End of the January to June reporting period – three weeks to finalise your data entry
The January to June reporting period has ended. Please be aware you still have over three weeks to finalise your data entry. We encourage organisations to enter your data as soon as possible to allow time to correct any data entry errors that may have occurred over the last six months.
Data not reported in the Data Exchange is a missed opportunity. This information is used to demonstrate the outcomes clients are achieving through access to funded programs. The system is closed after this reporting period to facilitate accurate reporting in the DSS Annual Report, Senate Estimate briefs and other important documents.
Please note that organisations that do not submit data into the Data Exchange before the end of the reporting period (30 July 2019) will have missed the cut-off.
If you are experiencing issues in submitting data, your Funding Arrangement Manager is your primary contact point. Please discuss any issues with them before considering a system re-opening request.
The Data Exchange Helpdesk can offer support on technical queries between 08.30am – 5.30pm AEST Monday to Friday (via email DSSDataExchange.helpdesk@dss.gov.au or phone 1800 020 283). Please note there may be delays in responding due to the high volume of enquiries, which occur at the end of the reporting period.
Tips for Organisation Administrators
Now is a good time to review your organisations’ access to the Data Exchange. Updating your registered editors and viewers helps ensure the right staff have the right access, and any operational changes are reflected in the Data Exchange. Some organisations have a high number of editors and viewers listed in the Data Exchange that have not accessed the system in many months. If their role has changed, they may no longer need access to data, or the same data as they previously needed.
As an Organisation Administrator, you can review and modify access at any time to protect client privacy and ensure records are accurate. The Add and edit a user task card provides information on how you can do this.
Protecting client privacy
As organisations prepare to submit their data for this reporting period, we would like to again highlight client privacy. We are currently reviewing the use of client’s personal information in Client IDs, and have contacted organisations that may have recorded personal details in this field.
When creating Client IDs, we recommend organisations use an alpha-numeric or numeric code only. Organisations are advised never to use a client’s name or other identifiable information as a client ID under any circumstances.
Please remember: if you are emailing the Data Exchange Helpdesk or your Funding Arrangement Manager, do not include any of your client’s personal information in the email or attachments.
More information about privacy can be found in:
- A fact sheet on how privacy is protected in the Data Exchange, to aid organisations’ conversations about privacy with their clients;
- The Privacy Impact Assessment, which confirms the Data Exchange is operating in line with the Privacy Act 1988; and
- The Data Exchange Protocols outline organisations’ privacy obligations and consent procedures.
Data Exchange reports
We advise organisations to check their operating systems and browsers to ensure the browser they are using is in the Supported Browsers information fact sheet. In some cases updated browsers are not supported and will result in no information being displayed in the Data Exchange reports.
If you are accessing the Data Exchange via a USB AUSkey with Mozilla Firefox, your browser must be version 67 or above to view reports. If you are accessing via a virtual environment AUSkey, Mozilla Firefox is not compatible for viewing reports.
If your AUSkey browser is not compatible, or you are experiencing issues viewing data in the reports, contact the Data Exchange Helpdesk between 08.30am – 5.30pm AEST Monday to Friday (via email DSSDataExchange.helpdesk@dss.gov.au or phone 1800 020 283).