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Understanding the CARES Metric Scorecard

In May, 2020 SBA established three short-term goals for the CARES sub-funding program. This FAQ addresses the three goals as follows:

Per SBA: "Since there is a great deal of overlap in the work and small-business assistance provided by the SBDCs in the three short-term goals listed above, the SBDC Network may receive credit for more than one category. For example, if a small business calls for capital-access assistance and also receives counseling, the SBDC may receive credit under [multiple] categories... The intent of these short-term goals is to show the full depth and breadth of the assistance provided during the COVID-19 crisis. If the small business receives more than one service, the SBDC will receive credit for their assistance in all applicable new short-term categories in EDMIS."

In order for a session or event to be considered by the CARES Metric Scorecard, the records must:

  • Have the Reportable? check box selected
  • Have a date in the Reporting Date field for capital funding and training event records, or have a date in the Date field for counseling session, inquiry session or milestone records that falls within the reporting period
  • Be assigned to the center or counselor specified in the scorecard definition (only applicable if the scorecard's output is restricted to a single center or counselor)
  • Be categorized under the funding funding sources specified in the scorecard definition.
  • It is important to note that this scorecard will include any and all session types - even those not marked as being "COVID Related?" because the purpose of this scorecard is to capture everything that has been specified with a CARES sub-funding source.

Note: Pre-clients with reportable sessions that meet the criteria above will be included in the scorecard. It should be noted that Inquiry records are not counted! Instead, the interactions with non-clients should be tallied into a special 888 training event record and the data entered on this training event will be captured in this scorecard.

Disaster Capital Assistance

This first section specifically looks at capital assistance records. It breaks down as follows:

Number of Unique Clients Receiving Disaster-Related Capital Assistance

The first line item in this section counts the total number of unique clients who have sought capital assistance counseling. This line item only counts clients with counseling sessions that are marked with a "Counseling Area" of "COVID-19 Financial/Capital" or "COVID-19 Loan Forgiveness":

Number of Disaster-Related Capital Funding Transactions Approved

This second line item counts the number of capital funding sessions that have been approved where the "COVID-19 Related?" checkbox has been marked, regardless of the type of loan that is checked:

There are three system-defined COVID funding types:

  • COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan
  • COVID-19 Other SBA Disaster Loan
  • COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program

In addition to these three funding types, your state or local community may provide additional COVID related financing, and SBA wants you to capture all disaster related loans per their instructions: "(this includes disaster-loan information, EIDL, PPP, state/local COVID-19 loans or grants and other loan applications, etc.)"

Small Businesses and Individuals Served

Whereas SBA simply asks for a single line item to tally all "...small businesses, including sole proprietors and all individuals that receive training and assistance..." the Neoserra CARES Scorecard breaks this information out onto two line items to provide better auditing - one line item including all client interaction and one line item including all non-client interaction. It will be up to the SBDC/WBC as to whether they want to add these line items together to come up with a grand total. Since these two line items really represent apples and oranges, Neoserra does not perform this calculation.

Number of Clients Receiving Training/Counseling

This line item (i) provides a unique count of clients who have received either counseling assistance and/or who have received training assistance with the funding and sub-funding sources specified in the definition of the scorecard. If a client received both one-on-one assistance and they received training during the reporting period, then they will only be counted as one client in this line item.

Note: This line item will only include events hosted by the center(s) specified in the scorecard definition and clients belonging to these same center(s).

Number of Non-Clients Receiving Assistance

Line item (ii) provides a tally of NON-clients that are reported on the special training event with the title "COVID-19 Counseling...". This line item will report the attendees entered on those training events meeting the criteria:

Note: Again, this line item will only include events hosted by the center(s) specified in the scorecard definition.

Number of Training Events

This line item tracks the total number of training events (via training event records) that took place during the reporting period. In order for a training event record to be considered under these headings, it must:

  • Have the SBA888? check box selected
  • Have the Reportable? check box selected
  • Have a date in the Reporting Date field that falls within the reporting period
  • Be categorized under the funding and sub-funding sources specified in the scorecard definition
  • Be assigned to the center (or one of the centers) specified in the scorecard definition
  • Have an instructor designated in the Instructor field that matches the counselor specified in the scorecard definition (only applicable if the report's output is restricted to a single counselor)

Jobs Supported for Clients Receiving Training/Counseling

The total number of employees (FT and PT) reported in the last session of the requested FY for clients having more than one session.

Consulting Hours

Next, we will look at the hours spent counseling your clients and non-clients.

Number of Clients Counseled

Number of Clients Counseled, represents the number of unique clients that received any type of reportable counseling, initial or follow-up, during the reporting period (excluding update sessions).

Note: An initial or follow-up counseling session must meet the following criteria in order for its recipient to be counted as a counseled client: 1) its Reportable? check box must be selected, (2) the date in its Date field must fall within the reporting period, (3) it must be categorized under the funding and sub-funding sources specified in the scorecard definition, (4) it must be assigned to the center (or one of the centers) specified in the scorecard definition, and (5) if the report's output is restricted to a single counselor, it must be assigned to the counselor

Note: Depending upon your interpretation of the definitions provided by SBA, you may want to add the "Number of Non-Clients Receiving Assistance" to this line item.

Cumulative Hours of Counseling

Here again, Neoserra has separated the apples from the oranges. Line item (i) the "Cumulative Hours of Counseling", represents the total amount of hours spent counseling clients that were counted in the line item above. For purposes of this calculation, Neoserra will consider all hours associated with a counseling session (preparation + travel + contact).

Non-Client Hours of Assistance

SBA has asked that: "WBCs/SBDCs will report counseling, training, preparation, research and engagement for those clients not completing an SBA Form 641 via an SBA Form 888 by grouping those small businesses, sole proprietors and individuals each quarter to capture the total number counseled, as well as the number of total counseling hours. The Event Name should start with "COVID-19 Counseling" so SBA is able to identify these as small businesses, sole proprietors and individuals that receive assistance via the CARES Act."

This line item (ii): "Non-Client Hours of Assistance" represents the total amount of hours entered in the special "COVID-19 Counseling..." training events.

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