Understanding Federal DATA Act Reporting

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) is the first open data law for the U.S. Federal Government to improve data transparency. The DATA Act requires agencies to standardize the data elements used to record procurement and financial assistance transactions across the federal government.

PeopleSoft produces DATA Act files A, B, and C with data extracted from these sources:

  • General Ledger Recording Ledger Data:

    • File A - Appropriations Account Data

    • File B - Object Class and Program Activity

  • Purchase Order, Receipt Accrual, Payables Voucher, and General Ledger Journal Transaction Data - File C - Award Financial (Procurement and Grants).

The interface files are submitted to the governments DATA Act Broker for validation and certification of monthly financial data to report to USAspending.gov.

PeopleSoft's Solution to Support DATA Act Reporting

PeopleSoft provides a configurable solution to capture necessary transaction data and generate DATA Act Files A, B, and C. The solution includes these high-level steps:

  1. Configure Federal Installation options, DATA Act Definition, Federal Program Activity Mapping Page, DATA Act Trees, DATA Act Balance Fields, Data Act Balance Fields Sequencing, and Run Controls for Files A, B, and C.

  2. Enter transactions with DATA Act attributes.

    Note: Note that File C extracts data from Purchase Order, Receipt Accrual, AP Vouchers, and General Ledger Journals. This is necessary since the PIID, Parent PIID, FAIN, and URI are derived based on the source transactions.

  3. Run the DATA Act interface for Files A and B.

  4. Run the DATA Act interface for File C, which is a separate run control.