Lesson 2.5: IFMIS Payment Process

Objective: At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

Describe how to complete the payment process within IFMIS.

IFMIS Payment Process

Select each area of the payment process diagram to learn more.

Step 1: Posting of Payment Transaction

The Payment Process begins with the posting of voucher/invoice or SF1164 transactions in IFMIS within the Cost Posting subsystem.

Once saved, the payment transaction displays a status of OPEN in IFMIS. In addition, IFMIS assigns a Schedule By Date and Due Date based on rules established by the Prompt Payment Act and the selected discount terms applied to the invoice.

Step 2: Approval of Payment Transaction

The Payment Approval Process is a procedure whereby an Approver reviews the posted payment request to ensure all is proper with the payment.

Once assured that all is proper, the Approver marks the payment request as approved by inputting their initials in the Approver location on the posted transaction. IFMIS then changes the payment status from OPEN to APPROVED.

Once the payment request is marked as APPROVED, IFMIS warehouses the payment until the payment request is scheduled and paid.

Step 3: Payment Schedule Process

The IFMIS Payment Schedule Process is an automated procedure managed by the IFMIS Disbursements Subsystem, which, when invoked, extracts all approved payment requests that have a Schedule by Date consistent with the date the schedule process is run. The targeted approved payments are placed on a payment schedule for transmission to the Department of the Treasury Disbursing Center for Payment Issuance.

Once a payment request is scheduled for payment, IFMIS automatically changes the status from APPROVED to SCHEDULED. In addition, IFMIS inputs the Department of the Treasury Schedule Number on the Payment Request during this time.

Also, once a payment is scheduled and has been sent to the Department of the Treasury, the funds are considered to be disbursed to the recipient.

Note: The Schedule Process is run daily by a Certifying Officer at FEMA’s Office of Chief Financial Officer.

Step 4: Payment Confirmation Process

The Payment Confirmation Process culminates the payment process. Once a Payment Schedule is submitted to the Department of the Treasury for payment, the Department of the Treasury responds by providing notification back to FEMA to validate actual cash disbursement of funds, i.e., the disbursement confirmation.

Once the confirmation is received, an authorized OCFO individual must access the IFMIS Disbursement Subsystem and input the pertinent information regarding the disbursement action. The information includes the:

Department of the Treasury Schedule number,
Date paid,
Beginning check tracer number, and
Ending check number.

IFMIS then marks each of the payment requests (i.e., invoice or voucher control numbers) on the confirmed schedule with the actual check number or tracer number (electronic funds transfer EFT payments) issued by the Department of the Treasury. Most importantly, IFMIS will change the payment record (control number) status from SCHEDULED to PAID.

Resolving Cancellation of Payment

On occasion, there are times when the Department of the Treasury issues checks for fund transfers that are not properly delivered, resulting in a cancellation of the payment.

The Department of the Treasury cancels the payment and re-stocks FEMA’s accounts with the disbursed funds.
The Department of the Treasury notifies FEMA of the cancellation via an SF1098, Treasury Check Cancellation.
Upon receipt of the SF1098, an authorized FEMA-OCFO individual records the SF1098 to the IFMIS Disbursements Subsystem, whereby the financial effects of the original payment are reversed and the status on the original payment is changed from PAID to OPEN.

There is not an IFMIS function that informs a disbursing center that a cancellation has occurred. Therefore, Accounts Payable personnel must review the IFMIS Open Invoice Report, to keep an eye on the due dates of payments outstanding. A cancelled payment will continue to show the original due date of the payment.

IFMIS users can run the IFMIS Cost Posting Status Change Report to see that a cancellation has occurred. Once the payment is reflected as OPEN, steps 2–4 of the payment process must be repeated.

Lesson 2.5 Summary

This lesson covered:

IFMIS payment process.

The next unit covers vendor invoice processing.