What to Know: Sharpening Your Strategy with ARPA Funding Guidelines
The ARPA funding guidelines are coming into focus and we know one thing for sure: The reporting requirements are complex. This points to a need for increased accounting support and accuracy, and the role of better technology for our local governments becomes more critical than ever.
The Basics of ARPA Funding Guidelines on Reporting
As you begin planning fund spending and gathering citizen input, it’s just as important to start a reporting process that follows ARPA guidelines and prepares your team for the imminent audits. Here are a few ways to start aligning your team with the ARPA guidelines on reporting.
For even more insights, download our free ebook: 10 Tips for Success with ARPA Reporting.
Understand Your Government’s Specific ARPA Guidelines
Reporting requirements vary by government population and award size. Here are the four specified reporting levels for various governments.
- Metropolitan cities and counties over 250,000 residents
- Metropolitan cities and counties under 250,000 residents who received more than $5 million in CLFRF funding
- Metropolitan cities and counties under 250,000 residents who received less than $5 million in CLFRF funding
- Non-Entitlement Governments
Check out our 10 Tips for Success with ARPA Reporting ebook for additional information on the various levels and to make sure you are aware of your specified requirements.
Add Federal Expenditure Categories to Your Chart of Accounts
Treasury has designed an Expenditure Category (EC) methodology for organizing government efforts as projects. Six major ECs are tied to the allowable uses of Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (CLFRF). Within each category there are one or more detailed ECs. The reporting model requires that each project or service be listed under a single detail EC representing the focus of that activity.
Our OpenGov Suites make adding these ECs to your chart of accounts simple. Once added, you can:
- Use the porting function to facilitate your EC and non-financial preparations for Treasury portal reporting.
- Create reports which summarize expenditures by project and EC codes.
- Upload end-of-period Open Purchase Order data from your procurement systems and use OpenGov reports to summarize purchase order obligations by project and EC.
Include Cloud-Based Transparency in Your Reporting Plans
Reporting requirements reflect the need for transparency and accountability, while recognizing and minimizing the burden, particularly for smaller local governments. To provide public transparency on infrastructure projects and show/prove that you are using practices that promote on-time and on-budget delivery, Treasury requires information from recipients on their workforce plans and practices related to water, sewer, and broadband projects undertaken with Fiscal Recovery Funds.
Within the OpenGov Reporting & Transparency Platform, governments can leverage the Stories solution as a centralized, public-facing resource for building simple and easy to understand Recovery Plan as both a website page and PDF document. Stories also allows users the ability to create and publish single reports, including live or fixed schedules, text, pictures, Excel worksheets, and even videos to provide context and improve resident understanding around uses of funds.
Discover more about the ARPA Funding Guidelines on Reporting
These three pieces are a great way to get started, but there are even more tips to consider on ARPA guidelines. For more insights on the ARPA guidelines for reporting, be sure to download our free ebook: 10 Tips for Success with ARPA Reporting.
Category: Government Finance