Tip #5 - Some fields are suppose to add up. Check to see if they do.
Consistency among the data elements is important. It is a good indication that an error has occurred either during data collection or in tabulating the data for the report when numbers that should logically be the same are not. There are quite a few ways to assess whether one data element is consistent with others. Detailed information on the checks that ACF performs on each data element follows in Section III.5 (Data Elements) under the heading "Numbers That Must Add Up."
Here we will illustrate four of the most important checks:
- Consistency check between the "Total Number of Children Receiving Child Care Services" and the sum of the last two "Age Breakdown of Children" rows
- Consistency check between the "Total Number of Children 0 Years to 13 Years" row and the sum of the "0-13 Age Breakdown of Children" rows
- Consistency check between the "Total Number of Children Receiving Child Care Services" row and the three "Reason Child Care Services Are Needed" rows.
- Consistency check between the "Total Number of Children Receiving Child Care Services" row and the sum of the four "Poverty Threshold" rows.
For each of these checks, we have first illustrated the logic of the check by showing the data elements in the form of an equation. Then we have highlighted the areas in the ACF-700 form relevant to the check, with solid shade for those fields that you will need to add together before you can do the consistency check. Striped shading indicates that the field is a sum or total already and can be used for comparison.
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If you have Internet access, however, an easy way to accomplish this task is to enter your data on the Child Care Bureau's ACF-700 reporting page, and let the automated data entry form do the checking for you. If you have made an error, the fields that are inconsistent will be highlighted in red. For information on how to submit data for the ACF-700 over the Internet, see Section V.