StacksVerified U.S. regulatory reference

31 CFR §205.20

Verified against eCFR.gov as of June 20, 2026View official text on eCFR.gov ↗
States use clearance patterns to project when funds are paid out, given a known dollar amount and a known date of disbursement. A State must ensure that clearance patterns meet the following standards:
  1. (a)A clearance pattern must be auditable.
  2. (b)A clearance pattern must accurately represent the flow of Federal funds under the Federal assistance programs to which it is applied.
  3. (c)A clearance pattern must include seasonal or other periodic variations in clearance activity.
  4. (d)A clearance pattern must be based on at least three consecutive months of disbursement data, unless additional data is required to accurately represent the flow of Federal funds.
  5. (e)If a State uses statistical sampling to develop a clearance pattern, the sample size must be sufficient to ensure a 96 percent confidence interval no more than plus or minus 0.25 weighted days above or below the estimated mean.
  6. (f)A clearance pattern must extend, at a minimum, until 99 percent of the dollars in a disbursement have been paid out for Federal assistance program purposes.
  7. (g)We and a State may agree to other procedures, such as estimates to project when funds are paid out when the dollar amount and/or the timing of disbursements are not known.