are four quarters which are 3 months of reporting or 3 months of data each. So, for example, October to December 31 quarter is due. The information for that quarter is due by January 30. You have 30 days from January to January 30 to enter your data into the PMT and submit your narrative responses, as you see on this chart here. It also shows when to upload to JustGrants, which is the second system that you will be using for reporting only semiannually.

So, every 6 months you will need to upload information from the PMT into JustGrants. I will speak to that in upcoming slides. But this table is very important and we do encourage Grantees to keep a copy of this somewhere.

You will have access to it in the PMT and it is also on our webpage. But it's a very helpful reminder of when things are due and what is due, when and where to go and what to do. So, as you can see here, the four quarters for 90 days of grant activity. Then you have 30 days to report on it. The upcoming reporting period is due by October 30, and that will encompass grant activity from July 1 to September 30. However, because this is the first time we are entering data into the PMT, you are required to go back to that January 1 activity all the way to June 30 to enter those numbers as well that you've already collected in your Excel data spreadsheet.

Okay, so now we are going to move on to the most exciting part of this presentation. That is the Performance Measurement Tool, the PMT. So, the website for the PMT is ojpsso.ojp.gov.

Each organization will have an account created by the PMT team. The initial access for each organization will only be granted to the organization point of contact, who is listed as the Grant Award Administrator in JustGrants. So, by October 1, for that reporting period, only the point of contact that's listed in JustGrants will be receiving an autogenerated email from the OVC PMT Helpdesk with login instructions. They will receive the address here, the website, and they will receive instructions on how to log in for the first time.

Please be mindful that if your staff members that are working on reporting and performance measures and grant activity are not the same individual that is listed as a Grant Award Administrator. An example of that would be maybe only your person working on finance for the organization has access to JustGrants, and everybody else that's working on grant work does not have access to JustGrants. You may not get information on this, so please do reach out to those Grant Award Administrators or those in leadership positions to get access to the PMT and to let them know that they are the ones, the only ones that have access to the PMT.

For the initial access, I will speak to how to add additional users. You can add users. There's no limit on how many users you can add, so do not worry there. It's just that initial access, that initial email that's being sent from the OVC PMT Helpdesk will only be sent to the Grant Award Administrator, so please keep that in mind for the coming reporting period.

A few tips about the PMT is that the system works best in the latest browser. So, if you're using Google Chrome, make sure, it's updated to the latest version. If you're using Microsoft Edge, also make sure that it's updated to the latest version. You can use different browsers as long as they are updated. There are different functionalities in the system that may not work properly if you are using an older browser.

You need to make sure that all questions are answered on each page of the performance measures and the question banks and hit Save and continue in order to be able to submit your report. You would not be able to submit a report with any blanks in the questions.

Where it asks for numerical value, which is almost all the fields and the PMT. So, anything marked with the number, you need to make sure that you are entering a number and not just any other value. You cannot enter N/A or not applicable. If it says a number, you have to enter a number. Not applicable is the equivalent of that would be entering a zero. Or if a question does not apply to the work that your organization does, or you don't have any data on that question, you would enter a zero.

Be sure to avoid the back button because it could cause some glitches. You could lose some of your data if you don't hit Save and Continue and you'd have to start over, so be mindful of that. The best thing to do is to hit save and continue and move on to the next page or navigate in the platform by clicking on the different tabs at the top and I will show you what I mean by that.

You can hover over underlying text within the performance measures in each question bank and an explanation will appear, so, look out for those different tricks in the system. There are some explanations there are some definitions that will guide you and help you in answering the questions. The system does time out after 3minutes, so be mindful of that.

If you did not hit Save and Continue, you will lose all your data and have to log back in. So, if you're not ready to input data or enter data, wait a little bit or make sure you're hitting Save and Continue as many times as possible so you don't lose that information.

This is where that Excel spreadsheet job aid comes into play. Where you're not going to lose your data in the Excel spreadsheet because nothing times out the way that the PMT does. So, if you're working on the data, I'm not ready to submit, maybe working in the job aid would be best.

Okay, so logging into the PMT. So, you'll see on the screen here a screenshot of when you first log into the PMT using that website that I had shared. That's on the screen here, you will be directed to this page. That's a screenshot of it is here on the screen. But you'll need to do in order to access your organization's OVC Awards is you will need to click on that OVC PMT, that button right in the middle.

Once you access your account, this is the first button you'll need to click on. Once you do that, the system will navigate you to the different tabs in the PMT. They are all up here in orange and I will be speaking to each one of them more in more detail in the coming slides. But the first one is the OVC PMT home. This is where you will have general information about your award and reports.

You will also in the PMT home tab you will have the reporting schedule. This is the same schedule as what I shared with you in an earlier slide. That table, it's great to refer back to that, to print it off and to really just remind yourself of what is due and on what time and in what platform. The second tab is the Administration tab. This is where a list of all federal awards under your OVC account are listed. And this is also where the new user information or adding a new user and user management is listed.

So, I'll show you how to do that in a few slides.

 The next tab is the Profile tab. And this is actually the tab that you will be referred to when you first log in after you select OVC PMT. The Profile tab has contact information for your organization. It includes the UEI number, it includes the DUNS number and the organization point of contact in your Grant Manager's name and information about your award. Then you have to enter Data tab, which is the most popular tab in the PMT. This is what you will be using every quarter to go in and enter your data for grant activity for that quarter.

Then there's a Report tab, which I consider it the second most popular tab. This is where you will review the status of different reports, see current and past reports, and also generate those semiannual PDF reports that you will then need to upload to JustGrants semiannually in January and July.

Then you have the Need Help tab where you can get a link to resources for using the PMT. This will direct you to the links to get you to the OVC Performance Measures web page and the Human Trafficking specific Performance Measures web page and also has our contact information on it as well. Then there's that Logout tab which is to log out of the system.

Okay, so let's talk a little bit about the Administration tab and specifically the User Management and adding a new user. So, once you select the Administration tab, if you hover over the Administration tab, you have two options. There's Federal Award options with information about your Federal Award, but then you have the second option, which is the User Management.

Once you click on User Management, you will be directed to a list of current users and that initial access person that POC from JustGrants will be listed in there. But under the list of users, there's an Add a New User button. You will click on that button and then you will need to provide a first and last name, an email address, and a phone number for the individual you are creating an account for. Once you do that, you will add them and then they will pop up on this list here and they will become a user. Once that happens, the OVC PMT Helpdesk will send an autogenerated email to that individual, giving them first time login instructions. So, this is something that you all will need to do when that October reporting period opens up so different staff members can have access to the PMT and can have a PMT account for your organization.

Please do not share accounts for security purposes. As I said previously, there's no limit on how many accounts you can create. So, if there are multiple individuals working on performance measures and on reporting for your organization for that specific grant or for OVC, feel free to create multiple accounts. That is okay. But not everybody in the organization needs a PMT account if they're not working on performance measures for grant activity.

 Okay, so now let's move on to the most popular tab. That's the Enter Data tab. This is where you will be reporting your quarterly data and this is what it looks like. So, you have two items that you'll need to do. You need to make sure that you are selecting the Federal Award that you are working on. Organizations may have multiple awards for OVC that would be listed on here. So be mindful of that and make sure that you are always selecting the right awards so you're not incorrectly entering data. That's inaccurate because it pertains to different grant activity.

So, once you select your federal award, you will then need to select the reporting period that you are entering data for. Usually, the current reporting period will appear on the screen and will be available. However, if it's not, that's because you have not completed the previous reporting periods. So, the system will not prompt the current reporting period to open up for you to enter activity or data on grant activity because a previous period has not been completed. So be mindful of that in the coming months to make sure that you are entering the right reporting periods at the right time and on time. On this slide here, I wanted to show you how the system default works.

So, the system, once you select your federal award and then you go to select the reporting period, there's a drop-down menu, and it includes all the reporting periods that are available for your award. The reason why this is a default is because the system creates all these reporting periods based on the start date of your award.

So, you may not have ever entered data for these reporting periods, especially for our awards that are starting reporting in October for the first time in PMT. They're just going to be there because the system automatically puts in different reporting periods based on when your awards have started. So be mindful of that. And this here is exactly what you're going to see when you go into the PMT for the first time in October.

You have three open quarters, because again, if you remember, you're supposed to report on activity from January 1 through September 30. So that's three different quarters, as you see listed here. We did want to let you know that though, you are required to report on all grant activity for the year of 2022.

So, from FY 22 quarter two to quarter 4, January to September, we are giving our grantees the option to also ask us to unlock the report for October to December 2021, which is the FY 2022 quarter one reporting period. The reason why we're doing that is, if you're interested in having the entire fiscal year entered into the PMT and you have that data readily available in your Excel spreadsheet, it would be helpful to have all that information in one place. Again, that quarter one of FY 2022 is not a requirement. However, we do encourage you to look into having us unlock that report for you. I say unlock that report because, as you see on the screen here, once you log into the PMT in October, that will not be available for you to report on.

As you see, there's no open in parentheses next to that October to December report. So, our team will need to unlock that report for you in order for you to be able to enter data. But again, the requirement is just quarter two to quarter four. So, January 1 to September 30 of this year 2022. But if you'd like to enter data for that first quarter, October to December grant activity, please let us know and we can unlock the report for you.

All right, so once you have selected the reporting period, you will then be directed to answer the first set of questions, which is there are two questions that everybody, regardless of solicitation or award, needs to answer the first question. And you will be familiar with this from that Excel spreadsheet. The first question is, will this be the last reporting period for this award? Most likely, it's always going to be no, because if you are continuing to work on your grant, the grant is not ending. You're not reaching the end of your award, you're not in a close out process. This will not be the last reporting period. So, you will answer no, and then you will move on to question two.

Was there any grant activity during the reporting period? So, this question. A few items about question two. If you did not have any grant activity for that reporting period, if your budget has not been approved, if you have not identified staff yet, I'm talking to our newer award. It is okay to just select now that there was no grant activity. If you have not spent any money or any grant funds, then there was no grant activity because we're only collecting data on OVC funds or activity using OVC funds.

So, if you select no, you are just then just prompted to provide an explanation, as you see in the comment box below. So, you'll provide an explanation and then that is, you'll just need to click Save and continue, go to the Review tab and submit your award. However, if you select yes, the system will then unlock the different question banks for you, which are the different topic areas that you need to respond to for your award. Again, as I said previously, those are already preassigned in the PMT, so, you do not need to click through any information that doesn't pertain to your award. All the questions are assigned to the different solicitations in the PMT, so, you are required to answer all the questions. This is what it would look like.

So that first tab is the grant activity. That includes questions one and two, which is if it's the last reporting period and if you have any grant activity once you select yes, this is what the system will look like at the top of these different tabs. Please note that this is a test account and your account might look different because you might have different question banks than this account that I had used. So, some of these, like, if you're not a task force grantee, you're not going to have the Task Force Meetings Question Bank, so be mindful of that. But this is just for a demo here.

So, the question text will appear and then you will need to go through each tab and answer all the questions in order to be able to continue. Okay, so within the data entry or Enter Data tab, there are baseline questions. Some of you might be familiar with those from the Excel data spreadsheet because we also have those same baseline questions in the spreadsheet.

So, within the PMT you have different accordions. And as you see here, some of the question banks do include the baseline questions. And for those that do, the baseline questions will be the first ones that will show up. And as you see here, the current quarter reporting questions will be hidden.

So, you'll need to answer the baseline questions and then you'll need to click on that plus sign in order to expand the accordion for the current reporting period. A lot of grantees using the PMT miss this. They miss all these questions because they are hidden. So please be mindful of that. If you see baseline questions, you will answer them and then you will move on and expand that bottom gray tab with that plus sign in order to actually answer the current reporting questions.

Also please note that the baseline question, you only need to answer them once and then you'll still have them. They will still pop up, but you will not be answering them. The data will already be autopopulated in here from the previous time that you answered them. Because the baseline questions are not, the responses should not be changing to the baseline questions.

I'm going to show you here. So, as you see on the screen here, the baseline questions have collapsed now and you've expanded screen here, it's been expanded for the accordion for the current quarter reporting. So now you can see the questions for the current quarter and you no longer can see the baseline questions. You just see the tab for it. And if you look on the right-hand corner, you will see the plus sign and then the minus sign because it's been expanded for the current quarter.

Also please note that within the different question banks there are definitions at the top. Be sure to read those definitions because they will assist you in reporting in responding to the current quarter. reporting. There's different definitions.

This one specifically here talks about the trafficking population and explains the different references and the performance measures for confirmed victims, potential victims, and U.S. citizens. So, if you are unsure about any of the questions, be sure to review the different definitions and instructions at the top.

There's also a different type of instructions and I had mentioned this previously before and this is the instructions piece where when you hover over a question, an underlined blue question, when you hover over it, a box will appear in the blue box as you see on the screen here, with instructions specific to that question. Again, these are helpful.

I know I've used them as a grantee in the past and they could help you prevent any errors or any issues or inconsistencies in the data. So be sure to review them before you confirm or enter the data into the system. Okay, so now I would like to speak to some different functionalities of the PMT that are in the Enter Data tab that Grantees will experience as they enter the different data and the different question sets.

So, the PMT has skip patterns, accordions, and show and hide functions. Automatic skip logics are embedded into the question banks. So, you will need to pay attention to the different instructions, as I said, in order to ensure that all the questions are addressed accordingly based on the responses to the yes or no questions. So please read the questions carefully and read the instructions to make sure that you are answering all that you need to answer in order to be able to move forward and continue.

You should also pay attention to those plus and minus buttons because they indicate that there's additional data that's required to be completed through the hide and show function in the PMT. I have screenshots in the upcoming slides for all of this, so, I will show you what I'm referring to.

You should also make sure to scan that review tab for any alerts indicating that required questions have not been answered and that some data is missing. The system again will not let you verify that your data entry is complete and submit your report unless you answer all the questions and everything is marked complete.

So that Review tab will be very helpful and I'll show you what I'm referring to, but it will be very helpful to show you if there are any alerts or anything that has not been answered and they'll direct you to that specific question bank so you can make sure that you answer all the required questions.

Okay, so the skip pattern function, as you see on the screen here, there's an example of a yes or no question and this would include instructions on how to proceed depending on the answer that you select, this is the skip pattern function in the system.

So, as you see here in question 17, it asks the grantee did you provide services to new victims of trafficking during this report or this reporting period? If you were to answer yes, you would move on to answering question 18. If you were to answer no, the system is asking you to skip to question 23.

So, the set of questions from 18 to 22 are no longer going to show and you don't need to answer them. And let me show you what I mean by no longer going to show. So, if you were to select no on question 17, all these questions here, 18, 19, 20, 21, and also 22 will disappear and you will be directed directly to question 23.

However, when you answer yes, those questions will show in the system because you have additional information to provide based on that question and based on your response.

I also have some arrows in here because I wanted to point out the second set of the Show Hide function, which is the minus sign and the plus sign. When you select the minus sign, it will collapse the information that's under it in that accordion. And then if you select the plus sign, it will expand to include additional information.

On this slide here, it shows you what the accordion would look like. So, question 19 A through D in the previous slide, it didn't show any of the tables because it had the plus sign showing, so, it wasn't collapsed. But this is for the demographic. So, you would need to collapse that by clicking that plus sign to be able to answer questions 19 A through D in the table format.

 If you skip through that and you don't read it carefully and you don't collapse or expand to get the tables, then you are not completing all the reporting requirements, you're not responding to all the questions, and you would not be able to finalize your report. And when you get to that review tab, it will ask you to go back and complete those questions.

Okay, so then another Show and Hide functionality is for different questions that have a box that needs to be checked. So, an example would be the service type, the questions around fixing services. There are different options for service types.

The PMT only shows when you first go to the Victim Services tab. You will only see this question. But once you select in a check box, you check off the service sites that apply. The system will then show the different subcategories that apply. So be mindful of that. There are additional questions. It's not just the one question that you are responding to and be on the lookout for those. This is what it would look like.

So, let's say you selected the Information and Referral check mark. Now you've opened up 31 A and this is what the system starts to show which you did not have access to before checking off that box. This applies to all the different options in the different questions.

Okay. There's also different validations in the system. So what validations are is something that we've entered into the system to make sure, that the data adds up, that the data is accurate, and that the data makes sense and is logical based on the different questions that have been answered. So, the system will prompt you an error message if certain data does not add up.

So, as you see on the screen here, there's an error message for this grantee, letting them know that the total of question 22 A must equal question 22. So be on the lookout for things like that. These validations are sort of a two plus two equals four. This is similar to what our data analysts will do once they receive your data and they'll review it before you receive your verification emails. But this system has the first step to validating your data and making sure the numbers add up. If you have any questions about that, we are more than happy to help you.

There are a lot of different validations in the system and different rules for the different numbers to add up. Another set of validations would be in table format. So different tables are required to provide a number, a numerical value to answer the question. But then, in addition to having a numerical value, the system will not let you proceed if you enter a numerical value without answering the rest of the columns.

So, an example would be for this question. The question is asking about state law enforcement agencies, asking for a number of partners from state law enforcement agencies. If you were to put in a one, you are then required to answer whether they are a task force core partner, a task force partner, or a new partner.

If you were to put a number in here without answering one of those three questions, the system will pop up that error message validation, letting you know that you have not completed all the responses. Now let's look at the review page. So, this is the review page that I've mentioned a few times. So, once you complete all the different questions and you hit Save and Continue and go through the different question banks, the system will direct you to the last page, which is the Review tab.

This Review tab shows all the questions, and it shows if there was a response that has a check mark. As you see in where I circled red, there are check marks, meaning that there was a response. That's great. Or an alert. And anywhere there's an alert, you will see the word required because all the questions are required. And this is the system's way of showing you that you did not respond to this question, you did not provide information, and you need to go back and answer that question.

A quick tip is that you don't need to try and find where that question is. You can just click on the word required for that specific question and the system will direct you to that question bank where you can locate the question. So, make sure you go through, and you review the responses and you make sure that there are no required questions that have not been answered. Because again, you cannot submit your report without that.

Then, once you've completed your review and everything is great, you are at the last and final step before you can submit your report.

 In the Review tab, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom, you will have the Confirmation tab or area. And this is where the system will ask you to mark your data entry as complete. Once you do that report and the data in the report will be locked, and you will no longer be able to enter data into that report, you will check off that box. And then if you have any additional comments for your grant manager, this is the time to enter that you see at the bottom under the comments box. It tells you that you only have a certain number of characters.

There's a character limit on how much you can write in here. It's 5,000 characters, and that does include spaces. But this is a great place to connect with your grant manager and add any information pertaining to the data into your grant as the grant activity for that reporting period. So do use that. It is helpful for grant managers when reviewing your data. But once you mark it as complete, you add comments.

Or if you don't have any comments, you will then hit the Save button. And then the system will ask you if you are sure and you select yes. And then you can move forward.

And now your report has been submitted. It has been locked and you've completed your reporting period.

Okay. So now after you've completed you’ve submitted your report and entered Data tab, you will go to the Reports tab. This is the second most popular tab because this is where you will go to check on the status of reports. You will go to see who the last person was that modified or completed the report, when was the report completed. And also, it's important because if you are in a reporting period, so let's use the upcoming reporting period, which is the October 2022 reporting period, if you are within that reporting period.

So, any day from October 1 to October 3 in the Reports tab, you have the ability to unlock the current period report. So, let's say you enter your data, everything is going great. You submit your data in the Enter Data tab. You save you mark it as complete by October 15. So, you have 2 full weeks, but you just decided to do it early and that's fantastic.

A week later, you realize that the data was inaccurate. A staff member mentions to you that they had additional services that they provided. And now you need to make sure that you are changing that data before the data is final. You can go into the system, you can go to the Reports tab, and you can unlock that report as long as you unlock it before October 30. So as long as you unlock it while you are in the reporting period, that current reporting period, you can make changes to the data that you entered.

However, once the reporting period date has passed so for our example, by October 30. If October 30 has passed, you no longer have the ability to unlock a report for the data that you entered. However, our Helpdesk can do that. We can unlock reports at any time. So, you would just need to reach out to us and we can unlock that report for you so you can make changes.

And the goal is to make sure that your data is as accurate as possible. So, if there are any changes that you notice after a reporting period, that is not a problem at all. Just reach out to us and we will help you unlock those reports or unlock them for you. And then you can make changes to make sure that the data is updated and accurate.

Another reason to visit the Reports tab and why the Reports Tab is the second most popular tab, is because this is where you are going to fulfill your semiannual requirements.

So, for semiannual reporting, which is in January and July, by January 30 and July 30, you are required to submit a semiannual report. This is where you will complete the narrative questions. And then this is where you will need to go into JustGrants and upload the semiannual report. This is the tab will you get it from. So, you will go to the Reports tab once you've completed all your data entry in the current quarter.

Once you scroll down to the different list of reporting period, you will have the ability to generate a PDF of the semiannual report. The system will already have this all for you. All you have to do is as you see on the screen here on the right-hand corner, you will have to select semiannual PDF.

You click on that link and then the system will take you to open a new tab in your browser. That is the PDF, the semiannual PDF. This PDF will include two quarters of data for your grant manager to review. This is the PDF that you will then need to download your computer and upload it to the JustGrants Performance Report, the PR and JustGrants every January and July.

This is how your grant manager will be able to review the data that you entered into the PMT. I want to show you. This is what the semiannual report should look like. It's a PDF. And if you see here, it includes two quarters, it shows quarter one and quarter two, and then it shows a total of the months period of grant activity for that award.

If you click on the Excel sheet, or if you download an Excel sheet from PMT, you are downloading the incorrect item, the incorrect format, and that is not what your grant managers are looking for in JustGrants. So be sure that you use the PDF of the semiannual report.

I did also make sure to include the semiannual reporting steps for you. So again, I'm going to go over them briefly. But this October period is not a semiannual reporting periods. We will be sure to go over this again and again, for the January reporting period. And if you have any assistance, if you need any assistance, please feel free to reach out to us and we can help you with that.

But so, you go to the Reports tab. You will select your award number. If you have multiple awards, be mindful of that. You'll then scroll to the latest reporting period and you will select the semiannual PDF links. This will then open a new browser that generates a PDF of the semiannual report. You will need to save it to your desktop or anywhere that you can locate the file.

 You will then log in to JustGrants. Or whoever has access to your JustGrants in your organization will need to go into JustGrants and locate the performance report for that reporting period and then upload the PDF document that was downloaded from the PMT to the JustGrants PR.

In the attachment section, there is a JustGrants video on how to do this, and we will be sure to share that with you as well. For that semiannual reporting period. You also then will need to complete the semiannual narrative questions directly in JustGrants in the performance report.

I do believe I accidentally said the narrative questions are in the PMT. They are not. The PMT is only for the quantitative data, so only the numbers are entered into the PMT.

The semiannual narrative questions are going to remain in JustGrants as you have been reporting on for the life of your awards. So those eight questions are in JustGrants. So, once you upload that attachment that includes all the numbers, you will then need to go and answer the semiannual narrative questions as well.

You cannot submit your PR in JustGrants without having those narrative questions answered, so please be mindful of that.

Okay, so we're going to go over a few next steps. But I do want to remind you that we will have additional training for the October reporting period and then again for January so we can guide you through this new process so everybody can report accurately on time. We will have multiple sessions. The session has been recorded and will be available for you all this coming October.

Okay, so a few next steps about the quarterly reporting in the PMT before that becomes available, be sure to get a copy of your Performance Measures questionnaire and to identify the different question banks that are aligned with your award through the Solicitation map that we mentioned earlier in this presentation, the PMT will align or identify the assigned topic areas and question banks for you. However, you do need to know those beforehand, and you need to be familiar with the questionnaire and the questions that are being asked of you for your award.

Be sure to combine the prime and the subgrantee data for each quarterly report. Again, subgrantees don't have access to the system. Subgrantees will not have TMT access and do not have JustGrants access. So, it is on you as the prime grantee to include their data into yours quarterly.

You should make sure that all zeros represent a true value of zero in the system, and the true value of zero would be if the question is not applicable to your work for that reporting period. If you did not have anything to report on, that is what the true value of zero means.

If you're unsure about a question, don't answer just the zero just to move forward, reach out to us and ask us and we'll be able to support you. In January and July, again, generate that semiannual PDF from the PMT and then attach it to your performance report for the reporting period in JustGrants. And then be sure to complete those semiannual narrative questions in JustGrants directly and submit the report.

Please note that if you do not complete reporting in January and July on time, the JustGrants system will automatically freeze the funding for your award and puts you in a delinquency status. So be mindful of that and make sure that you are completing those reports on time for the next steps for data from quarter two to quarter four.

So that January to September 2022 data, you will need to enter all of that into JustGrants or I'm sorry, into the PMT, which is three different quarters, three different sets of data to be entered. Two of those you already should have in your Excel data spreadsheet and the current reporting period for activity from July to September will be the new data that you are entering into the system.

Okay, I just have a few moments left. I want to make sure we provide some resources. We have our OVC human trafficking performance measures webpage. This webpage will reflect the new transition to the PMT, and we'll have this recorded webinar and other webinars on there around performance measures.

In addition to additional resources, we also will have available to you all the questionnaire and the Excel data spreadsheet. Those currently are not available on the web page, but when the October reporting period opens up, they will be so you will have access to them. Just please, we ask that you make sure that you know what program your award is under.

So, if you are an ECM Task Force Grantee, make sure you're looking for the law enforcement or the victim service provider Excel and questionnaire if you're a TTA provider, look for that one. And if you're not a task force grantee, just a victim service provider grantee, be sure to look for the right program document.

Also, we are here to help. We want to hear from you. Please contact us with questions.

We understand that this process is new, it's unfamiliar, it's stressful, and we want to try and alleviate any stress and confusion and frustration from our grantees. We are excited about the PMT rollout. We're excited to be able to help you report easily. This will be an easier process once you get the hang of the PMT and we're here to support you.

If you'd like to schedule a welcome to Performance Management to the performance measures for new staff, or if you want to just get your own private session for your staff members on the PMT, please reach out to us and we can schedule 30 minutes to an hour session and go over the PMT together. You can reach out to our Helpdesk at any time with questions and comments and we'll get back to you.

I also want to make sure that you know we are the PMT Tier 4 Helpdesk. We can help you with your account creation with any errors in navigating the PMT and specific performance measure questions. But there's also a JustGrants Helpdesk that will help you with the JustGrants side of the house. I've included both contact information here for our helpdesk and the JustGrants Helpdesk. And I will be sharing this presentation, as I said, with you all this week.

So, you will have access to these slides and then the reporting or the recording will be available later on our webpage, so please remember to visit that.

We also will be hosting Office Hours in October. Be on the lookout for those, you will get emails about them. Be sure to register. We will go over how to complete a report in the PMT together for that reporting period.

But thank you all so much for joining me. Thank you for your time and we look forward to working with you in the PMT in the very near future.