What’s New in Financial and

Budgetary Reporting!

What’s New:  GTAS 

Enhancements to current reports over the next few months:

• Download My SMAF Report – adding a column for “ATB Submission Status”

• SMAF Print Results Report – adding a column for “FR Entity”

• Reclassified Financial Statements Report – Possible removal of the “Reclassified Statement” and

“Reclassified Reconciliation” reports, which have been merged into the recently introduced

“Reclassified Financial Statements” report.

Upcoming Edit enhancements:

• USSGL to BETC Edits – “Proposed Analytical Edits” 33‐41 and 48 are currently being reviewed for a

known signage issue. Changes will be made for the issue and over the next few months a review

process will take place on the impact of the changes. From our analysis, we will begin to formulate a

timeline for if or when the edits will be made fatal. Federal entities will be given advance notice prior

to any edit going fatal.

• Fiduciary Edits – GTAS has been updated to accept authoritative source files from The Department

of Labor (Federal Employee Compensation Act and Unemployment) and The Office of Personnel

Management (Employee Benefit Amounts). We are in the process of building edits within GTAS to

check federal entities adjusted trial balances against each. These edits will be similar to the existing

“Proposed Analytical Edits” 56‐64 for authoritative source files from Fiscal Service (Investments and

Borrowings) as well as the Federal Financing Bank (Borrowings). The Fiduciary Edits will be reviewed

over the next few months. From our analysis, we will begin to formulate a timeline for if and when

the edits will be made fatal. Federal entities will be given advance notice prior to any edit going fatal.

Bureau of the Fiscal Service New “On‐Demand Video Training” Page:

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service has developed a training page that will include content from past conferences

and events. This training is given by financial management professionals for financial management

professionals. Fiscal Service offers on‐demand video training on relevant topics important to federal employees

within the federal financial management community.

The first set of “On‐Demand Video Training” includes several 2019 Government Financial Management

Conference (GFMC) session presentations on video.  

https://fiscal.treasury.gov/training/videos.html

Issue 1 | March 2020

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GTAS Highlights!
What’s New in Financial and

Budgetary Reporting!

Intragovernmental Research Tools: IGT Raw Data File

The IGT Raw Data File is a report in GTAS that federal entities can use to research intragovernmental

differences. The report includes the same data as in the Intragovernmental Module in GTAS, but in an Excel

extract. The report is helpful with data analysis on Adjusted Trial Balance (ATB) bulk file data, manual

adjustments, when applicable, and material differences that exist between trading partners for a fiscal year

end, or any accounting period within the fiscal year.

The IGT Raw Data File is found in the GTAS Reports module and has a Summary tab and Raw Data tab.

• The Summary tab is a pivot table that displays all the intragovernmental differences that exist

between the federal entity and its trading partners by reciprocal category.

• The details can be viewed by double‐clicking on any amount in the Summary tab. These details

include all the TAS components, ATB status, USSGLs, financial statement lines, and manual

adjustments, when applicable.

• The Raw Data tab displays all the details behind the intragovernmental differences in a data dump

format.

This report is only viable after the reporting window closes for a particular accounting period. Otherwise,

depending on the status of the bulk file, the data may not tie between the report and the Intragovernmental

Module. The codes displayed in the report details relate to an entity’s ATB bulk files and manual

adjustments, when applicable, and help the user distinguish the status of their submission.

• ATB Status Column Header:

E = Passed Required Edits

P = Pending Certification

C = Certified

• Manual Adjustment Status Column Header:

IN = Initiate

IP = In Progress

PC = Pending Certification

CR = Certified

Issue 1 | March 2020

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What’s New in Financial and

Budgetary Reporting!

FY 19 IGT Accomplishments!

Throughout fiscal year 2019, the governmentwide community made significant progress in

identifying and reconciling intragovernmental imbalances between federal entities. Work continued

on existing initiatives such as the IGT Scorecard and Metrics process and the process improvements

for the General Fund of the U.S. Government (General Fund). During fiscal year 2019, Treasury

collaborated with federal entities to resolve two outstanding Dispute Resolutions and identified the

necessary actions to improve their accounting. In fiscal year 2019, Treasury spent time monitoring

differences in a new sub‐category, Custodial and Non‐Entity Transactions. This new sub‐category

reduced non‐reciprocating intragovernmental activity in Reciprocal Category 29 (RC 29). It also

encouraged collaboration between entities by participating in meetings discussing the

implementation of the guidance.

Notable process improvements during the fiscal year 2019 included:

• Creating a Memorandum of Understanding between Treasury, IRS, the General Fund of the

U.S. Government, and Fiscal Service regarding the reconciliation process for IRS and General

Fund intragovernmental differences;

• Establishing improved guidance to remove six USSGLs from RC 29 (non‐reciprocating) and

adding them to a new reciprocating sub‐category of Custodial Activity and Non‐Entity

Transactions. This change contributed toward the $26.5 Billion decrease in RC 29 between

FY 2018 and FY 2019, with the differences in the newly created sub‐category of only $2

Billion;

• Introducing a new pre‐year‐end report to replace quarter 4 intragovernmental scorecards.

Thereby, shortening the time between when GTAS data is reported and the entity meeting

to discuss the report and outstanding intragovernmental differences. This provided entities

with additional time to react to identified intragovernmental differences, and improve their

reporting before year‐end reporting was due;

Treasury’s consistent dedication to addressing the IGT issues within the governmentwide reporting

environment is demonstrated through the aforementioned efforts – continued progress on existing

initiatives as well as implementation of new initiatives. These efforts, and the detailed steps

associated with each can be found in the current appendices of the Remediation Plan. Additionally,

this progress can be seen through the Federal Government reducing Intragovernmental Transaction

(IGT) differences from $213.8 billion in FY 2018 to $94.25 billion in FY 2019, a decrease of $119.55

billion. The biggest reduction was in the General Fund transaction sub‐categories, with a reduction of

$95.3 billion from FY 2018 to FY 2019.

Issue 1 | March 2020

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Standardization of Balance Sheet Financial Statement Lines

What are we doing?

During October 2019, Fiscal Service launched a working group, which consisted of volunteers from the entity

financial reporting community, to begin efforts toward standardizing financial statement lines between

OMB’s Circular A‐136, Financial Reporting Requirements, and Section VI, Crosswalks to Reclassified

Statements for FY 2020 Reporting, of the United States Standard General Ledger (USSGL) Treasury Financial

Manual (TFM) Supplement. The goal of the working group is to standardize the Balance Sheet, Statement of

Operations and Changes in Net Position, and Statement of Net Cost for fiscal year 2021 reporting. The

Balance Sheet will be standardized in FY 2020 but not required until FY 2021.

Why are we doing it?

Standardizing the financial statement lines between Agency Financial Reports (AFRs) or Performance and

Accountability Reports (PARs) and the Financial Report of the U.S. Government (FR) offers many benefits to

financial reporting across the government:

1. Entities have requested the ability to generate financial statements from the Governmentwide

Treasury Account Symbol Adjusted Trial Balance System (GTAS). GTAS has this capability, since it

currently generates the financial statements for the FR. However, to generate financial statements

for entities, a standardized set of financial statements is needed.

2. If entities use GTAS to generate financial statements, the tools entities currently use to produce

financial statements would no longer be needed. Using GTAS would eliminate the cost of

implementation of reporting tools, as well as associated costs incurred to support such systems.

3. Since 2014, Chapter 2‐4700 of the TFM has required entity data submitted in GTAS to match entities

audited financial statements. Since this data is currently used to produce the financial statements in

the FR, entities use of GTAS to produce financial statements would improve the consistency between

AFRs/PARs and the FR, and therefore, increase the FR’s tracing for auditability. This concept supports

the government’s current bottom up audit model.

4. Having a set of standardized financial statements would reduce entity reporting burden by

eliminating the requirements for entities to include a disclosure for Note 44, Reclassification of

Balance Sheet, Statement of Net Cost, and Statement of Operations and Changes in Net Position for

FR Compilation Process. Note 44 became a new requirement for fiscal year 2019 when Fiscal Service

eliminated the requirement for entities to submit the annual Closing Package. This reconciliation is a

tool currently used by Fiscal Service to identify how line items of entity financial statements relate to

line items used to compile the financial statements in the FR. Standardizing financial statement lines

across the government would create a one‐to‐one relationship between entity statements and the

governmentwide statements, therefore, eliminating the need for this additional reconciliation.

5. There is a current focus on data transparency across the government, with the aim of improving the

quality and accuracy of financial data, while making the data more digestible by financial statement

users. Consistency in entity financial statements across the government supports transparency by

allowing users of financial statements to easily compare statement line information.

For more information about the ongoing efforts to standardize financial statement lines

across government, please contact Mallorie Davis (Mallorie.Davis@fiscal.treasury.gov) or

Jaime Saling (Jaime.Saling@fiscal.treasury.gov).

What’s New in Financial and

Budgetary Reporting! Issue 1 | March 2020

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What’s New in Financial and

Budgetary Reporting!

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Contact Information

Fiscal Service GTAS Team 

GTAS.Team@Fiscal.Treasury.Gov

Fiscal Service GTAS Accountant Assigned by Entity:

https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/gtas/contact‐list‐for‐

agencies.html

Federal Reserve Bank Treasury Support Center 

GTAS@stls.frb.org

Phone: (877) 440‐9476

Option 1, then Option 3

New GTAS Website provides Easy Navigation 

For Locating ImportantDocuments

https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/gtas/

Issue 1 | March 2020

5

• Why Monthly Reporting?

• Reporting Window Schedule

• Super Master Account File (SMAF)

• Data Validations & Accounting Edits

• Bulk File Format

• Proprietary Balances in Canceled Accounts

• Budget Deficit Reconciliation

• Intragovernmental Reports & Key Intragovernmental Dates

• Legal Letter Reporting Management Schedule Template

• Frequently Asked Questions

• Regulations & Guidance Links

• Related Links

Contact Information

Intragovernmental Inquiries

GovernmentwideIGT@Fiscal.Treasury.Gov

Fiscal Service Intragov Accountant Assigned by Entity:

https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/gtas/intergovernmental‐contact‐

list‐for‐federal‐entities.html

USSGL Guidance 

https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/ussgl/

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Guidance 

Teresa Tancre

ttancre@eop.omb.gov, Phone: (202) 395‐4836

Please contact the GTAS Team at

GTAS.Team@Fiscal.Treasury.Gov