New EPA Payment Process

[NaepcA1]

Dear Recipient:

You are being sent this email because you draw your payments manually by completing and faxing the EPA 190-F-04-001 form. EPA will transition to a new financial system beginning on October 1, 2011. The new system will be down for at least three weeks where we be unable to process manual payments. You or others in your organization may receive similar email notifications from our Washington DC Headquarters Office.

We have another method of requesting payment called the Automated Standard Application for Payment (ASAP). This is a U.S. Treasury system where we load your grant funds for draw down. Many Federal Agencies use this system and it is possible that you have grants with other agencies and utilize ASAP already. If this is the case, it is very easy for EPA to register you as well. It is not mandatory that you sign up for ASAP. However, we are making this suggestion if you have multiple grants with us, draw payment frequently, or the fact that we will not be able to process manual payments in October may cause a problem.

With ASAP, you log on to a website to request your funds. Once you request funds, you are paid and then the transaction feeds to our system. Therefore, if we are "down" your payment will not be delayed. There are several benefits of being an ASAP recipient. You can get your funds faster. Manually, it takes three business days for funds to arrive. On ASAP, you can schedule a same day payment (fedwire) or a next day payment. You can always see your balances and ASAP does have some reporting capabilities.

I have provided some information on ASAP for you below. Basically, the registration process works like this:

1. Complete the registration form and fax or pdf back to me. Once I register you, the Point of Contact will receive an email from ASAP with a userid. Their password will be mailed within two weeks. However, if you want to speed up the process, see instructions in #2 below.

2. Once the Point of Contact can log in, they will select a Head of Organization, Authorizing Official and Financial Official. Each official will have certain duties to perform on the system. All the officials will receive an email providing a userid and a password will be mailed to each within two weeks. To speed up the process, once the userid is obtained, each user can call (804)697-8384 and press Option 3. Request that the customer service representative reset your password. ASAP will email a temporary one and you can then login and set your new password as well as perform your duties on ASAP. Please note that you don't necessarily have to follow the hierarchy of your organization. Choose users who will be able to do work on the system.

3. Once you are in the system, under the HELP menu there are some great tutorials on requesting payment and enrollment that you should take.

4. When you are done with registration, we are informed by ASAP. I will send you your grants and balances so we can make sure our records agree. Once you confirm, I can load your funds and you are all set to request payment from ASAP. Any future awards you receive from EPA, will automatically be loaded on ASAP for you.

Here is some info on ASAP for you to share. Check out the below website as it has questions and answers for recipient organizations and an overview of what the system is:

http://fms.treas.gov/asap/index.html


If you are interested, just complete the below form and fax or pdf back to me.




Below, I have attached a description describing the roles each official plays on ASAP



Please give me a call if you have any questions. Have a safe week.


Anna Woods
US EPA, Financial Specialist, LVFC
Phone (702)798-2496
Fax (702)798-2423

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything.....what we think, we become."

Mailing Address:

U.S. EPA
Las Vegas Finance Center
P.O. Box 98515
Las Vegas, NV 89193-8515

Visit the LVFC Website at: http://www.epa.gov/ocfo/finservices/payinfo.htm

Visit the Region 9 Website at: http://www.epa.gov/region9/funding/managing.html