WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Oct. 24, 2011) -- The most advanced financial management system in Army history, the General Fund Enterprise Business System, or GFEBS, is now operational worldwide.
The GFEBS now has nearly 40,000 users across all service components, and is the most widely implemented of the Army's Enterprise Resource Planning systems. It's expected when fully deployed, sometime in fiscal year 2012, GFEBS will engage close to 60,000 users at some 200 locations worldwide and will impact almost every Army organization and function.
The GFEBS records financial transactions with supporting documentation, tracks transactions to the detailed level, and will produce an auditable trial balance. The Army Audit Agency's most recent evaluation found that GFEBS complies with 1,054 of 1,113 requirements from the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act. On-going development of GFEBS will complete the remaining 5 percent for full compliance in fiscal year 2012.
"We know what an audit-ready financial environment looks like and our audit readiness plan incorporates the necessary steps to get us there," said Mary Sally Matiella, the assistant secretary of the Army for financial management and comptroller. "Fundamental to supporting an audit is being able to support every financial transaction all the way down to the details and supporting documentation."
The GFEBS involves fully or partially replacing 106 information systems, interfacing with other systems -- currently, that involves about 45 systems -- and re-engineering business processes and data structures.
With its latest release, GFEBS added functionality to include an interface with the Army's Deployable Disbursing System, which enables GFEBS to support financial operations in overseas locations.
Additionally, the second phase of the Army's federated concept for integrating ERP systems was completed between GFEBS and the Global Combat Support System-Army, which included synchronizing funds management and cost management master data between the two systems, consolidating cost management and execution reporting, and funds management and financial reporting in GFEBS.
GFEBS received a full deployment decision from Elizabeth McGrath June 24, the program's milestone decision authority. The decision affirmed the deployment readiness of the GFEBS solution and authorized system implementation Army-wide.
The GFEBS deployment is scheduled to conclude in 2012, providing a core system for managing a significant portion of the Army's general fund and ushering in a new era in Army financial management.
In an Army posture statement submitted to Congress, Secretary of the Army John McHugh and now retired Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. wrote that the GFEBS is "much more" than just an accounting system.
"[It] is the Army's new business system," they said. "It gives managers a greatly improved capability to manage the cost, schedule, and performance of their programs and, at the same time, is the centerpiece in our progress toward full auditability of our financial statements."
For more information on GFEBS, visit the milWiki page: https://www.milsuite.mil/wiki/Portal:GFEBS
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