Meeting Minutes
ASAP University User Group Meeting

(Sponsored by The National Council of University Research Administrators)
Washington, DC
November 1, 2005

Financial Management Service (FMS) Representatives:
Elizabeth Oldenburg, Director, Intergovernmental Programs Division; Christine Ricci, Manager, ASAP Customer Liaison Staff; Carol Cole, ASAP Operations; Christopher Tighe, ASAP.gov Development Staff; Ashton Dunbar and Margie Springer, ASAP Customer Liaison.

Introductions:
Lisa Thompson, former Chair and University user representative of the ASAP Customer Board (ACB), introduced the FMS presenters. Lisa also described the functions and purpose of the Board and requested anyone who was interested in becoming a Board member to contact either Christine or herself.

General Remarks:
An overview of Federal agencies using ASAP.gov was provided. They include:

• Department of Agriculture
• Food and Nutrition Service
• Department of Commerce
• Economic Development Administration
• International Trade Administration
• Minority Business Development Agency
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• National Telecommunications Information Administration
• National Institute of Standards and Technology
• National Technical Information Service
• Department of Defense
• U.S. Army Finance Command
• Naval Sea Systems Command
• Department of Energy
• Department of Health and Human Services
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (formerly HCFA)
• Department of Interior
• Bureau of Indian Affairs
• Bureau of Land Management
• Bureau of Reclamation
• Minerals Management Service*
• National Park Service*
• Office of Surface Mining
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service*
• U.S. Geological Survey*
• Department of Justice
• Office of Justice Programs
• Department of State
• Bureau of Resource Management Office of Financial Services
• Department of Treasury
• Bureau of Public Debt
• Comptroller of the Currency
• Financial Management Service
• Departmental Offices - Office of Domestic Finance
• Bonneville Power Administration
• Denali Commission
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Library of Congress
• National Science Foundation
• Office of Personnel Management
• Peace Corps
• Social Security Administration
• Tricare
• U.S. Postal Service

* Currently Pending

It was noted that the Department of Interior made a decision to migrate all its bureaus to one grants payment system: ASAP.gov.

Future Federal agency users include:
Department of Education
Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Q: Who do we contact concerning the Voice Response System (VRS)?
A: The phone number to call for VRS password resets is now the Richmond CBAF number instead of the 800# previously serviced by FRB Minneapolis. Users can contact CBAF for password resets to both ASAP.gov and VRS

Q: The National Science Foundation (NSF) is currently using Fastlane. How will the Release 2.0 affect FastLane?
A: Portions of the NSF currently have a waiver from the CFO Council since the FastLane system provides more functionality than the current ASAP.gov system. As part of their conversion with Release 3.0, we are working with NSF to finalize a Report to meet their requirements.

ASAP.gov Release Schedule:
A brief overview of the updated ASAP.gov Release Schedule was provided.

• Internet Enrollment             V2.0; Dec. 2005
  (Recipient Organizations)
  
  
• Internet Enrollment             V3.0; June 2006
  (Federal Agencies)
• Notification Enhancement
  
  
• ACH Debit for Returns           V4.0; Dec. 2006
• Current Debt Offset
• Reports (User Requests)
• Batch Payment Requests

Preview of the New Internet Enrollment for Recipient Organizations:
A brief overview of the redesigned enrollment process was provided.

Financial Officers (FO) of existing recipient organizations will be provisioned first in ASAP.gov during a 45-day timeframe beginning December 2005. The FO (acting on behalf of the recipient organization) must designate which Federal Program Agency account(s) have which bank account(s) for ASAP.gov. The FO has the flexibility to "tie" all of the FPA accounts to one bank account. Or, the FPA accounts can be "tied" to different bank accounts. FOs MUST complete this action to ensure the Recipient Organization's conversion to Release 2.0.

For New Recipient Organizations (Enrolled AFTER February 2006):

First, there is a new role for the FPA in the Enrollment process. The Enrollment Initiator starts the enrollment process by identifying the recipient organization with a DUNS number, TIN (October 2003 requirement) and POC.

Next, the POC identifies three organization officials: The HOO, AO, and the FO. The HOO then approves the AO and FO. While there may be multiple POCs within a recipient organization, there can only be one HOO to approve the organization officials. The HOO can also appoint a Redelegated Head of Organization (RHOO) to approve future designations and approvals.

It is important to note that within recipient organizations, the POC, the organization officials (the AO and FO), and the HOO can be the same person.

The POC within a recipient organization can name more than one AO. The AO is responsible for entering the recipient organization's contact information (address and phone numbers) as well as user information (i.e., payment requestors and inquirers).

The POC within a recipient organization can also name more than one FO. The FO is responsible for entering the banking information to receive payments via ACH, Fedwire, or both. ASAP.gov allows up to four ACH transactions and four Fedwire transactions for a total of eight bank account types. Per FMS' Green Book rules for ACH transactions, ASAP.gov sends a Prenote to the financial institution to verify the bank account. A financial institution has six days to respond to a prenote. For Fedwire, the new banking relationship becomes available for use in three business days. This allows time for Federal agencies to review the new banking data.

Previously, FMS' Regional Financial Centers (RFCs) had verified a recipient organization's banking information on behalf of FPAs as part of the enrollment process. With new enrollment process contained within Release 2.0, we will rely on the FPA Certifying Officer (CO) as well as the Recipient Organization's (RO) Financial Officer to provide and verify banking information. When adding new banking data, the FO must acknowledge that the FPA, FMS and the United States are not responsible for a misdirected payment in the event that the RO enters incorrect banking data. The CO is responsible for the certification of the correct banking information to ensure that funds are disbursed to the correct payee.

Existing Recipient Organizations:
Financial Official (FO)
     •  FPA and Bank Account information will be pre-populated
     •  Designates which Federal Program Agency account(s) have which bank

Head of the Organization (HOO)
     •  Information for Point of Contract, Authorizing Official, and Financial Official are pre-populated
     •  Edits POC or Officials information if needed
     •  Approves the organization official

The biggest difference in Release 2.0 is that Payment Requestors will no longer viewed as organizations. Instead, the payment requestor will be a role under a recipient organization.

It is important to point out that for the new enrollment process, each person gets up to 45 days to complete their action. If one person exceeds their 45 days, the entire enrollment process has to be restarted.

Inherent in the new Enrollment process is the interdependency of each role in the process. This structure was intentionally developed so that if there were any criminal activity associated with grant funding, collusion would be needed at various levels.

To provide as much flexibility as possible in developing the Internet Enrollment process, organization officials named by the POC do not have to be employees of the recipient organization but may be at the payment requestor's organization. For example, if the payment requestor owns the bank account where the funds will be delivered, the FO may be located at the requestor's organization.

Screen shots were shown to demonstrate the new look and feel for the ASAP.gov application.

Q: Does the HOO have to be the President of our University?
A: No. The HOO designation is whoever within your University has the legal authority to act on behalf of the institution.

Q: Is it possible for the ASAP.gov system to link to the Central Contractor Registry (CCR)?
A: ASAP.gov tested our information against the CCR database. Less than a 5 percent of our users are registered in the CCR at this time. While there is language requiring recipients of Federal grants to have a DUNS number, currently there is no requirement for users to register to the CCR.

Q: We're currently a Recipient Organization for two Department of Energy regional locations. How do the requirements affect us?
A: Since you are an existing Recipient Organization, we look to your FO to "tie" your FPA accounts to bank accounts. We then rely on the Certifying Officer with the FPA to certify banking data relying on the FO within the Recipient Organization. If you have multiple FPA accounts, FPA A cannot view banking data for FPA B.

Q: As an existing organization, all of our officials have been named. Will our information be pre-populated?
A: Yes. Your information will be pre-populated.

Q: Our current HOO is the President of the Institution. We would like to change that. Would it be better to update our information now, or wait until February 2006?
A: We would recommend that you make the update now, so that the current HOO won't get a new ID and password.

Q: How do we sign up for ASAP.gov?
A: Your FPA begins the enrollment process after February 2006 if your organization is new to ASAP.gov.

ASAP.gov Release 2.0 User Acceptance Testing (UAT) Review
UAT - What is it/Why is UAT Important??
User Acceptance Testing (UAT) provides an opportunity for users of a system to test functionalities of a new Release.

UAT Timeframes
October 17th - November 30th, 2005

Organizations Participating
     •  ACB Members representing University, Federal Program Agency, and Non-Profit          organizations.
     •  Regional Financial Centers and Headquarters staff.
     •  Intergovernmental Programs Division staff

What Happens after Release 2.0?
We will need testers for the Spring of 2006 for Release 3.0. Audience members were instructed to contact Lisa Thompson if they are interested in participating.

Preparing for Release 2.0
A notice dated October 13, 2005, to all recipient organizations was sent via regular mail and posted on the FMS ASAP website (www.fms.treas.gov). It detailed the timeframes and requirements for conversion to Release 2.0.

Enrollment Suspension:
As of October 1, 2005, FMS Regional Financial Centers (RFCs) no longer accept new enrollments but they will process pending enrollments. New enrollments will begin in ASAP.gov February 2006.

Since June of this year, we have been contacting recipients for the following information:
     •  DUNS and TIN Requirement
     •  Active Officials' Names
     •  Individual Email Addresses for Officials
Without this critical information, recipients will not be converted to Release 2.0.

Legacy ASAP Sunset
Access to the Legacy ASAP system was shut off as of November 1, 2005. Access to Automated Enrollment was suspended as of October 1, 2005, as well.

DUNS and TIN Requirement
The requirement to provide FMS with TIN information has been in place since 1999. DUNS has been required since October 2003. Without these numbers, recipient organizations will not be converted to Release 2.0.

Active Officials Required
Contact information (including e-mail) for active officials within a Recipient Organization needs to be provided.

Individual Email Addresses Required for Officials
ASAP.gov will not accept group office emails.

Q:What if the Recipient Organization does not have a DUNS number?
A:They must obtain one. Go to http://www.dnb.com/us/ to obtain a free DUNS number.

Release 2.0 Training
Dedicated Training Environment
The training application allows current users the ability to access to their data (e.g., account numbers, balances) in a practice environment without any impact to their production data. We plan to move the training application to its own (more stable) environment by December.

New Tutorial
A new more robust tutorial will be provided as part of Release 2.0. It has a new "Try Me" function and can be easily accessed from the Help pull down menu from the ASAP.gov Home Page.

Training Offered by RFCs
In the past we had scheduled specific dates and locations. Unfortunately, due to low attendance and many 'no shows', we had to cancel many of those training sessions. In the near future, we will be posting a registration sheet on the FMS ASAP website (www.fms.treas.gov/asap) for those that are interested in training. Training will be offered at the RFCs located in San Francisco, CA, Kansas City, MO, Philadelphia, PA, and in Washington, DC. Once we get an appropriate number of attendees, specific dates, timeframes, and locations will be announced.

Password Policy Changes
The new Treasury Web Application Infrastructure (TWAI) policy for password expiration has been increased from 45 to 90 days effective December 5, 2006. I f your password has expired, you should call the CBAF Staff to have your password reset at 1 (804) 697-8384.