U.S. Government Standard General Ledger (USSGL)

Board Meeting Minutes

May 12, 2016

LOCATION: 1722 I St. NW Washington, DC 20006, Conference Room 704 (Hamilton) 7th

floor

TIME: 9:30 AM to 12 PM

HANDOUTS:

• Voting Ballot #16-01

• CFO Memo Presentation

• G-Invoicing Presentation

• Financial Report of the US Government Consolidation Presentation

• USSGL Presentation

• Proposed Bylaws

Director, Valeria Spinner (Fiscal Service) began by welcoming participants to the Annual

USSGL Board Meeting. All attendees introduced themselves and the agency represented.

Valeria introduced Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Michael D. Linder (Fiscal Service) to the 

meeting attendees. Mike highlighted several of the innovative projects and accomplishments of 

the Bureau Fiscal Service from 2015 as presented in the recent Memorandum for All CFOs, 

DCFOs, and CIOs from Commissioner, Sheryl R. Morrow (Fiscal Service). Some items of 

interest included implementing the Central Accounting and Reporting System (CARS) and 

establishing the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury as a significant reporting entity. By May 

2017, federal agencies will be required to report financial and payment information in 

accordance with the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). In 

response to this requirement, the Department of Treasury has launched a beta website allowing

stakeholders to view, test, and provide input regarding the new DATA Act website.

Keith Jarboe (Fiscal Service) was introduced to the attendees. Keith provided an overview of 

the G-Invoicing application which is not a new system, but rather the expansion of an earlier 

collaboration between the Department of Treasury and the Department of Defense (DoD). The 

driving force behind G-Invoicing is the mitigation of the material weakness reported by the U.S. 

Government Accoutantability Office (GAO) in its opinion on the Financial Report of the U. S. 

Government for the past nineteen years resulting from the difficulty of the government to 
account and reconcile intra-governmental activity and balances between federal entities. The 

application is intended to be used as a tool to facilitate communication between trading partners 

in the federal arena. The plan is to implement the G-Invoicing application governmentwide in 

several releases with the first scheduled for September 2016.

Valeria then introduced Luke Sheppard (Fiscal Service) who discussed upcoming changes to 

the Governmentwide Financial Reporting System (GFRS) and the Governmentwide Treasury 

Account Symbol Adjusted Trial Balance System (GTAS). Beginning in Fiscal 2017, agencies 

will begin using data submissions in GTAS to provide the majority of their GFRS data. One of 

the major goals of this change will be a reduction of the burden upon federal agencies to 

manually report their data for the compilation of the Financial Report of the U.S. Government 

(FR). This process is intended to improve the data quality and integrity as well as streamline 

financial reporting guidance.

Teresa Tancre (OMB) was introduced to the attendees. Teresa provided updates on the release 

of both the OMB Circular A-136 and OMB Circular A-11. Currently, both circulars are being 

vetted in the draft stages of review. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans to 

target the release of these documents by the latter part of June 2016. There are no significant 

changes planned other than minor crosswalk updates. Teresa also stated she had been working 

with agencies to correct any differences seen in the GTAS data submitted into MAX, with the 

goal being for all differences to be resolved by the end of third quarter reporting for 2016.

Valeria then introduced Michele Crosco (Fiscal Service) who provided an overview of the new 

USSGL accounts and updates to existing USSGL accounts for Fiscal Years 2016 and 2017. 

These account changes are presented on the U.S. Government Standard General Ledger 

(USSGL) Voting Ballot 16-01 for the consideration of the voting Board Members.

Manager, Chris Beck (Fiscal Service) was introduced to the attendees. Chris provided an 

overview of the technical updates proposed to the United States Standard General Ledger Board 

Bylaws. These changes are included on the Voting Ballot 16-01 for the consideration of the 

voting Board Members. Chris provided a statistical summary of USSGL Issues that were logged 

since May 2015. Lastly, Chris reported on the loss of USSGL Advisory Division staff member 

Lisa D. Smith. Lisa passed away unexpectedly on April 21, 2016, and will be missed by her 

family, co-workers, and contacts throughout the federal financial reporting community.

An opportunity for questions was provided to the attendees after which, Valeria adjourned the 

meeting.
PARTICIPANTS:

Bruce Henshel, Commerce

David Surti, DHS

Joseph Doyle, DOD

Diane Washington, DOI

Valerie Grant, DOJ

Webster Coleman, DOL

Drena McDaniel, DOT

Michele Crosco, Fiscal Service

Jonnathan Diaz Olivo, Fiscal Service

Keith Jarboe, Fiscal Service

Michael Linder, Fiscal Service

Kent Linscott, Fiscal Service

Luke Sheppard, Fiscal Service

Valeria Spinner, Fiscal Servce

Jeff Taberner, Fiscal Service

Kathy Wages, Fiscal Service

Marlana White, Fiscal Service 

Melanie White, Fiscal Service

Michael Ward, GSA

Karen Brown, HUD

Rita Hebb, HUD

Teresa Tancre, OMB

Joseph Henry, SBA

Deron Smallwood, SBA

Karen Hunter, SSA

Alfred Buck, USAID

Hisham Abelaziz, USDA