Financial systems update drafted

JFMIP Core Financial Systems Requirements

For the first time in three years, the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program is revising the standards for agencies' core financial management systems.

The changes contained in a draft released Tuesday are the first since JFMIP took over responsibility for certifying the federal government's core financial management systems in 1999. If enacted later this year, the changes will set new requirements for agencies buying financial management systems and for vendors selling such systems.

Although the draft calls for many changes to the requirements, about 75 percent of the document is the same as it is now, JFMIP executive director Karen Cleary Alderman said.

Most of the changes were made to clarify certain issues that have come up over the past three years, JFMIP senior associate Stephen Balsam said. "The biggest change will be further clarification."

The revised document includes some items that previously had been classified as "value-added" items in the 1999 version, Balsam said. For example, the new requirements include a provision for a revolving fund, which was a value-added item in the earlier version, he said.

Some agencies also have been pushing for some items to fall under mandatory testing by JFMIP in the certification process.

The revisions to the requirements come as the three-year certification period for most financial management products is set to expire at the end of fiscal 2002. JFMIP wanted to have the requirements in place in time to give vendors a chance to respond and get certified under the new set of requirements, Balsam said.

JFMIP officials hope that the requirements will help reduce the amount of customization that agencies have to make on commercial financial management systems, thereby reducing costs and improving the likelihood that agencies will be able to implement the products successfully.

Comments on the draft are due Aug. 20. JFMIP officials hope to have the new requirements in place by Oct. 1 and begin testing systems soon thereafter.