Questions concerning this policy chapter should be directed to:

• Veterans Health Administration
• Veterans Benefits Administration
• National Cemetery Administration
• Debt Management Center
• Financial Services Center
• Construction and Facilities Management
• All others

0101 Overview

This chapter establishes the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) financial policies for establishing, reviewing, and canceling purchase requests (PRs) in VA’s Integrated Financial and Acquisition Management System (iFAMS).

Key points covered in this chapter:

• PRs will only be required for:
• Procurement contracts processed through VA Procurement Offices;
• Assisted acquisitions; and
• Task or delivery orders against existing contracts placed by authorized individuals.
• PRs will not be used for the purpose of reserving funds outside of those items specified above;
• PRs will not be recorded for transactions not specified in this guidance, (e.g., purchase card transactions); and
• Open PRs will be reviewed monthly by both the requestor and Local Finance Office. If a PR is no longer valid, it will be manually canceled by the appropriate office.

0102 Revisions

Section	Revision	Office	Reason for Change	Effective Date
010505	Year-end PR cancellation	OFP	Non expired funds exempt from year-end cancellation requirement	May 2025
010503 010505 Appendix B	Updated sections on how to properly close out PRs	OFP	Timely return unused funds prior to expiration	May 2025
Various	Updated terms for ‘open PRs,’ ‘cancelled PRs,’ and ‘closed PRs’ throughout	OFP	Accurately reflect system terminology and business processes	May 2025
Various	Realigned appendices	OFP	Updated policy to latest format	May 2025

For a complete list of previous policy revisions, see Appendix A.

0103 Definitions

Assisted Acquisition – A type of interagency acquisition where a servicing agency performs acquisition activities on a requesting agency’s behalf, such as awarding and administering a contract, task order, or delivery order.

Integrated Financial and Acquisition Management System (iFAMS) – The system replacing VA’s legacy accounting system, the Financial Management System (FMS), as the official financial and acquisition system of record. VA is implementing iFAMS in waves beginning in 2020.

Obligation – A legally binding agreement that will result in outlays, immediately or in the future. An obligation is a legal liability of the Government against an available appropriation.

Open Purchase Request – A PR that initiated the acquisition/solicitation process, but for which a contract has not yet been awarded or the funding was not fully utilized on the award.

Purchase Request (PR) – A request for goods or services (funded or unfunded). A funded PR reserves funds in the budget query in iFAMS and posts to the applicable statistical general ledger account. A PR may be unfunded for administrative actions or other non-budgetary purposes, such as contract close out or modification.

Statistical Standard General Ledger Account (SGL) – The 9000 series of general ledger accounts available for agencies to record and maintain agency-specific statistical or memorandum data.

0104 Roles and Responsibilities

Local Finance Offices are responsible for reviewing and approving PRs; ensuring compliance, completeness, and accuracy of PRs; reviewing open PRs to determine if still valid; and working with the Contracting Officer to ensure that invalid PRs are canceled.

Procurement Offices are responsible for awarding contracts in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and applicable laws, obligating and modifying contracts in VA’s contract writing system, and canceling invalid or unneeded PRs when appropriate. Contracting Officers, in consultation with local field staff and the Local Finance Office, will execute timely contract modifications for contract closeout, period of performance date extensions, fund increases, and other administrative or performance requirements, in support of timely adjustments to open obligations.

Requesting offices are responsible for the timely and accurate submission of PRs and coordinating with the Finance and Procurement Offices to ensure that invalid PRs are canceled.

0105 Policies

010501 General Policies

1. A PR is a request for goods and services and may be funded or unfunded. It notifies the Contracting Officers of the goods and services to be ordered or administrative actions required.
2. A PR is not a legally binding obligation.
3. A PR is used to reserve funds for a subsequent legally binding obligation.
4. VA will only reserve funds via a PR when it will specifically lead to the award or modification of a contract, delivery or task order, or assisted acquisition.
5. The Financial Services Center (FSC) will perform reconciliations between the SGL statistical accounts and the budget tables, (e.g., between the purchase requests budget reservation table and the applicable purchase requests statistical SGL account).
6. PRs should not be used to set aside funds for a broad purpose such as beneficiary travel, tort payments, or planned future transactions using budgetary allocations or allowances.
7. VA will comply with National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) General Records Schedules for financial management and reporting records.
8. See Appendix B for a summary of the PR process and standard general ledger postings.

010502 Establishing PRs

1. VA will use PRs only for the approved uses below:
   • Procurement contracts processed through VA Contracting;
   • Assisted acquisitions; and
   • Task or delivery orders against existing contracts placed by authorized individuals.
2. PRs, when required, will be established in a timely manner.

010503 Closing PRs

1. PRs must be closed to ensure that residual balances are recouped making funding available for other requirements.
2. The Procurement Office will close PRs by marking them as ‘Final’ or approving PR amendments, as applicable.
3. The local Requesting and Local Finance Offices will coordinate submittal of PR amendments to close remaining residual balances on open PRs.

010504 Open PRs

1. Open PRs include those PRs which are not cancelled or closed. Open PRs do not require a dollar value if they are for an administrative action.
2. On at least a monthly basis Requestors, the Local Procurement Office or the Local Finance Office staff must review open PRs.
3. The PR review must determine whether:
   • The PR is still needed; 
   • Open balances are accurate and agree to source documents (i.e., request package);
   • PRs aged over 30 days, or without activity in the past 30 days, are valid and should remain open; and
   • PRs with no residual balance should be marked final and or cancelled.

010505 Canceling PRs

1. Open PRs will be canceled by the appropriate office if no longer valid.
2. PRs that are no longer needed must be cancelled within 30 days by the appropriate office. This will release funds for other requirements.
3. Open PRs, in expiring funds, that have not been awarded by fiscal year-end will be canceled in the accounting system. PRs pertaining to non-expired multi-year funds, revolving funds, no-year funds, administrative actions, subject to availability of funds (SAF), or contract close-out will not be canceled.

0106 Authorities and References

• United States Code (U.S.C.)
  • 31 U.S.C. § 1104, Budget and appropriations authority of the President
  • 31 U.S.C. § 1301, Application of Appropriations (also known as the Purpose Statute)
  • 31 U.S.C. § 1341, Limitations on Expending and Obligating Amounts
  • 31 U.S.C. § 1553, Availability of appropriation accounts to pay obligations
• Federal Acquisition Regulation
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) General Records Schedule
• OMB Circular A-11, Preparation, Submission and Execution of the Budget
• OMB Circular A-136, Financial Reporting Requirements
• Treasury US Standard General Ledger
• VA Acquisition Regulation
• VA Financial Policy Publications
  • Volume II, Chapter 2 – VA’s Budget Cycle and Fund Symbols
  • Volume II, Chapter 3 – VA Fund Control
  • Volume III, Chapter 2 – Obligations
  • Volume IX, Chapter 4 – Reconciliations

0107 Rescissions

Volume III, Chapter 1 – Purchase Request Policy, March 2024.

Appendix A: Previous Policy Revisions

Section	Revision	Office	Reason for Change	Effective Date
Various	Move policy to Volume III Chapter 1	OF (047)	Realignment of obligation policies to Volume III	March 2024
Various	Changed ‘commitment’ terminology to ‘purchase request’ throughout policy/title	OF (047)	General ledger account 470000 will not be used for these transactions. Statistical general ledger accounts will be used; therefore, PR is the correct term.	August 2022
Various	The purchase request will not be used for grant agreements	OF (047)	Policy will not use PRs for grant agreements.	August 2022
0501	Inserted “in statistical general ledger accounts”	OF (047)	To clarify that statistical general ledger accounts will be used to record PRs	August 2022
Appendix A	Inserted “for the following iFAMS document types: IPR (contract request) RRE (assisted acquisition)”	OF (047)	Clarification of applicable iFAMS document types	August 2022
Appendix A	Revised applicable general ledger accounts for recording a purchase request as: Dr. 90014610Non-reimbursable Agreement Funding Available Cr. 90014700 Commitments – Subject to Funds Availability	OF (047)	Statistical general ledger accounts will be used for PRs	August 2022
Various	New Chapter	OFP (047G)	Implementation of the Integrated Financial and Acquisition Management System (iFAMS)	June 2020

Appendix B: Summary of the PR Process, Standard General Ledger Postings, and Guidance for Specific Activity Categories

A. The PR process only impacts the following iFAMS document types:

• IPR (Integrated Purchase Request)
• APR (Acquisition Purchase Request)
• RRE (Reimbursable Request)

B. Summary of the PR Process

Daily Activities:

• Step 1 – The requesting office, within an Administration or Staff Office, identifies the need for a VA Contracting Officer to obtain goods or services and creates a PR with funded accounting lines. The requesting office uploads supporting documentation including, but not limited to, a Statement of Work, Independent Government Cost Estimate, and Market Analysis. The requesting office approving official reviews and performs the first-level of approval.

• Step 2 – The Local Finance Office reviews the PR and performs the second level of approval. The Local Finance Office cannot make any adjustments/edits to the PR due to read-only access. PRs containing errors will be returned to the requesting office.

• Step 3 – VA Contracting Officer awards a contract (or an authorized individual places an order against an awarded contract), creating an obligation. VA will record an obligation when VA incurs a legally binding agreement with a specified entity. The amount used to fund the obligation will be automatically decreased from the referenced PR. If the obligation amount is less than the PR amount and the unused funds are no longer required, the PR must be marked as “final” within iFAMS when the obligation is awarded so the residual PR balance will be decreased. Otherwise, the excess PR amount must be manually decreased.

Monthly Activities:

• Step 4 – Reconciliation. Monthly, Local Finance Office staff and the Requesting Offices will review open PRs. The Local Finance Office will request that the appropriate office cancel PRs that are no longer valid.

Year-End Activities:

• Step 5 – Open PRs must be canceled at year-end. iFAMS will automatically cancel any open PRs with balances at year-end. PRs pertaining to non-expired multi-year funds, revolving funds, no-year funds, administrative actions, subject to availability of funds (SAF), or contract close-out will not be canceled.

C. Standard General Ledger (SGL) Postings

1. Create a PR
   • A PR is only recorded in iFAMS if a transaction will be processed by a Contracting Officer (or other authorized individual), or an IAA that involves an assisted acquisition.
   • The PR process ensures funds are available and the correct funding is used. The PR requires approval by the requesting and Local Finance Office.
   • The following SGL accounts are impacted for the following iFAMS document types:
     • IPR (Integrated Purchase Request)
     • APR (Acquisition Purchase Request)
     • RRE (Reimbursable Request)

Budgetary (creates PR) (primary user entry)
Dr. 90014610Non-reimbursable Agreement Funding Available
        Cr. 90014700 – Commitments – Subject to Funds Availability

2. Create Obligation
   • The obligation records a legally binding agreement that will result in outlays, immediately or in the future.
   • The amount of the PR used to fund the obligation will be automatically decreased from the PR at the time of obligation processing. If the obligation amount is less than the PR amount, the PR must be marked as “final” within iFAMS obligation so the residual PR balance will be automatically decreased (liquidated). Otherwise, the excess PR amount must be manually decreased.
   • The following SGL accounts are impacted.

Budgetary (creates obligation) (primary user entry)
Dr. 46100001 Allotments – Realized
        Cr. 48010001 Undelivered Orders – Obligations, Unpaid

Budgetary (decrease funds) (automated entry generated by referencing)
Dr. 90014700 – Commitments – Subject to Funding Available
        Cr. 90014610 – Non-reimbursable Agreement Funding Availability

Monthly Activities:

3. Review PRs Monthly
   • Open PRs are reviewed and manually decreased if no longer valid.
   • The following SGL accounts are impacted when decreased.

Budgetary (decrease funds) (primary user entry)
Dr. 90014700 – Commitments – Subject to Funding Available
        Cr. 90014610 – Non-reimbursable Agreement Funding Availability

Year-End Activities:

4. Cancel Open PRs at Year-end
   • Open PRs at year-end will automatically be canceled. PRs pertaining to non-expired multi-year funds, revolving funds, no-year funds, administrative actions, subject to availability of funds (SAF), or contract close-out will not be canceled.
   • The following SGL accounts are impacted when canceled.

Budgetary (decrease funds) (automated entry generated by the system)
Dr. 90014700 – Commitments – Subject to Funding Available
        Cr. 90014610 – Non-reimbursable Agreement Funding Availability