A digital interface is any electronic exchange of data between a departmental system and EFS — the line it draws is rekeying. Everyone gets one. What is being decided here is whether a standing connection is added on top. The next page scopes which assessment applies to you; the assessment itself decides what you qualify for, and central finance confirms it.
Bulk Import (Manual)
EFS publishes a template for each transaction type. Your system produces a matching extract on a cycle, a named person checks it, and it is loaded.
EFS answers instantly — what imported, what failed and why, reported to the person who did the load, who corrects and reloads in the same sitting.
No code, no credentials, no monitoring
No retest at every EFS release
No notice to us before you change your own system
The trade: the ledger is current as of the last load, and somebody has to do the load.
Bulk Import + Interface
Everything above, plus a standing authenticated connection exchanging more frequently, without a person in the loop. It buys currency. It does not replace Bulk Import — you build and keep that too, as the fallback.
Rejections return to a queue, not a person. Nothing is watching unless something is built to watch.
A named technical owner and backup, permanently
Monitoring, alerting, and someone who reads the rejection queue
Retest at every EFS release — twice a year, indefinitely
Written notice before any change to your system
Everything it asks for exists to replace the person who, on the other route, was already there.
Nobody is refused. The question is never who deserves an interface — it is what the extra frequency buys, and whether it is worth a permanent connection.
How the decision actually gets made
Bulk Import is the floor, not a consolation. Every system that exchanges data with EFS gets it, and it is built and kept tested whichever route you end up on.
The next page decides which assessment applies to you — the twelve Bulk Import questions, or the full eleven domains. It is a scoping question, not a decision about what you get.
The assessment decides what you qualify for. Pass the full one and a standing interface is added on top of Bulk Import. Fall short and you qualify for Bulk Import — the same transactions, the same ledger, coded the same way.
You will see what you qualify for, your score, and a list of exactly what this system still needs, before you send anything.
Why you complete this and not us: central finance can tell you a batch balanced. It cannot tell you whether the transactions in it are right — whether that fee belongs to that appropriation, whether the amount matches what was collected. Only you know that.
Question One — which assessment applies?
Three questions about where your transactions are today, how many there are, and what shape they are in — then four about the system that holds them. None of it needs evidence, and none of it is scored. It decides which assessment applies to you, and for a lot of departments it decides that none does. Answer honestly; it saves you weeks.
Before you start
The first three are what your assessment is logged under. Get them right — this is how central finance will find it.
Where do these transactions live today, before anyone sends them anywhere?
Start here. If the answer is paper, or a spreadsheet somebody keeps by hand,
that is the whole assessment — there is no system to build a feed from, and what you need is
access to EFS rather than an interface.
What would you be sending, and how much of each?
One row per kind of transaction. Not one combined number — nine hundred cash receipts
and four journals is a different question from nine hundred journals, and they get different answers.
Twelve months of counts from a system report, not an estimate. Nothing here is scored; it is what
Gate 1 is asking about, and what the reviewer will want to see.
Transaction type
Per month
Per year
Total
0
0
Answer all five gates.
Assessment
—
0
0
How it is scored — so there are no surprises
Yes scores 2. Partial scores 1. No scores 0. N/A is excluded from both the score and the maximum, so an irrelevant question does not count against you.
Some questions are knockouts. A knockout answered No fails the assessment regardless of the total score. That is the difference between a scorecard and a standard.
An unanswered question scores as No. So does an answer with no evidence behind it. We are telling you now rather than when the result comes back.
Central finance sets the pass thresholds and confirms the outcome. This page shows you where you stand before you send it.
Your result
Your score, the outcome we would recommend, and the list of what this system still needs. Nothing here has been sent anywhere yet.
System preparation qualifications
Submit and export
Declaration
To be confirmed by your department head or fiscal officer. We do not accept a packet without it.
Keep your own copy
Whatever else happens, take a copy before you close this page. The printed copy carries every question, your answer to it, and the preparation list.
Your answers are held in this browser only. Nothing leaves it until you press Submit, and clearing your browser data clears the draft.