COA Program - Check The Status Of A Submitted Application

1. Go to https://lf.gfoa.org/Forms. If you are not already logged in to the AMS, you will need to enter the government’s username and password to login. (See Quick Facts below for login information.)
2. Select “Start Process” in the blue band at the top of the screen.
3. Click on the green “Start” button to the right of “Check Application Status.”
4. Select COA as the Award Program you want to check.
5. Select the Fiscal Year of the application you want to check.
6. If you would like to receive an email every time the application advances from one stage to the next in the review process, enter and confirm your email address at the bottom of the form, then click the “Subscribe to Status Updates” button.

Below is a list of statuses you might see:

Eligibility Validation. When we first receive an application, we look to make sure that the application has been filled out correctly and that we have the information and documents that we need. We also look at several items within the annual report to determine if the report is eligible to receive the Certificate. If we need more information or if the report is not eligible to receive the Certificate, we will contact you. Due to the number of applications GFOA receives at certain times of the year, it may be several weeks before an application advances through the Eligibility Validation stage.

Pending Review. After Eligibility Validation, an application is put in a queue to be reviewed. Due to the number of applications GFOA receives, it is not unusual for an application to be in this status for several months.

In Review. After the application moves to the top of the Pending Review queue, it will be assigned to an internal GFOA reviewer. Most reports are reviewed by both an initial and a final reviewer at GFOA.

Final Processing. When all the reviews have been completed, an editor reviews the comments and prepares the final result documents that will be shared with the government.

Complete. The review has been completed and the result documents can be found in the Repository.

• When logging in, the username will be the government’s GFOA member number followed by a dash and another single digit, usually the number 1. If you do not remember the password, click “forgot password” and then “send recovery email” and you will receive a password reset link.
• We try to complete reviews within six months of receiving applications. GFOA's efforts to deal with COVID-19 and to ensure a successful implementation of the AMS have temporarily lengthened the turnaround time for the Certificate award decisions. Our current turnaround time is approximately nine months, but we are working hard to reduce that time frame back to the normal time of six months. Thank you for your patience as we resolve this temporary backlog.