FreeBalance Government Resource Planning System

FreeBalance launched a government Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) in 1994.  The FreeBalance Accountability Suite™ became the most widely deployed financial application inside the Government of Canada. 

Today, the FreeBalance Accountability Suite™ GRP is implemented globally within governments across the world. The Suite is recognized by the World Bank as the best solution for fragile states with low capacity, where governments need to initiate reform with a simple solution that has the flexibility to become more complex over time and reflect the government progress in implementing PFM reforms or a changing political context.

FreeBalance software is used by more than 60,000 public finance managers to manage hundreds of billions of dollars of government expenditures and more than 1.5 million civil servants across 18 time zones. Customers include the governments of Canada, Nunavut, Mongolia, Timor-Leste, Guyana, Sierra Leone, and Kosovo.

International Standards

The FreeBalance Accountability Suite supports good fiscal practice and internationally recognized standards such as:

  • United Nations Common Functions of Government (COFOG): Functional classification to report government statistics to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations.
  • The International Monetary Fund Government Finance Statistics (GFS): Provides a comprehensive conceptual and accounting framework suitable for analyzing and evaluating fiscal policy and performance of the general government sector and broader public sector of any country
  • The International Monetary Fund Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency: Method to assess government fiscal transparency with practical advice for improvement.
  • Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP): A collection of rules, procedures and conventions that define accepted accounting practices.  This includes broad guidelines and detailed procedures applied to both the public and private sectors.
  • International Accounting Standards Board, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): International private and public sector reporting standards.
  • International Federation of Accountants International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS): Cash and accrual reporting requirements for government and public sector organizations.
  • Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC): Governance outcome measurements supported in performance objectives.
  • Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEF): Multiple year rational planning and budget formulation processes enabling the government to establish credible and transparent criteria for allocating public resources to strategic priorities while ensuring overall fiscal discipline.
  • The World Bank Treasury Reference Model: A development tool for fiscal managers and system developers, intended to help implement good practices in fiscal accounting and expenditure control.

100% Focused on Government

The FreeBalance Accountability Suite supports all aspects of the budget cycle and provides fiscal control over fund allocations, expenditures, appropriations, revenue administration, and human capital management.

FreeBalance is focused 100% on government.  The underlying product architecture is designed for managing public finance.  Unlike private sector finance, public finance is budget driven, not profit driven.  Commitment accounting requires numerous control mechanisms between the initial budget approval and the completion of government fiscal transactions. 

As a standard configuration (out-of-the-box), the FreeBalance Accountability Suite supports a wide range of budgetary controls in compliance with international public finance rules and codes of good fiscal practice: 

  • Aggregate Fiscal Controls: The initial approved budgetary funds are mapped to the Chart of Accounts (COA) at a pre-determined COA hierarchy level for aggregate fiscal control.
  • Multiple Levels of Allotment Controls: Support for approved appropriations, warrants, cash controls, supplemental budgets and allocations, mapped to summary or detailed levels within the COA and to fiscal periods.
  • Multiple Commitment Levels: Pre-encumbrance, commitment and obligation controls.
  • Multi-Funds and Project Controls: Projects and Programs are linked with fund sources, including linking specific budgets, projects or programs to specific revenue sources or donors.

The FreeBalance Accountability Suite adapts to meet many unique country needs including:

  • Chart-of-Accounts design supporting consolidation, reporting objects, international standards, valid code combinations and accounting offsets.
  • Multiple currencies, adjustment of fiscal periods, multi-year commitments, year-end and period-end procedures.
  • Multiple accounting methods (cash, modified cash, modified accrual and full accrual).
  • Workflow, business rules, forms and report configuration.
  • Custom domains to support unique government information integrated with workflow, rules, forms and reports.

Integration

GRP systems need to integrate with a wide variety of automated sub-systems.  The FreeBalance Accountability Suite leverages a component-based Services-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to facilitate integration: 

  • Government Systems integration supports of bank, revenue and expenditure systems including multiple government tiers.
  • Systems Management integration includes integration tools and support for identity management.
  • Office Integration support typical office software and e-mail.

Country-Specific Functionality

Governments worldwide select required functionality that reflects the unique country circumstances and can activate additional features and functionality as the political process evolves.  The FreeBalance Accountability Suite is designed for managing government fiscal processes from the ground up.  The FreeBalance GRP solution is implemented by activating functionality options through software configuration rather than bespoke programming and software source code customization.

Language and Localization

The support of local languages and terminology enables capacity building and government self-sustainability.  The FreeBalance Accountability Suite is a multi-language GRP that adapts to meet unique language requirements:

  • Language support facilitated through uploading translation files.
  • Multiple character set support includes Unicode.
  • Terminology adjustment after uploading translation.

Configuration

Configuration options enable rapid implementations and adjustments to support government legal reform.  This approach includes:

  • International Public Sector Accounting Standards built-in support.
  • Configuration of functions through parameterization including supporting unique needs that require customization in traditional software.
  • Progressive Activation to support PFM reform and modernization.

Progressive Activation

Progressive activation supports the sequential activation of additional functionality though allowing ongoing changes to support evolving political processes and capacity building including:

  • Multiple year Chart of Accounts to support changes to government structures, reporting requirements and performance considerations.
  • Upgrading accounting methods to full accrual accounting.
  • Adapting budgetary controls to support de-centralization, performance objectives, fiscal discipline and improved decision-making.
  • Adding additional modules to support the best-practice of phased PFM reform.

Configuration and progressive activation makes the FreeBalance Accountability Suite sustainable by governments.  The FreeBalance GRP does not require the significant software code customization needed for generic software to operate in government.  And, the FreeBalance Accountability Suite does not require customization to support on-going PFM reform.

 

FreeBalance Accountability Suite Modules

The FreeBalance Accountability Suite is a comprehensive Government Resource Planning software designed to support Public Financial Management:

Government Performance Management

  • Performance Budgeting modules to support credible budgets, forecasting and improved government performance including budget preparation, government performance management and a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) library.
  • Monitoring and Evaluation modules to support improved decision-making including records management, reporting, data mart, dashboards and alerts.
  • Government Transparency modules to support publishing performance and budget information to a transparency portal and computer-aided audit.

Public Financials Management

  • Budget and Commitment Accounting modules to support core government financial functions for unitary governments, national governments, line ministries, sub-national and municipal governments and projects.
  • Assets and Inventory modules to support government fixed assets, stores, fleet and facilities.
  • Projects and Job Costing modules to support project management link budgeting and project accounting to project estimates and forecasts.

Government Treasury Management

  • Bank Reconciliation to support multiple currency bank management including reconciliation processes, migration to a Treasury Single Account (TSA) and foreign exchange gains and losses.
  • Cash Management to optimize liquidity including cash forecasting based on the commitment cycle, historical trends and manager reports.
  • Debt and Investment Management supporting debt servicing and the modeling of debt and investment financial vehicles.

Public Expenditures Management

  • Expenditures and Purchasing to support expenditure controls for standard expenditures including payment management, multiple purchasing vehicles and the purchasing cycle.
  • Procurement to support fiscal discipline on large scale government acquisitions including tendering, e-procurement, contract and spend management.
  • Grants and Social Programs including government grant, loan and contribution management.

Government Receipts Management

  • Non-Tax Revenue to support government sales and other income including sales, permits and licensing.
  • Tax Revenue to support tax administration for income, business, import and property.
  • Billing and Receipts to support receipts collection including utility billing, collections and cashiering.

Civil Service Management

  • Human Resources to support civil service reform and management including movement, capacity building, salary planning, performance appraisal and recruitment.
  • Payroll and Pensions to support government rules for payroll and pensions.
  • Benefits and Self-Service including civil service benefits, travel and subsistence and self-service portals.