North Texas Small Business Development Center

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North Texas Small
Business Development Center

• Programmatic Policy Notices
• 2005-2006

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Index
North Texas SBDC Teams
Counseling Policies Conflict of Interest
Client Engagement Agreement Monthly
WebCATS Data Entry Requirements Case
Management Process Counseling Session Resource
Partner Counseling Prep Time Documentation Economi
c Impact Process Economic Impact
Reporting WebCATS Data Entry
Training Policies Training Seminars Training
within Network
Additional Policies NTSBDC/SBA Logo
Policies Information Transfers
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NTSBDC Team Diagram
Strategic Planning Team
Regional Alternative Funding Team
Professional Development and Certification Team
Product Development Team
Marketing Team
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Conflict of Interest
All North Texas SBDC Field Center Staff shall not
solicit or accept private business
consulting/counseling engagements from any
persons seeking counseling from the SBDC network
during their term of employment with the SBDC.
Nor will they solicit an engagement as a paid
consultant for an SBDC client within six months
subsequent to the term of their employment with
the SBDC. Annually, the North Texas SBDC
Region Office administers to each North Texas
SBDC Employee (directors, counselors, trainers,
assistants and volunteers both full and part time
the NTSBDC Conflict of Interest Form for
signature. Reference North Texas SBDC Conflict
of Interest Form
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Client Engagement
The North Texas SBDC Client Engagement Agreement
will be given to each client that requests
counseling. This letter will be given to clients
by the consultant at the initial meeting. The
engagement letter informs the client about the
services of the SBDC and the surveys he/she may
receive as a result of the counseling.
Reference North Texas SBDC Client Engagement
Agreement 2005-2006 NTSBDC Strategic Plan
Strategy 3.3.1
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Monthly WebCATS Data Entry Requirements
All month ending counseling and training data
must be input into WebCATS no later than the 15th
of the following month. The ability to
retroactively enter data no longer exists.
Failure to input data from the month will result
in the loss of the milestone (client, counseling
session, training seminar and participants).
Effective date December 15, 2005.
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Case Management

• Only detailed narratives in client files
  demonstrate and reflect the quality
• of counseling performed by the counselor and
  facilitate the transfer of the
• case to another counselor if needed.
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• The NTSBDC Case Management Process will be
  uniformly implemented
• throughout the Network. The counseling session
  write-ups must be
• appropriately written to demonstrate transfer to
  another counselor or an
• SBA Program Examiner. Failure to do so will
  disqualify a counselor from
• providing small business counseling within the
  North Texas SBDC.
• The NTSBDC Case Management process consists of a
  five steps
• Provide a brief history of the business
• Provide a problem statement
• Solutions or recommendations you made to the
  client
• Action agreement between the counselor and the
  client (date of next appointment)
• The final session should consist of gathering
  economic impact and getting
• permission from the client for success stories.

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Counseling Session
Counseling requires a signed SBA Form 641, every
client needs to complete the new SBA Form 641.
An initial counseling session must be at least 1
hour (contact time) in order to be
reported. When a specialty center counselor
conducts counseling in a field centers office,
the specialty counselor will enter the counseling
session. The field center may only enter the
counseling session if they have a counselor
participate in the session. Reference
North Texas SBDC Revised SBA Form 641
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Resource Partner Counseling
Resource partners are organizations that provide
services through SBA funding through another
recognized relationship with SBA. Resource
partners include Women Business Centers, Export
Assistance Centers, Veteran Business Outreach
Centers and SCORE. With the implementation of
SBAs EDMIS, SBDCs can no longer report the
above mentioned resource partners counseling
activity. SBA mandates that all resource
partners report client activity into the EDMIS.
To avoid double counting only one SBA resource
partner may report a counseling session. When
a resource partner conducts counseling the
resource partner will enter the counseling
session. The SBDC may only enter the counseling
session if they have a counselor participate in
the session.
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Prep Time Documentation
Contact, travel and prep time cannot exceed more
than 8 hours in one day if this occurs support
documentation must be provided. Prep time must
be documented on a 641 Part III and entered into
WebCATS using the date it occurred. Prep time
may or may not occur on the same day as the
counseling contact time. In either instance the
prep time hours must be clearly documented on
the 641 Part III.
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Economic Impact Process
Program Announcement. All SBDC State Offices must
ensure they receive economic impact data from
all Service Centers and reported in the
management information system. Notice of
Award. The State Office must electronically
transmit economic impact into the SBA Management
Information System (EDMIS). North Texas SBDC
Local Policy. Each center will have a process
for collecting and reporting economic impact
accomplishments on their clients. The North
Texas SBDC recommends a 180 day cycle for
economic impact collection.
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Economic Impact Reporting
Program Announcement. Report the economic impact
generated from the assistance you have given
your clients during the budget year. North
Texas SBDC Local Policy. In order to capture
economic impact on a client from a prior year
you must initiate a follow up session (assuming
you have not had a counseling session with the
client in the current year). Reported economic
impact accomplishments may only be submitted
once in their client history. Reference SBA
Economic Indicators
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WebCATS Data Entry
All counseling, training and economic impact data
must be input into the WebCATS Database in a
timely manner. With real time EDMIS downloads
from the Regional Office the ability to
retroactively enter data is no longer an option.
It is up to each center director to develop a
systematic process to ensure the accomplishment
of this policy. If counseling, training and
economic impact data was not input in the
appropriate quarter it will not be counted
towards your centers SBA goals. Under no
circumstances will any NTSBDC Field Center change
any client or training forms.  
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Training Seminars

• There must be one or more attendees and
  demographic information must be captured on those
  attendees.
• The training course must last a total of an hour
  or more to be counted as training. Training
  courses lasting less than one hour are to be
  counted and reported as Information Transfers.
• Courses with multiple sessions count as one
  course and are input into the database once.
• An agenda, attendance roster, training evaluation
  and marketing piece/brochure must be kept in the
  file. The SBDC must use SBA Form 888 to document
  and report SBDC training activities. SBAs
  management information system collects the number
  of seminars, hours for the course and training
  attendees demographic information.
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Training within Network
North Texas SBDC Local Policy. When more than one
North Texas SBDC is involved in a training
session, training attendees, hours and fees will
be split (totaling 100) as agreed by the
partners. Both centers will enter the event into
WebCATS. Both centers will turn in an SBA Form
888, agenda, attendance roster, training
evaluation and marketing piece/brochure.
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NTSBDC/SBA Logo Policy
Program Announcement. Each SBDC Lead and Service
Center must feature the SBA logo and/or official
acknowledgement of support on all materials
produced (either in whole or in part) using
project funds (i.e., federal funds, matching
funds, and/or program income). North Texas
SBDC Local Policy. The North Texas SBDC will
assure statewide identity with the use of the
North Texas SBDC Logo. Every SBDC must adhere to
the written policies and procedures of the North
Texas SBDC state branding policy and its usage.
All production and distribution of
publications, pamphlets, brochures, audio-visual
aids and other materials for use by small
business must display the North Texas SBDC Logo.
Materials should convey the identity of a
statewide network.    Reference
http//www.ntsbdc.org/ Organizational
Identity 2005-2006 NTSBDC Strategic Plan Strategy
1.1.4
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Information Transfers
Information transfers are contacts with
individuals of a substantive nature that cannot
be considered counseling or training because they
do not meet the minimum time requirement of 30
minutes. Elements to be reported include the
following º Phone Calls º Disseminated
packets º Newsletters º Website visitors
requesting info º Contacts/Clients using onsite
library º Contacts/Clients attending
presentations that do not qualify as training
events The NTSBDC Field Centers will provide
services to SBDC contacts. The contact data
will be captured through phone logs, emails and
entering non-clients into WebCATS as contacts
and inquiries. The minimum information that
should be captured within the WebCATS Database
for non-clients should be full name and telephone
number. NTSBDC Regional Policy requires an
initial session to be a minimum of 1 hour,
therefore if you have an initial session that
lasts less than an hour it is an information
transfer. Reference NTSBDC Information Transfer
(Contact) Form