Roles and Responsibilities

Payment Management System (PMS)

PMS is a centralized payment and cash management system which accomplishes all payment-related activities from the time of award through closeout.

The services provided include the below:

• Centralized Payments
• Cash Management
• Grant Accounting
• Financial Reporting
• Debt Management
• Audit Assistance
• Staff Support

PMS functions as the intermediary between Awarding Agencies and Award Recipients, with particular emphasis on:

1. Expediting the flow of cash between the Federal government and recipient;
2. Transmitting recipient disbursement data back to the awarding agencies; and
3. Managing cash flow advances to grant recipients.

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Award Recipient

Primary responsibilities include:

• Executing awards
• Maintaining minimum federal cash on hand by requesting funds from the Payment Management System only for immediate disbursement (3 business days) and reimbursement unless otherwise specified in their Notice of Award
• Reporting cash disbursements to the Payment Management System via the Federal Financial Report (FFR)
• Maintaining their accounting records

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Awarding Agency

Primary responsibilities include:

• Registering recipients
• Issuing award notices
• Inputting authorization data into the Payment Management System
• Approving Federal Financial Report (FFR)
• Monitoring awards
• Closing out awards
• Reconciling their accounting records to the PMS information

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PSC Personnel

Primary responsibilities include:

• Operating the Payment Management System
• Making payments to recipients
• Processing payment transaction files to the Federal Reserve Bank System and U.S. Treasury
• Managing cash flow to recipients
• Performing payee/recipient account management
• Maintaining user/recipient liaison
• Reporting disbursement data to awarding agencies
• Facilitating debt collection for all awards funds paid through PMS
• Resolving disbursement reporting issues with award recipients
• Maintaining security
• Providing Help Desk support

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The Department of Treasury

Primary responsibilities include:

• Establishing cash management policies
• Operating the Government On-line Accounting Link System (GOALS)
• Operating the Secure Payment System (SPS) for processing of Fedwire payments, check payments, and certain Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions

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Federal Reserve Banks

Primary responsibilities include:

• Receiving ACH and Fedwire payments for credit to recipient accounts

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Grant Lifecycle

The grant lifecycle is comprised of the following nine steps:

• The grant application is submitted
• The awarding agency reviews the application for approval
• Grant data is transmitted to PMS
• PMS updates their database
• PMS issues payments to the Grantee
• The grantee reports disbursement data to PMS Quarterly via the FFR
• PMS records the disbursements
• The Program Office reviews for compliance with the grant provisions
• The Awarding Agency closes the award (AUTH=DISB=Payments)