ATF eyes paperless financing

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms recently migrated to a new financial management system to help it achieve its goal of a paperless financial environment.

ATF migrated from American Management Systems Inc.'s mainframe-based Federal Financial System software to AMS' Momentum software, which is based on a client/server architecture. The move is part of an overall plan by ATF to get rid of its mainframe systems and move to a paperless environment.

The new system provides a connection between ATF headquarters and its 150 field offices and has given its field employees real-time access to accounting, procurement and financial data, said Zip Brown, vice president with AMS' e-government solutions group.

The old mainframe system that was located at ATF headquarters required any data collected in the field to be sent in on paper and keyed into the system. However, with Momentum, all data, regardless of where it is collected, is entered into the system directly.

"The data is [now] entered at the source by individuals that are most knowledgeable about the data," Brown said. "If any errors or rejection messages [appear], end users can correct the data right there."

AMS is also working with the Treasury Department's Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which will move to Momentum later this year.