Understanding Data Timeliness Reports

ICA has developed a couple different data timeliness reports to allow both agencies and CoCs to monitor the timeliness with which their data is being entered into the system. For information about the importance of data timeliness and how it is calculated, we encourage you to read our Data Timeliness FAQs guide.

Frequently asked questions

Which project start records are included in ICA's data timeliness reports?

The data timeliness reports that ICA provides are programmed to look only at project entry records created within the report period, regardless of the date project start date. An example of the "raw data" used to develop data timeliness reports is provided below.

For example, let's look at a few project entry records and whether they'd be included in a data timeliness report run for the date range of 7/1/20 to 9/30/20.

	Project Start Date	Entry/Exit Creation Date	Included in Report? (7/1/20 - 9/30/20)	Data Entry Delay
Entry A	6/27/2020	7/2/2020	Yes	5 days
Entry B	5/12/2020	5/14/2020	No	2 days
Entry C	8/11/2020	8/12/2020	Yes	1 day
Entry D	9/29/2020	10/2/2020	No	3 days
Entry E	7/14/2020	7/14/2020	Yes	0 days
Entry F	7/6/2020	8/12/2020	Yes	37 days

As shown in the table above, four of the six records would be included in a data timeliness report run for 7/1/20 to 9/30/20. The entries that would be included are Entries A, C, E, and F because the Entry/Exit Creation Date falls within the report timeframe.

How is data timeliness presented?

ICA reports data timeliness in two different formats to meet the requests of the CoCs and agencies within the implementation. Most reports generated by ICA utilize only one of the two options below. There two methods most frequently used include:

Percent of Entries Meeting Standard

This method looks at all of the entries that were created within the specified date range and then determines what percentage of those entries were created within the data timeliness standard of the applicable CoC. An example of how this would be calculated is provided below. The reports that utilize this method include Data Entry Timeliness within 0-1 Days and Data Entry Timeliness within 0-3 Days.

Average Data Entry Delay in Days

This method looks at all of the entries that were created within the specified date range and then determines the average delay in days across all of the applicable entries. An example of how this would be calculated is provided below. The report that utilizes this method is named Data Entry Timeliness.

How is the "percentage of entries meeting standard" calculated?

The "percentage of entries meeting standard" is determined utilizing a formula which counts the number of entries which meet the standard, divided by the number of entries created within the timeframe of the report. The result is then turned into a percentage.

Continuing from the example above, we now show only the four entries that met the criteria to be included in the report and whether they met the 3-day standard.

	Project Start Date	Entry/Exit Creation Date	Data Entry Delay	Met 3 Day Standard
Entry A	6/27/2020	7/2/2020	5 days	No
Entry C	8/11/2020	8/12/2020	1 day	Yes
Entry E	7/14/2020	7/14/2020	0 days	Yes
Entry F	7/6/2020	8/12/2020	37 days	No

To determine the percentage of these four entries that met the data timeliness standard, we then count the number of those four entries that met the standard. In the example above, only Entries C and E met the standard. This formula is then utilized to make the determination:

Using the formula, we find that 2 out of 4 (50%) of the entries in this example met the data timeliness standard of 3 days.

How is the "average data entry delay in days" calculated?

The sum of the days of "data entry delay" across the applicable entries is determined, then divided by the number of applicable entries.

Continuing again from the example above, including only those entries that met the criteria to be included in the report, we then calculate the average data entry delay in days.

	Project Start Date	Entry/Exit Creation Date	Data Entry Delay
Entry A	6/27/2020	7/2/2020	5 days
Entry C	8/11/2020	8/12/2020	1 day
Entry E	7/14/2020	7/14/2020	0 days
Entry F	7/6/2020	8/12/2020	37 days

In this example, we would sum (add together) the total number of "data entry delay" days for the applicable entries, then divide them by the number of applicable entries. Here's the formula we would utilize:

Using the formula, we find that the average data entry delay for this example would be 10.75 days ((5+1+0+37)/4).

What if I have questions that haven't been answered?

If you still have questions that haven't been answered above, we encourage you to reach out to our helpdesk.