Office of Finance

The Office of Financial Solutions (OFS), formerly Office of Financial Business Operations (OFBO), provides financial systems and operations services to VA’s Administrations and staff offices.  Among its responsibilities, OFS maintains and modifies VA’s corporate financial accounting systems.  OFS develops and implements long-range financial systems initiatives in concert with applicable VA offices.  We ensure systems pass financial information to the Financial Management System (FMS) and comply with Government wide accounting principles and standards and with financial systems policy/automated financial data exchange requirements.

Financial Management System Service (FMSS) serves as the program management office for the legacy Financial Management System (FMS) as well as the Management Information Exchange (MinX) system.  Responsibilities include oversight of the continued operation of these systems, data fixes, enhancements, bug fixes, updates, and management of nightly batch cycles to bring data from other systems which have financial components into FMS.  FMS is a 30-year-old system, which takes significant care and maintenance to ensure reliable service.

Financial Management Transformation Service (FMTS) is leading the Department’s Financial Management Business Transformation (FMBT) program.  This initiative aligns with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) M13-08, Improving Financial Systems through Shared Services and supports the VA’s strategic objective to “Enhance Productivity and Improve the Efficiency of the Provision of Veteran Benefits and Services.”  The FMBT program intends to provide a comprehensive financial management system that enables VA to meet financial management goals and objectives and compliance with financial management legislation and directives.

The Strategic Management Analytics Reporting Team (SMART) serves as the VA Office of Finance’s central operational authority for data quality reporting to OMB.  SMART responsibilities include compiling, reviewing and monitoring federal spending data in support of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (via USASpending.gov ) and collecting and submitting performance metrics in support of the President’s Management Agenda as well as other financial initiatives.  More recently, SMART leads the VA’s implementation of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) of 2014.  In this role, SMART works closely with Treasury, OMB, and VA administrations in the planning, extracting, and submitting of VA spending and financial information.  Finally, SMART is supporting the Financial Management Business Transformation initiative by helping to articulate reporting requirements and needs for the replacement financial system.