MN3510 Defense Financial Management Practice

This course presumes the student has a foundation including the PPBE system and Congressional Authorization and Appropriation processes. This course concentrates on financial management practices within DoD as distinct from policy and budgeting theory. The course covers the actors and activities and mechanics of building and defending budgets. It covers funding mechanisms for programs and activities, addressing the proper use and management of appropriated, reimbursable, and revolving funds. Basic principles of fiscal law are explored. It then addresses financial management and stewardship topics including budgetary accounting, management of cost drivers, the relationship between comptrollership and contracting, and internal controls. Contemporary financial management issues are discussed. Exercises and case studies are used to develop the students' ability to apply financial management concepts to real life situations.

Prerequisite

MN4053

Lecture Hours

Lab Hours

Course Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, the student should:

Recognize the concept of control of organizational administrative processes and be able to assess controls on existing processes.
Explain the parameters and constraints on how funds can be obligated and moved within the DoD. Recognize the origins and purposes of those limitations. Apply the following concepts of fiscal law to defense scenarios: necessary expense, bona fide need, severability, full and incremental funding, and Antideficiency Act.
Analyze the differences in process and identify management concerns associated with the following funding mechanisms: direct mission funds, reimbursable funds, budget-based transfers, and revolving funds.
Describe the content of the defense budget justification, the type of information it contains, and explain why that information is included. Differentiate and compute price and program growth. Evaluate whether a sample budget is executable based on a set of attributes. Discuss the budget review process.
Describe how budget execution is measured and some of the common issues that affect defense managers during execution including obligation and expenditure rates, the extent of budget execution flexibility, mid-year review, and the end of fiscal year dynamic.
Integrate the knowledge contained in the objectives above and apply them in scenarios related to stewardship of the DoD’s financial resources and contemporary issues in government financial management.