Financial Management Standards

Standards are important because they establish consistent protocols that can be universally understood and adopted. Standards improve systems and processes, reduce waste, cut costs, and ensure consistency. Application of standards into financial systems and processes helps to ensure interoperability between financial and other supporting systems, supports accurate reporting and leads to automation and cost savings for federal agencies.

Currently, we have four resources for our standards, all of which are aligned to the Federal Integrated Business Framework.

Federal Financial Management Functions & Activities

Common financial management functions, and activities serve as the basis for understanding what services agencies need and solutions that should be offered. This list of 11 functions and 54 activities defines the financial management functions performed by a federal agency.

Federal Financial Management Business Capabilities (FFMSRs)

FFM Business Capabilities reflect the federal financial management system requirements (FFMSRs) that agency financial management systems must substantially comply with. These outcome-based business needs are mapped to Federal government authoritative references, forms, and data standards. 

Federal Financial Management Business Use Cases

These agency “stories” document the key activities, inputs, outputs and other intersections to describe how the Federal government operates. They are organized into 11 end-to-end business processes that have a federal financial management impact. 

Federal Financial Management Business Data Elements

This minimum set of business data elements reflects what is required to support the inputs and outputs identified in the business use cases, capabilities, business information exchanges and business reports.