New releases in GMS – February 2018

1. New Common 8+3 Template

Tab Descriptions:

• General Info: displays the basic project information such as project duration, total original budget, reporting period, disbursement details, additional narrative reports and other funding. This page allows reporting on the overall performance of the project, as well as any changes and amendments from the initial project. Project revisions and monitoring information are also displayed here.
• Measuring Results: shows the overall project and specific cluster objectives and review thereof through comments on the outcomes, outputs and activities achieved.
• Affected Persons: displays targeted and actual reach of beneficiaries, as well as affected persons per location/activity.
• Other Info: displays general questions on: participation and accountability of the affected population, risk management, exit strategy, lessons learned, and coordination.
• Implementing Partners: displays information on sub-implementing partners.
• Documents: allows to upload documents to support the report.
• Report Tracking: shows the report workflow.
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  Feedback for the Pilot     The Feedback for the Pilot section at the bottom of the 8+3 reports will enable those man aging the common reporting pilot to collect feedback and concerns from users and evaluate how the pilot is working. Partners will need to fill out the questions at the same time they finalize the report form for the information provided to be as accurate as possible.  2. New OCHA Assurance updates    The following updates have been made in OCHA Assurance:  New filter options:   Filter Field Descriptions:

• Project Processed: includes projects started, completed (reached project closure), ongoing or both started and completed during the given dates.
• Allocation Year: displays information on project for the selected Allocation Year (Note: project from one allocation year with actual start date or approval date from the next calendar year would be included here).
• Disbursement Date: displays data for projects, which disbursement has been processed during the given dates.
• Implementation Start Date: enables to filter projects based on project implementation date (i.e. Actual Start Date of the project).
• Project Approval Date: enables to filter projects based on project the project approval date (i.e. EO signature Date of the projects).
• Project Closed Date: enables to filter projects based on the project closure date.

Note: the definition for each filter will be displayed in yellow box when selecting different filters Updated reporting timelines for the Final Financial Reports for UN agencies: Until now OCHA Assurance considered the Final Reports’ due date (both Narrative and Financial) as : project end date + 2 months. This has been revised for UN agencies Final Financial Reports. Due date is now considered as the 31 May of the year after the project end date (MPTF Fund) or the 30 June of the year after the project end date (non MPTF Fund). For those projects, OCHA Assurance will not take into consideration the timeline for final reports. E.g. : if a UN agency project end date is 15 February 2017, the Final Financial Report will be due: - on 31 May 2018 (MPTF Fund) - on 30 June 2018 (non MPTF Fund) Note: This does not apply to Final Narrative Reports (UN, NGO, and Red Cross/Crescent), and to non UN agencies Final Financial Reports (e.g. NGO and Red Cross/Crescent). For those reports, the due date remains project end date + 2 months. Reminder: For Interim and Progress reports the due date is picked up from the project timeline. Updates for Audit: Click on ‘Completed Audits’ red highlighted value for a breakdown of Audit completed but not approved by Finance Updates for Monitoring: New lines: Monitoring visits conducted late and Monitoring visits NOT conducted Note: after project end date + 6 months, as per filters set above Updates or Financial Spot Check: New lines: Spot check visits conducted late and Spot Check Visits NOT conducted Note: after project end date + 6 months, as per filters set above 3. New FTR report updates   The following updates have been made in the FTR report: New option of creating a FTR Report with multiple allocations: One or more allocations can be selected from the filters. This will display the respective projects for each allocation. Button to create a new FTR from the FTR Overview board:   4. Advance Switchboard Update   New filter to select projects based on their implementation Date: