A New Tool in Your Financial Management (FM) Toolbox

Date: April 30, 2019

If you were starting to write interface requirements, how would you start?

• Get current requirements?
• Get information about what is provided from the system with which you will exchange information?
• Find out what works and doesn’t work with your current process?

This information can help. But soon you will have access to another source of information on how common interfaces work across government, including the data elements considered required and some best-practice recommendations. This is the FM Interface Standard.

The Financial Management Working Group is mid-way through a project to look at several of the most common interfaces, relating financial management data elements to those used for other lines of business. We’re looking at what is required to create a document in the financial management system for data we receive.

When we send information to another system, we’re looking at what we must send. We also consider agencies who volunteered their requirement documents for review and working group members’ discussion and comments to point out some data elements we have found useful.

The interfaces in the current project include:

• Purchase cards
• Payroll and benefits
• E-invoicing
• Travel
• Grants payments/draw downs
• Grants management

We plan to publish the results of our work on the FM Interface Standard in August 2019.

If your agency is not a current member of the Financial Management Working Group, send an email to FIT@fiscal.treasury.gov to get more information.