System is used for Award management - document creation, reporting to congress (FPDS-NG), routing for distinct approvals, and ultimately for the Contracting Officer (CO) to obligate funds in the Core Financial System (CFS)
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C.Suite – Access & User IDs
• PDF Form – Found:
• http://www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/finance/forms.html – Contractor has their own form listed on this site
– User ID • Starts with NOAA • Is case-sensitive
– Used with Google Chrome or Internet Explorer
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Due to these policy changes, system changes were needed as well, so the new form and instructions can be found on the website listed here. We will go over the form before getting into the system. The form must be faxed to Client Services. Please remember that everyone’s user ID starts with NOAA and is case sensitive. C.Suite can be used with Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. The developer is developing toward Google Chrome. Should try using this browser first.
– Contract Specialist (CS) •Creates Solicitations, Amendments, Awards, and Modifications
– Contracting Officer (CO) •Contract Specialist with additional warrant authority to obligate actions •Approves FPDS-NG reports
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Presentation Notes
So there are two roles for people in C.Award. Contract Specialist and Contracting Officer. The role of Contract Specialist allows them to create different documents, like listed above in the system. The role of Contracting Officer gives additional permissions to the contracting specialist such as warrant authority to obligate actions in the Core Financial System (CFS) as well as approve FPDS-NG reports.
• Must be a minimum of 8 characters long and contain at least 1 number
• Login Passwords expire every 90 days – User will be alerted to change – If forget – email [email protected]
• Signature Passwords expire every 90 days – If forget – can change under My Profile
• Need your login password to make the change
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Login Passwords follow DOC Policy with a minimum of 12 characters. The Signature Passwords must contain a minimum least 8 characters and 1 number. Both passwords are case sensitive and are good for 90 days. You will be alerted when it needs to be changed. If you forget it, you may email Client Services to have them reset it. Please remember to email and put in that you need a password reset for C.Suite. They will then call you back when it has been reset. It’s DOC’s policy that we are unable to send out passwords via email. Signature Passwords are used when approving documents. They expire every 90 days. You may change them at any time as long as you remember you password because they are changed under My Profile.
• C.Suite does not have a spell check – Google has online one
• Use upper case in the system – Helps with the connection to CFS – especially the ACCS fields
• Do NOT double-click within C.Suite • Do NOT use browser/keyboard shortcuts
– Backspace should only be used when in an actual field • Do not copy from Word/PDF document
– Copies over special/hidden characters • Will get errors
– Use Notepad to strip format prior to pasting
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Some specific tips for when you’re working in C.Suite. Spell Check: C.Suite does not have a spell check. So if you’re writing something and not sure how to spell it, you may want to write it in Word first then copy and then paste that text into C.Suite. If working using Google, the browser already has a spell check within it. Upper Case: Use Upper Case in the system. Otherwise you could get weird errors due to the system(s) C.Suite interfaces/interacts with. Double Click: This is a single click system. Do NOT double-click. It could cause issues. Browser/keyboard shortcuts: Don’t use! F5, Escape, Browser Back button, etc. Backspace should only be used when in an actual field. Copy/Paste: Do not copy text from a word or PDF document. If you do, you will get errors as it copies over special/hidden characters and will not recognize them. If you want to copy something, paste it into Notepad and then recopy it and then paste it into C.Suite. Notepad will strip those special/hidden characters and you shouldn’t have any issues.
Addit ional Information
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UNSPSC
• Stands for: – United Nations Standard Products and Services Code
• Is an open, global, multi-sector standard for efficient, accurate classification of products and services.
• Website for DOC: – https://community.max.gov/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=696617672 – Must register in order to view the website and download the listings – Listing of UNSPSC Codes
• Use something that doesn’t end in 0000 – Crosswalk of UNSPSC and F/PSC
• Form to request a new/updated UNSPSC to F/PSC match – https://sites.google.com/a/noaa.gov/acquisition-
services/acquisition_systems/unspsc-fsc-match-form • Must be logged into Google/Gmail
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The UNSPSC or United Nations Standard Products and Services Code has to do with DOC reporting and DOC only bought license to one particular version of UNSPSC values and we maintain our own database of changes to the structure. In selecting it on the Requisition, it should automatically populate the FSC code. The relation between the UNSPSC and FSC codes should related. If you need to get one added to the C.Suite system, you can get it added by checking on the website for the correct code and then filling out the form and submitting it to be added. If you need to see what a code is, you can go to the website on DOC to download the listing and crosswalk. You will have to register first in order to access.
The procurement process works the following way: A person at the Line Office Level (LO/FMC) realizes they have a need for services or equipment. They will utilize C.Request to create a requisition and define how the funds will need to be obligated. This requisition will include information about the requesting office, a description of the services and/or equipment that are needed, and how the requesting office plans to pay for it. (Accounting information). Once all of this is input into C. Request, it is submitted into C.Award. Then the Acquisitions Staff then receives the requisition and utilizing C.Award creates the contract for that requisition and actually obligates the funds that were defined in the requisition. When the requisition is approved, the Finance Staff will then use the Core Financial System (CFS) to post and pay the invoices for those contracts.
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Accounting in C.Award
• In order to process a procurement document through the Core Financial System (CFS) there must be at least one Accounting string
Presenter
Presentation Notes
An Accounting string will be associated to a PR coming from C.Request, an Award or a modification in order to process . A PR being created for an administrative purposes would not have to have an accounting string associated to it.
Accounting Classificat ion Code Structure (ACCS)
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CBS Accounting Classification Code Structure (ACCS)
This is an example of a NOAA ACCS broken out by the nine individual elements. So if you were to look at a full ACCS string you would see a lot of information that might not make sense. When entering things into C.Request, you will need to make sure you have all 9 elements. If you don’t know what to enter, speak to your budget person in your office, the help desk can’t tell you which ACCS to use. The easiest way to think of an ACCS is like an account – checking/savings/investment. Basically we are telling what pot of money to take the money out of… For each Bureau (NOAA is 14) Fiscal Year we are appropriated money. Some of this money is considered “No Year Funds”, which basically means they never expire. Other money is considered “Multi-Year Funds”, which just means that it’s given to us (appropriated) in one fiscal year and expires in another. In this example, this fund is for Operations, Research and Facilities and is given to us in FY17 and expires in FY18. The program code is representative of the activity, sub-activity, line item and PPA. This is tied to the FY and Fund for each bureau. The next element is the organization. The organization has 7 pieces. The first two represent the Line Office and FMC. When it comes to the budget, the funds control is only down to this level. However, that doesn’t mean for tracking purposes you can not put it down to further levels. Anything you are not entering a value for would then be zero-filled. The project code’s first character will be representative of whether the funding is multi-year (expires) or no-year (doesn’t expire). To be able to tell this is … if there is an alpha character it is considered multi-year. If it is a no-year, it should be a number; which is representative of a line office. What can you tell from this project on the slide? The project is also tied to a program code. Along with the 7-digit project code will be a 3-digit task code. A project can have multiple tasks associated to it. Most usually have a P00, which is representative of “no task” in most cases. What does the one on the screen have and what does it stand for? The next part is the object class. It’s representative of what was purchased. Think of it as a category. The example on the screen is 11-10 which stands for full time personnel---labor object class. In most cases, NOAA only utilizes the first two positions of the object class. However, with the inception of NOAALink, we now have certain object classes that utilize the 4th position. We’ll be discussing that in a bit. The last part of the ACCS string is what is called the User Defined. This for NOAA’s purposes is always zero filled. The important thing to remember is that all pieces of the ACCS must be used. So for example if you are only entering the Line Office & FMC level of the organization – the rest must be zero filled. All positions of the ACCS must be completely filled in – even if it’s with zeros. It can not contain any blank spaces.
Organizat ion Code Structure Level 1 -- Line Office
NOAA (14)
01 Office of the Under Secretary 05 Office of Administration 06 NOAA Finance & Administration 08 NOAA Marine & Aviation Operations 09 Systems Acquisition Office 10 National Ocean Service 20 National Weather Service 30 National Marine Fisheries Service 40 National Environmental Satellite,
Data & Information Service 50 Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research
BIS (13) 40 Office of the Under Secretary 41 Director of Administration 42 Export Administration 43 Office of Assistant Secretary for
Export Enforcement 44 Office of Assistant Secretary for
Export Administration
EDA (20) 01 Philadelphia 04 Atlanta 07
Seattle 05 Denver 08
Austin 06 Chicago 99
HQs
Presenter
Presentation Notes
CBS uses the National Finance Center (NFC) assigned organization code structure. The CBS organization code consists of seven levels. Although certain organizations may be broken down further, most organizations within NOAA normally utilize up to the 4th level of the organization code. However, since all seven levels of the organization code must be populated, remaining segments are usually zero filled. The first segment of the CBS organization code identifies a line office and here are the Line Offices for each of the bureaus. * So where is everyone from?
LO - FMC Description (NOS Examples) 10 – 01 National Ocean Service – Asst Adm 10 – 04 Office of Ocean & Coastal Resource
Management 10 – 09 Office of Coast Survey 10 – 11 Office of National Geodetic Survey 10 – 12 Office of Response & Restoration 10 – 13 National Center for Coastal Ocean Science 10 – 15 NOAA Coastal Services Center 10 – 16 Center for Operational Oceanographic Products
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Presentation Notes
The Line Office when combined with the second segment, identifies a Financial Management Center (FMC). This is just an example of what some of the FMC would look like for NOS.
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ACCS Project # - - 1st Posit ion
• Multi-Year Funds -- Fiscal Year – Fund 1033 (ORF) P FY 2016 & FY 2017 – Carryover – Fund 1032 (PAC) P FY 2016 & FY 2018 – Carryover – Fund 1043 (ORF) R FY 2017 & FY 2018 – Carryover – Fund 1042 (PAC) R FY 2017 & FY 2019 – Carryover
• No-Year Funds -- Line, Program, or Staff Office – Funds 0001, 0005, 0006, 0007 and 0016:
ORF – Operations, Research & Facilities PAC – Procurement, Acquisitions & Construction
Presenter
Presentation Notes
This shows examples for the first position of the project code for multi-year and no-year funds. Multi-year funds are representative by an alpha character which are changed with each fiscal year. No-year funds are representative by a numeric character which represents a specific line, program or staff office.
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W hat is Acquisit ion Fee For Service (FFS)?
• Effective October 1, 2016, AGO replaced its Direct Bill funding with fees collected from each AGO obligation.
• The fee will be based upon the dollars obligated for each action. • Simplified Acquisitions ($150,000 or less) 3.5% Fee
– Object Class Code ends in 25-35 » Example: 26-18-25-35
• Non-Simplified Acquisitions (all other non-NOAA LINK) 1.75% Fee – Object Class Code ends in 25-17
» Example: 25-27-25-17 • No ADDITIONAL LINE, No ADDITIONAL ACCOUNTING LINE
– Original line ACCS just the object class code changes
– Fees are expected to increase in FY18 • More information can be found:
October 1, 2016 AGO replaced its direct bill funding with fees collected from each acquisition obligation. The fee percentage will be based upon the total contract/award amount, not line amount. As a requisitioner, the only thing you need to do is make sure your object class code ends in the correct code. So anything $150,000 or less is considered a simplified acquisition and the object class code should end in 25-35. So if you had equipment your ACCS object class code would be something like 31-23-25-35. Anything beyond that NOT including NOAALINK and Field Delegate actions, is considered a Non-Simplified Acquisition and the class code will end in 25-17. There is no extra additional line or even an extra accounting line. The fee is actually processed separately from the obligation. So the only person that needs to be aware of how much extra will be put out once it’s obligation is the budget person. They in turn could see the full amount of the requisition and do the percentage to see what will be pulled out of their budget for this obligation. The fees are expected to increase in FY18, but as of right now it has not been approved.
This is an example of a NOAA ACCS broken out by the nine individual elements. So if you were to look at a full ACCS string you would see a lot of information that might not make sense. When entering things into C.Request, you will need to make sure you have all 9 elements. If you don’t know what to enter, speak to your budget person in your office, the help desk can’t tell you which ACCS to use. The easiest way to think of an ACCS is like an account – checking/savings/investment. Basically we are telling what pot of money to take the money out of… For each Bureau (NOAA is 14) Fiscal Year we are appropriated money. Some of this money is considered “No Year Funds”, which basically means they never expire. Other money is considered “Multi-Year Funds”, which just means that it’s given to us (appropriated) in one fiscal year and expires in another. In this example, this fund is for Operations, Research and Facilities and is given to us in FY17 and expires in FY18. The program code is representative of the activity, sub-activity, line item and PPA. This is tied to the FY and Fund for each bureau. The next element is the organization. The organization has 7 pieces. The first two represent the Line Office and FMC. When it comes to the budget, the funds control is only down to this level. However, that doesn’t mean for tracking purposes you can not put it down to further levels. Anything you are not entering a value for would then be zero-filled. The project code’s first character will be representative of whether the funding is multi-year (expires) or no-year (doesn’t expire). To be able to tell this is … if there is an alpha character it is considered multi-year. If it is a no-year, it should be a number; which is representative of a line office. What can you tell from this project on the slide? The project is also tied to a program code. Along with the 7-digit project code will be a 3-digit task code. A project can have multiple tasks associated to it. Most usually have a P00, which is representative of “no task” in most cases. What does the one on the screen have and what does it stand for? The next part is the object class. It’s representative of what was purchased. Think of it as a category. The example on the screen is 11-10 which stands for full time personnel---labor object class. In most cases, NOAA only utilizes the first two positions of the object class. However, with the inception of NOAALink, we now have certain object classes that utilize the 4th position. We’ll be discussing that in a bit. The last part of the ACCS string is what is called the User Defined. This for NOAA’s purposes is always zero filled. The important thing to remember is that all pieces of the ACCS must be used. So for example if you are only entering the Line Office & FMC level of the organization – the rest must be zero filled. All positions of the ACCS must be completely filled in – even if it’s with zeros. It can not contain any blank spaces.
Create Award Create Solicitation Return Consolidate
Receiving Tab
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The process starts at the Home screen. You will be accessing the PR from one of the view tabs. The Just In or Worksheet if it has just been sent to you. Or if you have been in it, you can access it from Recently Accessed or your Hotlist if you had added it there. When you open it up you come to the PR Summary Screen. This is the “homepage” of the PR. From here you can access all parts of the PR. One of the first areas you’ll need to look at is Administration. After that, you can look the Accounting information and then the Line Information. You can then look at the notes and support documents if there are any. You can go to Forms to view the document and see if any information is missing. Once your review is complete, you have some options you can perform. If you find anything wrong with the PR, you can return it back to the requisitioner. If it looks good and you need to get bids, you can create your solicitation from here. If it looks good and you don’t need to do a solicitation you can create your award from the PR. You also have the ability to consolidate or deconsolidate PRs.
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Solicitat ion Flow
Solicitation PIIN
Administration
Summary
Line Items
Clauses
Issue
Forms Support Docs
Award
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Presentation Notes
So this is the Solicitation Flow. It starts with the Solicitation PIIN screen. Once that’s filled out you’ll be taken to the Solicitation Administration screen. Then after that’s been filled out you’ll go to the Summary screen. You’ll then be able to look at the line items to make sure everything came over correctly. Then it’s on to working with the clauses. After adding clauses you can look at the forms and any support documents. When ready, you would then Issue the solicitation. Barring any amendments, once you have a vendor that’s been selected from the solicitation, you would then award. Solicitations, in C.Suite, are important for properly identifying the action type on the PALT report. At the very least, please fill out the Solicitation Administration screen. FOR Trainers eyes only until we can flesh this out --- Please note: FAR (I’ll get you the number) is changing the document numbering structure and it is being rumored that all new actions in FBO and FPDS-NG will require the new document format, using C.Suite to generate the number will reduce possibility of ...
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Solicitat ion Amendment Flow
Solicitation Summary
Amendment Management
Amendment PIIN and Name
Amendment Administration
Validate Amendment
Award
Create
Amendment Summary
Forms Support Docs Clauses
Review/Approval
Presenter
Presentation Notes
You can only amend a solicitation after it’s been issued, and before it’s awarded. So you’d first start off opening up the original solicitation, which would take you to the Solicitation Summary screen. From there you would then create your amendment, which will take you to the Amendment Management screen. You’d then create the amendment which would ask you to give the Amendment a PIIN and Name. Once that is done you’d be at the Amendment Administration screen, where you would fill in information pertaining to this amendment. Once that has been saved, you’d be at the Amendment Summary screen, where you would then go to the area that you were modifying – support document or clauses. When finished with the piece you were amending, you could then view the form to make sure everything looks good. If it does, you can send it for Review/Approval – if needed and then validate the amendment. When the solicitation period is over, you would then go to create an award from it.
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Award Flow
Review/Approval
Approve
Inbox
Review Award
Approve FPDS Report
Obligate
Issue Award
Award PIIN
Administration
Summary
Line Items
Clauses
Totals
Reporting - FPDS
Manage Reviewers/Approvers
Create
Release
Accounting
Check
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The first step in the Award process is to set up the Award PIIN number and name. Once that’s done you go to the Administration screen. Once you enter the details of the award and save it you’ll be sent to the Summary screen. From there you’ll need to go to the line items. On the line items you will enter the cost(s) that have been agreed to. You’ll need to verify the accounting and make any changes as necessary. You then make sure the clauses have transferred over from the solicitation. Then you’ll need to check the totals to make sure everything matches, prior to checking the award before going to FPDS. Once the reporting is completed, you then create your routing list under Manage Reviewers/Approvers and release to the first on the routing list. For those reviewing and approving the award, you would be notified that a document was in your inbox via email if it was set up in My Profile. You would then go into your inbox and click on the document name. This will take you into the document where you would review all parts of the award. Assuming everything is alright with the award, you would then go into FPDS to approve the report. You’ll want to make sure that the report get approved prior to obligating it. Once it’s been obligated, you can than issue the award and then under Review/Approval, approve the award.
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Award Modificat ion Flow
Manage Reviewers/Approvers
Release
Award Summary
Modification Management
Modification PIIN and Name
Modification Administration
Modification Summary Totals
Review/Approval
Approve
Inbox
Review Modification
Approve FPDS Report
Obligate
Validate Modification
Create
Review Modification PR
Create Modification
Create
FPDS Reporting Line Items
Accounting
Check
Presenter
Presentation Notes
This is the flow for Award Modifications. You would open the PR that was for the modification and review it. When finished, you would then write the number down and then open the award. From the Award Summary screen, you would click on Modification menu option which would take you to the Modification Management screen. From here you would create your modification which will take you to select the PIIN Number and Name for the Modification. Once selected you’ll have to fill out the Administration piece of the Modification and when finished saving the information you’ll go to the Summary screen. You’ll then make the changes to the Line Items to reflect the modification. You’ll definitely want to verify the accounting. Not only for the correct ACCS, but that changes that were made were updated. You then check the totals to verify the correct amount. Then you’ll need to create a modification FPDS report. Once that’s done, you then can set up the routing list under Manage Reviewers/Approvers. When the list is set up you then release it to the approving official. The Approving Official will then log in, go to their inbox and click on the modification to review it. Once they’ve checked everything out, they’ll go in to approve the FPDS Report. Once the approval is complete, they would go and obligate the modification and when that comes back approved, they can validate and then approve the modification.
Document Numbering
Presenter
Presentation Notes
* Once you are done with the slideshow, begin introductions Include name, experience with the system, and expectations for class (what each participant would like to learn)
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NOAA Document Number Format
Acquisition Office Location Code Client Office Code Fiscal Year
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14xthkHP3VtOHOvDS12Cubhh4e3BJkeseVhSRc0y4YFI/edit#gid=0 The first segment represents the acquisition office. This field will default to your last entry. The second segment represents the requesting or client office. This field will default to your last entry. The third segment represents the fiscal year. This field will default to the current fiscal year. The fourth segment represents the document type. There are different lists of options for Solicitations and Awards. The fifth segment represents the award counter and is a C.Award generated 4-digit number.
Selection Option Description of Option “Blank”/No Selection This selection should be used if you want the line items
on the Requisition to come into the Award as new line items.
Change Award Line Item
This selection would be used to indicate that the customer is requesting that the line item on the award be increased or decreased in value.
Cancel/Cancel Award Line Item This selection should be used to cancel the awarded line item in full.
Cancel/Open Award Line Item This selection should be used to cancel the line item in full on the award but leave the PR line item open so it could be awarded on another document.
Add Line Item from Base Award This selection should only be used when requesting through a modification to add a line item from a base Indefinite delivery type contract award to an existing delivery task order award.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The first selection is “Blank”. This selection creates the line items as new ones on the Award. The second selection is “Change Award Line Item”. This selection would allow you to increase or decrease the value of an award line item. The third selection is “Cancel/Cancel Award Line Item”. This selection would allow you to cancel the whole award line item. Note: This option can only be used if no funds have been paid out and no invoices have been received. The fourth selection is “Cancel/Open Award Line Item”. This selection would allow you to cancel the award line item, but still leave the original PR line item open to be used on another award. The last selection is “Add Line Item from Base Award”. This selection should only be used when requesting through a modification to add a line item from a base Indefinite delivery type contract award to an existing delivery task order award.
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NOAA Client Services Help Desk • Functional/Technical Support for CBS Applications
If you get into C-Award and have any issues, problems, or questions, the NOAA Client Services Help desk is your first line of defense. As you can see they handle a lot of systems and issues. When emailing them, let them know which system you’re having an issue in. When calling you’ll use option 3 for C.Suite issues.
* Once you are done with the slideshow, begin introductions Include name, experience with the system, and expectations for class (what each participant would like to learn)
