Data Consistency and Reliability
Often, data consistency and reliability is an issue, perhaps due to the absence of data entry guidelines. At USAID Nigeria typically, each SO team maintains its own data and employ data entry methods and conventions that could easily result in inconsistent data formats across the teams, as well as unnecessary duplication. The probable absence of a uniform data entry method was most evident with dates and currency

Date Formats
In some cases, activity start and end dates indicated that the activity had ended before it even started, owing to the fact that dates were sometimes entered in the US format (month/day/year), while at other times in the European format (day/month/year).

The system handles this issue by providing a “data entry template” with a uniform set of “fields” to capture data from the different teams. The data entry template includes pre-formatted “date” and “amounts” fields that will only accept valid inputs

Local currency vs. US Dollar
Some amounts obligated for sub-grantee activities at the USAID Nigeria mission appeared to be extremely high. This it turned out was due to the fact that sub-grantees typically report amounts obligated in local currency, whereas these same amounts were recorded in US dollars on mission documents. Although this may not appear to have been a significant problem, it nonetheless distorts reporting and creates an overall impression of data unreliability

The system rosolves this issue by providing a “data entry template” with a uniform set of “fields” to capture data from the different teams. The data entry template includes pre-formatted “amount” fields for both local currency and US Dollars that will only accept valid inputs. For reporting purposes, the database automatically converts Local currency to US dollars at the prevailing exchange rate on the date the amount was obligated