
Overview
Budget and Fiscal Services Division (BFS) is responsible for management of all agency financial activities including accounting, budgeting, contractual agreements, financial systems, grant management, and payroll. Our activities include:
- Preparation, justification, and allotment of the department’s $780 million biennial operating budget;
- Negotiating and executing contractual and grant agreements;
- Issuing payments to vendors for goods and services received;
- Billing and collection of money or debt owed to the agency; and
- Processing payroll for approximately 2,400 employees.
Key Measurements and Statistics
Each month, BFS makes 2,300 vendor payments totaling $7 million, collects 2,000 checks and electronic payments totaling $4 million, conducts 120 contracting actions (contract awards or amendments), issues billings for 250 grants and reimbursable contracts, and issues 5,000 employee payroll payments.
In addition, we conduct 80-100 competitive procurements each year and process payroll for 300-400 volunteer firefighters involved in fire mobilizations during the summer months.
Each of our Units assess their performance through a number of measures as follows:
Accounts Payable: Pay vendors within 10 business days of receipt of voucher.
Accounts Receivable: Minimize outstanding billings over 60 days past due.
Budget Section: Process Fiscal Notes during legislative session in less than 3 days.
Contracts Section: Process simple contractual agreements within 10 business days.
Payroll/Financial Systems: Minimize payroll overpayments and underpayments to employees.

Successes of 2020
A major focus for our division for the past year (and into the future) is the replacement of statewide and agency automated financial systems. During the past year, a large number of our agency staff have been deeply involved in the One Washington project. One Washington is a state-wide, multi-year project, led by the Office of Financial Management (OFM), to modernize many of the state’s aging financial and administrative systems. These systems include a number of functional areas including financial, procurement, budgeting, and human resources. Budget and Fiscal Services staff, along with other agency employees, continue to participate and contribute to the success of this enterprise-wide project. More information on the One Washington Project can be found at this link: https://ofm.wa.gov/about/special-initiatives/one-washington
During 2020, we also deployed a major upgrade to our agency timekeeping system, formally called the Time and Activity System (TAS). We use TAS to account for all employees’ time for Payroll purposes. This automated system keeps track of time worked, overtime earned, and leave taken by employees. It also accommodates the reporting of work activities and statistics that is used for performance reporting at an agency-wide level or down to the individual employee.
This major system upgrade termed “TAS 3.0” is the first major upgrade in our timekeeping software since 2006. The upgrade was deployed in September 2020, and has proven to be highly successful and well accepted by its users.