Designing Reports and Effective Recordkeeping Activities
Find resources to help design and distribute Head Start reports and manage recordkeeping activities.
Explore these resources for information on the process of organizing records into topic-specific summaries. These summaries provide key information to program leadership for decision-making, generating timely reports for program improvement, and informing parents and other stakeholders about progress toward program goals. Recordkeeping and reporting together make up one of the 12 program management systems.
Find resources to help design and distribute Head Start reports and manage recordkeeping activities.
This standard focuses on establishing program goals, monitoring program performance, using data for continuous improvement, and reporting.
Prior to fiscal year (FY) 2016, all Head Start grantees were required to submit financial reports made for its federal award(s) using standard form (SF) Federal Financial Report 425 (lines 10a, b, and c), detailing the cash transactions in the Payment Management System (PMS), and separate reports to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) detailing the expenditures (lines 10d-o) made for the same award(s).
The Office of Management and Budget provides instructions for completing the SF-425A Financial Reporting Form. The SF-425A Financial Reporting Form is a consolidation of financial reporting forms SF-269, SF-269A, SF-272, and SGF-272A. Grantees will find these instructions useful when completing their financial reporting forms.
Overdue reports within the time allowed may result in suspension or termination of an active grant, withholding a non-competing continuation award, or other enforcement actions, including withholding of payments or converting to the reimbursement method of payment. Grantees will find this information useful to avoid penalties associated with overdue reports.