FFS Change coming in January regarding Bankcard payments To: "AO - All Administrative Officers", "AE - Administrative Employees" Subject: FFS Change coming in January regarding Bankcard payments Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 11:21:48 -0500 From: "Kelly L Bradley, Supervisory Financial Spec, Reston, VA" OFM has been working over the past year with the Bankcard company to receive an electronic tape with the USGS bankcard charges which can be interfaced into FFS for payment. This interface is just about ready. We are targeting this process to begin in February for payment of the January Bankcard statements. What this means to Remote Data Entry users is that you can continue to record 4B transactions as an option but you will no longer use the 4N document after the December statement has been recorded in January 1997. The new interface will record a payment against the default account number set up for each Bankcard Holder. (OFM will be contacting offices for new default accounts if the current number is invalid). Cost centers will scan a table in FFS called "CDTT" which stands for Credit Card Detail Transaction Table. This table will contain the monthly statement information and will show the charges against the default account number. If the charges need to be moved to the correct account or multiple accounts you will do so by putting an "a" in the action field and entering line information. You can reference the 4B at that time. The adjustment information will be reconciled back to AIS. I have given you a brief description of how this new process will work. OFM will be distributing a new RDE manual chapter and a cover memorandum with detailed information on how this process will work and the exact information needed to complete these transactions. We will be working with BAMS to ensure that the new transaction codes and data are reconciled to AIS correctly. The transaction codes used in this new process will be 4B to record the accrual; a BV which is the record created when the bankcard charge is interfaced into FFS; and a NC which is created when a cost center makes an adjustment to the CDTT table to correct the account number charged. As stated above you will be receiving more information. I wanted to give you a heads up that this is coming. Please be looking for further documentation around mid January. That is about the timeframe OFM is estimating for distribution of the documentation. I think this process will be improved from the one we are currently using. Especially from a bureau viewpoint. This should not cause any more work on our cost centers but hopefully reduce the amount of time spent entering the bankcard information. It records the transaction and we only make adjustments to the accounts. If you have any questions at this point, please direct them to myself or Michele O'Meara in my office. Thanks, Kelly