There are several default configurations that affect your SBA export process. You can find the "United States SBA/DoD" panel under the Administration|Confguration menu. The settings here are intended for both SBA funded programs and DoD funded programs. In this FAQ we will discuss the export process default settings, the ASBDC Impact Survey settings and the DoD settings:

• SBA Reporting
• Community Navigator Settings
• ASBDC Impact Survey Settings
• Federal Contracting Settings

SBA Reporting

The first section helps manage your SBA settings. Ideally, you review these settings every few months to make sure that the default settings are still appropriate for your program. While you may not make a lot of changes to these settings, it is important to review them periodically to ensure that they still accurately reflect the parameters of your program.

• Center ZIP Codes
• Default Funding Source(s)/Center(s)
• Require a business to have at least one employee?
• Ask about business validation, impact after new activities?
• Attributed Business Start Milestone Type

Center ZIP Codes

Checking the Check here to include the center's address (city, state and ZIP) on records missing this information? checkbox will ensure that clients and training events that are missing city, state and Zip information, at the time of the export, are exported to Nexus with their respective center's city, state and Zip informationa. City, State and Zip code information is required in order for Nexus to process your records, however, there may be times when you don't have this information for an online event, or when a client fails to provide these details. If this happens, and this checkbox is checked, then Neoserra will automatically insert the center's city, state and ZIP code in the client/training event record during the export process. It will not permanently alter your client and/or training records in your database.

If a client record includes a partial address, for example, the city has been entered but not the Zip code, then Neoserra will reject the record during the export process rather than overwrite part of the information. A record rejected during the Neoserra export process will need to be edited before it can be exported to Nexus. Similarly, if this checkbox is not checked, then all records missing either a city, state or ZIP will be excluded from the Nexus export file and these records will need to be manually edited by you.

Of course, this entire process is dependent upon the center record having complete city, state Zip information. If the center record is incomplete, then no updates can be performed. In short, if this box is checked then the following actions apply:

Client/Training City	Client/Training Zip	Client Record Action	Training Record Action
Present	Present	Neoserra will export client's own city, state, zip	Neoserra will export training event's own city, state, zip
Missing	Missing	Neoserra will export center's city, state zip	Neoserra will export center's city, state zip
Missing	Present	Neoserra will reject client record and manual edit is require	Neoserra will export center's city, state zip on training event
Present	Missing	Neoserra will reject client record and manual edit is require	Neoserra will export center's city, state zip on training event

Default Funding Source(s)/Center(s)

This setting allows you define the default funding source(s) for all Nexus exports. When you initially create an export, its funding source filter will default to whatever is set in the Default funding source(s) of activity to be submitted configuration, but it can always be overridden at the time of Nexus export generation.

It's important to note that the default funding source(s) chosen here also affect Nexus validations. Let us explain: Neoserra has several built-in validations in place for SBA-funded counseling sessions and conferences. These validations help ensure that the data in your database meets all the requirements set forth by SBA and the Nexus system. For example, all counseling sessions uploaded to Nexus must specify a "Counseling Area", which may not necessarily be required for records not uploaded to Nexus. By default, these validations are in place for only those counseling sessions and training events that are funded by SBA, but Neoserra will also apply these same validation checks to counseling session and training event records created under any funding sources selected here.

Furthermore, the funding sources selected here will also determine what sessions are included in the long-term client indicators on the home page and on each client's record; and the funding sources are used for the ASBDC Impact Survey.

The Default centers to be included setting allows you to define the default center(s) for all Nexus exports. When you initially create an export, its center filter will default to whatever is set here, although you can always override the default at the time of Nexus export generation.

Require a business to have at least one employee?

By default, Neoserra will always require all SBA funded start-up and in-business clients to have at least one employee per the SBA guidelines. However, the SBA guidelines are actually a bit fuzzy in this respect and some SBA-funded programs may choose to relax this requirement. If you would like to relax this requirement, then you can uncheck this box, in which case Neoserra will allow you to create an in-business client without any employees. However, please note, that you may risk under-reporting of jobs.

Ask about business validation, impact after new activities?

Effective 10/1/23, SBA wants to know whether the counselor was able to verify whether a client truly is in business, or not, and SBA wants to know if the counselor contributed to the business start. In order to capture this information, Neoserra will prompt the counselor after each counseling and/or capital funding session whether they were able to verify that the client is in-business and whether they want to claim impact for the business start. However, if this prompt is not desirable then unchecking this box will suppress the prompts, and the counselors will need to remember to update these fields themselves.

Attributed Business Start Milestone Type

Effective October 1, 2023, SBA introduced a new way of tracking business starts. The "old" way, used to track business starts based upon the company filing for a business license (i.e. Business Established); the "new" way is to look if the business is operational and whether the program can claim impact for helping to start the operations. From an attribution standpoint you can decide if you want to capture attribution on the establishment of the business or the more subjective operations of the business. Depending upon which milestone is selected, Neoserra will prompt the user, asking whether they want to send the client an attribution email.

Community Navigator Settings

There are only two settings under this section:

• Default funding source(s) of activity to be submitted:
• Default centers to be included:

These two settings determine the defaults to be applied to the Manage|Community Navigator menu option. It is always best to set your default here rather than manually selecting centers and funding sources during the export process to ensure consistency from quarter to quarter.

ASBDC Impact Survey Settings

The three ASBDC Settings are designed to help with the ASBDC Impact Survey export process. But before we address these three fields, it is also important to note, that the Nexus default funding sources and centers (as confiugured above), will also be used for the ASBDC export. Per ASBDC's request and with your express permission, OutreachSystems will create an export file from your database to be used for the national impact survey, which will include your State or Region and the Signatory Name and Title to be used as the name/title from whom the survey will be sent.

Federal Contracting Settings

There are two configuration options under the Federal Contracting section:

Initial value of 'Federal Government Industrial Base (GIB-F) ready'?

You can set the default setting for the "Government Industrial Base (GIB) ready?" field on the client record. By default, all newly entered clients in the database will have this checkbox UNchecked, however, by checking it, all newly entered clients into your Neoserra database will be automatically set to being GIB-ready and the client's start date will be used as the GIB-readiness date.

Contract Readiness Milestones

In this field you can select the milestones that you want to show on the client record on the Contract Readiness tab:

You can pick and choose both from system-defined milestones as well as user-defined milestones. All milestones will be presented in alphabetical order on the client tab:

Want more? Browse our extensive list of Neoserra FAQs.