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CARS
Central Accounting Reporting System

CARS Reclassification Modernization Project: Introduction and Background

Welcome to Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s CARS Reclassification Modernization (CRM) site.  We have developed this site as a resource for the federal community to find information about Fiscal Service’s reclassification modernization project and points of contacts.  

The information posted on this site provides insight into the project and lays the groundwork for what reclassification will look like in the future.  This is a government-wide effort and we encourage everyone’s participation.  We will continue to update this site as we proceed with this work.

Background

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is working toward remediating an audit finding from Fiscal Year 2018 Schedules of the General Fund (https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-185) about the inability to trace General Fund transactions. 

The current reporting options provided by Fiscal Service limit the level of detail entities can report to CARS for Classification Transactions and Accountability (CTA). Without the ability to independently identify and trace General Fund transactions from initiation all the way through recording in the Schedules general ledgers, there is no assurance that transactions are completely and accurately recorded and reported in the correct general ledger accounts and line items in the Schedules, respectively. 

For this project we will be focusing only on CARS reporter CTA transactions.  CTA reporting for CARS Reporters in Section I is for reclassifying (correct TAS/BETCs) transactions that were reported by a source system (IPAC, TDO Payments, CIR, and PIR).  For CARS reporters, when a transaction is selected that was reported on CTA, Section I the expectation is that the transactions are reclassifications (reversals and restatements) and are able to be traced back to the original transaction (transaction that was reversed in reclass) reported by a source system.  In the current CARS environment, there are many reasons that complicate or prevent this from occurring. So, the CRM team is conducting an evaluation of the CARS reclassification process which includes an inventory of what entities are reporting for reclassifications and how they are doing it. 

Treasury is partnering with federal entities to reengineer and modernize the CARS CTA module for CARS reporters.  The project scope includes:

  • identifying and assessing the transactional activity reported in CTA to set apart traceable transactions (reclassifications) from non-traceable transactions (transfers and non-cash transactions),
  • identifying the reasons why an entity is reclassing to reduce the reasons why an entity has to reclass,
  • identifying reporting anomalies to improve reporting accuracy, and
  • identifying solutions to reclassification traceability issues to originating source transaction.

The CRM team started the entity outreach phase in February of 2020 by reaching out to CARS reporters who reported reclassifications in fiscal year 2019.  These federal entities were invited to participate in the collaborative work to improve CARS reclassification reporting. This included requesting each entity to provide their unique reclassification scenarios for a targeted month selected by Treasury for each Agency Location Code (ALC) they support and filling out a questionnaire about their reclassification process and general CARS interactions.

Treasury is using the information to identify commonalities and differences among ALCs, help drive development system design and timeline planning, and determine the feasibility of entity implementation.

During this part of the project, the CRM team will be focusing on:

  • Improving auditability by adding traceability from CTA reclassification transactions to the associated originating source transactions
  • Strengthening reporting accuracy by putting controls in place
  • Analyzing federal community use cases in defining requirements
  • Gathering federal community feedback for continuous improvement based on users’ needs
  • Adding robust search capabilities and improved report capabilities for reclassifications
  • Creating specific guidance about how entities are to report reclassifications and perform reconciliations

Contacts

If you have any questions about what your agency can or needs to do or if you have any questions or feedback about the  process, please contact our CRM team:

Milissia Morris – milissia.morris@fiscal.treasury.gov
Joe Deem – Joe.deem@fiscal.treasury.gov

Last modified 01/30/23