Governmentwide Treasury Account Symbol Adjusted Trial Balance System (GTAS)

Common Questions

1.  What is GTAS?

GTAS is a Web-based system implemented for use in a Governmentwide reporting setting to merge the functionality of the four current stovepipe applications that collect trial balance data: Federal Agencies' Centralized Trial-Balance System I (FACTS I), Federal Agencies' Centralized Trial-Balance System II (FACTS II), Intragovernmental Fiduciary Confirmation System (IFCS), and Intragovernmental Reporting and Analysis System (IRAS). This consolidation of systems will facilitate data consistency checks, save FMS significant maintenance costs, and save agencies substantial reporting costs. Agencies will submit proprietary and budgetary data simultaneously in one simple submission. This will save the user time and will avoid the need to use two separate systems. Edits will check data across both budgetary and proprietary reporting.

2.  Why GTAS?

Stovepipe reporting methods and lack of reconciliation across FMS systems have led to incomplete and inconsistent financial reporting of the Federal Government's activities. The Financial Information Reporting Standardization (FIRST) initiative will address these issues by installing a streamlined and more acceptable approach to collecting data. This will allow Governmentwide Accounting (GWA) to provide better feedback to agencies and to identify key discrepancies in financial information. The Governmentwide Financial Report System (GFRS) and U.S. Standard General Ledger Interactive Database (SID) have been released already; GTAS is the final system in the FIRST initiative. GTAS will merge the functionality of FACTS I, FACTS II, IFCS, and IRAS reporting systems, and will usher in a new era of Government financial accountability. One of the key advantages for agencies is the ability to consolidate their current stovepipe reporting into one system.

3.  When is GTAS going to be launched?

GTAS will be launched for third quarter reporting in 2011.

4.  Who will be using GTAS?

The same users and agencies that report in FACTS I, FACTS II, IFCS, and IRAS will be using GTAS.

5.  How will I report in GTAS?

Agencies will report in GTAS by uploading a bulk file with adjusted trial balance data. There will no longer be an online data entry submission option as is currently available. An easy-to-learn and easy-to-use interface system will allow agencies not only to upload their data files for submission but also to view and to print reports.

6.  What should I expect when I log into GTAS?

Users should expect an easy-to-use Web interface, important messages, and the ability to quickly and easily upload data. Submission will be as easy as adding an attachment to an email! Simply go to the adjusted trial balance file upload page, click the browse button, select the file to upload, and click Submit. The file will be transmitted to Treasury, and validations will be run on the data. Once the data has passed all data validations, accounting edits will be run and feedback will be available in reports for analytics. Once the data has passed all edits and validations, the data must be certified.

7.  What do I need to be able to report in GTAS?

First, users will need to have a standard Web browser on their PC. Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Mozilla Firefox are acceptable. Second, agencies will need to modify current accounting systems to produce the required bulk file in the format required by GTAS. View the Bulk File Data Requirements. Finally, using advanced reporting tools, agencies will have the opportunity to run analysis on data. This feedback will help in the analysis of submitted data and will identify the irregularities and errors that may be present in the data.

8.  What types of Edits and Validations will be applied to my data?

Edits include but are not limited to balance edits, appropriations edits, SF 133 edits, outlay reconciliations, Fund Balance With Treasury edits, expenditures and obligations edits, etc. View the full edit list. Validations include Treasury Account Symbol validations, USSGL account validations, amount validations, Public Law validations, duplicate records validations, etc. View the full validations list.

9.  When will GTAS be available to me for use?

GTAS will be available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

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