User Guide Instructions and DGIS Overview

The purpose of the User Guide is to provide grantees with information, guidance, and instructions for completing DGIS Performance Reports.

NOTE: This instruction manual is intended to primarily provide web system assistance. This manual includes minimal programmatic information and guidance.

DGIS Overview

Originally released in October 2004, the Discretionary Grant Information System (DGIS) is a web-based system that allows grantees to report their data online to the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) through HRSA’s Electronic Handbooks (EHBs) as part of grant application and performance reporting processes.  

DGIS electronically captures data submitted by the approximately 700 discretionary grant awardees each year. Many of these grants are supported under the Title V MCH Block Grant Federal set-aside programs (SPRANS and CISS) and other categorical programs. The DGIS electronically captures performance measures, program-specific information, annual financial data, and abstract data for MCHB’s discretionary grants. The DGIS data help to demonstrate the impact of these discretionary grants, assess the effectiveness of these programs, inform programmatic planning, and ensure that quality health-related services are available to the nation’s MCH populations. 

DGIS captures data in the following categories:

Central Forms

These forms collect data to report on a central set of performance measures. Forms are grouped into five categories: Basic Forms, Topical Forms, Activity Forms, Outcome Forms, and Form 10. These performance measures reflect MCHB’s strategic priority areas. Collectively, they support communications about the range of HRSA’s maternal and child health programs to a broad range of stakeholders. Individual grantees respond to a limited number of forms and performance measures that are relevant to their program. 

Program-Specific Forms

These forms are used to collect data requested by MCHB divisions and offices that are specific to Training and Workforce, Healthy Start, Emergency Medical Services for Children, and Family to Family programs.  These forms also capture Healthy Start site information and workforce development trainee details.

A performance measure detail sheet defines and describes each performance measure. The detail sheet includes: a performance measurement and goal statement, an operational definition for the performance measure, relevance to Healthy People Objectives, data source and potential issues surrounding data collection, and a statement on the significance of the performance measure in the MCH field. These detail sheets assure consistent understanding and reporting among all grantees and, when appropriate, allow for national data aggregation. In many cases, data collection forms are included as attachments to assist the grantee in reporting on the measure. Individual grantees respond to a limited number of forms and performance measures that are relevant to their program. 

DGIS Access From EHBs

Login and Navigation

  • To access the EHBs, fromhrsa.gov select the Applicant/Grantee card. 

Screenshot of EHBs Login Screen

  • Review the warning banner and click Ok to continue to the EHBs login page.
  • From the gov card select Login to access the EHBs.

Screenshot of Login.gov screen

  • Enter your Login.gov Email Address and Password, and click Sign in. User will be navigated to EHBs page.

Important Note: Remember the email address used for Login.gov must match the email address used in the EHBs.

Screenshot of Enter Credentials

Recommended Settings

System requirements are the hardware and software components that are required for EHBs to operate efficiently. System requirements are listed as minimum requirements and recommended settings. The minimum requirements need to be met for EHBs to run at all, while the recommended settings, if met, will allow HRSA EHBs to run as effectively as possible.

The minimum requirements for EHBs are to use the Microsoft Edge version 88 or higher

Mozilla Firefox 11.0. The screen resolution must be set to 1024 x 768 and above and JavaScript, Cookies and Popup Blocker must be enabled on the browser.

Accessing DGIS From EHBs

  1. Once the user is logged in to EHBs, click the Tasks tab toward the top of the screen.
  2. On the left-side menu, under the Tasks section, Pending Tasks will be selected by default.
  3. On the Pending Tasks list page, the grantee will see three tabs: Not Completed (selected by default); Recently Completed; and Archived.
  4. The Not Completed tab lists all the Pending Tasks that need attention.
  5. Click the Start/Edit link under the Options column, and the DGIS Performance Report page will be displayed.

 Screenshot of pending tasks list page

Throughout the duration of your grant Project Period, the following three report types will be made available, which are defined below. For more information about the timeline for which reports to expect and when, please see the information below for the three DGIS report types.

  1. New Competing Performance Report (NCPR)
    1. This report is available to grantees on the project period start date.
    2. The report is due within 120 days from the available date.
    3. The grantee is required to submit the performance details at the beginning of the project period.
  2. Non-Competing Continuation Performance Report (NCCPR)
    1. This report is available to grantees on the budget period start date.
    2. The report is due within 120 days from the available date.
    3. The grantee is required to submit the performance details on the previous budget period.
  3. Project Period End Report (PPER)
    1. This report is available to grantees on the project period end date.
    2. The report is due within 90 days from the available date.
    3. The grantee is required to submit the performance details from the previous budget period.
NOTE: For the Healthy Start Program, all DGIS performance reports are due within 90 days from the available date.

DGIS Main Menu and Navigation

The Main Menu is the DGIS Performance Report–Status Overview page. This is the landing page that appears when accessing the DGIS Performance Report from the EHBs. All assigned DGIS forms in the DGIS Performance Report are listed on the Main Menu. To access a form, click on the corresponding hyperlinked title of the form. The forms are grouped by form type (e.g., Basic Forms, Topical Forms, Activity Forms), and the status of the assigned forms is displayed to the right of each form title. Additional notes about how to navigate this page are listed below:

  1. The Due Date and Days Left to complete this report will be shown at the top of the page.
  2. The Resources section can be used to see the previous performance reports and users can access the DGIS user guides using the DGIS User Guide link provided under Resources
  3. Under the Forms Overview section, the grantee may see the link for the last updated form along with the timestamp. The grantee can track how many forms are under the following statuses:
    1. Not Started: Indicates that a form has not been clicked on or saved.
    2. In Progress: Indicates that a form has been visited and saved at least once.
    3. Complete: Indicates that all sections of the form that have been completed, and all validations have been corrected or addressed by a field-level comment, where applicable. Even if a form is complete, you may still access the form and make any updates. You may continue to make updates to completed forms until you submit the performance report in the EHBs.
  4. The Validation Report section displays a list of all errors that must be addressed to complete the forms and the performance report. Click on Validation Report to go to the Validation Report page and view the errors.
  5. On the Submit and Print section, the grantee may click on Submit Performance Report to go to the Submit Report–Confirm page to certify and submit the report. The grantee may also export the report to a PDF file and print the report.

Screenshot of Status Overview page

Each form is categorized into different sections identified by the headers on the top of each form (e.g., Basic Forms, Topical Forms, Activity Forms). To make updates to a specific section, navigate to the appropriate section and click on the link to open that form. All the forms can be accessed from the left-side navigation menu. If the menu is not visible, click on the right-side caret icon (>>) to expand it and then all the forms can be accessed from the left-side navigation menu.

After completing a section in a form, you may select the Save button to save the information or the Save and Continue button to save the information on the current form and navigate to the next form. Select the Go to Previous Form button to navigate to the previous page.

Screenshot of Project period ending performance report overview screen

Upon adding the information on the last form—e.g., Healthy Start Site —and clicking on the Save and Continue button, the system will navigate the user to the Validation Report page. If the information added in the forms meets all the requirements, the grantee may submit the report. If there are errors, the Validation Report will display the name of the form, the associated error message(s), and a link to navigate to the form.

Screenshot of Validation report screen

Important Note: If any of the required fields of the form (with a warning text) is not touched by the grantee, they will not display in the Validation Report page. However, the form will be in Incomplete status till the data is entered in all required fields of the form.

Until the errors are fixed, the system will not allow users to submit the report. Only when all the errors are addressed by the grantee will the system allow users to Submit Reports and Confirm. Once the report has been successfully submitted, the status of the report will change to Complete.

Screenshot of Submit report confirm screen

Navigation Buttons:

  • The Go to the Previous Form button will navigate to the previous page.
  • The Save button will save the information entered in the form.
  • The Save and Continue button will save the information on the current form and navigate to the following form.
  • The Return to Status button will navigate to the DGIS Performance Report Status—Overview page. (NOTE: This button will only appear on the Validation Report page and Submit Report – Confirm page.)

System Timeouts

As with all the EHB-integrated systems, there is a 30-minute timeout limit. After 30 minutes of inactivity, the system will time you out. The system does not recognize typing as an activity, so please save as you go. To save, you may select from either the Save button or Save and Continue button.

After 25 minutes of inactivity, a pop-up message will appear asking to Continue or Logout of the session. The grantee may click on the Continue button and extend the session for another 30 minutes or click on the Logout button to logout of the session. (NOTE: The pop-up blocker feature must be off to receive this message.)

When done with your session, please make sure to log out of the system by clicking Logout in the upper right corner. 

Auto-Save

The DGIS system has auto-save functionality enabled that continually saves data entered into DGIS forms every 9 minutes. If a grantee steps away from their machine or even while continuously entering data in the forms without saving it, the system will keep saving the data after 9 minutes.

This feature is designed to minimize the risk of data loss while a user is actively working on a DGIS report. It is intended to act as a backstop for moments that may come up which interrupt a user while working on a report, like an unexpected phone call or visitor who stops by. It can also assist with technical issues a user may experience while working on a report, like loss of internet connectivity or an EHB session that unexpectedly times out. However, the Auto Save feature in DGIS does not support concurrent users in the same form at the same time, or replace the use of the Save or Save and Continue buttons at the bottom of each form.

To summarize the auto save feature in DGIS:

  • Auto Save “kicks in” at approximately 9 minutes once a user enters a report and continually saves data entered into forms every 9 minutes. This timeframe was carefully chosen as it balances benefit of the feature with performance of the system.
  • At the present time, DGIS does not support concurrent users in the same form at the same time. If more than one user attempts to work on the same form at the same time, problems can arise. When working on a form, users should click Save frequently, and always before logging out of the system.
  • When auto save issues arise, usually one or more users are attempting to work in the same form at the same time which results in data anomalies. A user should enter data, click Save and log out of the system when finished or click Save and Continue and move to a different form. This will allow the next colleague to see all data entered.
  • Currently, DGIS does not provide notifications to users if other users are currently working in a report. At the present time, we encourage grantees to coordinate among their team members.


Should grantees experience any technical difficulties, please reach out to the EHB Contact Center at 877-Go4-HRSA/877-464-4772

Form Locking and Unlocking – PO Change Request

If a Project Officer (PO) returns a DGIS report back to a grantee for changes and/or updates, a grantee can update the required information for unlocked forms only.

Locked Forms

When a form is locked, all the questions are read-only to the grantee when the report is sent back by PO as Change Requested. When the PO selects Unlock All, the form and any of its dependent forms are unlocked.

Unlocked Forms

Once a form is unlocked by PO and sent to the grantee for revisions, all the fields and questions on that form are unlocked. Any dependent forms are also unlocked. The Lock All option will lock the form and its dependent forms on the report. The unlocked forms show as In Progress and the locked forms show as Complete on the grantee view.

Screenshot of Project period ending performance report overview screen

Performance Report Returned to Grantee For Changes With Unlocked Forms

  • The grantee receives their performance report back from the Bureau/PO requesting changes to specific forms.
  • At this time, the status of forms where changes have been requested by the PO will be updated by the system to show as to In Progress.
  • The grantee may now access the unlocked forms and make appropriate changes/revisions.
  • The grantee must visit all of the forms whose status is In Progress, make the necessary updates, and then click Save and Continue to mark the form as complete before resubmitting it for PO review.

Steps to Update an Unlocked Form

As a prerequisite, PO unlocked forms that require changes are assigned back to the grantee.

  • Log in to EHBs.
  • On the top menu, select the Tasks tab to go to the Pending Tasks–List
  • Find the performance report returned for changes and select Edit to go to the Status Overview
  • The forms unlocked by the PO will be available to the grantee for updates.
  • Example: Healthy Start was unlocked by the PO.
  • The status of the unlocked forms will be In Progress.

Screenshot of Status Overview page

Review all the forms marked as In Progress and address the requested changes. After completing the form, select Save and Close to mark the unlocked form as Completed. After all unlocked forms are marked as completed, navigate to the status page, and select Submit from the left menu.

Screen Sharing

The EHBs Screen Sharing feature allows the grantee to share their screen with the HRSA Contact Center, Project Officers (PO), and Grant Management Specialists (GMS) staff to receive assistance with their EHBs related requests.

While the HRSA staff are assisting you over the phone, they may find that a Screen Sharing session will help in addressing your question more efficiently. If that is the case, the HRSA Staff will initiate a screen sharing session and instruct you on how to access the session.

For assistance and detailed instructions on accessing the Screen Sharing session, please refer to the EHBs Wiki page.

NOTE: Only HRSA Contact Center, POs, and GMS staff members can initiate a Screen Sharing session.