Better Management of ARPA Funds

Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) Reporting Requirements and Updates

Many local government recipients of ARPA SLFRF funding are scrambling to maintain compliance with the complex and changing Recipient Compliance and Reporting regulations set forth by the U.S. Department of Treasury. The original reporting requirements have been modified in three of the past four months (June 17th, August 15th, and September 20th of 2022) and these changes have combined with what ICMA described as "competing and overlapping financial timelines for cities and counties and any subrecipients" and the inherently novel nature of the program overall to present unique reporting and compliance challenges to local governments nationwide.

‍Report types and filing deadlines vary based on the type of government entity and Federal reporting might be required even if:

• Your organization wasn’t a direct recipient of funds
• Your organization wasn't required to prepare federal reports under the CARES Act
• Your organization has never had to provide federal reporting for any other program

The good news is that funds can be used to help cover the administrative burden of SLFRF.

‍In acknowledgement of the administrative burden of SLFRF reporting, recipients may use SLFRF funds to help pay for administering the program - and technology exists that can help shoulder this reporting burden and save your team a great deal of time.

ClearPoint is the perfect tool to help you track the progress of your projects and expenditures over time so that it’s easy to create and submit your reports when you need to. Our automated data and analysis collection process will make it easy for you to get the information you need each month. Populate our existing template for the reports or add your own branding and formatting to make it your own.

SLFRF Reporting Requirements

In order to ensure that funds received as part of the SLFRF program are used for eligible purposes, the U.S. Department of the Treasury created SLFRF Reporting Requirements. Fund recipients are required to report on how they spent or are spending the funds they received, and what the status is of ongoing projects funded by the program.

The SLFRF Reporting Guidance has four guiding principles for the reporting to ensure an equitable economic recovery; Accountable, Transparent, User Friendly and Focused on Recovery. The two SLFRF required reports, the SLFRF Project and Expenditure Report and the SLFRF Recovery Plan Performance Report, will ensure that there is no misuse or fraud in the spending of the funds. While they are two separate reports with two different deadlines, they contain some of the same information and will both be required annual reports through at least 2027.

‍We pulled out a few highlights from the SLFRF Compliance and Reporting Guidance to give you an idea of what’s required in each report, and how creating your reports in ClearPoint will make annual and quarterly reporting a breeze.

SLFRF Project & Expenditure Report

All states, U.S. Territories, Tribal governments and metropolitan cities and counties that received more than $5 million in SLFRF funding are required to submit updated reports every quarter. Any other organizations that received funding will need to submit updated reports annually.

The purpose of the SLFRF Project and Expenditure Report is to report on the projects, expenditures, and large contracts that were funded through the SLFRF program and must contain several sections including:

• Projects
• Expenditures
• Project Status
• Project Demographic Distribution
• Subawards
• Civil Rights Compliance
• Programmatic Data

You can easily track all your project information in ClearPoint’s strategy reporting software. Each quarter or year, you can make updates to your project and automatically generate your project report to submit to the Treasury.

When you update your projects in ClearPoint, your project Gantt chart will update automatically as well. It’s a great way to see which parts of your project are on track and to show the progress that your organization is making with the funds received.

SLFRF Recovery Plan Performance Report

The SLFRF Recovery Plan Performance Report is an annual SLFRF report required for all States, U.S. Territories, Local and Tribal governments that have more than 250,000 residents that received funding. The purpose of the report is to allow the funding recipients to prove that they are spending funds in an effective, efficient and equitable manner.

The SLFRF Recovery Plan Performance Report focuses on the outcomes that recipients want to achieve by spending the funds. Recipients must define program outcomes and track key performance indicators that indicate progress toward the intended outcome. There are also mandatory KPIs defined by the Treasury.

With ClearPoint’s strategy reporting software, you can track each of your KPIs and update your progress each quarter or year. When it’s time to submit your report to the Treasury, your data will automatically pull into the required format so that it’s easy to generate and submit your report. You can also link your KPIs to any of your organization’s strategic objectives.

In addition to the outcomes and KPIs, the Recovery Plan Performance Report should include at least the following sections:

• Executive Summary
• Use of Funds
• Promoting equitable outcomes
• Community Engagement
• Labor Practices
• Use of Evidence
• Table of Expenses by Expenditure Category
• Project Inventory
• Performance Report
• Required Performance Indicators and Programmatic Data
• Ineligible Activities: Tax Offset Provision

The Treasury has an optional template that you can use to get started with creating your SLFRF Recovery Plan Performance Report. Or, get started right away with your information in ClearPoint so it’s easy to create your reports when you need them.

Quarterly and Annual Updates for Reports

Since you’ll need to submit the SLFRF reporting requirements through 2027 (that’s at least 7 of each report, and even more if you’re in the quarterly reporting category), you need a way to manage the process. ClearPoint is the perfect solution for tracking your progress and automatically generating your report each quarter or year to submit to the Treasury.

There are many moving parts to any reporting process. You need to gather data from a lot of people. You have to make sure it’s formatted in a way that meets the requirements. You can’t forget any data. And you have to include the same data in multiple reports (and it has to be consistent).

‍With ClearPoint, you can create your report templates once (or use our pre-built template) and they will always be populated with the most up to date information that you have in the system. With ClearPoint’s reporting workflows, you can automatically pull in your budget and expenditure data from other systems and send out emails to ask your teams to provide their project updates each quarter.

Then, when it’s time to submit the report, you click generate and your reports are ready to go. You can even include your own branding to make it your own for sharing on your public facing website as required.

See ClearPoint for yourself!

Join us on Thursday, August 13th to see how ClearPoint software manages SLFRF reporting and dramatically reduces associated staff time and reporting risk.

Register for the webinar here - ARPA funds can be used to alleviate the administrative burden of SLFRF and proven, stable technology exists that simplifies and streamlines reporting and compliance throughout the ARPA lifespan. Take just 30 minutes and see how ClearPoint automates your reporting and compliance.