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Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 Reporting

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Disaster Recovery Grant Reporting System Training for NSP Users
Day 2

Presented by:

Lockheed Martin Community Connections & the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Welcome to our second day of training!

Today’s Agenda

I.Quick overview of yesterday’s material
II.User roles and accounts
III.Key HUD roles within each module
IV.Troubleshooting/Referral Activity
V.Q&A Session

Here is our agenda for today. (Read through). Much like yesterday, you are welcome to ask questions as we go through the training, but keep in mind there will be a Q&A session at the end of the day.

We’re going to focus on the processes that you’ll likely encounter as Field Office staff and review the reports that Field Office users have access to and can use to troubleshoot grantee problems.

User Role and Account Information

During this section, we will review the user account reports available to HUD staff as well as discuss how Field Office staff can troubleshoot grantee account issues.

Registering a new HUD staff account

This is the information you’ll need to submit to [email protected] to gain access to DRGR. Submit a CHAMPS request before e-mailing [email protected]. Please make sure you include all of the requested information.

HUD Field Office DRGR Users

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 24

Once you have access to the system, you will be able to see the HUD users in each Field Office (you can toggle between different field offices using the HUD Office dropdown menu).

Make sure your grantees have at least
one System Administrator,
one Request Drawdown user, and
one Approve Drawdown user.

As we saw yesterday, there are a number of reports that show grantee user account status and user roles. To prevent any slow downs in the drawdown or reporting process, you should make sure that each grantee has at least one Administrator, one person with the ‘Request Drawdown’ role, and one person with the ‘Approve Drawdown’ role. Remember, no one user can have both the ‘Request’ and ‘Approve’ draw roles.

Grantee DRGR Users Account Status

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 21

You can check grantee user account status here. If grantee users are shown as inactive or deleted, they will have to contact you and you will have to ask the Help Desk to reinstate their access. If a user is not showing up on this list, they are NOT in the DRGR system yet.

Grantee DRGR Users Access by Grant

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 23

If a user does not show on this report but does show on the user account status report, it indicates that the grantee system administrator has not completed this step. The field office version shows the grantee name and state as columns.

Grantee DRGR Users with System Role

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 22

You can use this report – or have your grantees use it – to verify their roles within DRGR.

Here are the test IDs you’ll be using and their accompanying roles. You will insert the number you were assigned where the ## signs are.

The password for each role is Hud!2010 .

Practice ID Information

User ID	Role
TS##GA	Grantee Admin & Approve Drawdown
TS##GR	Request Drawdown
TS##FO	Field Office user

Case Study #1
Checking the Status of Grantee User Accounts

Now let’s look at the first case study for today.

Review of DRGR Modules

We’ll now do a brief review of the basics of each module in the DRGR system.

Action Plans

Purpose
Action Plans are where grantees add projects and activities, and provide a template for the QPR. Getting the Action Plan right helps grantees identify the data required to set up budgets and performance goals.

HUD FO role
Approval or rejection of the Action Plan, initially and after any changes have been made.

What we’ll review today
How and where to review and approve or reject the Action Plan; where to enter Action Plan comments; tips on what to look for when deciding to approve or reject; where to find the status of the Action Plan.

During the Action Plan module session, we’ll examine the approval/rejection process for Action Plans and go over what to look for when deciding what action to take.

Drawdowns

Purpose
The drawdown module is where all financial transactions take place. This is where grantees will obligate funds, create, revise, approve, and reject vouchers and voucher line items, and check on the status of draws.

HUD FO role
Give policy recommendations on when/how to obligate, help grantees troubleshoot drawdown issues, make referrals (when appropriate), approve draws over a certain threshold.

What we’ll review today
Policy around obligations; how to deal with blocked draws; what to do with draws over the NSP-1 DRGR threshold.

We get a lot of questions at the Help Desk about obligations. As there are policy questions involved, it’s important that you as HUD staff can field them. We will also review how you can determine if a grantee has a grant or activity that is blocked for draws and what to do with vouchers that are sent to you for approval for being over the DRGR draw threshold limit.

QPRs

Purpose
QPRs allow grantees to report on obligations, expenditures, accomplishments, etc. for the quarter.

HUD FO role
Approval or rejection of the QPR in a timely manner, entering comments in DRGR, sharing comments with grantees (if desired).

What we’ll review today
Where and how to take action on a QPR (review, approve, reject); QPR checklist recommendations; how to enter comments; what comments are for; how to send comments to grantees.

As far as QPRs, we’ll go over the commenting process as well as the key points from the QPR checklist.

Reports

Purpose
Reports provide a relatively quick and easy way of accessing the most up-to-date information in DRGR related to user accounts, obligations and drawdowns, report status, etc.

HUD FO role
Reports allow FO staff to access information about grantees, including their activity budgets, user roles, report status, etc.

What we’ll review today
Detailed review of what reports FO users have access to and what information they contain.

Reports are one of the most underutilized features of DRGR. We’ll review the reports that Field Office staff have access to, discuss how to use them for troubleshooting purposes, and practice modifying and saving reports.

Action Plans

Let’s take a look at Action Plans from the field office perspective.

Remember…

Grantees must estimate performance
measures in the Action Plan before
they can report on them in the QPR.

An important reminder for your grantees…

Check that:

- Action Plans contain projects and activities (without activities, grantees will not be able to complete draws).
- DRGR projects align with NSP Eligible Uses.
- Activities are broken out by national objective, responsible organization, multifamily complex *, or activity type.
- Properties being counted as LH25 were previously abandoned or foreclosed on.
- Narrative sections are filled out and do not contain special characters.

* If applicable

.<number>

Action Plan Checks

Here are some of the main things you should look for when considering whether or not to Approve or Reject a DRGR Action Plan.

Grantees will not be able to make draws if they do not have activities in the system.

The system does not have any checks in place to ensure that properties counted as part of the 25% set aside were previously abandoned or foreclosed. Check in with grantees to make sure they understand the policy related to the 25% set aside.

An example of incompatible national objectives and activity types would be the following: According to the NSP FAQs, Land Banking – as a future activity with beneficiaries that cannot be determined at this time – cannot count toward the 25% Requirement; it is classified under the LMMI category. Therefore, an activity type of Land Banking – Acquisition or Land Banking - Disposition should not be classified as LH25 in DRGR.

If all a grantee’s sub awards have been made, the total amount budgeted for all their activities should equal the grant amount.

It can be confusing for NSP grantees to figure out what to put in the Action Plan narrative sections, as the titles of them are geared more toward Disaster Recovery grantees.

HUD FO Staff can make comments on the Activity level as well as on the overall Action Plan. Action Plan comments are only visible to HUD staff and are mainly for internal/monitoring purposes. However, HUD staff can use a variety of methods – e-mail, Word documents, and the AP Comment Report – to send comments to grantees if they want to.

Once an Action Plan review has been saved, the comments will appear to HUD staff at the bottom of the Action Plan.

Case Study #2
Take Action on the Action Plan

Let’s go over this process in the system.

You can also choose the Grant and DRGR Action Plan Review status report under the Reports tab to view Action Plan status and the most recent CPD Approval Date for each Action Plan.

Grant and DRGR AP Review Status

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 19

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 26

This report can be used to create a master list of activities for each grant. This report provides a quick way to see how grantees are doing as far as fulfilling the 25% set aside requirement.

Case Study #3
Check on Activity Budgets

Let’s go over this process in the system.

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 33

This reports shows data from the latest DRGR Action Plan and all QPRs (regardless of QPR status). This is the same report as the grantee report, but field office users must select which grantee to view before selecting the grant. This report is also available sorted by activity number.

This report is useful in examining grantee progress towards meeting the goals expressed in their Action Plan. It measures projected data (from the Action Plan) and actual data (from the QPR).

Obligations &
Drawdowns

On to obligations and drawdowns!

How does HUD determine when NSP funds have been obligated?

“Funds are obligated for an activity when orders are placed, contracts are awarded, services are received, and similar transactions have occurred that require payment by the state, unit of general local government, or subrecipient during the same or a future period. Note that funds are not obligated for an activity when subawards (e.g., grants to subrecipients or to units of local government) are made.”

In other words, HUD expects grantees to obligate funds to specific activities.

Source: http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/communitydevelopment/programs/neighborhoodspg/pdf/nsp_faq_timeliness.pdf

This information is coming directly from the NSP-1 FAQs posted on hud.gov. Here are some of the guidelines you can use to help grantees figure out when to obligate funds and what constitutes an obligation according to NSP policy. Remind them that they MUST obligate funds in DRGR before completing a drawdown. You can check the number of funds obligated to an activity in a number of different reports.

How does HUD determine when NSP funds have been obligated?

The following are examples of obligations for a “specific activity”:

•Execution of an agreement with a REO holder to acquire one or more foreclosed upon properties.
•Execution of a contract to rehabilitate an abandoned or foreclosed upon property.
•Execution of a loan agreement.

How does HUD determine when NSP funds have been obligated?

•Issuance of a purchase order for equipment/supplies used to maintain acquired property.
•Execution of a demolition contract.
•Administrative action necessary to assign a staff person to work on NSP activities.

The execution of a subrecipient agreement would NOT qualify as an activity that counts toward meeting the 18-month obligation requirement.

Again, the execution of a subrecipient agreement does NOT qualify as an activity that counts toward meeting the 18 month obligation requirement for NSP 1.

There is no way to attach individual addresses to draws
except in the case of multi-family properties,
which would each have their own activity
(if properly recorded).
The same attachment would not be possible in the case of
single family properties since there can be
multiple SF addresses per activity.

Many grantees have questions about how to link an obligation or a drawdown to a specific address. There is no way to do this other than to separate multi-family addresses into different activities and to report on single-family addresses in their QPR. Grantees need not worry about reporting on draws on SF addresses individually within DRGR. Multi-family addresses may be entered in the location field in an activity under the Action Plan and single family addresses are entered in the address field of the QPR. The Addresses by Activity Report shows information for addresses across activities and QPRs.

It is a good idea for Field Reps to examine whether or not addresses and performance data are entered when draws show for an activity.

•HUD sets a maximum amount for draw requests in a voucher in DRGR. For example, the draw limit for NSP1 is $5 million. If a grantee’s draw request amount exceeds the limit set for the grantee, that draw request will route to HUD for review and show a status of [Approved Pending HQ].
•Look for information such as a invoice or purchase order with sufficient detail to demonstrate that the draw request was created, reviewed by the grantee, and approved in accordance with grantee procedures. For NSP1, the HUD Rep must consult with Mark Mitchell, Jessie Handforth Kome, or Jan Opper at HUD Headquarters prior to approval of the draw request, to ensure that the approval is properly handled and documented.

Though, for the most part, grantees will perform all the necessary actions on their own vouchers, if they attempt to make a draw of $5 million or more, the voucher will come to you for approval. You MUST consult with Headquarters staff listed above before taking action on the voucher, regardless of whether you intend to approve or reject it. Again, HUD wants to turn vouchers around in 72 hours, so make sure you are checking in with grantees, looking at the Voucher Line Item status report, etc. HUD HQ staff will let you know if at some point they are okay with you approving or rejecting these draws without consulting them first.

The draw limits will be different for NSP-2 and NSP-TA.

•Draws can be blocked at the grant and activity level by HUD (such as in the next slide) or at the activity level by the grantee
•COMMUNICATE WITH HQ if draw is blocked by HUD
•Check for Restricted Balance projects

You should be in communications with Headquarters regarding the status of grants blocked for draws. If your grantees have Restricted Balance projects, let HQ know when grantees have set up their Action Plan properly.

Here’s a look at what an acceptable voucher looks like.

(Read out each field.)

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 27

This is a report showing the status and action dates of voucher line items (note: draws before Jan.1, 2009 are simulated from QPRs). This report is sorted by voucher number and voucher item number. Status of each voucher line item shows in columns with a total amount in each category showing at the bottom of the report. This report is also available sorted by Project.

If a certain column is not showing (e.g, Approved Pending HQ), it’s because no data is available for that field.

Case Study #4
Pull Drawdown Voucher Line Item Status Report

Let’s pull this report from the system.

Quarterly Performance Reports (QPRs)

Now let’s look at QPRs.

1.First QPR is due: 30 days after the first full quarter after the grant agreement is executed.
2.Remaining QPRs are due: within 30 days of the end of the calendar quarter.
3.HUD Action on QPRs is due: within 30 days of QPR submission.

The due date of the first QPR is triggered by the contract effective date (often the date of the second signature in LOCCS). Remaining QPRs are due by the 30 days of the end of the calendar quarter. The data that the system pulls down on the QPR is a snapshot of the information available in the system on the last day of the quarter. You must take action on a grantee’s QPR within 30 days of grantee QPR submission.

4.Single-family addresses served during the quarter are entered in the QPR.
5.Multifamily addresses are separate activities.
6.25% LH activities are separate from other activities.

Now we’ll review some of the major checks that need to be made on a grantee’s QPR. The list here is not exhaustive – we’ve included the entire QPR checklist in your binder.

One of the biggest issues within QPRs is the question of how to report on addresses. Make sure grantees understand that single family addresses should ONLY be listed here, and that each multi-family address should be a separate activity. They should also be aware that their 25% set-aside activities for people with an AMI of 50% or less should be separate from their other activities.

•Are expenditures on track to meet NSP deadline?
•IS PROGRAM INCOME

- Recorded in the QPR on the proper activity?
- Being drawn down?
•MATH RULES
- Does project budget + project budget = grant amount?
- Are drawdowns and expenditures reasonably close?
- Are the administration budget and obligations at or under 10% of the total grant amount?

Depending on the nature of their subrecipient agreements, some grantees may be required to spend their Program Income first before dipping into NSP funds. Grantees may choose to either offset draws from program funds or add activities to their Action Plans to spend down PI. Program Income is included in their 18 month obligation requirement. If you see a grantee’s Program Income growing, encourage them to include why this is the case and their intentions for the funds in their QPR narrative. If drawdowns and expenditures seem off base, communicate with your grantees to find out why this is the case.

•Do the narratives provide HUD with enough information to determine if sufficient progress is being made on this activity to enable the grantee to meet the 18-month and
4-year deadlines?
•Read the Overall Progress Narrative. Is this sufficient to explain the progress or lack of progress of this grant?

There is no strict guidance in terms of what grantees enter in their narratives, so you, as Field Representatives, can make the call on what kind of information you’d like to see. If grantees are cutting and pasting narratives from other documents, remind them that special characters and tables will not copy properly and will garble the text. It’s a good idea to recommend they save documents in .txt format and then copy the text from there.

•For the activities that do not appear in the QPR, do you have any information that would indicate the reason for the lack of progress?
•Select an activity to review. Is the Responsible Organization listed as the one carrying-out the activity? Is there only one Responsible Organization discussed in the activity?
•Are the right performance measures showing for this activity?

If Performance Measures are not showing in the QPR, it is most likely because the grantee did not enter beneficiary estimates in their Action Plan. Remind grantees to record their Program Income in the quarter it was received.

Activities with no financial activity during the quarter or information in the narrative section will not show up in the final submitted version of the QPR.

Which of the following is true about comments on APs and QPRs? (More than one correct answer possible).

A.Viewable to grantees and HUD staff.
B.Grantee can see comments once they open their QPR.
C.Comments are for internal and auditing purposes – only visible to HUD staff.
D.If HUD staff want grantees to see comments, they should consider copying comments into a Word document, e-mail, etc.

Let’s test our knowledge of QPR comments.

C & D are correct.

E.Viewable to grantees and HUD staff.
F.Grantee can see comments once they open their QPR..
G.Comments are for internal and auditing purposes – only visible to HUD staff.
H.If HUD staff want grantees to see comments, they should consider copying comments into a Word document, e-mail, etc.

Comments are only visible to HUD staff and are maintained mainly for internal and monitoring purposes. It is acceptable for HUD staff to send comments to grantees, but they will have to do so using some method outside of the DRGR system. You should consider e-mailing, inserting them into a word document, or sending the QPR Comment report to the grantee.

If the QPR is missing required information, you must alert the grantee within 10 days of receiving the QPR. Request the necessary corrections and reject the QPR.

Click “Review” next to the QPR you want to take action on.

Case Study #5
Review the QPR

Let’s review a QPR in the system.

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 20

This report provides an easy way to access all the comments made on QPRs for a particular grantee (at the time the training materials were produced, the QPR comment report screenshot was not available, so this is the AP Comment Report screenshot). Field Office staff may find this report to be a useful tool to use in sending comments to grantees.

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 20

The QPR report status report can be useful for ensuring that your review, as well as the grantee’s original QPR submission, are being completed on time. This report will only show the status of QPRs that have been added by grant. Grantees must add each QPR as they are due. The Field Office version shows the grantee name and state as columns.

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 29

This is a report showing data at the activity level Program Income disbursements recorded in the drawdown module and across all QPRs (regardless of QPR status).

Source: MSTR Reference Guide, pg. 34

This report will show all the addresses that are entered into all the QPRs and Action Plan activities for any particular grantee.

Case Study #6
Modify the ‘Addresses by Activity’ Report

Let’s look at Case Study #6.

Troubleshooting Jeopardy

Please organize into teams of three or four.

I will present you with a potential grantee issue and
you will tell me what measures you would take
to help them solve it.

Answers may include referring the grantee to a Help Desk, walking them through solving the problem,
or solving the problem for them.

There may be multiple correct answers for any particular question – you must give me at least one correct response. You will receive multiple points if you provide more than one correct answer.

Any questions? I’m happy to answer any lingering questions from yesterday’s or today’s material.

(Before concluding, go over remaining resources in the binder and give out contact information/business card.)

Thank you!

Our training session is now complete.

Please complete the evaluation — your feedback is important to us!

For additional support contact Community Connections at:

1-800-998-9999, Option 3

[email protected]

Thank you so much for your time and participation! I will stay after to answer any remaining questions, and to receive any feedback you may have.

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