Federal Financial Management System

Federal Financial Management System Requirements

FFMSR-0 January 1995

Joint Financial Management improvement Program

r

he Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP) is a joint cooperative undertaking of the Office of Management and Budget, the General Accounting Office, the Department of the Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management, working in cooperation

with each other and with operating agencies to improve financial management practices throughout

the government. The Program was initiated in 1948 by the Secretary of the Treasury, the Director of

the Bureau of the Budget, and the Comptroller General, and-was given statutory authorization in the

Budget and Accounting Procedures Act of 1950. The Civil ServiceCommission,~now the Office of

Personnel Management, joined JFMIP in 1966.'

The overall objective of JFMIP is to make improvements that contribute significantly to the effective and efficient operations of governmental

programs. Activities aimed at achieving this

objective include:

. Developing general objectives in those areas of common interest to the central agencies for guiding the improvement of financial management across government and promoting strategies for achieving those objectives.

. Reviewing and coordinating central agencies' activities and policy promu!gations affecting financial management to avoid possible conflict, inconsistency, duplication, and confusion.

. Undertaking projects and special reviews of significant problems and new technologies in financial management and publishing the findings and conclusions.

-3

. Acting as a catalyst and clearinghouse for sharing and disseminating financial management information about good financial management techniques and technologies.

. Reviewing the financial management efforts of the operating agencies and serving as a catalyst for further improvements.

.' The JFMIP plays a key roie in mobil&g resources and coordinating cooperative efforts inthe" improvement of financial management practices, and relies on the active participation of federal agencies to be successful. The Joint Program is guided by a Steering Committee consisting of key policy officials from each of the central agencies. A key official from a program agency also serves on the Steering Committee. A small staff headed by an Executive Director provides support to the Committee.

T he federal government recognizes the importance of having high quality financial management systems to support improvement of government operations and provide financial and related information to program and -,' financial managers. In 1990, Congress passed the Chief Financial Officers Act, placing specific responsibilities for developing and maintaining integrated financial management systemswith the Chief Financial Officers of federal agenciescovered by the Act.. Since the Act was passed, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of the Treasury, the General Accounting Office, and individual agencies have been working collectively to improve financial management systems throughout the federal' government.

One critical prerequisite to improving federal financial management systems is understanding what is meant by integrated financial management systemsfor the federal government. In 1988, the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program began the process of defining the financial management system requirements by publishing the CoreFinancial System Requirements. Since then, additional documents have been issued to create a series of financial management system requirement documents called the Federal Financial Management System Requirements (FFMSR). These documents, however, do not describe completely how the various financial management systemscovered in the specific requirement documents fit together and how these systemsshould be integrated to meet the needs of program and financial managers of the government. Therefore, this document, Framework for Federal Financial Management Systems, was developed to address these issues.

The Framework document is intended for use by senior systems analysts, systemsaccountants, and their immediate supervisors as a reference tool. It describes the basic elements of a model for integrated financial management systemsin the federal government, how these elements should relate to each other, and specific considerations in developing and implementing integrated financial management systems.

The Framework document should be used in conjunction with both current and future FFMSR documents. JFMIP intends the FFMSR series to promote understanding of key financial management systemsconcepts and requirements, to provide a framework for establishing integrated financial management systemsto support the partnership of program and financial managers, and to describe specific requirements of individual types of financial management systems.

Gizi5La& Donald H. Chapin Chair, JFMIP Steering Committee

January 1995

Executive Director, JFMIP

,.`.,'

`_

;.

5 .

,.

..,

.;

Illustrations __l_...__.____l____l_---.--l--..-----l-.----.

"

Acronyms __....-1--___1_1_1_1...------1--1-_--_--1-_1__.___......_1__-------I-.---.------....---.--- "1.

Chapter I - Introduction _1_1____1_.1..1.1__11--.....----111--1-.-------.-..----.

1

B&&ground --:---A: ________iT_____________________---------------------------------m----e------1

The Need.for Good Financial Management Irif&mation and Supporting Systems ----------------------------r---------------------------------- mm-mm2-mPurpose and Contents of This Document ________-___-_---__-__________________3__-------Chapter II - Context for Federal Financial Management Systems ----------------- 5

Suppofiing-the

Management

Cycle -----------'----------,----""----------------

5

Vision for Financial Management Systems ------------L--T ___----_-____---___________7___ Financial Management Systems Policy -------,i------------------------------------------ 10

Framework for Integrated Financial Management Systems ----------------------- 11

Chapter III - Processes in Prograui Execution .I._____.______.___.-..-----....--------- 14

Program Delivery/Financing

____----____--____-__-___-------- _______--_---___-_-____1_5__

Financial Event Processing _____________----________-_-_- _~_-_~_~_~-~--~-~-__--_---__-_----- 17

Integration of Program Delivery/Financing and Financial Event Processing - 2 1 Chapter IV - Data Stewardship _.1__1____..._____-----------------..--.----.-..---- _.._.-__ 25

Governmenttide

Data Stewardship------------------------------------------------------

27

Agency

Level Data Stewardship

_________--_____________________________-------------------

29

Financial Data Integrity Control at the Agency System Level --------------------- 3 1 Central Agency Financial Data Integrity Control RequirementsU.S. Government Standart General Ledger at the Transaction Level ------ 33 Assuring Data Integrity ______-_-______________I________________--------------------3--4------Chapter V - Management Information for Program Execution-------------------- 35 Infol-mation Architecture -__________________________--_-__-__-____--------------------- 35 Structures Supporting the Information Architecture _-_-__-_-___-_-_____----------3--9 Chapter VI - Systems Architecture for Progr&n Execution -------------------___I_ 4'7 Financial Management System? A&&cmre __------ --- ~-~~~~--~-~--- ---- --y--- 47

Relationships Between Agency Financial Management Systems and Program Execution Functions __________--________---------------------- ---____----- 54

Integration of Financial Management Systems ______---_______-----------------------

54

Framework for Federal Financial Management Systems

.II.I.

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download