Governmentwide Spending Data Model

The Governmentwide Spending Data Model (GSDM), formerly the DATA Act Information Model Schema (DAIMS), gives an overall view of the hundreds of distinct data elements used to tell the story of how federal dollars are spent. It includes artifacts that provide technical guidance for federal agencies about what data to report to Treasury including the authoritative sources of the data elements and the submission format. The GSDM also provides clarity on how the public can better understand the inherent complexity of the data. More information can be found on the Fiscal Service GSDM website.

In the process to develop and mature this data model, initial collaboration with internal and external stakeholders began with a series of white papers and public feedback to gain consensus on the standardization of key spending data elements.

The elements listed below represent the original consensus the federal community reached during the original DATA Act implementation. Since then, the community continues to iterate on these elements to improve standardization and overall clarity. Additional data elements will continue to be added as well, to continue improving transparency reporting. For the current data model element list visit the GSDM website described above.

Awardee and Recipient Entity Information

This list includes information about recipients and awardees of federal funds. Please note that these elements will be standardized across the different types of awards (grants, contracts, etc.).

Award Amount Information

This list includes elements used to describe the amount of a certain award.

Award Characteristic Information

These elements describe the different characteristics each award possesses – for example, its transaction code, its Award Identification (ID) Number, and so on.

Funding Entity Information

These data elements describe characteristics of the entity that provided funding for an award.

Awarding Entity Information

Elements on this list describe awarding entities – those that presented the awardee with the funding.

Account Level Information

This list features elements that describe the accounts from which the awards are funded.

* An asterisk (*) next to a data element name indicates that the name for that data element has changed since it was first posted here in December 2014. All final data element names and definitions are posted here.