TRACS Best Practice Guidelines and FAQs

TRACS and Grant Solutions

1.  Is TRACS a grants management system? Does TRACS support the pre-award and post-award of the grant compliance life cycle?

The grant (award management) life cycle consists of the pre-award, award, post-award, and close-out. TRACS is not a grants management system or a substitute for the overall grant application, but provides a complementary system that provides grant performance reporting tools not found in any other system. 

2. How does TRACS fit into the grant application and grant management process?

TRACS is the performance reporting tool for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Office of Conservation Investment. It is not a grant management or grant application system. Formal grant approval occurs in Grant Solutions, not TRACS. Approval in TRACS is simply Federal concurrence that the project statement entered in TRACS matches the official approved project statement in Grant Solutions. Project statements approved under grants in Grant Solutions should be identical to the project statements approved by both the non‐Federal and Federal approvals in TRACS. TRACS does not obligate funding to approved grants. Federal funds are obligated to awards during the approval process in Grant Solutions. The milestone plan entered into Grant Solutions is used to derive the periods of performance in TRACS for reporting. 

While grant information should be entered into TRACS no later than 60 days post award, the recommended best practice is to use TRACS upfront during the grant application process to generate the grant proposal PDF (which includes all project statements) to be uploaded into Grant Solutions. The Grant Proposal PDF generated from TRACS is complete and utilize the standardized objectives for performance reporting. The Office of Conservation Investment has adopted the use of Standard Objectives that must be used for all grants in TRACS. If your application uses alternative objectives, you will be unable to enter those objectives in TRACS or complete your performance reports.

3. What is the process for entering grant/project statement information in TRACS as it relates to Grant Solutions?

There are two options for entering grant/project statement information into TRACS as it relates to Grant Solutions (click on the links below to view the diagrams):

• Process for Entering Grant/Project Statement in TRACS Prior to Formal Application (preferred method) 

• Process for Entering Grant/Project Statement in TRACS, Post-Award within 60-Day Requirement (optional)

Note: Please remember that these are training aids and in training we speak to higher level, overall processes.  Some of the diagrams boxes speak to a very high level (that in the real world of grants processing involves several smaller steps). Please feel free to adapt these diagrams to fit your regional processes.  

4. What is the process for entering COMPETITIVE grant/project statement information in TRACS as it relates to Grant Solutions? 

For competitive grants, such as competitive SWG, the recommended process is to enter your grant into TRACS post-award, within the 60-day requirement. Keep in mind that the Office of Conservation Investment has adopted the use of Standard Objectives that must be used for all grant-funded activities. If your application uses alternative or incomplete objectives, you will be unable to enter those objectives in TRACS or complete your performance reports. Use the TRACS Performance Matrix and related tools to develop TRACS-ready objectives. View the Matrix Toolbox on the TRACS Resources and Job Aids page.

5. Do you need to use both TRACS and Grant Solutions for all proposals?

Yes. TRACS and Grant Solutions are two separate systems and both are required for all grant programs administered by the Office of Conservation Investment (including CVA and BIG). TRACS is the Service’s electronic performance reporting system and was designed to standardize grant performance metrics in order to report nationally significant accomplishments more efficiently.  Grant Solutions is the Department of the Interior (DOI) financial management software platform that all bureaus (including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) use to award, manage, and closeout grants and cooperative agreements. Grant Solutions is the actual system that applicants use to formally apply for grants and cooperative agreements.

6. Why is TRACS needed when Grant Solutions has Grant Applications and Performance Progress Reports (PPR)'s?

TRACS is the performance reporting tool utilized by the Office of Conservation Investment to capture grant funded activities. TRACS provides reports that can be rolled up at the state, regional and national levels in order to meet or exceed regulatory requirements, and offer data transparency to key stakeholders, Congress, and the public. TRACS gathers detailed performance reporting information, including standardized and quantitative reporting metrics that may be rolled up by strategy, objective, and activity, as well as by species and/or habitat types. TRACS also provides an inventory of facility and real property records acquired with grant funding, with tools to continue monitoring their status for regulatory compliance. 

As part of entering information in TRACS, it will produce/generate a Grant Proposal PDF with project statement(s) included, that grant recipients may download and use to include as part of their complete application package when they formally apply for financial assistance in Grant Solutions.

For performance reporting, once the grant recipient enters information in TRACS, the system will produce a pdf performance report that can then be downloaded and attached as a performance report in Grant Solutions.  This will formally satisfy the performance reporting requirements under the grant award.  In both TRACS and Grant Solutions, the recipient must wait until the grant has been formally approved in each system before they may begin working on any performance reporting.

We encourage non-federal staff to discuss with their Regional Office about any Best Management Practices as to when it is most efficient to do what work in each system.   

Formal grant approval occurs in Grant Solutions, not TRACS. Approval in TRACS is regional office concurrence that the project statement(s) entered in TRACS matches the official approved project statement(s) in Grant Solutions. The recommended best practice is to use TRACS upfront during the grant application process to generate the grant proposal PDF (which includes all project statements) to be uploaded into Grant Solutions (see the Non-Competitive Grant Process Diagram). The Grant Proposal PDF generated from TRACS is complete and utilize the standardized objectives for performance reporting.

8.  How is TRACS information used for grant application?

In the pre-award phase, the grant recipient assembles the grant application package, which consists of the Application for Federal Assistance (SF-424) with the project statement(s) and the supporting compliance and regulatory documentation for one or more grant-funded projects. Recipients can use grants.gov or Grant Solutions to search and apply for federal funding opportunities.

The grant application package includes:

• SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance
• Project Statement(s) with 13 Required Elements
• Budget Information & Justification
• Assurances & State Process Documents
• Compliance Documentation (i.e. grant requirements for Endangered Species, NEPA, and Section 106 of the NHPA, etc.)
• Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA) & Indirect Cost Statement
• Single Audit Reporting Requirements
• Conflict of Interest Disclosure
• Other Documents

The items in bold above are part of the Grant Proposal and Project Statement generated in TRACS.