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Paying attention to detail isn't just an afterthought to one DFAS employee. In fact, his knowledge of a previously unknown system and a keen eye is a proven asset to DFAS.
Joey Alltop, Defense Agencies Accounts Payable lead accounting technician, recently led the implementation of a new BAM integrity check to help technicians scrutinize any energy-related invoice that comes up for payment. The integrity check verifies if any other transactions may or not be unblocked properly in the amount desired.
"When I came over here to the BAM team in Jan 2017, I noticed that the integrity checks were basic—like Computerized Accounts Payable System, CAPSw, and Integrated Accounts Payable System, IAPS," he said.
"The unique part of EBS is that it's not a basic system, so we have to try to work with it differently than what we're used to in other legacy payment systems," he said. Because of his experience in EBS DFAS hired him as the lead accounting technician. Alltop said errors, duplicates, or incorrect invoices stood out to him because of his EBS experience. Naturally noticing these cost savings errors enabled him to help his team according to him.
"The implementation was a result of my experience with Enterprise Business Solution, EBS, during my time as a technician," Alltop said. "The idea behind this implementation is to mitigate systematic and human errors by evaluating what has been previously paid or deducted on an invoice."
Alltop, who has spent most of his DFAS career supporting DFAS customer DLA Energy, has learned there are many factors in the decision-making process to determine the "correct" payment amount.
"DLA orders millions of gallons of fuel so quantities can often vary as well, especially when buying a barge full of fuel containing close to 12 million gallons," he said. He stated there were multiple factors to determine the actual cost for a gallon of fuel as well as the quantity purchased.
Rick Harris, Defense Agencies Accounts Payable Deputy director, was open to Alltop's realization.
"He brings a very efficient, outside the box approach to his approach to the unique DLA Energy business. He has incorporated his years of experience processing complex fuel payments, collaborating with the customer and vendors, performing audits and even settlements into a preventative approach to his role with BAM," Harris said.
To drive his point home Harris stated, "He saw a pain point related to improper payments and the opportunity to create a logic to systemically detect potential erroneous payments based on data we already had but did not have the resources to address it manually. While we've only had a few months to assess the positive impact, we have already seen a reduction in improper payments and issuance of demand letters for this particular type of transaction, saving manual labor dollars for our DLA Customer, and prevented almost half a million in reportable improper payments."
| Date Taken: | 08.14.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 12.31.2019 14:21 |
| Story ID: | 357923 |
| Location: | COLUMBUS, OHIO, US |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Experience helps DFAS save money, by Michelle Young, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
