In this article: Why running PDSAT and FRM once a year instead of monthly is where many R14 problems start, how Bud's ILR Compliance Report brings both into your day-to-day platform, and what's new this year with Apprenticeship Units. | 4 minute read.
Most training providers will already be familiar with PDSAT (Provider Data Self-Assessment Toolkit) and FRM (Funding Rules Monitoring) reports. These tools help providers identify potential issues in learner data and funding claims, highlighting where records may need attention or correction. The question is whether they’re being run often enough, and early enough, to give you time to act before R14.
Running them isn't the same as running them monthly
The DfE's own guidance encourages providers to use PDSAT to regularly check their ILR data, not just before an audit, but to catch overclaims before they turn into repayments, and it's not guidance to take lightly, since during a DfE audit, they'll review these reports themselves. Rupert Crossland, Director of Audit and Compliance at Professional Assessment, made the same point more directly in a Bud webinar on compliance for DfE audits: "I really would do it every month," he said, because if you wait until you're audited, or wait until the end of the year, there's no time left to investigate and resolve what it flags.
FRM reports work on the same principle, but for funding rule compliance specifically rather than general data anomalies; whether a record meets the conditions the funding attached to it depends on.
The cost of leaving it late
A record flagged in June can be a five-minute fix, whereas the same record flagged in R14 week is a different problem entirely, with evidence to chase, an employer to get back to, or, if there's simply no time left to rectify it, a funding clawback you end up having to accept. None of this is new information for most providers.
The gap between knowing you should check your ILR data monthly and actually doing it is what separates a straightforward R14 from a difficult one.
Where Bud fits in
Knowing what to check monthly is one thing, but having it surfaced inside the system you're already working in, is another. That's what Bud's ILR Compliance Report is built for, bringing PDSAT-style validation and FRM reporting directly into the platform you're already managing delivery through, instead of treating them as separate checks run outside it.
The report covers more than 70 individual ILR validation codes set by the DfE, gives direct navigation into key FRM reports, and uses filters, visual summaries, and slicer controls to help you spot patterns across records rather than chasing one flag at a time. Same checks the DfE already expects, without a separate process to run them.
With the day-to-day covered, our Hard Close Survival Guide takes a wider view, refreshed for 2026 with everything worth knowing in the run-up to R14, including something new to the sector this year: Apprenticeship Units.
The takeaway
R14 isn't really a compliance-knowledge problem for most providers, it's a cadence problem. PDSAT and FRM already tell you what needs fixing, the variable is how often you are looking.
Explore our R14 Hard Close Survival Guide for practical guidance on building a monitoring cadence that keeps you prepared.
