GTAS ... What’s New! May 27, 2011 

Volume 1, Issue 2 

Financial Management Service, Governmentwide Accounting 

GTAS Training Classes 

New Fiduciary Edits 

In this issue 

If you want to know 

more about GTAS 

requirements, the 

GTAS class is for you! 

The one-day class is 

scenario-based and 

includes an in-depth 

discussion of the Super 

Master Account File 

data elements, bulk 

file format, GTAS 

attribute table, edits 

and validations. You 

will work in teams 

with other students to 

• GTAS Classes in 

July, August, 

September 

• New BPD and FFB 

Fiduciary Edits in 

GTAS 

journalize accounting 

entries, prepare an 

adjusted trial balance 

and bulk file, and 

determine if the bulk 

file passes the 

validations and edits. 

We have scheduled 

classes for July 12, 

August 23 and 

September 13 in 

Hyattsville, Maryland. 

An email will be sent 

to the GTAS users in a 

few weeks with 

information about how 

to register for the 

classes. Later this 

year we will announce 

a schedule for the 2012 

class dates. 

 

You may want to 

consider having the 

class on-site if several 

people from your 

agency are interested 

in attending the class. 

Contact Rita Cronley 

at 

rita.cronley@fms.treas.

gov if your agency 

would like an on-site 

class. 

There will be new nonfatal fiduciary edits in 

GTAS that replace the 

current Intragovernmental 

Fiduciary 

Confirmation System 

(IFCS). The edits 

involve investments 

and loans with the 

Bureau of Public Debt 

(BPD) and loans with 

the Federal Financing 

Bank (FFB). Both 

BPD and FFB will 

send authoritative 

data to GTAS that will 

be used to edit the 

agencies’ investment 

and loan bulk file data. 

The BPD data will be 

used in the following 

edits: 

Investments 

● BPD Payables = 

Agency Receivables 

● BPD Liabilities = 

Agency Assets 

● BPD Expenses = 

Agency Revenue 

Loans 

● BPD Receivables = 

Agency Payables 

● BPD Assets = 

Agency Liabilities 

● BPD Revenues = 

Agency Expenses 

• New TAS Level 

Attribute for 

Backdated 

Transactions 

• Start Testing Bulk 

Files Now 

Individual Highlights 

The FFB loan data will 

be used in three edits: GTAS Training Classes 1 

● FFB Receivables = 

Agency Payables New Fiduciary Edits 1 

● FFB Assets = Agency 

Liabilities 

Backdated Transaction 2 

Bulk File Testing 2 ● FFB Revenue = 

Agency Expenses Team Member Profile 2 

Look for the new edits 

in the official 2013 

Financial Reporting 

TFM coming in 

September 2011. 
2 TYPE TITLE HERE

 Backdated Transaction 

Bulk File Testing 

GTAS Team Member Profile 

Would you like to 

know if your trial 

balances pass the 

GTAS validations and 

edits? Several 

agencies do know 

because they have 

already started 

submitting GTAS bulk 

files for testing and so 

can you. 

You will need to 

prepare a trial balance 

in the GTAS bulk file 

format that includes

● the TAS in the FMS 

Accounting Data 

Standards format 

(f.k.a. CGAC) 

● the six-digit USSGL 

account 

● the GTAS bulk file 

attributes

Send us your trial 

balance, and we will 

test it for you and 

provide feedback on 

the quality of the data 

in the trial balance 

within one business 

day. Contact Gregory 

Keel at 

Gregory.Keel@fms.trea

s.gov if you want to 

submit a GTAS bulk 

file for testing. 

Agencies can start 

using the system to 

pilot test bulk files 

beginning in May 2012 

but don’t wait until 

then. 

START TESTING 

NOW!!! 

Kathy Wages is a vital 

member of the GTAS 

testing team. She has 

built several test bulk 

files to determine if the 

GTAS edits and 

validations work as 

expected. If there is 

an edit or validation

that can be broken, 

Kathy always finds a 

way to break it. We 

have re-evaluated 

several validations and 

edits based on her test 

results. 

Kathy has been with 

the Federal 

Government for 13 

years, the entire time 

with the Financial 

Management Service. 

She has worked with 

both FACTS I and 

FACTS II so her 

experience is a great 

asset to the GTAS 

team. 

“Backdated 

Transaction” is a new 

Treasury Account 

Symbol attribute that 

indicates whether or 

not a transaction has 

been backdated to a 

previous fiscal year in 

the Central Accounting 

System. If a TAS has 

one or more backdated 

transactions, the 

backdated transaction 

value will be Y (yes) on 

the Super Master 

Account File. If there 

are no backdated 

transactions for the 

TAS, the value on the 

SMAF will be N (no). 

How does the new TAS 

level attribute affect 

your bulk file results? 

We built a validation 

that compares 

backdated transaction 

at the TAS level with 

the Prior Year 

Adjustment attribute 

at the USSGL level. 

The validation will 

allow you to use PYA B 

only if the backdated 

transaction is Y (yes). 

If you use PYA B when 

the backdated flag is N 

(no), your bulk file will 

fail the validation. 

Refer to the SMAF and 

validations files on the 

GTAS website for more 

information. 

http://www.fms.treas.

Did you know that gov/gtas 

agencies can have more 

than one user assigned to 

a TAS in GTAS? This will 

allow for shared 

responsibilities within the 

agency!