Financial Management Modernization Initiative (FMMI)

Fiscal Year 2016 Yearend Lessons Learned Meeting

Meeting Date: / March 23, 2016,1:00 pm –2:00pm,Central
Location: / 1-800-981-3173, ID:1059
Purpose: / To discuss Yearend Lessons Learned
Desired Outcome: / To improve yearend close process for FY 2017.

Attendance

Name / Present? / Name / Present?
AMS/GIPSA / NIFA
AO / NRCS
APHIS / OBPA
ARS / OCFO
Chief Economist / OCIO
Civil Rights / OIG
Communications / OSEC
DA / Procurement Systems Division
DM / RD
ERS / RMA
Executive Secretariat / Asset Reconciliation Branch
FAS / BI Backend Processing
FNS / Customer Support Branch
Forest Service / Financial Reporting Branch
FSA / IPAC Branch
FSIS / Master Data Management Branch
General Counsel / Processing Services Branch
Homeland Security / System Security
NASS / Working Capital Fund
National Appeals Division / Quality Production Management
Consolidating Reporting Division

Agenda

Time / Speaker / Topic
3 minutes / Ella Robertson / Roll Call
25 minutes / Ella Robertson / Talk through lessons learned
15minutes / Ella Robertson/Karren Alexander / Open Item Balances, Parked Documents
15 minutes / All / Open Discussion

FY Yearend Lessons Learned

Below are the lessons learned facts that have been gathered so far for the Fiscal Yearend 2016 close.

  • Period 15 adjustments for shared TAS – When an agency has a period 15 adjustment that affects a shared treasury symbol which is reported by another agency in GTAS, the adjusting agency accountant must notify the reporting agency accountant as soon as possible. Without this notification, the reporting agency does not know that there is a need to update their GTAS POD, re-transmit and re-certify at Treasury.
  • ITRS adjustments for shared TAS – When an agency has an ITRS adjustment that affects a shared treasury symbol which is reported by another agency in GTAS, the adjusting agency accountant must notify the reporting agency accountant as soon as possible. Without this notification, the reporting agency does not know that changes have been made and they now need to update their GTAS POD and re-transmit to Treasury to capture the changes.
  • Verification of transfers – Agency had improper use of transfer GL account. Prior to processing a transfer document in FMMI, the agency must verify on the approved apportionment schedule the appropriate transfer account to be used, i.e., Balance Transfer (GL 4190) or Current Year Non-Expenditure Transfer (GL 4170).
  • Temporary Sequestrations – If an agency has a prior year temporary sequestration, they should not record the entry to make a prior year temporary sequestration available again in the current year, i.e., moving from the balance from Account 4384 to 4450, without an approved apportionment schedule noting such action is authorized.
  • MAX A-11 Report Failures – Agencies should review their MAX A-11 report failures on a quarterly basis to determine if there are any items that should be corrected prior to each year end. For FY 2016, several items on this report were noted by OMB’s Teresa Tancre as requiring GTAS revisions during the 4th Quarter revision window at Treasury.
  • Cancelling year Purchase Orders – Focus on cancelling year open obligations on purchase order. Lynn Moaney raised the issue regarding proper close out of purchase orders. We need to address early in the year since the procurement community priority at yearend is to ensure that current year dollars are obligated.
  • Aged Good Receipts – Continue to invoice or cancel aged good receipts documents.
  • Parked Documents – When we started the year end calls, there were parked documents related to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters. When an Agency does not post or remove their documents per the policy, FMSwill delete these before the end of each quarter for the first two months of the quarter, e.g. At the end of December, delete October and November parked documents; at the end of March delete December, January and February parked documents, etc. No exceptions, unless the Agency sends a justification to me. We cannot fail to adhere to policy. At some point we’ll start deleting all documents older than 10 days. We’ll review the reports and change based on materiality, i.e. Before we close the month of January, we may delete the month of December documents if they are material (absolute greater than $25m).
  • Sales Order–Agency do need to wait to close out sales orders. Your agency can manually write-down orders or request a mass close. You may enter an incident listing the sales orders to close at any time throughout the fiscal year. An order is a candidate for using the mass close program for write-downs where: (1) The order is not a sales order with advance; the mass close does not move or refund cash, (2) All obligations are recorded; the only remaining activity is to expense and bill, (3) The contract end date is today or earlier. At fiscal year end, it would be September 30, 2016, or earlier, and (4) Availability is positive; the system will close down to the greater of the amount billed or the total obligations. The agency needs to ensure that orders are neither over-billed nor over-collected. Work with budget staff to reverse funding using FMBB documents.
  • Capitalized Asset on Reimbursable Fund – We should not have capitalized assets recorded on a reimbursable fund. The transaction should be expensed so that the cost can be billed. Depreciation expense is not included in the billing process within FMM, therefore, those cost can not be billed.
  • Telephone and Utilities – Agency must manage their funds commitment documents to ensure sufficient funding through mid-October. There were numerous rejects resulting from insufficient funds.

The next year end call will be April 19th. The call will always be the 3rd Wednesday of the month.

Action Items

Description / Responsible Person / Due Date / Notes