Attachment J.3 – MFT User Guide.pdf

5/1/2024 – v2.0

U.S. Census Bureau’s Managed File Transfer (MFT) User’s Guide Hello data provider!

The U.S. Census Bureau’s secure file transfer process is called Managed File Transfer (MFT). MFT enhances file transfer security and automatically encrypts all transfers while in flight.

MFT includes many ease-of-use features, such as:

• Large capacity for file transfers (5GB for a single file, 10 GB for a single transfer).

o This is not a hard limit since internet speed and type of connection can impact the transfer.

• The ability to submit multiple files within a single transfer.

• The ability to reset your password yourself.

• The ability to receive an email reminder of your username.

• An email reminder when your password is about to expire.

In order to submit your data to the U.S. Census Bureau, you will need to establish an account with MFT.

You may do this by navigating to https://mft.econ.census.gov/ and clicking “Need Help?” below the Sign

On button. You can then use the Account Request form to establish your account.

Note: If you are having trouble navigating to the MFT site, please try using the browser Firefox or

Chrome.

Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions. You can contact us, the Data Quality Branch, through our email address at erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov or by calling us at (301)-763-2095. Our office hours are Monday through Friday 9am to 5pm EST.

Thank you for your data!

The Data Quality Branch (DQB), Economic Reimbursable Surveys Division (ERD) U.S. Census Bureau email address: erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov branch phone: 301-763-2095 census.gov | @uscensusbureau https://mft.econ.census.gov/ mailto:erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov http://www.census.gov/ https://www.census.gov/about/contact-us/social_media.html

1. The MFT Login Page

2. The MFT Help Page

A. How to Use MFT

B. Account Request

C. New User Setup

D. Password Reset

E. Username Request

F. Help Request

3. The MFT Transfer Page

4. The MFT History Page

5. The MFT Settings Page

6. Automation

A. MFT Automation Script

7. Maintenance

8. Troubleshooting

A. Password Expiring

B. Blank Screens

C. URL was Rejected

D. Failure Emails

E. Tips

1. The MFT Login Page

The MFT Login Page (Figure 1) is where you will log in to the U.S. Census Bureau’s secure file transfer site to transfer your administrative records: https://mft.econ.census.gov/

Figure 1: The MFT Login Page

▪ The MFT Login Page can be reached either by typing the URL into a web browser address line or clicking the link above.

▪ If you have already established an account in MFT for transferring administrative records to the

U.S. Census Bureau, then you may enter your credentials directly on the screen.

▪ If you do NOT have an account in MFT, or you have any issues logging in, click on “Need Help?”

or navigate to https://mft.econ.census.gov/cfcc/login/loginHelp.jsp. Instructions for this page are shown in section 2.

2. The MFT Help Page

The MFT Help Page (Figure 2) is where you can get help using MFT, submit an account request, and reset your MFT password.

https://mft.econ.census.gov/ https://mft.econ.census.gov/cfcc/login/loginHelp.jsp

Note: Please avoid using special characters (such as @, &, *) when filling out any form within MFT. This causes issues with the notifications that are created by the submitted forms. For example, instead of

“A&B”, you can write “A and B”.

Figure 2: The MFT Help Page

There are several links on this page. Simply select the “click here” link for the option most relevant to your question or need.

A. How to Use MFT

This first “click here” link will lead you directly to this user’s guide.

B. Account Request

This second “click here” link will lead you to a form you can use to request a new account in

MFT. Please fill out all required information as completely as you can, and then click “Submit.”

The fields are self-explanatory. Please use your first and last name. Your agreement number may be listed in the email invitation to create an account, in the Data Transfer Meeting

Worksheet used in the meeting between your agency and Census, or near the top of the data

Agreement itself. If you do not know your agreement number, please email DQB at erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov or your census contact. Alternatively, fill in “unknown”. However, if we see “unknown”, it might take extra time to process the request.

You will also be prompted to acknowledge the Rules of Behavior for MFT before your request will be submitted.

See Figure 3, Figure 4, and Figure 5 below for screenshots of the emails and confirmation screens you will receive.

Figure 3: MFT Account Request Form

Figure 4: Rules of Behavior you must Accept before Account Request is Submitted

Figure 5: MFT Account Request Successful Confirmation Message

C. New User Setup

This third “click here” link will allow you to log in to your new account for the first time, if you have received a confirmation email (Error! Reference source not found.) that your account has already been established.

Figure 6: MFT Account Created Notification Email

See Figure 7, Figure 8, Figure 9, and Figure 10 below for screenshots of the emails and confirmation screens you will receive while setting up your password and logging into your account for the first time.

Figure 7: New User Setup Page

Figure 8: New User Setup Page - Verifying Your Email

Figure 9: New User Password Setup Request Email

Figure 10: New User Password Setup Page

D. Password Reset

This fourth “click here” link will allow you to reset your password.

Note: Passwords expire every 90 days. This link allows you to reset your password if it is not over the 90 days. This link can also be used if you forgot your password and need to create a new one.

See Figure 11, Figure 12, Figure 13, and Figure 14 below for screenshots of the emails and confirmation screens you will receive.

Figure 11: Change Password Page

Figure 12: Change Password Page - Verifying Your Email

Figure 13: Change Password Request Email

Figure 14: Create New Password Page

E. Username Request

This fifth “click here” link will allow you to retrieve your username.

See Figure 15, Figure 16, and Figure 17 below for screenshots of the emails and confirmation screens you will receive.

Figure 15: Username Request Page

Figure 16: Username Request Page - Verifying Your Email

Figure 17: Username Request Email

F. Help Request

This sixth “click here” link will lead you to a form you can use to directly contact us if you have any other issues using MFT. Please fill out all required information as completely as you can, and then click “Submit.”

Alternatively, you can email ERD DQB <erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov> with your MFT question.

See Figure 18 and Figure 19 below for screenshots of the confirmation screens you will receive.

Figure 18: Help Request Form

Figure 19: Help Request Successful Confirmation Message

3. The MFT Transfer Page

The MFT Transfer Page is where you will transfer your data to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Figure 20: MFT Transfer Page

In most situations, you will have only one folder within this page to select. See Figure 20 and the example folder named GRUMPYCAT. The folder is associated directly with the Agreement your agency has with the U.S. Census Bureau to provide data.

Click on the folder. The Individual Transfer Folder screen will appear (Error! Reference source not found.Figure 21). Use the “click here to upload” to open a navigation window (Figure 22) where you can select files on your PC to transfer using the “Add files” button.

Note: Please avoid uploading files with spaces and special characters (such as @, &, *) in the file name.

A good alternative to using spaces in file names is using underscores.

Figure 21: Individual Transfer Folder Upload Page

Figure 22: File Transfer Screen

Once you have selected an individual file or group of files to transfer, you must then click the “Upload

All” button to have them begin transferring. You can either wait for files to finish transferring or close the File Transfer Screen and the files will continue to transfer in the background. Please do not close the browser window or log out of MFT until all files have been successfully transferred. A file has completed transferring when the status bar is completely filled green and you see a checkmark next to the file name.

You will receive one email per file once the transfer is complete. See Figure 23. Take note of the STATUS field within the body of the email. This will inform you if the transfer was a success or a failure. If the

STATUS field indicates “Failure”, please upload the file again. Sometimes the files don’t go through the first time for numerous reasons. If you continue to receive “Failure” emails, then please contact ERD

DQB at erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov or your census data contact.

Figure 23: File Upload Email Notification

4. The MFT History Page

The MFT History Page is where you can see a list of previous file transfers using MFT (Figure 24). You will only see a history of the files uploaded using your account and not a history of all files uploaded to this folder. This page is only a list of the most recent file names you transferred going back about two months. You do not have access to the actual data files you uploaded.

Figure 24: MFT History Page

5. The MFT Settings Page

The MFT Settings Page is an alternative location where you can change your password in MFT (Figure

25). You must log in to MFT first, then navigate to the Settings page by clicking on your name in the upper right-hand corner and then clicking “Settings”.

You can also change your password in MFT from the MFT Login Page by clicking “Need Help?”. In this case, you do NOT need to log in to MFT first.

Figure 25: MFT Settings Page

6. Automation

A. MFT Automation Script

If a data provider is interested in automating their data uploads, then we have a MFT Automation Script available for use. Please contact ERD DQB <erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov> for additional details.

7. Maintenance

When MFT is down for maintenance or has an outage, a message on the MFT Home Page will be displayed (Figure 26). MFT users will NOT be able to log in to MFT during this time. Once the outage has been resolved or the maintenance is complete, the message will be removed and you will be able to log in as usual. Please contact ERD DQB <erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov> if you continue to have issues with MFT after the down time.

Figure 26: MFT Home Page Maintenance Message

8. Troubleshooting

A. Password Expiring

Passwords expire every 90 days. MFT sends out an email 10 days before your password is set to expire as a warning that your password needs to be changed. If you do not change your password within the 90 days, then your account locks. If this occurs, you will NOT be able to change your password on your own until Census unlocks your account. Please contact ERD DQB at erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov or your census contact to get your account unlocked.

B. Blank Screens mailto:erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov

If you encounter blank screens, please try using an alternative browser. MFT works best with

Mozilla Firefox and Chrome. Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge should be your last choice browsers. Please try ALL browsers when experiencing an issue. Please try clearing your cache and browsing history as well if experiencing this type of issue.

C. URL was Rejected

If you encounter the message regarding “The requested URL was rejected. Please consult with your administrator.”, then your account may be locked due to password expiration, account expiration, or inactivity. If this is the case, please contact ERD DQB at erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov or your census contact to get your account unlocked. If your account is NOT locked, then you may need to close MFT, clear your cache and browsing history, and then renavigate to MFT once again.

D. Failure Emails

After you upload a file, you will receive an email. Within the email, there will be a status of

“Success” or “Failure”. If you receive a status of “Failure”, please try uploading the file again.

Usually this solves the issue. However, there could be multiple reasons for the file failing to go through, so if you continue to receive a “Failure” status, please contact ERD DQB at erd.all.dqb.list@census.gov or you census contact.

E. Tips

If you are receiving errors while trying to log into MFT or are getting errors while uploading a file, make sure you only have one browser open at once and only have one tab of MFT within a browser open at once.