FINRA recently released a new edition of the OATS Reporting Technical Specifications - 5/3/11.   This version has been updated for the expansion of OATS Rules to all NMS stocks (SR-FINRA-2010-44), along with other technical enhancements.  The 5/3 version also supersedes earlier versions published in 2011 - 1/11, 2/16, 3/17.

    Critical Dates.   All code changes required by this version of the OATS Reporting Technical Specifications should use the 11/8/10 version of the OATS Reporting Technical Specifications as the base code to which changes should be applied. 

• On 10/3/11, all described changes will be available in the OATS Production environment.
• On 8/22/11, all described changes will be available in the OATS Certificate Test environment.

The OATS Reporting Technical Specifications document covers ... requirements and procedures for:  

• clock synchronization;
• system access reqs for supplying OATS files to FINRA;
• order reporting scenarios describing, from a business perspective, responsibilities for reporting to OATS;
• details re: required layout of OATS files;
• procedures for providing corrections to OATS data and for receiving feedback from FINRA;
• procedures for registration, self administration, and testing and certification.
• There's also:  (i) data dictionary describing all the data elements in OATS files;  (ii) list of report formats, including field names, data types, and lists of permissible values;  (iii) examples of order reports;  (iv) glossary.

For further details, go to:   [FINRA's OATS Announcement, 5/3/11]   and  [OATS Reporting - Technical Specifications, 5/3/11 ]