Tag: DEAMS

Best of DEAMS Weekly Messages

Solving the DEAMS PTP Puzzle

Dive into this comprehensive guide where the Command SME team assembles the pieces of the Accounts Payable puzzle. The AFAOC CSME – Solving the PTP Puzzle video will provide you with: 

  • A clear understanding of the Accounts Payable or Procure to Pay (PTP) process in DEAMS. 
  • Insight into the five key components of the process: Purchase Requisition, Purchase Order, Receipt, Invoice, and Payment. 
  • A walkthrough of different payment methods used in DEAMS. 
  • An exploration of various scenarios you may encounter in your work center. 

Whether you’re new to DEAMS or looking to enhance your knowledge, this video is a must-watch. Equip yourself with the tools to navigate the PTP process smoothly and efficiently. 

Dormant MORD Performance Countermeasures

In response to recommended process improvements, the 31 December 2022 deobligations will be limited to dormant Accounting MORDs marked as “deobligate” in PowerBI. MORDs without comment in PowerBI, meeting the criteria in the Performance Metric Countermeasures Memo signed on 4 Nov 2022 will not be deobligated on 31 December 2022. Dormant MORD Performance Countermeasures

Performance Metric Countermeasures for
Dormant Accounting Miscellaneous Obligation Reimbursement Documents (MORDs)​​​​​​​

16 DECEMBER 2022 UPDATE: In response to recommended process improvements, the 31 December 2022 deobligations will be limited to dormant Accounting MORDs marked as “deobligate” in PowerBI. MORDs without comment in PowerBI, meeting the criteria for the Performance Metric Countermeasures for Dormant Accounting MORDs policy signed on 4 Nov 2022 will not be deobligated on 31 December 2022. Additional training on the process will be made available in January 2023 and monthly deobligations will continue as originally planned.

In accordance with the 4 November 2022 Air Force Accounting & Finance Office – Accounting (AFAFO-A) Performance Metric Countermeasures memo to establish a process to deobligate aged Accounting MORDs within DEAMS that are dormant for 180 days or more, the AFAOC has identified the specific documents that require research, validation and/or corrective action. The results have been consolidated and delivered as a new tool within the Open Documents portion of AFAOC Data Analytics PowerBI application entitled “DEAMS Dormant POs” located on the Data Analytics and Field Support SharePoint site. This module is updated daily and a training video will be made available soon for reference.

All bases should access the DEAMS Dormant POs application and take appropriate action IAW the instructions provided in the policy memo to either deobligate the MORD or provide an explanation for keeping the obligation balance open.  Any dormant MORDS  meeting the criteria established by AFAFO-A  (FY20 or older) will be systemically deobligated on 31 December 2022 and will continue to be deobligated monthly.  Bases will be required to review and validate dormant MORDs on a monthly basis until they are no longer open.

The DEAMS Dormant POs tool provides an “Age Band” filter, which allows users to view documents based on the number of days since last accounting activity. Users can select multiple age ranges from 61-90 days; 91-120 days; 121-150 days; 151-180 days; and 181+ days.

It is the base’s responsibility to ensure their open MORDs aged 180 days, or more are validated prior to the end of each month. To reserve the obligation, a MORD must be annotated with “Valid Obligation” within the PowerBi tool before the end of the month, along with all the following details:

Reason for the delay in expensing the obligation
A generic response WILL NOT be accepted; if this was processed as a TBO include the associated voucher information

Amount of the pending invoice
If the invoice is less than the MORD, you will need to decrease your MORD

Anticipated expenditure date
Documentation to support this date must be uploaded in FMSuite

Source of invoice
Performing organization or Vendor’s contact information is required

Note: MAJCOMs/FIELDCOMs are responsible for providing guidance on whether MAJCOM/FIELDCOM approval is required to keep the obligation in the system.

Favorite DEAMS Videos

Still Need to Watch

Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) to Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) Transition Effective 4 Apr 2022

DEAMS Users will be impacted by the transition from Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) to Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) codes, which is currently expected to occur on 4 April 2022.  Those with DEAMS Supplier Maintenance and Creation Responsibility will be most impacted.

In DEAMS, the DUNS number has been a nine-digit non-indicative numbering sequence used to identify specific vendors, assigned and managed by Dun & Bradstreet since 1962. In October 2020, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed a Government-wide transition from DUNS to UEI codes to be completed by April 2022. This transition impacts Government Information Systems that use or collect Supplier information, and streamlines how an entity (anyone who does business with the government) receives their ID. UEI codes are scheduled to be activated in DEAMS on 4 April 2022.

Entities already registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) were automatically transitioned from DUNS to UEIs. Information on creating a new UEI is available on the General Services Administration website at https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/organization/federal-acquisition-service/office-of-systems-management/integrated-award-environment-iae/iae-systems-information-kit/unique-entity-identifier-update.

“If your entity is registered in SAM.gov today, your Unique Entity ID (SAM) has already been assigned and is viewable in SAM.gov. This includes inactive registrations. The Unique Entity ID is currently located below the DUNS Number on your entity registration record.” 

For DEAMS Users, the biggest difference will be the number of characters in the field (9 DUNS/12 UEI). To assist Users in selecting the correct UEI site number for a vendor, DEAMS Job Aid “Supplier Record Research_SPD.docx” provides an overview of the process and references other job aids, depending on which responsibilities are being used for the actions. To help ease the transition from DUNS to UEI, a crosswalk will be made available at “go live” on the DEAMS Outreach Portal to help users identify correct vendor records in DEAMS. This crosswalk will only contain existing vendors; it will not capture new entities following the transition.

Our DFAS partners are responsible for creating and maintaining the UEI list in DEAMS, and in the event of interface errors, they may need to validate UEI codes in SAMs.  The SAMs site lists the UEI for a supplier right below the corresponding DUNS, simplifying the validation process. 

Questions should be addressed to users’ respective MAJCOM/CCMD SMEs, or the DEAMS Help Desk.

For any further messaging, access the DEAMS Users Group on milBook.

DEAMS Top 10 List Archive

The monthly DEAMS Top 10 list is an invaluable resource for staying on top of the latest DEAMS updates. It typically has information relevant to the current budget cycle and has tons of helpful links. It (like almost everything else) is behind the .mil domain, so I’m going to house them here so you can learn when your not connected or after hours.

DEAMS Top 10 Library (CAC required)

03_March_2022_Top_Ten_List

02_February_2022_Top_Ten_List

Proper DEAMS Purchase Order Type for Syncada MORDs

When establishing Purchase Orders (POs) in DEAMS for US Bank Syncada invoices the correct PO Type is Planned Purchase Order. 

Recently there has been an increase of MORDs being established with a PO Type of Standard Purchase Order, which is causing a lot of manual work.  This causes the invoice to Interface into DIMES with an error. It will then need to be uploaded into EDM and manually processed by straight post (similar to a straight obligation) since releases cannot be reserved, approved, or matched on Standard POs in DEAMS. This causes delays in processing.

There are job aids on the DEAMS Outreach Portal or they can reach out to their DEAMS SME for technical assistance.

Source:

Jacquelyne Morrow

DFAS Limestone | JAMBA

Comm 207-328-1632 / DSN 220-1632

The Ultimate DEAMS Resource Guide

It’s a full-time job staying on top of DEAMS updates. The first thing you should do is set up multiple SharePoint alerts. That way you’ll get the latest DEAMS news as it’s posted.

This page will be evergreen and serve as a DEAMS timeline. The most important links will always remain on top and then in descending order by date. If you find broken or dead links leave a note in the comments below.

Timeless Links

April 2020

March 2020

February 2020

1269 No Longer a Requirement in DEAMS

Per AFAFO’s memo “Defense Enterprise Accounting & Management System (DEAMS) Target Load and Adjustment Process,” there is no longer a need to create/print a hard copy 1269 and obtain wet signatures for loading or adjusting targets in DEAMS. The DEAMS system itself is the “mechanized equivalent.” DEAMS stores the target load information and may be retrieved at any time. The amount, line of accounting, creator, and approver may be validated by querying the target load document from the DEAMS entry screens. The DEAMS Budget Execution Transaction Register (BETR) report and the Target Load Accuracy Tool (TLAT) may be used as reference for validation of what is contained in DEAMS. 

SAF-FMFC-AFAFO-DEAMS-1269-Memo-5-9-2019

Source:

Jeannette Beer

Deputy, Air Force Accounting Operations Center

Tracking Documents Through the Stages of Accounting in DEAMS

After pulling a Status of Funds – Near Real Time report, use the Selective Transaction History Report to research any transactions.  Using the Discoverer Viewer report titled “R12 01 General Ledger Transactions STH – New_Payment Voucher Num” (STH report) returns all updates to documents in the system.  By pulling the data into a pivot table (snippet of the pivot parameters provided) users can see the dates and document details as it has moved through the system. 

Below are basic research details to follow:

Parameters used for the STH Report

Recommend pulling data by OE, FY and AAI (387700) to limit file size.

Insert the budget-affecting GL Account Codes (GLAC) (found at GLAC Parameter Strings (Cell A4)) to eliminate unnecessary General Ledger entries.

Update on the recent STH duplicates issue

The R12 General Ledger Transactions STH in Discoverer Viewer no longer contains duplicate lines of summary entries. Over the past month, DEAMS advised users to remove duplicate lines identified under the Je Header Id and Je Line Num fields. The STH now includes entries with more complete data. Although you may still see lines with matching Je Header Id and Je Line Num fields, those rows of information now include differences in other columns used to track documents from origination to payment. You no longer need to remove duplicates.

Power BI can handle years of STH data

In a future YouTube video I plan on demonstrating how to build an STH Tool using Power BI. I’ve pulled in every accounting transaction at my wing over the past five years and can finally harness the time intelligence functions available with DAX. You can do impressive day-over-day, week-over-week, month-over-month, or year-over-year analysis amongst other things. Chad Kukorola deserves all the credit for this idea. I had been dreaming of how to do this for years, but Excel always bogged down on me. After reviewing some of Chad’s Power Query code, I was able to make it work in Power BI. Until I get the YouTube video postd, reach out and let me know if you’re interested in seeing what the tool is capable of.

AFAFO Aged Travel Orders Deobligation Policy

Below is the latest policy guidance from AFAFO regarding the deobligation of aged travel orders. This memo supersedes the guidance provided April and May 2019.

The memo lays out specific criteria under which base comptroller offices and the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can deobligate aged vouchers. This memo gives a tremendous amount of authority back to the bases and should help curb an age old problem.

How are you utilizing the memo? What systems have you put in place curb aged orders? Do you have any helpful guides or tutorials you would like to share? Use the comments below to provide feedback and links to any helpful materials.

Source: AFAFO-A

Policy as of: 7 February 2020

AFAFO-Aged-Travel-Orders-Deobligation-Policy