Circular Letter No. 893

July 31, 2013

TO: Budget Officers

Accounting Officers

Printing and Publishing Officials of the Federal Government

SUBJECT: PART 2: Treasury Account Symbol (TAS) and Business Event Type Code (BETC) Required

.

The objective of these Circular Letters is to inform agencies that do business with the US Government

Printing Office (GPO) about the upcoming implementation of the Department of Treasury initiative

regarding the mandatory use of TAS/BETC. GPO requests that you share this information internally

with all personnel involved in ordering, obligating funds, and authorizing payments for services and

products from GPO.

Recently the Department of Treasury’s Financial Management Service and the Bureau of the Public Debt

were consolidated into the new Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service). In accordance with the

Q. What is the difference between the String and Component TAS format?

A.

String TAS: Un-partitioned TAS value format. example: 041/20110. The String format will no longer

be used after December 31, 2013.

Component TAS: The field is parsed into the various components. See example below.

Sub-level

Ending

Sub-

To learn more about the component breakdown and why Treasury’s Fiscal Service is implementing the

Component TAS format, follow the link: http://www.fms.treas.gov/cars/factsheet_tas.html

Q. What is a BETC?

A. The Business Event Type Code is a code used to indicate the type of activity being reported, such as a

payment, a collection, a borrowing, etc. This code must accompany the TAS. There are 260 BETCs, of

which, only four (4) apply to 100% of all Expenditure TAS (DISB, DISBAJ, COLL, COLLAJ). The

majority of agencies doing business with GPO will use the DISB

BETC for disbursing funds to GPO.

Q. How do you know which TAS/BETC to use?

A. Treasury Account Symbols are assigned to agencies and each TAS is assigned one or multiple

BETC(s). The existing TAS/BETC relationships are available at the following websites:

http://www.fms.treas.gov/cars/ref_guidance.html and http://www.fms.treas.gov/cars/factsheet_betc.html

January 1, 2014, MUST

will be required so that GPO can capture and submit this information to Treasury’s Fiscal Service when

Collections and Payments occur.

It is recommended that agencies obtain and use the following forms at

http://www.gpo.gov/customers/sfas1.htm

.

• The Standard Form-1 (revision date April 2010),

• Printing and Binding Requisition and GPO Form 2511, Print Order,

Q. Will this only affect orders placed on the SF-1, Form 2511, and Form 4044?

A. No. Any transaction where funds will be collected via IPAC will be affected. For example: orders

from the GPO OnLine Paper Store, replenishment of funds to a Deposit Account, GPOExpress orders,

etc. will also require the Component TAS/BETC.

Q. How do I enter the new Component TAS/BETC on my order forms?

Although the Component TAS is broken-out in various components, the ‘TREASURY ACCT. SYMBOL

(TAS)’ field on GPO forms is a single box. Agencies should enter their TAS/BETC as indicated by

GPO will provide additional information regarding the mandatory usage of the TAS/BETC as information

becomes available. Our objective in sharing this information in advance of the Treasury’s Fiscal Service

initiative is to keep our valued customers informed.

If you have any questions, please contact GPO’s Customer Account Division at 202-512-0626 or email us

at CAD@GPO.GOV.

Sincerely,