What is QA/QC and why does it matter?
PEARS data are used by federal, state, and local agencies for reporting and evaluation. To facilitate the availability of high-quality data in PEARS, the NPI PEARS team implements regularly scheduled quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) and data cleaning processes.
How does PEARS QA/QC work?
At the end of each quarter, NPI exports LHD PEARS data entered to date during the federal fiscal year (FFY), reviews the entries, and flags potential issues for review and correction (also known as QA/QC). LHDs are required to review and resolve data quality issues identified by NPI quarterly. NPI will host QA/QC-specific office-hours throughout FFY25 to support LHDs with their quarterly reporting and quality assurance/ quality control (QA/QC) processes.
The PEARS modules reviewed for QA/QC are:
- PSE Site Activities
- Program Activities (DE)
- Indirect Activities (IE)
- Partnerships
- Coalitions
All flagged issues for a LHD are contained in a “QA/QC Issue File”, which is a single Excel workbook organized into separate worksheets by PEARS module. Within each worksheet, the list of issues includes those flagged for all of the quarters to date, with the quarter noted in the second column. The workbook also contains worksheets with instructions on how to review QA/QC Issue Files, a codebook explaining the contents of the Issue File, and a summary worksheet that shows the status of issues (e.g. have they been resolved). LHDs can access their QA/QC Issue Files in their LHD's NPI LHD Evaluation OneDrive folder.
In place of flagged issues, LHDs may see one of these messages:
- No issues flagged: we reviewed your entries for this module and found no issues
- No entries found: your LHD has no entries for this module as of the date of our export
- No review this quarter: entries for this module were not reviewed during the quarter (this is uncommon)
NPI follows this annual timeline for QA/QC:
| Quarter | Issue Files Released/Updated | LHD Deadline to Address Issue Files |
| 1 (10/1 - 12/31) | January 31 | February 28 |
| 2 (1/1 - 3/31) | April 30 | May 31 |
| 3 (4/1 - 6/30) | July 31 | August 31 |
| 4 (7/1 - 9/30) | September 30 | ASAP and no later than the PEARS closure date |
| 4 (2nd review as needed) | Early October, on a rolling basis* | ASAP and no later than the PEARS closure date |
*For this review cycle, NPI staff typically contact LHDs directly rather than updating online issue files.
In addition to these QA/QC reviews, the NPI team conducts annual data cleaning for any issues that remain unresolved at the end of the PEARS reporting year. This occurs during a brief window in October, after PEARS has closed for data entry. LHDs should be prepared to respond promptly to emails from NPI staff during our final review and data cleaning in October.
Questions? Need help with QA/QC?
Please contact the NPI PEARS team with any questions about QA/QC Issue Files or the QA/QC process. We’ve also created brief Mastering PEARS video tutorials to help you better understand how to resolve some of the most commonly flagged issues. In FFY25, the NPI team will host QA/QC-specific office hours in addition to quarterly cross-project office hours.