U.S. Geological Survey Manual

1. Purpose. This chapter serves as an introduction to Handbook 332-1-H, FFS Management Reports User Guide. This Handbook documents, explains, and illustrates the basic management reports produced for the U.S. Geological Survey from the Federal Financial System (FFS), the Department of the Interior accounting system. The reports are produced on a monthly basis, except for more frequent productions during critical periods (e.g., year-end closeout). These management reports serve a variety of needs, providing both detailed and summary information for funding, costs (commitments, obligations, expenditures/payments, and burden), billings, and collections.

2. Objectives. The Handbook is intended to provide an overview of the management reports available and an explanation of the data presented on each report. The data contained in these reports support financial information reported to external entities, e.g., the Department of Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget. The reports themselves are intended to provide management with a means:

A. To exercise administrative control over the availability and obligation of funds.

B. To monitor the recording of commitments, unliquidated obligations, and expenditures for the proper amounts against the proper accounts and funding sources.

C. To analyze rates of obligation and the unobligated balances available.

D. To analyze obligations by object classification, thereby providing cost data for programming and budgeting, and for preparing and revising financial plans.

E. To account for detailed information relative to billings and collections of reimbursable agreements.

3. Responsibilities.

A. The Chief, Office of Financial Management (OFM) is responsible for the development and implementation of policies and procedures to control, record, and report funding and financial transactions of the U.S. Geological Survey. OFM is responsible, in conjunction with the Office of Systems Management (OSM), for the coordination of a monthly schedule for the production of the management reports. OFM is also responsible for verifying the reliability of the data on the reports and the distribution of hard copy and microfiche versions of certain reports.

B. The division chiefs and heads of USGS offices are responsible for verifying the accuracy of the data on the reports for their organizations and for ensuring that the reports are utilized for the objectives set forth in SM 332.2.2.

C. The Office of Systems Management is responsible for the timely production and distribution of the printed financial reports to the divisions and offices of the USGS, and in certain instances, making reports available for electronic access. The initial distribution pattern is conveyed to the Office of Financial Management and is based on instructions furnished by each division or office.

4. Explanation and Illustration of Financial Reports. The FFS Management Reports User Guide Handbook contains detailed explanations of the various financial reports and also contains illustrations of sample transactions extracted, where possible, from actual financial reports. The data shown is intended for illustrative purposes only. Although the reports do not contain all the various entries that may arise in any one division, region, or cost center, the entries represent those most frequently encountered.