  Issue 2.2, January 2022
At the request of the Tribal Leaders Consultation Work Group, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) recently paused the recruitment of Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) Indian Tribal Organizations (ITOs) for migration to the Integrated Food Management System (IFMS). As a part of this pause, FNS formed a new work group with the goal of collecting feedback on IFMS. In total, 19 individuals participated, representing 17 ITOs in five FNS Regions. Workgroup meetings were held on a weekly basis from late October through early December 2021.
During these meetings, members provided feedback about various issues and concerns with IFMS. They also helped surface new issues to be addressed in the system. In total, the work group identified 32 concrete changes that would substantially improve IFMS. These changes include modifications to how the system handles reports, household issuance, printing, household certification, inventory management, and search functions.
FNS is committed to their partnership with the FDPIR community to ensure that IFMS meets the needs of its users. The work group will continue as an IFMS User Group, and FNS looks forward working with ITO representatives to ensure that IFMS is the best product that it can be.
In October 2021, IFMS celebrated its first anniversary. This modern, innovative, and flexible system has been designed to replace a decades-old inventory system that has become increasingly challenging to maintain in order to meet evolving program needs.
The Transition Team is pleased to welcome the latest group of Indian Tribal Organizations (ITOs). As of January 2022, there are 74 ITOs using IFMS to conduct food distribution issuance for their communities and manage inventory and household records for FDPIR. To date, over 10 million food items have been issued to over 21 thousand households through IFMS.
 As of January 2022, IFMS is being used by 74 ITOs at 95 sites.
IFMS Activity At-a-Glance
As of February 7, 2022, IFMS activity since launch includes:
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74 ITOs deployed IFMS with 352 active users
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40,039 individuals in 21,175 households received food
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10,034,440 items issued through 130,744 order transactions
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17,032,944 items updated through 45,199 inventory transactions
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23,197 household certifications updated
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3,700 new households created
Release 1.7.0 Highlights
Release 1.7.0 went live on January 18, 2022. The following enhancements were included:
Household Management
- Users will receive a warning message when promoting a minor to be the Head of Household.
- Household Certifiers will be able to include a second address for households in their ITOs.
- Certifiers will be prevented from shortening the Certification Term for a household if the new Certification Termination Date occurs prior to the household’s Last Issuance Date.
- When a Household size decreases and the Household has a voided issuance in the month, issuances to the Household will reflect the limits to the decreased Household size.
Inventory Management
- Material transferred from one ITO to another will only appear on the FNS-152 Report when the transfer receipt transaction has been performed at the receiving location.
- On inventory transactions, the Reverse checkbox will be cleared when the inventory transaction type is changed.
- Users will receive a warning message when reversing an inventory transaction to remind them to validate the date of the transaction being reversed so that they occur in the same month.
Issuance Management
- Food Issuance Specialists will no longer see an error on the New Issuance component after the error has been corrected.
- The Issuance Specialist will be prevented from issuing, adjusting an issuance, or voiding an issuance if an issuance transaction for the household is currently in progress.
- Household Size on the receipt will match Household Size on the order after the Household Size has been changed.
Reporting
- Users will be able to run a report that displays the number of Households Participating and the total participants by Site and Location.
- Users will be able to export the FNS-152 Report in Excel format.
- Backdated transactions performed on the last day of the month will be included in that month’s FNS-152 Report.
Release Notes can be found in the IFMS Learning Academy (login required).
Hot Tips
Download IFMS Reports to Excel
IFMS allows users to download reports to Excel for further analysis or sharing.
- Click the Name to generate the report.
- Once the report displays, select Export from the drop-down list.
- Select how the information should be exported to Excel.
- The Formatted Report option contains a header and appears similar to how it is displayed in IFMS.
- The Details Only option includes detailed data rows without a header section.
- Click Export to download. The report is automatically saved to the computer’s Downloads
Refer to the Inventory Manual (Section 7.9, p. 92), Issuance Manual (Section 11.9, p. 76), or Household Certification Manual (Section 9.0, p. 69) for more information.
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Print Reports from Excel
When printing downloaded reports from Excel, the following settings are recommended.
- Open the exported report.
- From the File drop-down menu in Excel, select Print.
- Update the Settings as follows:
- Select Landscape Orientation to allow more room for columns.
- Select Fit All Columns on One Page to adjust the scale.
- A print preview displays on the right. Click Print to proceed.
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If the report does not display correctly, contact the IFMS Help Desk for assistance.
Refer to the Inventory Manual (Section 7.9.1, pp. 93-94), Issuance Manual (Section 11.10, pp. 77-79), or Household Certification Manual (Section 9.0, pp. 70-72) for more information.
Transition Support
The IFMS Transition Team is available to provide assistance to ITOs who are preparing for IFMS and to answer questions about the transition process. Contact the Transition Manager to learn more. The transition program is designed to support ITOs, considering their unique needs, from initial planning through the Go Live event at a pace that minimizes disruption to daily operations.
The transition program includes:
- Support Specialists assigned to each ITO for the duration of the transition process
- Self-Paced e-Learning Introductory Course
- Flexible virtual training sessions
- Manuals, quick reference guides, and exercises for each functional area
- Access to the IFMS training environment to reinforce and build upon training sessions
- Discussion of ITO data needs and guidance on using IFMS reporting tools
- Post-transition support with timely response to questions or issues
- Feedback sessions for continuous improvement of transition program and system features
Training Opportunities
The Transition Team works with transitioning ITOs to provide training to acquaint them with IFMS. In order to accommodate operation schedules and staff availability, flexibilities include shorter sessions, repeat offerings of the same topic, and coordination with transitioning ITOs to choose the days and time(s) that best suits their needs. New users also receive copies of user manuals and other training materials as well as access to the training environment, where they can get hands-on practice and become familiar with IFMS before Go Live.
The Post-launch Support Program offers additional training opportunities for the IFMS user community in the form of refreshers, updates, and advanced topics. These sessions are intended to build user skills and help improve efficiency with IFMS. Upcoming events will be announced.
Interested in other training opportunities for new and existing users? There is a new IFMS Training Request Form, located in the IFMS Learning Academy. Upon receipt, the IFMS Training Manager will follow up to discuss scheduling and tailoring the session(s) to the needs of the ITO.
IFMS Public Webpage
The IFMS webpage provides announcements, general information about IFMS, and a variety of other resources for the user community and other interested parties. These include:
IFMS Learning Academy
The IFMS Learning Academy (login required) contains a variety of self-service resources for IFMS. User manuals and quick reference guides (QRGs) provide helpful instructions for a variety of common business tasks and functions as well as tips for using additional system features when needed. Other resources include release notes and guide rate information.
After selecting a topic, refer to the Details tab for a description of available materials and links to external resources, as applicable. The Related tab provides all files available to view or download.
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