Budget
General
1. Will the opening balances for FY05 be generated in STARS and provided to the Integrated Contractors? (Date posted – 8/03/05)
A. Yes - opening balances for FY05 were generated in STARS and will be provided to the Integrated Contractors and the Field Office can run a Trial Balance report to provide balances to their Integrated Contractors.
2. What is the difference between sub 01(PRN) and sub 04 (LI)? We have been receiving PRN funding for line item projects? (Date posted – 3/10/04)
A. Line item projects are specifically referenced on the budget. PRNs are also projects; however, they are not specific line items on the budget.
AFF
1. Is the Appropriation year in the AFF? Is it a required field to be included in the STARS Integrated Contractor feed? (Date posted – 4/06/04)
A. As stated in the STARS to Legacy crosswalks, the Appropriation Year is a STARS AFF segment; however, this segment will not be required to be included in the Integrated Contractor feed.
2. What are the Accounting Flex Field (AFF) segments? (Date posted – 8/3/04)
A. Please see the listing below for the STARS Accounting Flex Field (AFF):
FUND: Appropriation/Fund Type (5)
APPROPRIATION YEAR: Fiscal Year (4)
ALLOTTEE: Financial Office/Recipient of Funds Allotted by HQ (2)
REPORTING ENTITY: Financial Plan/Organization within Allottee (6)
STANDARD GENERAL LEDGER (SGL): Account Codes (8)
OBJECT CLASS: 3-Position Object Class Codes + 2-Position sub-object (5)
PROGRAM: BNR; Budget Reference Numbers for line items and major items of equipment (7)
PROJECT: Ads Number; Field Work Proposals; Annual Operating Plan Numbers (7)
WORK FOR OTHERS (WFO): Reimbursable Agreement Numbers; Intra-Office Work Orders; Inter-Office Work Orders (7)
AFP
Please direct all questions regarding AFP to the respective field office since AFP is not generated from STARS. (Date posted – 2/24/04)
BRN
1. Since BRN will be part of the Program Segment, how will this impact the current funding requirements related to capital equipment and construction? (Date posted – 8/03/05)
A. Only two legacy Budget Reference Numbers (BRNs) are part of the Program segment - those associated with Line Item Construction (B&R 39) (prefix=LI) and Major Items of Equipment (prefix=MIE). Since, typically, there is a one-to-one relationship between the B&R and LI or MIE, the Program value includes the BRN instead. For the other types of BRNs, which are General Plant Projects (prefix=GPP), General Purpose Equipment (prefix=GPE), capital equipment (prefix=EQU), Construction Project Number (prefix=PRN), and Accelerator Improve/Reactor Mod Projects (prefix=AIP), the opportunity exists for multiple BRNs to be associated with one Program value or legacy B&R, so these combinations are captured as a sub-object class. The actual BRN value is reported as part of the Local Use segment. (A crosswalk from legacy to STARS values is available at http://www.cfo.doe.gov/ME2-5/iManage/STARSinterfaceDocs.htm.)
2. This question is regarding the type of BRN that will be inferred from the Local Use segment and placed as a sub-object class to the Object Class segment value provided by the contractors. Does this mean that the Object Class Code contractor's report would indicate the type of BRN or that a separate field would need to be reported with the type of BRN (Sub-object Class), rather than having a DOE program infer the code from what is reported in the Local Use flexfield? (Date posted – 8/3/05)
A. The Object Class segment is a 5-character field. The first three positions contain the OMB prescribed object class values and the last two positions represent additional detail used by DOE. The last two positions reflect the BRN for OMB object class values 310 and 320. For example, object class 31001 consists of 310 which represents Equipment and 01 which represents MIE (Major Items of Equipment). The entire value of 31001 must be determined by the contractors. The crosswalk from legacy to STARS values for object class codes is available at: http://www.cfo.doe.gov/ME2-5/iManage/objectclassvalues.xls
B&R
1. Currently HQ controls the B&R codes through the web based BARC system. Will HQ develop and control a similar system for the new Program values that have replaced the legacy B&R codes? How and where will the legacy B&Rs be retained and for how long? (Date posted – 8/3/05)
A. The BARC system will be used for FY'05. We plan to use STARS for FY'06 program values. The legacy B&R value has been established as the description for the new STARS program value. It is the Department's goal to retain legacy values for the first year; however, the legacy B&R values may be referenced longer.
2. For line item projects, we report ‘PRNxxxxxxxx’ (for example, PRN96D11100). Would the Program Code designate this information, or would there be a crosswalk to Local Use for the extension information? (Date posted – 3/10/04)
A. Line item project have a one-to-one relationship with the B&R, and will be included in the program segment.
OCLs
1. How will DOE assign Program Codes? How will Obligational Control Levels be designated in the Program structure? If the Program AFF segment is replacing B&Rs and has no imbedded breakdown, where will the OCL be? (Date posted – 2/24/04)
A. Program codes will be assigned in ranges. Obligational controls will be at the current level and the hard control in the system will be by parent/child relationships with the parent value as the OCL.
2. If we are managing costs down to the B&R level instead of the OCL Level, how will continuing resolutions be handled? (Date posted – 3/10/04)
A. Field offices will be able to control funds below the OCL level. This level of control is a managerial control and not a hard control (same is true under a CR).
3. Will STARS reject a file during continuing resolution that has costs in excess of funding at the B&R level? (Date posted – 3/10/04)
A. No, only if it exceeds the OCL.
4. How many levels of parent-child relationships are there from Program to OCL? (Date posted – 4/06/04)
A. For the Program segment, we established 5 types of Parent/child relationships:
- Hierarchical (to mimic the current Program, Subprogram, Category, Task, and Subtask levels of the B&R)
- Congressional Control Level (the hard level of control set in the Budget)
- Assistant Secretary
- Departmental Goals (used to make the managerial cost allocations for the Statement of Net Cost)
- Lower Level Program Goals (used to make the managerial cost allocations for the Statement of Net Cost – these will be new (not used in FY03))
Each STARS Program value belongs to each of these relationships, and under the Hierarchical Parent, belongs to as many as 4 separate parents. The STARS child values equate to the legacy cost/reporting level B&R’s. No parent values are available for transactional input; they are available only for reporting purposes.
To illustrate this point, take legacy B&R DP0701011, Repairs. It would be a child of the following parents:
Hierarchical
DP, Weapons Activities (Stockpile Stewardship Program)
DP07, Directed Stockpile Work
DP0701, Stockpile Maintenance
DP070101, Life Extension Operations & Repairs
Congressional Control Level, DP0701
Assistant Secretary, NA – Administrator for National Nuclear Security Administration
Departmental Goals, 06100 - Nuclear Weapons Stewardship
Lower Level Program Goals, TBD
The budgetary control in STARS will be at the Congressional Control Level via roll-up groups. This means that the combination of all values underneath the Congressional Control Level cannot exceed the total level in the budget.
