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Monday, August 14, 2006

Financial Management LOB set for major milestones

"The General Services Administration expects to deliver initial versions of data standardization and business process transformation next month as part of the Financial Management Line of Business.

These milestones constitute a major foundation for letting agencies share financial data internally among their offices and across government, said Keith Thurston, assistant deputy associate administrator in the Office of Technology Strategy in GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy.

GSA in September will provide a draft of the Common Governmentwide Accounting Code so agencies will use the same definitions for identical data elements, Thurston said.

'With universal data definitions, we will be able to aggregate and compare data,' he said today at the Financial Management Service (FMS) Annual Government Financial Management Conference in Washington. FMS is an agency of the Treasury Department.

GSA also will release the first slice of business process standardization for common financial tasks in payments, receipts, funds management and reporting. The business processes will be the result of consolidating and harmonizing accounting methods, Thurston said.

The Financial Management Line of Business is governed by GSA, the Office of Management and Budget, the Chief Financial Officers Council and the Financial Systems Integration Office in GSA.

OMB in May released the updated Migration Planning Guidance to clarify a road map for agencies moving to shared-services providers under the Financial Management Line of Business. It included a competitive framework, template for migration project plan, change management best practices and a menu of services that financial-management shared-services providers can deliver. OMB will further update the migration guidance next month, Thurston said. "

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