PURPOSE
The purpose of this bulletin is to provide guidance to USDA agencies
on how to record reimbursable agreements without advances into the Foundation
Financial Information System (FFIS).
BACKGROUND
The Economy Act of 1932, as amended (31.U.S.C. 1535), authorizes the
head of an agency to place orders for goods and services with another
agency if (1) amounts are available; (2) the head of the ordering agency
determines that it is in the best interest of the United States Government;
(3) the agency to fill the order is able to provide or get by contract
the ordered goods or services; and (4) the head of the agency decides
ordered goods or services cannot be provided as conveniently or cheaply
by a commercial enterprise. Transactions associated with these orders,
also known as reimbursable transactions, should be recorded in compliance
with the United States Standard General Ledger (USSGL).
This bulletin identifies Transaction Codes and Transaction Types (TC/TTs),
within the FFIS Accounting Entries Definition Table (ACED), to record
reimbursable activity where an advance is not received. All USDA FFIS
agencies entering into these types of reimbursable agreements need to
adhere to the guidelines presented in this bulletin.
POLICY
Only those USDA agencies that have obtained reimbursable budget authority
from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) may enter into reimbursable
agreements. These agencies are considered the performing agency and may
obligate, expend and bill the ordering agency for expenses incurred to
perform a service. At minimum, the following events should be recorded
in the performing agency's FFIS application:
· Request anticipated reimbursable
authority from OMB.
· Receive approved apportionment from OMB.
· Receive reimbursable orders from customers and record
unfilled customer orders.
· Allocate, sub-allocate and/or allot realized resources
depending on agency budget structure.
· Commit/obligate/expend funds to provide the requested
service.
· Bill customer when services have been rendered and reimbursement
is earned.
· Collect earned reimbursement.
PROCEDURES
The following chart summarizes the TC/TTs and applicable debits and
credits for recording reimbursable activity. It has been separated into
three columns to distinguish transactions for agencies that utilize the
Project Cost Accounting System (PCAS) versus those that use the Administrative
Billings and Collections System (ABCO) or will direct enter bills and
collections related to reimbursable activity. For clarification, the two
latter options have the term "Non-PCAS" included in the column
title.
|
Description |
PCAS
TC/TT |
Non-PCAS
TC/TT
(ABCO) |
Non-PCAS
TC/TT
(Direct-enter) |
Debits/Credits |
1 |
Request anticipated
reimbursable authority. |
AA/RE(FCAT = R) |
AA/WC(FCAT = W) |
AA/RE(FCAT = R) |
DR. 4210/ CR. 4450 |
2 |
Record approval of the Apportionment Request by OMB. |
PA/NA |
PA/NA |
PA/NA |
DR. 4450/ CR. 4590 |
3 |
Record Unfilled Customer Orders when the Reimbursable
Agreement is signed. |
RA/RC |
SV/RA(1) |
RA/RC(1) |
DR. 4221/ CR. 4210 |
4 |
Record allocation of authority. A Budget Execution (BE)
can also be used. |
CA/RA |
CA/RA |
CA/RA |
DR. 4590/ CR. 4540 |
5 |
Record sub-allocation of authority. A BE document can
also be used. |
AS/02 |
AS/02 |
AS/02 |
DR. 4540/ CR. 4560 |
6 |
Record allotment of authority. A BL (BE clone) document
can also be used. |
LA/RA or
LA/01 or
LA/0(2) |
LA/RA or
LA/01 or
LA/02(2) |
LA/RA or
LA/01 or
LA/02(2) |
DR. 4590/ CR 4610 or
DR. 4540/ CR. 4610 or
DR. 4560/ CR. 4610 |
7 |
Record obligation to fulfill a customer order. |
MO/01 |
MO/01 |
MO/01 |
DR. 4610/ CR. 4801 |
8 |
Record expenditure of funds to cover reimbursable work
(will automatically reverse obligation). |
PV/01 |
PV/01 |
PV/01 |
DR. 6100/ CR. 2110DR. 4610/ CR. 4901(3) |
9 |
Bill customer for earned reimbursement. |
BP/RC |
A1 Posting (credits 4210 not 4221)(4) |
BD/RT(5) |
DR. 1312/ CR. 5200DR. 4251/ CR. 4221 |
10 |
Collect earned reimbursement (will automatically reverse
billing document). |
LX/RC or
C8/RC |
A2 Posting (credits 4210 not 4221)(4) |
LX/RT or
C8/RT |
DR. 10XX(6)/CR. 5200DR. 4252/ CR. 4221 |
____________________________
1 If agency is using ABCO, a self-reversing SV/RA
should be processed quarterly for the obligated amount. For direct-entered
activity, a RA/RC should be processed and the new BD and CR documents
in Steps 9 & 10 will reduce unfilled customer orders.
2 Use the appropriate document depending on the agency
budget structure.
3 Automated Disbursements will reverse accounts 2110
and 4901 and re-post those balances to 1011 and 4902.
4 ABCO has it owns logic and will automatically invoke
a TC/TT for reimbursable activity. At this time, there are no plans to
change the ABCO logic to include transactions that post to general ledger
account 4221- unfilled customer orders.
5 The same agreement number entered on the RA/RC should
be referenced on the BD document so that the agreement tables (CALT and
CAHT) will get updated appropriately.
6 Depending on whether the collection is IPAC or Lockbox,
a different cash account will be used. Lockbox (LX) will debit 1012 and
IPAC (C8) will debit 1014. Once the appropriate collection document is
processed, it will also reverse the general ledger impact of the billing
document that preceded it via the FFIS document referencing logic.
YEAR-END IMPLICATIONS
Treasury guidance stipulates that all anticipated general ledger accounts
have a zero balance at year-end. With the introduction of the PA/NA transaction,
general ledger account 4590 (Apportionments Unavailable - Anticipated
Resources) will need to have a zero balance prior to executing the final
annual close. Failure to process the necessary transactions to reduce
4590 to zero will result in a fatal error during the FFIS Annual Close
process. Determination of the 4590 adjustment amount should be incorporated
in the agency's overall review of reimbursable activity at year-end. This
review ensures that actual customer orders match anticipated resources.
All adjustments should be recorded with budget documents to ensure that
both the budget and general ledger tables are updated appropriately. If
the agency has over-anticipated, negative budget documents need to be
processed from the lowest level first and then systemically at each higher
level until the appropriation level has been reached. For illustration
purposes, assume an agency has allocated and allotted anticipated appropriations
that have been overstated. To adjust anticipated amounts to zero, the
agency would process a negative allotment document (i.e. BL), a negative
allocation document (i.e. BE), a negative apportionment document (i.e.
bottom half of AA and then PA) and finally a negative appropriation document
(i.e. top half of AA) with the appropriate dollar amount.
INQUIRIES
Questions concerning this bulletin should be directed to Lynn Moaney at
(202) 720-1553 or Douglas Cheney at (202) 720-1168.
EFFECTIVE DATE
This bulletin is effective for FY 2006 activity.
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