The USCG transitioned to the new DHS finance, procurement, and asset management system called the DHS Financial Systems Modernization Solution (FSMS) on 17 December 2021. As part of the transition to FSMS, the below updates are provided for vendor awareness and action, if required: 1. Invoice Payment Priority: FINCEN has more than 16,000 vendor invoices and employee vouchers in backlog. Priority will be placed on utilities, small businesses, member payments, and large dollar contract payments. The remaining invoices will generally be processed using a first in, first out methodology. 2. The following applies to contractors submitting invoices to the
[email protected] email, regardless of contract award date, only: Effective 20 December 2021, contractors will no longer be able to submit invoices to this email. Any invoices submitted to this email will receive an automated reply rejecting the invoice. a. In place of this inbox, vendors will now be required to submit proper invoices through the Invoice Processing Platform (IPP) at https://www.ipp.gov/. b. IPP is a secure web-based electronic invoicing system provided by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. IPP is available at no cost to any commercial vendor or independent contractor doing business with a participating government agency. 3. Process for IPP access: a. If your company is already registered to use IPP, you will not be required to re-register and you do not need to contact IPP. If you are NOT already registered in IPP, the point of contact you provided in your SAM.gov registration will receive two emails from
[email protected] . Please note that emails from this email address may filter into your spam or junk folder: The first email will have the IPP Logon ID and a link to the IPP application. A second email, which will be sent within 24 hours of the first email, contains a temporary password b. SPECIAL NOTE: Vendors must follow IPP instructions to create Non-PO invoices when submitting payment requests (POs associated with the invoices being submitted are not being interfaced to IPP). c. Vendor training materials, including a first time login tutorial, are available on the https://www.ipp.gov/ website. Once you have logged in to the IPP application, you will have access to user guides that provide step-by-step instructions for all IPP capabilities, ranging from creating and submitting an invoice to setting up email notifications. Live webinars are held monthly and provide a great opportunity to learn the basic of the system and to call in and ask the IPP team questions about the IPP application. d. IPP Customer Support is available to assist users of the system and can answer your questions related to accessing IPP or completing the registration process. Toll-free number: 866-973-3131 Email address:
[email protected] Hours of operation: Monday through Friday (excluding bank holidays) from 8:00 am - 6:00 pm ET Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete the registration process and for your continued support. This is an update to these related past special notices: https://sam.gov/opp/77f65f021cda49979b688b5041946514/view https://sam.gov/opp/4fc594ece59c41cb971bfa5ce14b2345/view