Original publication date: September, 2008
As another fiscal year comes to an end, Softshare has plenty to say about EDMIS. It comes in the form of an update, a non-update, a reminder, a piece of advice, and a recommended resource.
SBA has minor changes in store for EDMIS for FY 2009. Softshare is on it and you’ll have a new release of WinCATS in plenty of time to perform your Q1 2009 exports. For more details, see the SBA Form 641 article.
EDMIS
Program Non-Update
As far as Softshare is aware, there’s still no resolution for the “Counseling Hours (Contact+Prepare) must be at least 1 hr for initial Face-Face Counseling Session” error that EDMIS erroneously returned during the last round of exports. This error was triggered by clients who had an initial counseling session dated before the EDMIS system came online (pre-October 2005). Although it only affects a small portion of your uploaded activity, it will cause under-representation of your numbers on the EDMIS system and ultimately lead to reconciliation problems. For this reason, SBA is working to resolve it before FY 2008 closes. We’ll keep you posted.
Don’t forget to take advantage of EDMISRX! EDMISRX is a FREE module for SBA-funded centers that offers an automatic, monthly service that not only checks for EDMIS errors in your database but also notifies each of your regional centers of the errors. All you have to do is complete and return the EDMISrx Setup Form so that Softshare can configure the module according to your program’s needs. For more information on EDMISRX, download the EDMISrx PDF Brochure.
If you suspect that your database has a large number of duplicate client records for the current fiscal year, Softshare strongly recommends that you investigate before your FY 2008 data is officially locked down by EDMIS. Why? Because SBA has tentatively agreed to allow programs with large numbers of current-fiscal-year duplicates to take corrective action. On a case by case basis, they have agreed to consider wiping out the current year’s EDMIS data to allow a more accurate EDMIS export for the entire year to be resubmitted. But all this must happen before the year’s data is locked down.
For detailed information on how to identify and clean up duplicates, and possibly work with SBA to resubmit FY 2008 data, see the FAQ titled How can I find and clean up duplicate client records in my ‘CATS database, and prevent future duplicates from occurring?.
The EDMIS export process is long and tedious. One missed step can have dire consequences. That’s why Softshare has step-by-step documentation to walk you through the entire process.