1 

What’s New in Financial and 

Budgetary Reporting! March, 2017 

Volume 1, Issue 1

As Fiscal Service 

continues to make 

progress towards 

reducing edit failures in 

GTAS, we have made 

great strides in clearing 

up issues related to fatal 

Edit 45. 

Edit 45 checks that 

agencies are properly 

closing their proprietary 

USSGL accounts. The 

system takes the reported 

ending balances on the 

agencies period 12 ATB for 

the preceding year and 

calculates a beginning 

balance for the 

appropriate USSGL 

account in the current 

year. This is called the 

“GTAS Calculated 

Beginning Balance” which 

GTAS expects the agency 

to report as the beginning 

balance in the new fiscal 

year. 

As an example, when 

reporting ending balances 

in period 12 of fiscal year 

2016, 310000, 310100, 

310500 and 310900, GTAS 

would use the ending 

balances to calculate the 

“GTAS Calculated 

Beginning Balance” for 

USSGL 310000 for the 

new fiscal year. The 

agencies ATB beginning 

balance in fiscal year 2017 

in 310000 is compared to 

the “GTAS Calculated 

Beginning Balance” and if 

they do not match, the 

agency will fail the fatal 

edit. 

In This Issue:

 GTAS Edit 45

 GTAS Proposed

Analytical Edits

 IntragovernmentalFuture Trading Partner 

Guidance 

 TFM 2-4700 Update

 TFM 2-4700 Appendix 1

Proposed Changes

 Financial Report of the

United States

Government

Individual Highlights 

GTAS Info 1 

Intragovernmental Info 2 

Financial Reporting Info 3 

GTAS: 

Edit 45 – Reasons agencies are failing 

*Closing of certain

USSGL accounts within a

“Fiduciary” TAS. There is

a problem that centers on

the closing groups for

USSGL 331000 and

340000. The GTAS team

is working closely with

the USSGL team to

resolve this issue as

quickly as possible.

If you have any questions

regarding Edit 45, please

feel free to contact the 

GTAS team

(GTAS.Team@fiscal.treas

ury.gov) or refer to the

publications below. 

USSGL Bulletin, Sections 

III & VII 

(https://fiscal.treasury.gov/

ussgl/) 

TFM 2-4700, Subsection 

4707.20g 

(https://tfm.fiscal.treasury.g

ov/v1.html#Part2) 

Reasons agencies are 

failing Edit 45: 

*Agencies are not closing

properly according to

USSGL Account

Transaction guidance

(https://tfm.fiscal.treasury.

gov/v1/supplements/ussgl/

ussgl_part_2.html#Part3).

*Transactions being

processed internally by the

agency after their final

period 12 ATB submission

(balances on canceling

funds with possible long

term assets). Agencies

needing to report certain

balances beyond the

cancellation of a TAS have

the option of transferring

those balances to either a

current year TAS, a noyear (X) TAS or the GTASderived C-TAS. The GTAS

system relies on using

what is reported as ending

balances for a TAS at year

end to calculate expected

beginning balances in the

new fiscal year. GTAS

cannot account for any

transfers or

reclassifications that an

agency completes after

their final period 12

submission, but prior to

closing in their internal

system. Any transfers

between TAS or

reclassification of balances

between USSGL accounts

need to occur prior to the

final period 12

submissions or as activity

in the new fiscal year (if it

does not involve canceled

TAS).
2 

2 TYPE TITLE HERE

GTAS Proposed Analytical Edits Going 

Fatal-Period 8 of Fiscal Year 2017 

For the past 4 years, 

GTAS has had a large 

number of proposed 

analytical edits (more 

commonly known as 

“soft” edits). It has 

always been our 

intention to make these 

edits fatal or “hard” edits. 

Doing this will increase 

the quality of the data 

we, at Fiscal Service, use 

to produce the Financial 

Report of the United 

States Government (FR) 

as these edits verify 

various proprietary 

accounting principles are 

followed correctly. 

The following lists of 

edits are slated to go fatal 

for period 8 of fiscal year 

2017: 

Have General Questions or

Need Help in GTAS or 

GFRS? (I.e. enrollment, 

access issues, system

requirements, password 

resets, TAS assignments, 

feature questions) Contact

the Treasury Support

Center (TSC) at: 

GTAS: 

Phone: 1-877-440-9476 

 Option 1, then Option 3 

Email: gtas@stls.frb.org

GFRS: 

Phone: 1-877-440-9476 

 Option 1, then Option 4 

Email: gfrs@stls.frb.org

For GTAS inquiries 

regarding accounting 

guidance and/or edit and 

validation issues, please

contact the Fiscal Service

Accountant assigned to 

your agency using the 

following list: 

https://fiscal.treasury.gov/

files/gtas/

HaveQuestionsorNeedHelp.

pdf

For GFRS inquiries

regarding general 

information or Financial 

Reporting, please contact 

the Fiscal Service 

Accountant assigned to 

your agency using the 

following list: 

https://fiscal.treasury.gov/

gtas/intergovernmentalcontact-list-for-federalentities.html

*Edit 29 – Pre-closing Bal

= Beg Bal for 310000

(Ensures that no activity

was reported in USSGL

310000 during the fiscal

year)

*Edit 30 – Pre-closing Bal

= Beg Bal for 331000

(Ensures that no activity

was reported in USSGL

331000 during the fiscal

year)

*Edit 31 - Imputed

Financing Source/Cost

Edit (Ensures that the

sum of USSGLs 578000

and 673000 net to zero)

*Edit 32 – Appropriations

Used and Expended

Appropriations Edit

(Ensures that the sum of

USSGLs 310700 and

570000 must equal zero)

We will be reaching out 

to agencies who are 

currently failing any of 

the edits above to 

increase awareness and 

to help proactively 

eliminate issues before 

period 8. 

These are not the only 

edits we hope to be able 

to move from proposed 

analytical to fatal for this 

fiscal year. We are also 

researching Edits 33-41, 

49 and 50 for feasibility 

of going fatal in period 10 

of fiscal year 2017. If you 

have any current issues 

with any of the edits 

listed in this article, 

please let your GTAS 

point of contact know so 

that we can ensure that 

your issue is resolved 

before the effective fatal 

period. 

Intragovernmental: 

Future Trading Partner Guidance

Officially, Agency 

Identifier 011 is assigned 

to the Executive Office of 

the President (EOP); 

however, the EOP is not 

always considered the 

trading partner when 

agencies enter into an 

intragovernmental 

transaction with a 

trading partner whose 

TAS begins with 011. 

Many federal entities 

currently report 011 TAS 

in their GTAS ATB 

submissions and in their 

financial statements with

no association to EOP, 

whatsoever. 

As a result, Fiscal

Service will publish 

guidance, via the GTAS

website, 

(https://

fiscal.treasury.gov/gtas/) 

to assist agencies with 

identifying their true 

trading partner(s) in 

intragovernmental 

relationships where the 

trading partner TAS 

begins with 011. This 

guidance will be available 

for third quarter 

reporting of fiscal year 

2017. 
3 

 

Financial Reporting: 

Treasury Financial Manual (TFM) 2-

4700

The draft TFM 

2-4700, Agency Reporting

Requirements for the

Financial Report of the

United States

Government, Agency

Review period will be

April 3-17, 2017 on OMB

Max. The draft will be

posted on the Max

website at:

https://community.max.g

ov/x/eIEIMg

Agencies should submit 

their comments via the 

Max system per the 

instructions provided at 

the linked site. 

Comments must be 

submitted by COB, 

Monday April 17, 2017, 

in order to be considered 

for the final version of 

the document. 

The Word versions will 

be provided on the Max 

site and we respectfully 

request that all 

comments be provided 

via the comments 

template pages provided 

for each agency at the 

linked site. 

If you do not have a 

comment on the 

document, please 

provide a response of 

“No Comment” so that 

we can account for 

review by all 

agencies.

Please note that anyone 

intending to access TFM 

2-4700 through Max

must be a registered

user. Please contact

Jason Chichester

(Jason.Chichester@fiscal

.treasury.gov) or

Tracey Wetzel

(Tracey.Wetzel@fiscal.tr

easury.gov) at Fiscal

Service with any

questions concerning

accessing the TFM via

Max.

For Intragovernmental 

inquiries in GTAS, please

contact the Fiscal Service

Accountant assigned to 

your agency using the 

following list: 

http://www.fiscal.treasury.

gov/gtas/

intergovernmental-contactlist-for-federalentities.html

For USSGL Guidance, 

please visit the following 

web page at: 

http://www.fiscal.treasury.

gov/ussgl/

For Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) 

Guidance, please contact 

Teresa Tancre at 

ttancre@omb.eop.gov 202-395-4836. or 

Treasury Financial Manual (TFM) 2-

4700 Appendix 1 Proposed Changes

Fiscal Service has 

requested agency 

feedback regarding TFM 

2-4700 Appendix 1

proposed changes as

presented in the

February 09, 2017

Central Reporting Team

(CRT) forum.

The proposed changes 

will reduce the 

redundancy of guidance 

and eliminate the 

possibility of 

inconsistent guidance 

published by the 

Department of Treasury 

to the agencies. 

TFM Chapter 2-4700 

Appendix 1 and the 

USSGL TFM 

Supplement contain a 

lot of the same guidance. 

This exposes Fiscal 

Service to the possibility 

of having inconsistent 

guidance and 

duplicating efforts. 

In the proposed change, 

Appendix 1 would direct 

users to the USSGL 

TFM Section VI: 

Crosswalks to 

Reclassified Statements 

and Section II: Accounts 

and Definitions (for line 

item descriptions). 

Should your agency 

have concerns, 

questions or 

suggestions to the 

proposed changes 

please send an email to 

Financial.Reports@fisca

l.treasury.gov.
4 

4 TYPE TITLE HERE

 

 

 

Have Feedback to provide?

 * Newsletter Ideas

 * Experience with GWA 

 systems 

 * Improvement/Enhancement 

 Ideas 

Please reach out to the 

GTAS Team at the 

following email 

GTAS.Team@fiscal.treasury

.gov. 

----------------------------------- 

Stay informed of GTAS, 

GFRS, or USSGL website 

updates by subscribing to 

our E-Mail Notification 

Service: 

https://www.fms.treas.gov/f

msweb/EmailSubscribeActi

on.do

The Financial Report of the United 

States Government (FR)

The Bureau of the Fiscal 

Service is responsible for 

the compilation, 

consolidation, and 

reporting of the FR. The 

FR includes financial 

information from the 

executive branch with 

their corresponding 

departments and entities, 

selected financial 

information from the 

legislative and judicial 

branches, and other 

independent 

establishments and 

Government 

corporations. 

In fiscal year 2016, Fiscal 

Service populated the 

reclassified financial 

statement lines and 

trading partner data 

from the agencies GTAS 

submissions. This took 

the place of redundant 

reporting that agencies 

were responsible for in 

GTAS and GFRS. 

Fiscal Service continued 

to manually collect notes, 

other data, and CFO/IG 

sign-off from federal 

agencies in the 

Governmentwide 

Financial Report System 

(GFRS). After the 

analysis by the Fiscal 

Service accountants, they 

can enter journal entries, 

notes and other data 

adjustments into GFRS to 

adjust the data entered by 

the agencies. Of course, 

these adjustments require 

proper support and 

agency concurrence before 

their audited data is 

changed. 

So who do we thank for 

producing the FR on time 

each year? Certainly, it’s 

the skilled professionals 

from Fiscal Service who 

make the hours count in 

the weeks leading up to 

publication day. But it 

takes all federal entities 

to successfully prepare 

the Financial Report. 

This includes 

accountants from 15 

cabinet-level 

departments, 24 

significant entities, and 

115 other agencies. Out 

of many people, millions 

of transactions, trillions 

of dollars – one 

Financial Report. 

This year with the 

change in 

administration the 

publication date was 

shortened by six weeks 

and was published on 

January 12, 2017.