Page 13 - FCA Diamond Point Dec 2022

FROM THE FIELD

US Army Financial Management Command

(USAFMCOM) Corner (Cont’d)
They would then have to take all that data, manually combine it with data from other sources,
extrapolate and analyze it, and finally build it into a format that could be easily understood.

“That’s a process that could sometimes take hours, if not days,” she said.

“Now with BOBJ, I can run a report in 10-15 seconds that generates a format that is ready to
present to the general-officer level,” said Caroline Stokes, XVIII Airborne Corps deputy resource
manager. “It’s ready to present the moment you produce the report, and you can share that report
with anyone who has GFEBS so they can adapt it for themselves.

“I think the biggest development is you can set up pre-canned reports that run faster and schedule
them to run so they are ready when you need them with the most up-to-date information,” she
added.

And, with time equating to money and money funding readiness, Stokes said the system provides
more than just labor reduction for finance professionals.

“It makes a big difference because the analysts can spend more time analyzing data instead of
working to make something look pretty,” elaborated Stokes. “And, because you can pull the data
quickly, you can give the commander information quicker so he or she can make the decisions
they need quicker with more accurate data, and that analysis can put more money back in the
commander’s hands.

“I’m really excited about being able to leverage this new technology to see where my problems are
at XVIII Airborne Corps and see what I need to get after,” she added. “In 2020, I spent 5.6 million
dollars more than I was funded because of doing things like this; and, that’s readiness.”

As an example of what’s possible, Stokes spoke about her hopes of being able to leverage BOBJ
to reduce deobligated funds from under-executed contracts.

Deobligated funds are monies that are set aside for a specific purpose but aren’t executed to their
fullest amount for some reason. In most cases, deobligated funds that aren’t used within a given
fiscal year are unavailable to be used in subsequent fiscal years, cutting into purchase power.

“I can’t wait to do a deep dive into the Army’s contracts to see which ones historically bill at a
certain percentage under their obligations,” explained Stokes. “Once we see that, we can
potentially assume some risk and obligate monies to the percentage those contracts typically bill
for at the end of the year.

“Yes, it’s work, but with this system, we can really get after that data and figure out where we can
save the Army money, which could be millions of dollars,” she added. “That money can then be
used to purchase the equipment and training our Soldiers need to maintain readiness.”

While BOBJ 4.3 is currently available to all GFEBS users, the USAFMCOM course gives students
the in-depth knowledge they need to fully exploit the program to its maximum effect.

“Before I took the course, I poked around the system when I heard 4.3 was out, but I wasn’t able to
get that far,” said Mark Oatman, a financial management analyst with the U.S. Army Futures
Command’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance
and Reconnaissance Center. “The few days I spent in the USAFMCOM course really catapulted my
understanding on building reports.”
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