Problem Disbursements

The Columbia Group provides management oversight and personnel support for problem disbursement reconciliation and other types of financial discrepancies including STARS and Navy ERP Unmatched Disbursements, Negative Unliquidated Obligations (NULOs), interfund items, transportation charges, accounts payable, other expenditures, and Official Undistributed Disbursements (OUDs). We reconcile problem disbursements associated with DFAS Columbus MOCAS paid contracts, STARS ONE-PAY paid contracts/purchase orders, other DOD payment vehicles, contracts and purchase orders, reimbursable and direct cite documents, travel documents, and MILSTRIPS.

Key areas of Problem Disbursement support The Columbia Group provides include:

Research on and reconciliation of problem disbursements including Negative Unliquidated Obligations (NULOS), Unmatched Disbursements (UMDs), and Official Undistributed Disbursement balances;
Preparation of briefing and training materials for government use;
Preparation of problem disbursement metrics;
Generation of ad-hoc Query Management Facility (QMF) queries for MOCAS and STARS;
Reconciliation of Treasury registration issues;
Assistance with tri-annual reviews of commitments and obligations;
Research on funding to cover prior-year unrecorded obligation adjustments;
Performance of root cause analyses and recommendation of resolutions;
Provision of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for Integrated Project Teams (IPTs);
Documentation of audits; and
Preparation and submission of Obligation and Disbursement Transmittal Packages, PD Packages, RCRA Packages, and Site Visit Packages.

Special Tools

The Columbia Group’s Computer Optimized Batch Reconciliation Application (COBRA) can automate portions of the analysis and reconciliation process, saving the government time and money. COBRA utilizes artificial intelligence to automate the reconciliation process between Defense Cash Accountability System (DCAS) for Treasury information, Standard Accounting and Reporting System (STARS), and Management Information System International Logistics (MISIL) for accounting, and Mechanization of Contract Administration Services (MOCAS) for entitlement.

Unmatched Disbursements (UMDs) and Obligation Discrepancies

The Columbia Group reconciles Unmatched Disbursements (UMDs) and Obligation discrepancies for several types of accounting systems, including the Navy’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Reconciliation within Navy ERP is conceptually the same as the reconciliation for STARS-HCM, but incorporates the more stringent ERP requirements, including CLIN/SLIN/ACRN importance in ERP, process flow differences between the HCM and ERP as well as the impact of Progress Payments.