Fiscal Service has a New Year’s Resolution – Set and Accomplish a Goal for the TFM
In less than a month, we will have opened the gifts, put away the decorations, watched the ball drop and celebrated a new year and decade! But with a new year approaching, does this mean we need to start thinking of our resolutions?
According to Forbes Women1, studies have shown that less than 25% of people stay committed to their resolutions after just 30 days, and only 8% accomplish them.
While starting a new diet, learning a new skill or saving more are some of the top resolutions, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service plans to set a goal of transforming the Treasury Financial Manual (TFM) into a modern and seamless experience for agencies. The TFM is the most prominent part of the Federal Financial Management Standards.
Some resolutions happen overnight. However, for the Fiscal Service, this goal process took some planning. Last year, the bureau assembled a team dedicated to reviewing and analyzing TFM. The project’s goal was to identify duplication, errors and extraneous information within Volume I of the TFM. This work identified over 500 recommendations for changes that should be made to the guidance.
This dedicated team is currently working on updating the TFM. These updates include terminology revisions, chapter presentation revisions, updating broken links, combining chapters with duplicate information and plain language updates.
Next, in Q2 of FY20 you’ll find a new TFM (volume 1) glossary on the TFM website. Last, by the end of the year, this glossary, along with some of the other updates, will appear on a new website designed to change the way that the Fiscal Service communicates financial guidance with agencies -- a new Treasury Financial eXperience (TFX).
Although many of us have not started thinking about our resolutions, the Fiscal Service decided to make a change for the new year by setting an action plan to transform financial management in the federal government!
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