Subject: NASA Financial Information Systems

Responsible Office: Office of the Chief Financial Officer

Chapter 2. Integrated Financial Management Systems

2.1 System Roles and Responsibilities

2.1.1 The responsibility for NASA's financial management system is jointly managed through a collaborative effort between the CFO and the CIO.

a. NASA's financial management is required to use the NASA EA as the basis for its financial system planning.

b. The CFO shall assess and determine the business requirements for NASA's integrated financial system in the areas of financial management processes, financial data integrity and audit controls, and financial reporting.

c. The CIO is responsible for leading the Agency's long-term strategic integration of NASA's financial and nonfinancial information systems within an EA that supports the Agency's Planning, Programming, and Budget Execution (PPBE) processes. (Additional information is available on EA in NPD 2830.1 and OCIO's responsibilities in NPR 2800.1.)

2.2 Integration of NASA's Financial Management Systems within EA

2.2.1 As part of the CIO's responsibility to manage a full life-cycle IT governance process, NASA's APB engages in strategic planning to ensure all NASA systems integrate efficiently within the Agency's EA framework.

2.2.2 The Agency CFO coordinates implementations and changes to existing financial management systems through the F-APMB, which reports to the APB.

2.2.2.1 The F-APMB is responsible for assessing the functionality of the Agency's long-term strategic financial systems portfolio in order to:

a. Meet OCFO's future requirements.

b. Maintain acceptable levels of risk and quality of service.

c. Minimize cost to the Agency.

2.2.2.2 The F-AMPB is responsible for integrating financial systems within the Agency's EA to:

a. Share common data through NASA Structure Management (NSM). NSM is a single, integrated programmatic and institutional data management structure that supports the Office of the Chief Engineer (OCE) in determining the appropriate management requirements for programs and projects. NSM enhances project management in constructing a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) matching financial and programmatic structures. Meta Data Manager (MDM) is the system used to track changes to the NSM.

b. Perform financial functions and automatically exchange data with other systems. NASA integrates financial information processed in subsidiary or feeder systems with its financial management system to enable accurate and complete transaction postings to the United States Standard General Ledger, in compliance with the requirements in Treasury's Financial Manual.

c. Promote control of resources, information quality, and performance review through uniformity of features and internal system controls providing validation of data throughout the system components.

2.2.3 NASA Financial Management Business Process. NASA will maintain one centralized integrated financial management system that serves as its official system of record and aligns with Agency financial business processes for which the CFO is the key business process owner.

2.2.3.1 If gaps are identified in the functionality provided by the central financial system, the OCFO may choose to establish additional systems to address these specific process needs. To reduce the risk that these subsystems may lead to inconsistent views of financial information, they will be designed so as not to house redundant financial data or call into question the authoritative source of any financial data.

2.2.4 CFO as Business Process Owner. The CFO is the key business process owner for the Core Financial System functions and elements of any system, subsystem, feeder system, or system routine that supports a NASA financial business process. Such systems include any that:

a. Support the direct business processes of the CFO.

b. Perform ancillary calculations, functions, tracking, or other activities primarily for, or related to, the business processes of the CFO.

2.2.5 Integrated Financial Management Systems Architecture. The following are effective design characteristics:

a. Common Data Elements. NASA systems will use standard data classification which requires:

(1) Developing standard data definitions and formats.

(2) Capturing, sharing, and storing common data elements recorded through financial system processing events among systems for meeting reporting requirements and use in subsequent processing.

(3) Abiding by Federal requirements for Government-wide information standards including the U.S. Government Standard General Ledger, Government-wide Treasury Account Symbol (GTAS) Adjusted Trial Balance System, and other Treasury reporting requirements.

a. Common Transaction Processing. NASA systems use common processing techniques among systems for similar transactions. Such consistency streamlines subsequent processing efforts.

b. Consistent Internal Controls. NASA systems use internal controls for data entry, transaction processing, and reporting to ensure the integrity of data, information, and the protection of NASA resources.

c. Efficient Transaction Entry. The design of financial management systems will accommodate single entry points across systems to eliminate duplicate data entry.

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