Formerly known as the DATA Act Information Model Schema (DAIMS)

Please note that submission dates are published on the Resources Page

For GSDM users, version 1.2.1 provides the following improvements: 

• Updates assistance type attribute AwardRecipientBasisName code label and code definition to align with the upcoming Grants Data Standards release 
• Updates to show the current program activity process about Program Activity Reporting Key (PARK) and the discontinuation of Program Activity Code (PAC)/Program Activity Name (PAN)
  • Updates Rule B28 to show that the zero activity lines must have a PARK of "0000" or a valid PARK for the TAS
  • Update the Practices and Procedures for Program Activity Reporting Key (PARK) process
• Updates the Practices and Procedures to add back in the three freely associated states Republic of Palau (PW), Federated States of Micronesia (FM), and Marshall Islands (MH), until they are reclassified from domestic to foreign entities in FY27 Pd01/02
• Updates several Broker validation rules for improved rule clarity, correct file applicability, and the correct data elements are returned in the Warning and Error Report
   

This update also includes minor documentation edits and enhancements. To understand all changes and specific line-item details, agencies should review the change logs of each document linked below:

On this page

• GSDM Technical Architecture
• GSDM Documents for Federal Agency Staff
• GSDM Documents for Data Analysts
• GSDM Documents for users of USAspending.gov
• History of GSDM/DAIMS Releases since 2016

GSDM Technical Architecture

The Governmentwide Spending Data Model (GSDM) is the authoritative source for the terms, definitions, formats, and structures for hundreds of distinct data elements that tell the story of how federal dollars are spent.

GSDM gives federal agencies guidance about what data to report to Treasury, where to get that data, and how to submit it.

To learn more:

• Document GSDM Overview (301.79 KB)

  - What GSDM is, its scope, value, and approach

• Document GSDM Architecture (337.58 KB)

  - The GSDM conceptual model including a visual showing how domains, components, elements, and metadata go together in GSDM.

• Document GSDM Information Flow (113.02 KB)

  - A technical flowchart showing how data comes into, flows through, and is reported out, including how often that happens and where the data come from.

GSDM Documents for Federal Agency Staff

Practices and Procedures

• How to submit, validate, and understand submitting to the Broker

• An Excel spreadsheet that lists data elements, provides metadata, and gives federal agency staff instructions on how to submit content in the appropriate file format.

• An Excel spreadsheet that lists data elements, supporting metadata and explains what financial assistance data elements are pulled from government-wide procurement, sub-award systems, and from the Data Broker (by way of FABS).

• An Excel spreadsheet that documents the business rules the Data Broker uses for field and cross-file validations.

Example files for current Broker submissions - .csv formatted files show the current agency submission file layouts.

Submissions for FY26:

• Document FABS: Financial Assistance data v1.2 (6.79 KB)
• Document File A: Appropriation Account data v1.2 (8.3 KB)
• Document File B: Object Class and Program Activity data v1.2 (132.39 KB)
• Document File C: Award Financial data v1.2 (13.79 MB)
• Document Sample File Notes v1.2 (148.84 KB)

Submissions for FY27*:

• Document FABS: Financial Assistance Data v1.2.1 (6.94 KB)
• Document Sample File Notes v1.2.1 (177.13 KB)

* For any sample files not listed here, please refer to the previous version

GSDM Documents for Data Analysts

These PDF files show the data model relationships for RSS and IDD files.

• Document RSS File A Diagram (62.88 KB)
• Document RSS File B Diagram (72.22 KB)
• Document RSS File C Diagram (71.92 KB)
• Document RSS File FABS Diagram (65.98 KB)
• Document IDD File D1 Diagram (91.61 KB)
• Document IDD File D2 Diagram (69.35 KB)
• Document IDD File E Diagram (59.13 KB)
• Document IDD File F Diagram (69.78 KB)

GSDM Documents for users of USAspending.gov

Online Data Dictionary

• A link to the USAspending.gov online data dictionary with a full list of data elements with a definition for each element and some associated metadata.

• An Excel file with a list of data elements, definitions, and supporting metadata showing how submission and outlay data is compiled.

• A PDF file diagram showing the data model for data sources of the USAspending.gov website.

History of GSDM/DAIMS releases since 2016

Each of these zip files contains key GSDM/DAIMS documents (RSS, IDD, sample files, file diagrams, flow diagram, validation rules, architecture document, and architecture overview)