Carol: Good morning, everybody, welcome.
We're gonna get started in just a few minutes.
Thanks so much for joining.
Good morning everybody, thanks for joining.
We're gonna get started in just about two minutes,
this is one of my favorite parts of the whole webinar
is watching the numbers climb, I love that.
So I know we have almost 350 people registered for today,
so, you know, really exciting.
We've got some great information for you.
So come on in, welcome, good morning.
Holly: Good morning this is Holly Williams
with the sound check.
Man: Good morning Holly, we can hear you, we're live.
Holly: Great thank you very much.
Carol: Good morning, okay,
let's get this show on the road.
Good morning, everybody.
Welcome to the Federal Financial Managers' Year-End Event.
Achieving More Together.
I'm Carol Lambert, I'm Director of Engagement
and Onboarding for Fiscal Accounting.
I'll be your moderator for today.
And so glad to have you guys joining.
I know we had about 350 register
and we have more than 230 already,
and the numbers are still climbing.
So we've got some really great information for you guys,
really glad that you're able to join us today.
In fact, we have so much information planned for you today
that we have it planned across three sessions.
So this session working together to reach an opinion
on the financial report of U.S. government
is the first of our three sessions today.
If you haven't yet registered for the other two,
it's still not too late.
Feel free to go back through the original invitation
that we sent you, or you can find the link
on our training page at fiscal.treasury.gov/training.
And as a matter of fact,
we actually received a number of questions about
who was included in that invitation list.
So it was certainly our intention
to cast a wide net in terms of sending invitations.
But if, you know, feel free to share the event information
with your colleagues as well,
this webinar is being recorded.
So if you miss something today or need
to come back for a refresher,
the recording will be posted in our training area as well.
So fiscal.treasury.gov/training,
and then you'll see a big horizontal
training videos button that you'll be able to click on
to see the recording.
So as before we get into the session,
we always need to cover a few housekeeping items.
So number one, you should be able to see
that I am sharing my presentation slides
and this presentation either is I'm checking,
I don't know it either is or will be available
as a handout through your GoToWebinar panel.
So if it's not there at this very moment, no worries.
We're gonna get it in there before the session is over.
Also all participant phone lines will remain muted
to avoid sound quality issues,
but we do want to hear from you.
So please go ahead and send your questions, comments,
technical issues, suggestions through the questions tab
on the GoToWebinar panel.
Again, because we have so much to cover today.
We've got a whole team of folks here to support you.
My colleagues, Yared and Brian
will be providing technical support today.
I really hope we don't need either of them,
but if we do put your issue in the questions panel
and they'll be on the lookout for that, my colleagues,
Holly and Tom will be eagerly, awaiting your questions
and facilitate the Q and A portion
with our presenters when we get to that.
And on video today, we'll have Bobbie Quinn and Kelly Stein.
They will be our sign language interpreters for today.
Also, if you're interested in getting a closed captioning,
you can also let us know that
by including your email address in the questions panel.
Okay, just a couple more things, I promise
at the conclusion of today's webinar event,
you will be asked to complete an evaluation.
Please let us know how we did today
and how we can do better in the future.
We really do read those and we try
to incorporate your feedback into future sessions.
And finally, I'm going to thank you
in advance for being patient with us.
We know that webinars
are not a new phenomenon,
but, you know, we're still getting comfortable
with the technology, some of us are at home,
we've got kids, we've got pets who knows?
We've got bandwidth and connectivity issues.
So we're embracing this technology.
Clearly it's a part of our new normal,
and we appreciate your patience
and your partnership with us in this.
And now without any further delay,
please join me in welcoming.
Our first presenter.
Jaime Sailing is Director
for Fiscal Accounting's Financial Reports
and Advisory Division.
And I'm sure hers is a very familiar voice to many of you.
Jaime will be providing for us an update
on the continued work to reach an opinion
on the financial report of the U.S. government.
Thank you, Jaime for joining us today
and take it away-
Jaime: Thank you, Carol, thank you very much.
As Carol was stating, I'm really excited
for all the presentations that we have today.
I know we've talked about them in some
of our other government-wide meetings that we have.
And I'm really excited about sharing this information
with you all today to get you really ready
for this upcoming fiscal year-end reporting and trying
to help make your all's reporting as successful
and as carefree as possible.
I know it's always a very stressful time for everyone,
and I'm just hoping to be able to share
this information with all, to help you guys get prepared
and know of any questions right now
that we can already be helping you on
to get prepared for what's going
to be happening over the next few months here.
And I think, I hope that what you'll see today
is the, you know, this presentation
that I'm doing, it's going to be more
of a broad presentation.
And then overall the, as the day goes on,
you'll be hearing more detailed presentations
that will give you more information about some
of the broad topics that I'm talking about right now.
So as this slide here shows the objectives
and the agenda for what I'm going
to be talking about is just the update
on the progress that we have made together
in addressing the material weaknesses
for the financial report of the United States government.
And as you all know, I've said it over and over again,
that that progress is attributable to all the great work
that you all do and helping us achieve those goals,
achieve meeting that remediation plan
that we have and reaching this audibility
for our government as a whole.
And then what we're gonna do is talk
about each of the categories that still remain
and what each of us can do to continue
to meet our goals and continue to make the progress
that we have seen.
And so on the next slide,
It talks about the progress that we have made
with, since in 2018.
So, before and looking at that progress
that we made in 2018 on slide six,
it we'll talk about, you'll see that we've made a overall,
we have made a reduction in our audit findings
of more than 70% since 2013.
So when I keep talking about, you know, where are we,
what progress have we made?
We are making progress.
We're making progress as a government.
And I think that's great
where I feel like we're at right now
is we're getting down to some
of the old recommendations that are really hard
to remediate but we're working through them.
And you'll see that we'll continue to,
you know, to address some of those,
our intragovernmental differences, I can tell you,
and you'll see a slide here later in the deck.
It continues to decrease significantly every year.
And that's definitely the progress that you guys are making.
I mean, I know we set up a lot of different tools
to help monitor those intragovernmental differences.
And trying to give you guys any information that you need
to be able to work with those trading partners.
But if you look at it, you will continue to see that those
intragovernmental differences significantly decrease.
We'll look at that later.
So you can see a little bit more of those numbers.
We've definitely designed,
a lot of effective internal controls for the preparation
of the financial reporting United States government.
And you'll see that that's one of our material weaknesses
that we've made a lot of progress at.
But we still have some things to do there as well.
And we'll talk about that later.
And looking at the need to make adjustments
for, on your all's data, right, if you got it.
Our government-wide audit model is
that we take the data from the agencies,
we compile it and produce the government-wide statement.
So we really need to be able
to rely on those agencies' audited opinions.
And with that, our goal is to try to not make
Significant audit adjustments or significant adjustments
at the government-wide level.
So we do continue to drill down that to where we don't have
to have so many audit adjustments or not adit adjustments,
journal vouchers at the top-level.
And then the last thing is in 2018,
the first audit of the General Fund was completed.
And so they did that in 2018.
They did a lot of remediation over the last year here
and working on that in 2019.
And then they'll be undergoing their second audit in 2020.
So continuing to see a lot of progress there
from the General Fund.
So on the next slide, it will show
it will show the sad slide, that I always talk about.
And I know many of you have contacted me
and you always refer to this as the sad slide.
And that's what I like to refer to it as at the conferences.
Because if you look at it, yes, since 1997,
we have been receiving a disclaimer of opinion
on our government financial statements.
And I know all of you out there that
are accountants or auditors out there
that are looking at this slide and saying,
really since 1997 we're still in a disclaimer, yep, we are.
But that's our goal, right?
Our goal is to get out of
that disclaimer mode, being receiving an opinion
and then eventually getting a clean opinion, right?
And yes, we do so have the three primary impediments.
But if you look at those three primary impediments,
they're very broad, right?
And so what happens is,
even though there are three primary impediments, each year,
GAO puts things into those impediments
that are continuing things
that are new that they're looking at.
So even though we have stuck
with the three primary impediments, there's new stuff going
into those impediments each day.
Okay, so if you look at slide eight,
it will talk about the disclaimer of opinion
that we have and that yes,
we do still have the 14 outstanding audit recommendations.
And as I said before,
that is a decrease since 2013 of over 70%.
So even though we still have 14,
we are continuing to make an improvement
and we are continuing to see those numbers come down.
If you look at slide eight, what do we need to do there?
What do we need to continue
to move our numbers down and get out
of having those 14 outstanding audit recommendations.
So on right,
just having technical difficulties here just a second.
So on slide nine there,
it talks about the progress that we made
on the compilation impediment.
So on the compilation impediment is what I like
to point out on this slide is
that the compilation impediment is made up
of two mature weaknesses.
One of them being the preparation of the financial report.
With the preparation of the financial report,
you'll see here that we made a lot of progress.
And we made a lot of progress in fiscal year 2019.
So in fiscal year 2019, we were actually able
to close four audit recommendations dealing
with the preparation material weakness.
So I think that I mean,
if you talk about, you know, great progress,
I think that this preparation, material weakness,
continues to see old audit recommendations
being addressed and new ones.
And I think that you'll see that here
and that's why I put the years out beside
of the bullets where it has the Risk Assumed
it was actually an audit recommendation clear back in 2002.
So with that audit recommendation,
it took a lot of work with FASB and a lot of work
with GAO to eventually get to where now
we have that audit recommendation closed with the issuance
of the insurance FASB standards last fiscal year.
Then you'll see the next one in 2006,
audit recommendation dealing
with Legal Representation Letters.
I know many of you had a lot
of work out there that you did in addressing
this audit recommendation to where what it was looking at
is all the legal cases
that are below the $500 million threshold.
And trying to show that those cases below
that $500 million threshold that are not reported,
an agency's audited recommendation,
audited financial statements.
Were below a materiality threshold.
Now, what we were able to show here
was actually a lot of those cases,
legal cases that are below that $500 million threshold
they're actually already reported
in agency's audited statements.
So what we were looking at here
is the ones that were not reported
in agencies' audited statements,
and showing that those ones that are below
that $500 million threshold
that aren't reported in those statements
are below that materiality threshold.
And then you'll see we had two newer audit recommendations
that were actually also able to be closed from 2018.
Those two really relate to first proper disclosing
the new requirements from your FASB living standards
or I'm sorry, accounting standards.
And making sure that in the agency's financial statements,
and at the government-wide,
that we're having the proper disclosures based
on those FASB standards.
And then the last one was on proper tracking
of restatements, reclassifications
and adjustments to beginning balances.
So this was just making sure
that at a government-wide level that we knew
about all the agencies, restatements
reclassifications, the adjustments to beginning balances
that were happening.
And we were tracking those at the proper level,
meaning the proper financial statement
in the proper financial statement line.
So that was the progress that we made.
So then what's next?
On the next slide, slide 10, you will see,
that we did, we do still have progress
that we need to make.
And one of them being again on dealing
with legal cases, right?
So part of the preparation material weakness
actually had two audit recommendations dealing
with Legal Representation Letters.
So this one, what still remains and I can tell you,
GAO on a call just the other day with them
told us that this one was very close to closing last year,
we actually had this as a target to close,
but we're not able to close it.
And with this one it is all centered around making sure
that from a legal case perspective,
that there's consistency between
what's on the agency's Legal Representation Letters,
and that that matches the Management Schedule
that the agencies prepare, and that that matches
what's in the agency's financial statements.
And so, I know last year, we put some tools in place to try
to make sure that this check is being performed 100%
and then if there are differences between these three,
that we really understand why and that when we understand
that why that we get to an agreement amongst,
you know, the agency and the agencies' lawyers and auditor's
and everything and then
at the government-wide level as well.
Because we definitely need to make sure
that if there are inconsistencies here,
that we're all on the same page,
and that we all agree that there should be inconsistency.
So obviously, the goal here is that they all match.
But when they're not matching, that we do, that we are able
to explain why and all agree to that they should not match.
So we'll continue to work on that one this year.
And definitely, if you're an agency
where there were problems in those three matching,
you definitely have already heard from us,
and we are definitely working with you
to make sure they this year were able
to close out audit recommendations.
So the next one, and I know on the next slide,
that I know you all have heard a lot
about over the years is a big area
in the preparation material weakness dealing with treaties.
So on treaties and other international agreements
on slide 11, you'll see that we have a lot of work
that we have done on treaties,
but also a lot of work that we're continuing to still do.
With treaties, the section there that is in the
TFM 2-4700 is outlined there for you.
'Cause we do continue to expand that guidance
in the TFM each year trying, of course
to meet our goal of getting to being able
to address these audit recommendations here.
If you look at the treaties, right now,
what's going on is that there, there is a CFO council
subgroup that has been set up specifically,
to deal with treaties and other international agreements,
and to try to come up
with an agreed upon approach from the CFO council subgroup
that we have, between, you know, treasury,
OMB and all the agencies
that are on this CFO council subgroup to make sure
that we have an agreed upon approach to remediating
these audit recommendations.
Now, if you look at it, what we have done this past year
is we have actually been able
to review the Legal Representation Letters
for the past 10 years,
for each significant entity out there.
So all of your all's Legal Representation Letters
we've looked at, and for the last 10 years,
we've notated any of them that deal with treaties
and international agreements.
And we have looked into those more,
we have researched those more
to see is was there a financial impact,
because that's what these audit recommendations
are looking at is there a financial impact
for these treaties and international agreements
that we need to be recognizing?
And when do we need to be recognizing that?
And so, what we are trying to do in addition to that
is we are reviewing the different categories of treaties
and international agreements,
you'll see in the TFM that there are three categories.
But we've actually made 48 subcategories for treaties
and international agreements as well.
And in looking at those 48 subcategories,
what we're trying to look at is
which ones need additional detailed review.
So I think you've probably heard me kind
of joke around about this material weakness in the past
and said, "Oh, my gosh,
how are we supposed to review the thousands of treaties
and international agreements out there
to determine if there's financial impact?"
We'll work, that's what we're trying not to do, right?
We're trying to look at the sub categories.
And from those sub sub categories determine
which ones really need a more detailed review.
So out of the thousands that are out there,
maybe we need to review a couple hundred or something.
And that's maybe that's doable besides doing the thousands.
So we're really looking at that right now.
We're working very heavily
with Department of State and they're, leading a lot of
that work in determining subcategories
and determining what level of review
that really needs to be done for those treaties
and international agreements.
In addition to that, the last bullet here is on the
on your Legal Letter Management Schedule this year,
you'll notice that there is a new box that you can check
that lets us know if a case is related
to a treaty or international agreement.
So that is something new that is on
that template out there for the Management Schedule
for fiscal year 2020 but I will note
that it isn't actually required until fiscal year 2021.
But we do appreciate if you can do that for this year.
If not, it's like I said,
it's not required until the next year.
Okay, so in the next slide here, slide 12,
we do have our first polling question.
So for the polling question here,
we all want you to participate, please.
And just looking at the data and the talk,
the information that I just shared about treaties
and other international agreements,
just want to see if you guys know,
out of the 14 outstanding audit recommendations
that I talked about before,
how many of you all believe are related to treaties
and other international agreements?
So like, if you think that's one,
then the correct answer would be A
and then B would be you think three are related
to treaties, international agreements.
And then C you think five are related to treaties,
international agreements, or D.
All 14 are related to treaties international agreements.
So I'll turn it over to Carol
to open it up for polling for a few minutes.
Carol: Thanks, Jaime poll is open
and we're gonna give folks about 10 seconds.
So get right in there and give us your answer.
Extending the time,
it looks like you guys need a little time so.
Okay, thank you.
Jaime: So the reason that I put this polling question
in there is just to show you that actually five
out of the outstanding 14 audit recommendations deal
with treaties and international agreements.
So I know, you know, we've talked about treaties
and other international agreements for a while.
I know that it seems like a lot of work
because it is such a broad topic
and there's so many out there.
But if you really look at it, a government-wide perspective,
if we can tackle this treaties
and other international agreement topic
then we've addressed five out
of the 14 audit recommendations.
Now I will let you know that our target is not
to close the treaties audit recommendations for 2020.
But it is our goal.
To really focus and concentrate
or close it for fiscal year 2021.
So we've done a lot
of good work over the last few years here.
And I really am confident that we will be able
to close it in 2021.
We've been working very close with GAO
to make sure they understand our plans
and any items that are outstanding,
they have issues with trying to address those
and really looking to try to get that closure for 2021.
Okay, so moving on under under the continuing with the plan
for the compilation impediment
and the preparation material weakness, specifically,
is if you look at the next slide, there will be three,
what you'll see there is three new audit recommendations
that we received after the work that was completed in 2019.
And with those three new audit recommendations,
obviously we're trying to address as much of those
that we can for this fiscal year 2020.
And if you look at the first one,
it all deals with being able to tie the information
from the agency's audited financial statements
to the audited, or to the Financial Report
of the United States Government.
So from the agencies to the government-wide,
being able to trace that information back
to your audited financial statements.
And so this one is actually new,
and I think that is a big part of it.
At least three of the examples here actually deal
with us eliminating the closing package in 2019.
And so it wasn't a surprise to us.
That we did have this new audit recommendation
for those ones.
Because we knew that yep, we were using the data
that we were getting from GTAS or from data calls
that we were just emailing agencies and asking for.
But our goal was that then for the next year
that we put new information in A136 for agencies
to report in your all's audited financial statements,
so that then we can have that traceability
to your agency's audited financial statement.
And so that's what we've done and like,
I know that A136 is out there, you guys have had
that from a draft perspective
and been able to comment and review on that.
And you can see that, you know, there are additional things
in there related to the Federal Employee
and Veteran Benefits Payable,
the commitment, the Required Supplementary Information.
Now on the debt and equity securities one
and then the third new audit recommendation
shown on this slide,
the disclosures of FASB information.
I will let you know with that,
we are actually working with FASB
or we are going to be working with FASB.
We haven't started yet sorry.
We are gonna be working with FASB
on a memo that we are going to ask
for additional guidance dealing
with disclosures dealing with information
that is significantly from FASB reporters.
So there's only 8 FASB reporters out there
in the government, and so you guys should know who you are.
And with that information, we're getting a lot of, you know,
we're getting a lot of feedback and everything
from our auditors about
what should be the proper disclosures for agencies
that are following FASB accounting standards.
And really, what should that be
in the government-wide report,
so we're working with FASB to try to get
that proper reporting requirements that what we need
to do at the government-wide level.
So those are something that will be outstanding here.
And we aren't really planning to close this year
because we are continuing to work with FASB,
and trying to get that guidance that we need there.
The second new audit recommendation you'll see on
this slide is about the significant changes in accounting
and reporting policies.
So this one's a lot about the same thing
that I just talked about, about with it,
making sure that with the changes
that we made last year because of getting rid
of GFRS because of getting rid
of the closing packages,
that we're really still able to trace
from the government-wide statements back
to the agency's audited statements
for both dedicated collections and other liabilities.
So we knew we made significant changes in both
of these areas for fiscal year 2019.
But our problem was that we needed to be able
to trace that information back more like on a one
to one basis for dedicated collections
and other liabilities.
And I know that you guys are definitely aware
of the changes that we have put
in A136 for these two areas, dedicated collections
being the most significant changes here
and just needing to make sure
that we have that traceability.
So with the next slide,
it talks about the other part of the compilation impediment,
which is dealing with the budget statements,
and on the budget statements,
we do have a whole audit recommendation that deals
with the budget statements
and having that traceability in the agents
in the government-wide statements back
to the agencies' financial statements
or other audited information and making sure
that we have all the proper reconciling lines.
And so we continue to work on that making sure
that the proper presentation is there that they're easily understood
with those reconciling lines.
I know you guys are all familiar
with the new Budget and Accrual Reconciliation
that the agents, that you all are doing at the agency level.
So that plays into this.
And really just making sure that we're able
to properly support all of the amounts
that go into that budget deficit.
And then where that leads from with the budget deficit,
is that making sure that we have audit coverage over
that budget deficit,
and where that comes into play is with the audit
of the General Fund of the United States government.
And so that's why it's so integral
and important in getting to this remediation.
So on the next slide, it moves to the next impediment.
And the next impediment is dealing
with the intragovernmental.
And as I talked about before, I am very excited here
to share with you all the progress that we've made
on the intragovernmental data
that we've had over the last few years.
So on the slide that shows the graph with the total numbers,
and showing that significant decrease,
you'll see that I do note that the decrease
between fiscal year 2018 and fiscal year 2019,
we reduced by a hundred and twenty billion.
So if you remember back
to like the second slide that I had,
I think, it talks about the decrease from 17
to 18 was like 800 and something billion.
And now between 18 and 19,
we reduced another a hundred and twenty billion.
So I like the charts here, how they show from 2016 to 2019,
like the continued decrease each year
by significant billions of dollars
in cleaning up these differences.
If you go back even further to like 2013 and 2014,
and tried to show this chart,
you'll continue to see a very significant decrease
because I can tell you back in 2014,
we had over $100 trillion worth
of intragovernmental differences.
So why we can only show a few years here
is because with that significant decrease your chart
kind of, you get lost.
You can even see the significant decrease
because it's such a huge material decrease
that you have here.
And so I am happy
that I feel like we've met a milestone that for 2019.
We were actually below $100 billion
in intragovernmental differences.
And so I think that's a big
that was a big kind of win for us
because I can tell you that in the intragovernmental
or in the audit report,
it always talks about over $100 billion
of intragovernmental differences and that just sounds bad.
And so now they can't now now, we can't say that anymore.
Now we're under that 100 billion, so we got to 94.
I know it's still 94 billion,
it is still material at the government-wide level,
but it is decreasing significantly.
And if we continue to decrease that significantly each year
with all the work that you guys are doing, you know,
at no time we're gonna be to where it's immaterial.
One last point I wanna make on this slide before we move on
to the next one is that, you know, looking
at the intragovernmental differences,
if you think about last year, when I put this slide up,
it was over 60% was just related
to the General Fund differences with their trading partners.
So between the General Fund
and their trading partners, they actually made up over 60%,
of the intragovernmental differences, the General Fund,
and you all have been working so hard
on reducing those differences, that now the General Fund
and the their trading partners actually
only make up over 30% of the $94 billion.
So that's definitely all the work
that you guys have been doing with the General Fund.
And all the work that the General Fund has been doing.
Definitely has paid off
because you guys have reduced your differences so much now
that you're only 30% of that total.
So congratulations and great work to everyone there.
Okay, and on the next slide, with the next slide,
we are talking about the future IGT plans,
and with those future IGT plans,
you know, it talks there at the beginning,
I would have I would be happy
to tell you if we were getting rid of stuff,
but, you know, with the progress that we've been making,
it really is showing that those things
are working right now, right?
And so we really need to continue with some
of the following initiatives there that are listed, right?
So that intragovernmental scorecard program,
you're gonna still see that, you're gonna still see
that we're gonna have the Root Cause Analysis,
this Corrective Action Plan,
that documentation that we asked all of you for.
Also, we're gonna continue
with Material Difference Reporting
and Certification that's done in GTAS.
We do continue to try to streamline some of
that stuff where there's not as much paperwork
and stuff involved in that.
But those programs still are gonna live on
because they're still showing
that we're making great progress with that.
You will continue to see changes
with the nonreciprocal category.
That's a big item, it's still a big item.
If you look at the total number of that $94 billion.
There's non reciprocating ones.
And so we have to have a plan there really,
are they really non reciprocating?
And if they are, how do we deal with them, right?
But if they're not, then let's figure out
how they can be reciprocating.
So continuing working there a lot.
Another big one here,
I feel like is communication with agencies and auditors.
I know you'll hear later from with the IGT presentation
that it's all about Communicating, right?
But in this one, it's really about if you look at agencies,
audit opinions, so your all's audit opinion
and anything maybe that you have in your agency MRL.
So if you have an issue
in your audit opinion, your audit report or in your MRL
that you're talking about
the intragovernmental transactions is part
of your, either a material weakness, scope limitation,
significant deficiency, something that your agency has,
it's very important that we are on the same page.
That we're in the same page that you are.
And so we need to make sure
that we know why you all have something
in your audit report or why you have something in your MRL,
talking about intragovernmental transaction so
that we can be working together at the agency level
to ensure proper controls are in there
and ensure that we're addressing it on your all's end
and on our end to where we're giving you the help
that you all need to be able to address that
to where you don't have that issue at that level either.
And, of course, you'll hear a lot more later today
about supporting the G-Ivoicing Initiative aimed at,
you know, continuing to help on those buy/sell category
in GM or in the intragovernmental transaction.
So I won't spend any time there today on that,
'cause you'll hear about that later today.
And then I think a big improvement,
I think that we made this past year
is if you look at the TFM 2-4700 you know,
the Intragovernmental Business Rules have grown so much.
It was a big, it was all in appendix 10, you know,
and that thing was just growing and growing and growing.
And so we did split those Intragovernmental Business Rules
and that used to be an appendix 10 into separate appendices.
And so now you have it all split out
by those IGT sub categories.
And so hopefully that's easier for you to find information.
And I know last year
that actually came up at last year's GFMC Conference
as maybe an idea to look out by an agency.
So thank you guys for that input.
And hopefully that works out.
Of course, we'll continue to try
to improve that which feedback that you have.
So in the next slide, it's about it just kind
of it summarizes everything that we just talked about like
but just specifically, from, from your all's perspective,
how can you help 'cause, you know, I talked
about the progress we made, I talked
about the continued work that we plan on doing,
but just looking at from that perspective,
like this just kind of puts it
into a box for you about all the help
that you can continue to try to do for us.
So definitely become familiar with your agency's top-level
journal vouchers, you know, and really try
to address them at the agency level.
You know, so and we're working with you all on that, like,
we always take a subset of those journal vouchers.
And we always try to make sure
that we're really working on resolving several
of those at the agency level, so that we no longer have
to do 'em at the government-wide level.
And maybe it's just educating us
where we don't have to do 'em anymore.
Continue to work with us, like I said just a second ago,
to make sure that we're on the same page
with those IGT issues
that are in your agency audit report or
your MRL so we can be working together with you
to get those out of your audit report
in your MRL and also get an amount of ours at our level,
it's the government-wide.
Of course continue to ensure that the differences
between your Legal Representation Letter,
Management Schedule and your AFR and PARs are documented
and accepted by you auditors and our auditors.
So they were good to go on that we know about,
if there are any and consistencies
in there they're agreeable.
Work with us to try to make sure you know,
that traceability between your agency's AFR and PAR,
and government-wide financial report,
that we have that tight traceability there.
And I know that that takes a lot of changes and everything.
And I know on that dedicated collection,
it's definitely a big impact this year to you all.
But I'm hoping that once we get that traceability
and we get that in there that we can really know,
how to lighten up some of
that and help without reporting and we are trying
to put out different tools for you guys
with GTAS and stuff like that to help with that.
And then the last two years, just ensure that with treaties
and other international agreements that, you know,
that you're considering those,
and if they need to be they're part of your commitments,
contingencies and legal letters, if appropriate.
And then the last one on the budget statements
that we have and making sure that,
you know, you're just working with us
if there's any differences between the receipts
and outlays on the MTS,
and what's the reported error on your statement
of budgetary resources that we know about those.
And that, you know, we have a plan
to either resolve them or just
to document why they are differences.
And with that, I will conclude the presentation part.
I know that we are gathering questions and everything
but I do know we have another presentation
that you hear in the next, in this next section here
and then we'll definitely look
at all the questions later.
Carol, I'll turn it back over to you for that.
Carol: Thank you, Jaime.
We did want to pause.
Let's just see if we have one quick question for Jaime.
Holly, do we have any quick questions
for Jaime or do folks seem to be saving them to the end?
Holly: No, hi, good morning, Carol.
-: Good morning. -: Yes, there maybe
should be one question that's come in.
-: Okay, great. -: This morning for sure.
Carol: Well, there's several but what it looks like.
We have a burning question here.
What do I need to do
if I can't meet the November 16th 2020 date
for my agency's audit financial statements?
Jaime: Okay, so yes, this year is,
we're definitely in a different time this year, right?
The agency's audited statements are normally due
that November 15th, 16th, whatever, like,
depending on, you know, the weekends when the weekends fall.
So this year, OMB did put out guidance here
a month or so ago to talk about, you know,
if you can't meet the November 16th date,
we're still recommending and so encouraging agencies
to try to meet that November 16th date.
But if you can't then, that there
is an another day to December 31st date
that if your can do it by that December 31 date,
then really you just need to send an email notification
to OMB and I'd appreciate you all copying us as well,
letting us know what date you do expect
your financial statement publication to occur on.
So there is that flexibility there.
And, you know, that flexibility was given because of all
of this new COVID-related reporting
that some agencies are having to do.
It's not, I don't feel like it impacted all agencies
for financial reporting.
But obviously it impacted all agencies dealing with,
you know, the impacts that we've had related to COVID.
Now, if you can't meet the December 31st date,
then there will be a little bit more scrutiny
and then where you do need
to still send an email notification to OMB.
And again, please copy us with the expected date
and a reason for that extension needed.
And then obviously,
the discussions would happen with OMB
and treasury just like they have happened in the past.
So that November 16th to December 31st is kind of more
of a flexibility, just let us know.
But then if you really can't meet the December 31st date,
then there would be more more discussions there.
Carol: Great, thank you, Jaime.
Thanks so much for a great presentation and to our audience.
Keep the questions coming.
We're going to try
to save some time at the end for more questions.
And if we don't get to everything today,
we can definitely follow up with you guys post event.
So thanks again, Jaime.
Just a one or two things before we move on
to the next topic in the session,
I understand that some folks are having bandwidth issues in,
you know, that are affecting their audio.
And maybe sometimes the slides might freeze.
I think you've seen in the in the Q and A panel,
but you can try Google Chrome might be a better way
to use the GoToWebinar platform,
make sure that you close other apps.
And also one other note about the handouts.
We will be emailing them to registrants
at the end of this webinar.
So if you do not want a handout,
if you do not want today's presentation as a PDF file,
you can let us know that in the questions panel.
Otherwise, we'll just plan to go ahead and send it to you.
So with that, let's go ahead and move on
to the second topic in our first session for today.
Ready for Year-end A Panel Discussion.
And this group of experts,
they're ready for you to ask them anything.
So please join me in welcoming this robust panel.
We have Brant McDaniel,
who is Director for Central Accounting
and Reporting Division.
Jerome Jackson, who is Manager,
Budget Reporting Branch, Central Accounting
and Reporting Division.
Mark Ross, Supervisory Accountant.
Budget Reports Branch,
Central Accounting and Reporting Division
is all over this event, right?
Alex Abshire, Supervisory Accountant,
General Ledger and Advisory Branch,
Financial Reports and Advisory Division.
Mike Davis, Manager.
Cash Accounting Branch,
Central Accounting and Reporting Division.
And Dan Adams is also going
to be available to answer the really tough questions.
Dan is Senior Accountant,
General Ledger and Advisory Branch,
Financial Reports and Advisory Division.
So all of that to say we've got all the experts here
to answer all of your questions, and a lot of content too.
So just a reminder to our presenters
to just be mindful of the time.
And we would like to make sure that we leave
some time for Q and A at the end.
And with that, I'll turn it over to Brant.
Brant: Okay, thank you, Carol.
Carol: Sure.
Brant: So good morning, everyone,
and welcome to our Year-End presentation.
Hopefully we can answer all your questions.
We would normally be giving this at the GFMC Conference,
and I can speak for everyone on the panel
that let we definitely miss the interaction
with each of you at the conference.
But we're very thankful for this opportunity today.
To get in front of you
and hopefully answer some of your questions.
So our purpose today,
really our main purpose is to get each
of you smoothly through fiscal year-end.
And we've assembled an all star panel today,
then they're going to review some information
and hopefully answer all your questions.
And on the panel, we have experts in appropriations
in all the reporting you would do in the CARS system,
and all the reporting you would do in GTAS.
And kind of an underlying part of this presentation
is we're gonna talk a lot about everything
in the Year-end Bulletin in the Treasury Financial Manual.
And we have a link here on this slide.
And I'll just say this is a great resource
for all your dates.
Later on, you'll see we have attachment
one really has a lot of the dates you'll need
kind of your guideline
if you go through the fiscal year-end process.
I encourage all of you to keep this handy.
So Carol, let's go to the next slide.
So we're gonna open with a poll question
to kind of get a gauge of the audience.
So our question is,
how many times have you been through the
fiscal year-end process with your agency?
And your answers are A,
this is your first year, you're a newbie.
B, one to three years.
C, four to eight years.
And D, more than you wanna count.
So Carol is gonna open this up
for about 15 seconds for everyone to answer.
All right, everyone, get your votes in.
All right, wow, we've got an experienced group.
Okay, while, hopefully we can still help out the experience
and definitely for the few
that are fairly new, especially the 12%.
If this is your first year,
we'll be able to give you some valuable information today.
So without any hesitation,
I'm gonna turn it over to Mr. Jerome Jackson.
And he's gonna talk about appropriations.
I know if you've been to GFMC in the past,
you've definitely probably come across
the appropriations presentation from Jerome
and he definitely has a passion for it.
So without any delay, here's Jerome.
Jerome: Thank you, Brant.
Good morning and thank you all for your interest
and attendance today.
BAAS helps supply the gas to the complex engine
of funding the entire government
of the United States through the issuance of warrants,
appropriation warrants and BAAS provides the framework
for accounting for such funding through the establishment
of accounts through constant and collaboration with OMB.
Many of you may seen cited
in our guidance the TAS, Treasury Account Symbol
is the cornerstone of financial reporting
for treasury and be in accordance with appropriation law.
For those that don't know BAAS is the acronym
that stands for Budget Appropriation and Analysis Section.
Here in Fiscal Service.
You considering the forms of budget authority,
which can be ranged from appropriations,
contract, borrowing, reimbursable investment,
BAAS touches each area of budget authority in
some fashion or form, a major focus of
what we're gonna speak about today is
on funding from appropriation I would like
to start off by saying
that we could literally spend an entire session devoted
to how BAAS is involved
in the year-end closing responsibility.
But we have a very high level,
we want to touch upon some aspects
that impact all the different areas in fiscal accounting
in CAR and our colleagues in FRAD under Jaime's area.
So we accomplish is looking from the experience
of the folks in attendance.
We successfully complete year-end each year.
But the main point is that it's true.
And with the tremendous cooperation from you, the agencies,
the programs, the bureau of context,
the budget officials, accounting and CFO offices.
And of course with the many folks on
this current panel from the various areas
within fiscal accounting that are represented.
As Brant alluded to in prior presentations,
and even this year in certain forums we elaborate on
how Treasury Accounts Symbols are established,
and how and when budget authority is recorded
to a Treasury Account Symbols by the various appropriations.
We've talked in great detail about the mechanics of net.
NET stands for Non Expenditure Transfers.
Some of you may have remembered the presentation
from last year about The Catch of the Day,
What's in the NET.
So BAAS is as many of you know, from the government perspective,
government-wide perspective has been at the forefront
in implemented critical treasury responsibility
of funding agencies through the passage of the CARES Act
and other emergency supplemental funding bills
attributed COVID-19 which as we all know,
were impacted by this pandemic emergency.
However, during this presentation, we wanna focus
on year-end close, another essential responsibility
by treasury, Fiscal Service, CARS, our GTAS colleagues,
OMB and from Jaime's FR group.
I'd like to characterize it as a sympathy
of moving pieces orchestrated
and outlining the published guidance TFM bulletin 2020 19.
And hopefully we can highlight
some aspects to this presentation.
So year-end is a welcome change back
to normal and reoccurring responsibility,
which as I stated occurs very successfully each year.
It's attributed to a lot of pre-planning
and coordination from with our FRB, Federal Reserve Bank,
St. Louis fiscal agents,
which are the developers of the CARS and the ATM system,
our Fiscal Service ops and project support
and of course our operational areas cash accounting,
GTAS, Intragov and our FR colleagues
that are represented on this panel.
And our overarching partners silent on this particular stage
or panel yet very integral to year end, is our folks from OMB.
So for BAAS, year-end has already started
for many of you the year-end rollover memo
which has already been distributed by our BAAS analysts
to each of you in your agency's budget contacts,
the purpose of that memo at a very high level
is to prepare for 10.1.2020, the beginning
of the fiscal year.
So what we try to accomplish every year
is roll out a data call to capture
how you the agencies want us, BAAS
to establish nearly 1,200 accounts
so that those Treasury Account Symbols are ready
to transact at the beginning of the fiscal year.
We need to have the CARS systems ready,
which is why we send out
that data call ready for GTAS
and another very important reason.
We want to know affirmatively what accounts are needed.
What accounts do you reasonably expect
to receive funding for program operation?
As you've probably witnessed over several years
and the genesis of this I can tell you right now goes back
to Jaime Sailing and the efforts on FR Remediation,
we no longer automatically assume a rollover account.
This is as I said,
a component of the FR, General Fund Remediation.
We want to know what accounts
are no longer needed, what can be discontinued,
unnecessary accounts should be removed
to decrease your reporting burden
and ensure the integrity and validity of accounts.
So there was a couple of other attributes that were
included in the year end memo and the deadline
that we asked for that to be returned is on September 8th.
And from what I can see,
we are making tremendous progress on that
and we wanna pause right there and recognize
this already critical milestone over if you're in TAS,
which is already underway.
So cyber applause and thank you.
So the takeaway.
I also wanted to leave with you is
that the BRB Budget Reporting Branch under brand on the card
were responsible for publishing the year-end guidance,
but it's in concert with OMB,
our GTAS, borrowings, trust fund areas,
many of the folks on this current panel
and within Fiscal Service.
So the main thing is, it's a collective effort.
So let's just move through some
of the slides we want to try to just highlight a few aspects
as we move through the presentation.
So as the first bullet indicates,
what we're looking at there,
can you go back to the prior page, please?
Thank you, so what we're talking about here is that funds
that received an appropriation in 2015,
these will be the TASes that will be canceled.
So those aren't obligated and obligated balances as
of 9.30.2020 in allocation accounts.
So when we're talking about allocation accounts,
we're talking about a parent-child relationship.
The main thing we want to communicate here is
that the child cannot return funds back
to the General Fund directly.
The funds must be returned
through the NET module, ATM NET back to the parent.
And as you know, the parent delegates the operational execution
of the budget authority to the child.
So it has to go back in the sequence
in which that Authority was granted.
It goes back to the parent
and then the parent returns the funds back to the child.
That's in essence what we wanna talk about
on the first bullet.
On the second bullet here we're talking
about liquidating accounts to the General Fund more
or less a different flavor of Financing Authority pre-FCRA
and which, once again, though,
the funding here the balances the excess balances
and the liquidating accounts are returned back
to the General Fund through the NET module.
And in the third bullet, here,
we're talking about 2015 accounts that are going
to cancel by operation of law.
They must, you the agencies go
into the year-end transaction module,
and you return those excess balances back
to the General Fund.
So I do believe the year-end module opens
on October 5th, no need to guess it is listed
and identified in the TFM guidance.
That we are citing here.
So one thing about this one just to highlight.
Additionally, we call out negative balances,
which is a very adverse, very adverse position a lot
of scrutiny by a lot
of different stakeholders, including GAO, treasury.
So what our BAAS team does on a quarterly cadence
is send out for those TASes that are going
to cancel in this current fiscal year, which is 2015.
Bring it to your attention that you're,
this is a negative balance that needs to be brought
to zero so that we can close the account
on time in CARS and do the proper reporting
in the combine statement.
So in the last quarter,
we send out that email or data call on a monthly basis.
So you should be receiving that and I will call out
that we've been very successful and in the last few years
of which we have not had to have a negative balance to deal
with at the end of the year.
That is a very adverse position, a lot of scrutiny.
And of course, that's not a position we want.
So we want to thank you and recognize the efforts
that you all accomplished each year and ensuring
that we don't close accounts with negative balances.
On the last bullet, then we're gonna just highlight
on in these ways to submit a request.
So, those are in regards to indefinite TASes.
So your definite TAS is closed by operational law
and indefinite TAS, you reach out to us here at BAAS
with a letter requesting that certain TASes
with an indefinite balance be closed
if they meet certain criteria.
So definitely want to stress the child returning back
to the parents and any of the different nuances
of budget authority from the credit reform.
Same different flavor.
That the return of those back to general,
the funds back to the General Fund is imperative.
I wanna call out, I heard Jaime mentioned a couple
of key TFMs 4700.
So I want to call out a couple key TFMs for BAAS,
its chapter 1500 and another one is Volume One 2000,
that's a warrants.
So there is a cheat sheet which is actually
in the appendix that goes
through all the different scenarios
as far as NETs and appropriations,
cancellations and how to move funds back and forth
in accordance with our GTAS and OMB colleagues.
Next slide, please.
Okay, so just a couple of key dates.
So I've already covered the rollover process.
So very, there are very few accounts
that need to be established which
when I say new accounts,
these have a brand new four digit main
for those few accounts
that are not covered by rollover accounts.
Just email that request to the BAAS group.
We would expect that the,
that account is on reserve with OMB
that you've already had conversations and documentation with OMB
to establish a brand new account for 2020.
On the second bullet,
similar as far as appropriation request very limited.
Most of our team is aware of all the appropriations
that need to be established on October one of 2020
in the new fiscal year.
It's a very limited group that we are well aware of.
But nevertheless, there is a need to bring
to our attention appropriation requests,
we will accept those in the email
and also to call out net authorizations.
So we receive these on a daily basis.
It's not just on a year end timeframe,
we receive them as far as normal course of operations.
However, in the event of an emergency NET due
to various circumstances,
please email your liaison here at BAAS I do believe
that we called out BAAS group email box there.
So I'm gonna conclude this portion
of the talking about BAAS here in closing,
and I'm gonna turn it over to Mark Ross.
Mark: Thanks, Jerome, it's always a pleasure
to follow him 'cause like Brant says
he does have the passion for this year-end stuff.
And he always sets us up really well,
up for the rest of the presentation.
I just have a couple of slides
and I honestly I don't wanna take a whole lot
of time because Alex is next
with GTAS and I know a lot of y'all want to hear
about the year-end close process with that.
So we'll move through this slide
and the next slide fairly quickly.
But I do wanna bring out
and just highlight the Monthly Treasury Statement.
I know that a lot of you rely
on the data that we provide from the tables.
That relate to the Monthly Treasury Statement,
most importantly the receipt and outlay data.
And just really quickly just to touch on a couple
of points as it relates to year-end close.
We want to make sure that all CARS reporters,
report all TASes and Business Event Type Codes,
and make sure that that's been completed in CARS.
You all do a fantastic job of that every year.
We don't really, you know, need
to spend a lot of time on that.
But we also wanna make sure that all non-CARS reporters,
include all unreported receipt and expenditure activity
on either their statement of transactions
or statement of accountability.
You all that aren't CARS reporters know who you are.
And you all do a fine job with that.
So no worries there.
We also want to make sure that entities
with no transaction submit zero reports,
and this next bullet that that treasury will allow entities
to request adjustments for significant amounts,
historical context behind that 'cause I'm one
of the folks that have been
through this way more times than I care to count.
A long time ago in the star system,
we actually looked at requests
and decided this isn't significant enough to include
or this is significant enough to include.
In the world of GTAS now where we report to the penny
and, you know, everything is balanced right down
to that last cent,
I will tell you that every amount is significant.
So every adjustment that we receive is going
to be processed in CARS.
So you don't have to worry about that
whatever you send through to us we're gonna put in
because even pennies can be significant
as it relates to GTAS edits.
So the final bullet on this that I wanted
to hit is that we asked that all reports be submitted
by 5 p.m. on October 5th, which would be the close
of the third business day for the September reporting.
And one more thing about the MTS that I want
to highlight because we get an awful lot
of questions about it every year-end.
And for those of you who may not be aware, the final MTS,
the published version cannot be released to the public
and data cannot be supplied
to the agencies until the director of OMB
and the secretary of the treasury
conduct a joint press conference
on the final budget deficit numbers.
This could be three days after we get it published in CARS.
It could be two weeks after we get it published in CARS.
But I wanted to put that out there
because I know we get a lot of questions every year
about why we can't release the data.
And because it's embargoed, and because we can't put out,
you know, data to the public or even to agencies prior
to this press release.
I just wanted you to know
that's the reason why, at the end of the year,
we delayed the ability to pull reports from ASR
and we delay email reporting out is basically
because we can do anything until
that press conference happens.
Hopefully this year it will be sooner rather than later.
But given all the COVID spending and all the things
that, you know, have presented themselves this year
as new funding and new expenses and a way larger deficit
than we're used to.
It's up in the air as to how long it may take.
But I just wanted to let you all know
that we will get the data out as fast as we can.
And as soon as we're given the Okay,
we will release it and get it out to you for your use.
So, if we could move to the next slide.
Just want to highlight a couple of more dates.
This is the Receipts by Department Report.
And this is part of our combined statement
that we release every year for the entirety
of the federal government.
All the Treasury Account Symbols are listed in
this document which is well over 600 pages
and my team does a great job of getting
this out in a timely fashion.
I know a lot of the agencies use
this receipt by department report,
for reconciliations to their statement
of budgetary resources and some
of their other financial reporting.
We want to say that we did put a preliminary date on here
of October 14th 2020.
Now, this is contingent upon again,
the press release by the Director of OMB
and the Secretary of the treasury.
We hope to get it out by this day.
But there is not a guarantee.
So I do want you to know that data is not set in stone,
but we did put the preliminary receipt report date out there
as a hope for date.
The one date on here that is true and will happen is
that the fourth quarter final Receipts
by Department Report will be posted
on the Fiscal Service Treasury website
by the close of business on November 1st, 2020.
So that date is for certain and nothing will change that.
We will meet that November 1st date.
But did want to highlight just a couple of dates
'cause I know people do use this report
and look forward to getting it.
And we will get the preliminary receipts out as fast
as we can, based on the treasury
and OMB joint press conference.
So that covers my two slides,
like I said I didn't want to take up a whole lot of time
because I wanted to queue up Alex, 'cause GTAS is next.
And I know a lot of you all, well,
probably all of you all reported GTAS
and need to know those dates.
So I'm going to turn it over to Alex
and have him talk about GTAS.
Alex: All right, thank you, Mark.
Appreciate it, definitely a lot of good information there
from Jerome and Mark.
So next couple slides,
we're gonna be talking about some GTAS year-end dates,
and kind of some different information around GTAS.
So here on this slide,
kind of gives you guys some information of
how you all submit your year-end budgetary data.
So as you guys know the mechanism you guys use
to submit your year-end ATB
or adjusted trial balance data is GTAS.
So, agencies submit their year-end data in the form
of balances and USSGL
or United States Standard General Ledger accounts.
Also listed here on that last bullet
is a TFM reference to chapter 4200,
which notates the requirement of data agreement
between the TFM and OMB circulars within GTAS?
So we think that's a huge thing.
I know prior GTAS is kind of a more burden
when agencies had to submit stuff to treasury
and OMB so GTAS reduces that burden,
so they don't have to submit data to treasury and OMB.
So that's basically what that TFM reference
notates in there, but you guys can take a look at that.
So moving down to the next slide.
This is just a quick slide of
how you guys can gain access to GTAS.
I saw on the polling question that
when we opened up though, it seemed like a lot
of people had experience so for anyone that may be new,
if you need access to GTAS
or if there's something wrong with your account,
if you need access to more Treasury Account Symbols
or anything regarding that,
you can contact the Treasury Support Center
at that phone number listed or at that email,
they're usually very quick about turning around
in any requests.
It's usually in the same business day
or the next business day
to get those requests turned around.
So if you guys have any issues at all,
reach out to them or if you reach out to us,
we're gonna kind of forward that email on to them.
So they can get your account corrected as soon
as they can or get you set up in GTAS
as soon as you can, so you can start using it.
Moving on to that next slide,
these next two slides here, talk about GTAS
year-end dates and kind of the purpose
of the different windows we have for GTAS.
So you guys see GTAS year-end window we also refer
to that as Period 12 as well,
so they kinda,
you're gonna hear me use that interchangeably.
So the GTAS Period 12 window opens on October 6th,
and will close temporarily at 5 p.m. on October 16th.
So the Period 12 Revision Window opens shortly
after the close of the regular window,
usually around 8 p.m. or so depending on kind
of our coordination with our FRB partners to get
that closed down reopened up,
and based upon that data for OMB.
And basically, that revision window will close back down
at November 5th at 5 p.m.
So the extension window opens on November 5th,
and it'll close back down on November 13th at 2 p.m.
Agencies, that will like to use that extension window,
they must make sure that they're putting their request
in OMB MAX by the November 9th deadline,
if they plan on making any changes up through the end
of the extension window.
So basically on that it's kind of very similar
to your quarter-end process.
If you haven't been doing quarter-end,
we kind of have the end of budgetary data
and then when we do a extension window you guys reach out
to us, have you put in your request
of what TAS and while the USSGL impact
for what you expect
to be changed, and then we kind of grant you access
within GTAS to make the changes to your bulk file.
So moving on to the next slide there kind
of talks about the purpose of the different windows
as I mentioned before.
So the primary purpose of the revision window is
to make sure that the GTAS data is consistent
with the prior column of the budget.
So this just gives you a chance
to make sure all the budgetary data
is accurate and consistent.
So you have up until November 5th
to make all the changes to your budgetary data.
So I know Mark hit on it before
but entities must provide revisions to both material
and non material amounts, within GTAS.
So you're making those changes in CARS.
You're also gonna be making those changes
in GTAS as well for any changes you're making in there.
So another one of the key functions of our revision window
is for agencies to update proprietary reporting
by submitting your updated bulk file information.
So if you're making as you're making changes
to your budgetary if there's a proprietary impact as well,
you're making the, making changes at the same time.
So once that revision window closes down,
as I mentioned before,
right after that is the extension window.
So the purpose of the Period 12 Extension Window
is for you to update
only your proprietary USSGL account balances.
As I mentioned before,
that's done through the OMB MAX request.
So after that, so basically the key thing to remember here
is changing budgetary, you have up until November 5th
to make those changes, but after that,
it's only proprietary changes.
And you'll be reaching out
to the GTAS team to make those changes.
And we'll get you set up
with an OMB MAX to get that request approved
and grant you access within GTAS.
To make those changes and upload your bulk files.
So that's all I have for GTAS year-end windows
and I think I mentioned before the kind
of year-end schedule the dates I was talking about,
it's posted out on our GTAS webpage on PDF.
So if you guys have any questions, they're listed
in this presentation or also out on our website as well.
But that's all I had.
I'm gonna kick it over to Mike Davis now
and he's gonna cover a little bit more information
about finance receipts and financial reports.
Mark: All right, thank you, Alex.
So I'm gonna kind of try
to fly through the remaining slides here.
And I know that we've probably got some questions
that we wanna get to.
So on slide 33, here you see
that we've got an attachment for you.
And that attachment is gonna cover a lot
of the important due dates, and methods for agencies
to submit their year-end information.
Just wanna call out that any information
that is submitted via hardcopy.
When you're looking at those due dates,
you need to ensure that the hardcopies
are mailed early enough to still meet the deadlines
that we have listed in Attachment 1
so I also wanted to make sure that folks
who are outside the DC metro area know that they
that any hardcopy information should be
shipped via Priority Mail Express.
So, you can go ahead and go on to the next slide, Carol.
Dates will be strictly enforced
and we do need the due dates to be met
and the reason for that is because physical servers
and treasury have their own due dates to meet
and in order to appropriately perform
our year-end closing activities and reporting.
We need you guys to meet your due dates
in the agency community.
So also just, just wanted to stress
that we greatly appreciate reporting
that can be completed ahead of schedule.
So anything anything you can do
to ensure you plan appropriately to be able
to report timely will be greatly appreciated on our side.
So we can go ahead to the next slide.
And I just want
to call out a couple things here on this slide.
I'm not gonna read it all to you.
You guys can can look down through here
and see these important due dates but wanted to call out
that any new Treasury Account Symbol
and appropriation requests need
to be received into Jerome's area by October 1,
and wanted to also call out the any of your cash reporting.
So any reclassifications for full CARS reporters
or 1219, 1220 information
for the remaining non-CARS reporters needs
to be completed by October 5th
in order to not have any impact shown
on the quarterly CFO scorecard.
So that's the third business day
and, you know, year-end is no different
than any other month for cash reporting deadlines.
So that's the due date in order to be in compliance with
that scorecard metric.
And then I did also want to call out that while that
is the normal due date for no scorecard impact,
you do actually have until October 8th,
which is the six business day of the following month
to complete all of your reporting.
You can do that on your own, submit anything within CARS.
You don't need my branch's assistance in order
to do that, but we will cut off
that year-end window around four o'clock
on the 8th so just wanted to make everyone aware of that.
Any reporting that needs to happen after that,
will need to go through the backdated process
which I can assure you is a little more painful
than just going into CARS and doing the reporting yourself,
our team will have to put that in, we'll have to have
some approvals by the Monthly Treasury Statement team,
and potentially OMB as well.
So please do all you can
to have your year-end cash reporting done by the 5th,
if at all possible wait till no later than 8th date.
So we can go ahead to the next slide.
Again, just just some more important dates,
and some of the, a lot
of the important GTAS dates that Alex touched on.
So I won't belabor this one, go on to the next one.
And this just wraps it up.
So the the slides should be available to you
and all these dates.
And I think with that, Carol,
we can move on.
And we've got a poll question for you
to kind of wrap up here.
So what is the final date
an agency can can post cash related transactions
to CARS without going through the backdated process.
So we just talked about this,
hopefully we'll have a lot of correct answers.
So A is October 6th.
B, is October 7th.
C, is October 8th.
And D is October 15th.
So we'll open that up
and give you just a few seconds to answer that.
All right, so we got a little more than half of you
who got that polling question right.
So October 8th is the last day
that you can submit any cash related transactions to CARS
without going through that backdated process.
So we can move on from there.
And I think we're just gonna wrap up here
we've got some contact information for you.
Just want to say that we really appreciate everyone's time
and attendance today.
We know time is valuable.
So we hope that this has been helpful for you
and Carol will turn it over to you
to see what questions we have.
Carol: Great, and I'm going to turn it over to Holly
and I think we may have time for one quick question.
Again, whatever questions we are not able
to cover today we will handle post-event
and also hopefully you all saw that the handout
is available in the handouts panel on GoToWebinar, Holly.
Holly: Hi, thank you again Carol.
Speakers okay, we do have quite a few questions.
The first one that has come in is
it says, "November 1st is a Sunday is
that still the correct date?"
Mark: Yeah, we would anticipated
having posted it before then
but yeah, it is the correct date based
on, you know, prior years and the way we've done things
but we will have it posted most likely by the close
of business on the Friday before that.
Holly: Okay, thank you.
We have a question here for Mark
it says, "Can Mark repeat the reason
why the final MTS cannot be released?"
Thank you.
Mark: Sure, so the final MTS is the release to the public
is contingent upon a press conference between the director
of the Office of Management and Budget
and the Secretary of Treasury.
This is a yearly event has happened for many, many years.
Basically, when they release the final numbers,
which the biggest number in
that is the year-end deficit number.
There's a press conference to try
to kind of explain the receipts and outlays
and to highlight some things
that have happened during the year.
So until that press conference happens,
the data from the MTS is embargoed,
so we cannot release it until that press conference occurs.
And like I said, we're hopeful
that it will happen sooner rather than later,
but we at this time do not know
what the plans are for the dates moving forward.
Holly: Okay, thank you we have many of them here.
And so I'm going to try- -: Okay.
to do this as quickly
as I can. -: You think maybe
one more right?
Holly: Yes, when is the deadline
to submit year-end transactional module cash cancellations?
Jerome: This is Jerome ,I'll take that
so the year-end module opens on I do believe the October 5th
to cancel funds the agency contact would go
into the ATM module in the guidance.
It does definitely gives you the link to,
if the individual does not have CARS access,
they can request that access, it's very seamless.
And they would go
into the year-end transaction module starting on.
I believe it's October 5th,
and I believe the deadline goes up to October 16th.
-: Okay, thank you.
And we there are many many questions
that we were unable to answer today.
But we will make sure
that we have your email addresses and your questions.
And we will be sure to get back
with you that after this webinar.
Thank you, Carol, back to you.
Carol: Thank you, Holly.
And thanks to everybody for joining us.
And we hope to see you back at 11.
For the next event Communication,
Collaboration and G-Invoicing,
Three Tools to Reduce IGT Differences.
So I also want to thank our panelists
for today, Jaime, Brant, Jerome, Mark, Alex, Mike, and Dan.
And really, really appreciate all the great information
that you were able
to share just a few items, a few brief items in closing.
Again, we do hope to see you back at 11.
It's not too late to register or share
with colleagues who may not have registered yet.
Any unanswered questions,
we'll get back to you.
At the conclusion of this webinar,
there will be an event survey.
We hope that you do
complete that for us.
And finally, we are wishing you a good day,
a great day and good health.
Stay safe everybody, thank you.