The new Financial System Modernization Solution (FSMS) is now live enabling members to receive reimbursement for recent TDY travel, as well as arranging future TDY travel through the E-Government Travel System (ETS). If you need an amendment and/or an approval for travel, these functions are now also available.
Travelers should see an improvement in receiving payments, and should expect payment within two to three business days once and ETS approving official approves the claim.
It is important that travelers complete travel vouchers as soon as possible. All government travel credit cards (GTCCs) remain in a mission critical status through the end of January. This means that no payments are yet due. However, 45 days after the mission critical status expires, all pending charges are due. You should expect to be able to and to settle your account prior to March 18, 2022. Split disbursement is the highly recommended for charges on your GTCC.
In order to get the new systems up and running our partners processed more than 16,400 travel claims from both fiscal years 2021 and 2022. The service has successfully created many travel vouchers since Jan. 7, 2022, and continues to work with the FSMS implementation teams as well as Coast Guard Headquarters’ Office of Resource Management to correct some of the issues identified after our ETS “go-live”.
The new system brought new lines of accounting called projects, organizations, expenditures, and tasks (POETs). Since these are new, and the system is new, challenges arose relating budgets to the correct projects and tasks thus creating a processing problem in the system. If you still have a travel claim that has not been approved, you should work with your ETS approving official or funds approver to correct the POET information.
A key piece to successfully clearing our backlog of open travel claims hinges on Direct Access (DA) having the ability to connect with FSMS. We expect the activation between DA and FSMS to begin Jan. 13, 2022, and is scheduled to be completed no later than Jan 18. This action will create obligations for orders issued in the current fiscal year for our reserve members, students attending A-schools and C-schools, as well as members performing a permanent change of station (PCS) move. Members traveling PCS should continue using TPAX as the vouchering tool for PCS moves.
Please see vouchering tips available on the Coast Guard Pay and Personnel Center’s (PPC) travel webpage. Members and approvers are encouraged to review training material which includes videotaped sessions provided by CWTSato Travel.
Approving officials may continue to call PPC’s Travel Assist Team to facilitate voucher processing until the end of January.
Thank you for your support throughout the transition to ETS.
In the News:
Travel Assist Teams are here to help you learn the new electronic travel system
Resources:
E-Gov Travel Service (ETS) website