How do I calculate the following SBA milestones/goals: new businesses created, capital infusion, extended engagement clients, and long-term counseling clients?

This is an easy one! All of these numbers are generated by one worksheet: the Economic Impact/Capital Infusion (FY 2007) worksheet (available under Tools|Worksheets in WebCATS).

Note: For detailed information on how each heading of this worksheet is calculated, visit the Understanding the Economic Impact/Capital Infusion Report help file.

Important: When generating this worksheet for the purpose of reconciling with the SBA's new businesses created or extended engagement clients definitions, OutreachSystems strongly recommends that you do NOT restrict the report's output to a specific center, group of centers, or counselor. You will get incomplete and inaccurate data if you try to calculate these definitions on a per-center or per-counselor basis because SBA credits all cross-center counseling to the center where the client's initial counseling session took place.

Once you have generated the worksheet, let’s review where to find the information you are looking for.

To find new businesses created...

Look at the numbers provided in heading 1b. This line item's calculations were specifically designed to mimic SBA's method of calculating the new businesses created milestone/goal by comparing a client's business start date with the two most recent session activity dates occurring before and after that date. If there is a counseling session in place for the client that is dated before the client's business was established and either a counseling session or investment session dated after the client's business was established, the business start-up is deemed as being created as a result of ongoing center assistance.

You will notice that, in addition to heading 1b, there is another heading labeled 1a that also tracks new businesses created. The calculations used by 1a incorporate the more traditional way of counting new businesses using the "Started Business" milestones recorded in WebCATS.

To find capital infusion...

Look at lines 6, 8, and 12. These calculations were specifically designed to mimic SBA's method of calculating the SBA loan, non-SBA loan, and equity capital dollar amounts called out by the capital infusion milestone/goal.

To find extended engagement clients...

Look at line 14. Per SBA, these clients are defined as 1) having received counseling in the current fiscal year and 2) having received at least 5 hours of counseling (contact time only) since the advent of EDMIS (October 1, 2005).

To find long-term counseling clients...

Look at line 15. This is a total of long-term counseling clients, which is actually an ASBDC definition used as part of Chrisman reporting. It's not an SBA definition. Long-term counseling clients are defined as having received 5 or more hours of counseling (including preparation time) within the current fiscal year.

Note: At one point in time, SBA referred to its "extended engagement clients" as "long-term counseling clients" which was the source of some confusion. In July of 2007, SBA formally changed this client definition's title to "extended engagement clients" so as not to conflict with the ASBDC's traditional use of the long-term counseling clients label.

 

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