Understanding the Information Transfers/Inquiries Report

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Important! Do not submit this report's numbers to SBA. The Information Transfers/Inquiries Report was created by Softshare to provide a general overview of information transfer activity and is intended for your center's internal use only.

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Information transfers are assistance efforts that are not substantial enough to qualify as reportable counseling sessions or training events. Softshare 'CATS tracks these assistance efforts through inquiry records and/or information transfer records. The Information Transfers/Inquiries Report combines the information transfer data contained in both of these record types to provide a comprehensive overview of information transfer activity.

In order for an information transfer record or inquiry record to contribute to this report's numbers, it must:

  • Have a date in the Date field that falls within the reporting period.
  • Be categorized under the funding source (or one of the funding sources) specified in the report generation criteria.
  • Be assigned to the center (or one of the centers) specified in the report generation criteria.
  • Be assigned to the counselor specified in the report generation criteria (only applicable if the report's output is restricted to a single counselor). Important: If you restrict report output to a single counselor, you are excluding data from all information transfer records because these record types do not have counselors assigned to them. Instead, you will be collecting data from inquiry records only.

Headings 1-8 of the Information Transfers/Inquiries Report provide a breakdown of the various types of information transfers, as defined by SBA, that your center provided during the reporting period. The following sections discuss how Softshare 'CATS calculates each line item on this report.

Heading 1: Total Count of Information Transfer Records

Heading 1 reports on the total number of information transfer records that contribute to this report. This heading's count does not include:

  • Inquiry records
  • The number of raw information transfers that are entered into each information transfer record, as shown in the next graphic

Note: An information transfer record must meet the criteria listed previously in order for it to be counted under this heading.

Heading 2: Total Count of Information Transfers

Heading 2 reports on the total number of information transfers provided during the reporting period. To come up with this count, Softshare 'CATS combines the information transfer data contained in both inquiry and information transfer records. Because inquiry records track individual assistance efforts, each qualifying inquiry record in your database contributes a value of "1" to this heading's count. A single qualifying information transfer record, on the other hand, track multitudes of assistance efforts and therefore, can contribute an unlimited number of information transfers to this heading's count.

This heading's two subheadings let you see how many of these information transfers were tracked by inquiry records and how many were tracked by information transfer records. When added together, the totals of subheadings 2(a) and 2(b) will equal the total number of information transfers.

Note: An inquiry or information transfer record must meet the criteria listed previously in order for it to contribute to this heading's count.

Headings 3-8: Breakdown of Total Information Transfer Count by Type

Headings 3-8 break down the total information transfer count into six types, as defined by SBA. To calculate these headings, Softshare 'CATS looks to the Inquiry Type field found in inquiry records and the six category fields in information transfer records. Because inquiry records track individual assistance efforts, each qualifying inquiry record in your database can only be categorized under one of these six headings. Information transfer records, on the other hand, track multitudes of assistance efforts and therefore, will likely contribute numbers to all six of these headings.

The two subheadings for each of these six headings let you see how many of these information transfer types were tracked by inquiry records and how many were tracked by information transfer records. When added together, the totals of the subheadings will equal the total number of information transfers for that category.

Note: An inquiry or information transfer record must meet the criteria listed previously in order for it to contribute to these headings' counts.