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SF-SAC cross-validations

These validations are the penultimate line of defense before a submission is considered complete. They are the validations that look across all of the form sections, and attempt to help auditors and auditees submit consistent, correct data.

Why cross-validations?

The SF-SAC expects grantees and auditors to report on data that is interconnected. For example:

  1. A grantee might have an award from an agency. They need to report ont that award.
  2. If the auditor found something of concern, then there are findings that have to be described. Findings are associated with awards.
  3. A finding will have a corrective action plan. That plan is described in reference to both an award and a finding.

These connections are critical to oversight officials; for that reason, we do our best to help auditees and auditors describe these connections in the SF-SAC correctly. The cross-validations are how we support users in this kind of inter-form data entry.

What are the cross-validations?

There are fewer cross-validations than intake validations, but they play a role every bit as critical. For example:

  • The check auditee_ueis_match makes sure that every form section has the same UEI in it. This way, if an auditor is supporting multiple submissions, we don't actually end up with form sections from different grantees.
  • The check check_certifying_contacts make sure that one person did not attempt to certify as both the auditor and auditee certifying officials.
  • The check tribal_data_sharing_consent makes sure that the consent to distribute the audit report was given if the entity is marked as being a Tribe or Tribal Organization.

Below is a list of all of the cross validations applied to the SF-SAC as of July 2024.

Cross-validations applied to the SF-SAC before submission.
Validation Description
auditee_ueis_match Makes sure the UEI used to create the audit is indicated on all forms
additional_ueis Asserts that additional UEIs are present when indicated on the general form
check_award_reference_uniqueness Checks the uniqueness of reference numbers
check_award_ref_existence Makes sure all awards have a reference number
check_award_ref_declaration Checks that all award references in the federal awards form are distinct
check_certifying_contacts Makes sure the certifiers are not the same
check_finding_reference_uniqueness Checks that award reference numbers are unique for each award reference number
check_findings_count_consistency Checks if the number of findings indicated in the federal awards form matches the number of findings described
check_ref_number_in_cap Makes sure all reference numbers in the audit findings workbook are in the CAP text form
check_ref_number_in_findings_text Makes sure all reference numbers in the audit findings workbook are present in the accompanying text form
submission_progress_check Checks whether a submission is complete
tribal_data_sharing_consent Asserts that the tribal consent is complete when an audit is of type `tribal`
validate_general_information Runs the general information schema against the form-submitted data

From intake to dissemination

Once these validations pass, the auditor and auditee can certify the correctness of their submission, and the auditee can perform the final submission. This is, unto itself, a final kind of validation. See how the dissemination validations play a final role.