img not found!

Category Capabilities

Capabilities

Reconciliation

Reconciliation

The Columbia Group understands the various financial systems, including transaction-level processing, and their impacts on overall execution monitoring and reporting and on financial statements. The company has also proven its ability to assist BSO’s policy development and Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) policy review with consideration of financial implications.

The Columbia Group’s financial management team has mastery of the rules governing the various appropriations used by the Navy, such as RDT&E, SCN, OPN, WPN and O&MN. The team also has extensive experience with STARS, PRISMS, Autodoc, SCRT, MISIL, COBRA,CRS, and others.

The Columbia Group supports the Navy in conducting a wide variety of business which requires knowledge of the regulations, accounting systems, and processes associated with transactions for complete budget execution. In order to execute the reconciliation process, we use our knowledge and understanding of: the payment processes of Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) Columbus related to the MOCAS and STARS-One Pay entitlement systems; Treasury registration and associated difficulties; and STARS-HCM posting logic and associated deficiencies with reports available. Our continuous efforts to address inflow of new Problem Disbursements and payment/billing rejects, and the root causes of these issues, is the key for meeting goals and requirements.

Audit

The Columbia Group supports Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) Columbus audits of contractual documentation and vendor payments to ensure terms and conditions of the contract are maintained. This effort requires utilization of several systems for payment, accounting, reconciliations, and understanding of the appropriate policies and procedures. The policies and procedures involved are based not only on DFAS Columbus instructions, but also the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFARS).

Capabilities

Problem Disbursements

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.

Black and white chart with a green line moving upward.
Capabilities

Financial Improvement Plans

Financial Improvement Plans

The Columbia Group provides expertise in support of customers operating under the Department of the Navy (DON) Financial Improvement Plan. The Financial Improvement Plan is the process that DON uses to perform business process transformation and risk mitigation activities and that allows the DON to produce timely, accurate, and reliable financial information to achieve an unqualified opinion on the DON Annual Financial Statements. We apply our expertise in Department of Defense (DOD) Financial Management Regulations (FMR), Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFARS), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circulars, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), DOD/DON and DFAS policies and procedures, Query Management Facility (QMF) knowledge, Navy Accounting systems, DFAS payment systems, and DFAS Treasury registration processes as part of these customer support efforts.

The Columbia Group also provides assistance in the review of Federal laws, regulations, policies and procedures. We have the ability to assist customers in fulfilling responsibilities associated with the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FMIA) of 1996, and Section 1008 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002.

Key areas of Financial Improvement Plan support The Columbia Group provides include:

Financial Statement Preparation

The Columbia Group utilizes Defense Departmental Reporting System – Budgetary (DDRS-B) to support the preparation of financial statements including the Statement of Budgetary Resources (SBR). We also compare and analyze DDRS-B data with the accounting system of record in support of review for Journal Vouchers (JVs).

DOD Accounting Execution Business Processes

The Columbia Group provides financial management and accounting support personnel with expertise in government accounting systems, regulations, and environments throughout the execution phase.  We understand the numerous financial systems, including transaction-level processing, and their impacts on overall execution monitoring and reporting and on financial statements.

Customized Data Retrieval

The Columbia Group’s proprietary software applications interface with Navy accounting and payment systems to provide daily updates of financial information, so our customers waste no time researching out-of-date obligations. Our applications are able to pull financial data from MOCAS, STARS, HCM and STARS-FL. Support for NAVY-ERP is under development. The applications can be customized to accommodate other accounting systems as customers provide access to them.

Our data retrieval extends to reporting and metrics, reconciliation of problem disbursements, pre-validation reject research, and a variety of processing challenges when standard reports from the systems are insufficient.

Puzzle pieces with the text: Our in-depth knowledge of policy, regulations, systems and accounting allows you to spend your time completing your mission.
Capabilities

Financial Management

Financial Management

The Columbia Group has long provided our customers with quality financial professional specializing in the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) process and other aspects of federal financial management. Our experience and dedication to quality service allows us to provide our customers the support they need to manage and utilize funding efficiently and within prescribed legal constraints.

Problem Solving: We assist our customers in resolving issues and also provide tools to solve their problems.

Our financial management professionals understand each phase of the PPBE cycle as well as the interplay between the phases. We also know that financial constraints represent critical challenges that must be overcome in order to provide the warfighter the tools needed to accomplish their mission. We leverage our knowledge and experience to optimize our support of the armed services.

Key areas of Financial Management support The Columbia Group provides include: