 A Newsletter for IFMS Users
 Issue 3.6, June 2023
The USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) plans to retire the Automated Inventory System (AIS) in 2023. Indian Tribal Organizations (ITOs) who currently use AIS should prepare to transition to another system.
FNS maintains the Integrated Food Management System (IFMS) as a replacement system for AIS. There are also other systems available such as Sygnal. For more information, please refer to the Technology Synopsis in the January 2023 FDPIR Connection e-letter.
This month, Claudeen Tallwood, Program Manager, Navajo Nation Food Distribution Program; Lyle Silversmith, Supervisor, Navajo Nation Food Distribution Program; and their staff hosted the IFMS project team for three days of IFMS training. Twenty certifiers from the Navajo Nation participated in learning about the system.
The IFMS project team is working with Navajo ahead of their transition to IFMS. This site visit will assist the project team with refining the transition program to better align with Navajo’s operational needs.
The team is looking forward to more opportunities to visit with ITOs. Please don’t hesitate to contact the IFMS Transition Team to discuss in-person training and support.
Beginning July 2023, an update to the USDA eAuth service will accept new logon options through Login.gov for external users to access USDA applications and resources, including IFMS, and to allow for multi-factor authentication (MFA) for secure access. This process will be rolled out to new external registrants in late July and will fully transition to all external users at a future date. More information on the upcoming transition is available on the eAuth website.
IFMS Activity At-a-Glance
There are 99 ITOs using IFMS to conduct food distribution transactions for their communities and manage inventory and household records for FDPIR. To date, nearly 31 million food items have been issued through IFMS.
 Fig 1 - IFMS was being used by 99 ITOs at 139 Sites in June 2023.
As of June 30, 2023, IFMS activity since launch included:
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99 ITOs deployed IFMS with 500 active users
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76,651 individuals in 38,658 households received food
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30,852,862 items issued through 397,929 order transactions
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57,319,136 items updated through 162,441 inventory transactions
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69,482 household certifications updated
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13,516 new households created
Certification Module
Since the launch of the Certification Module in February 2023, IFMS activity also includes the following:
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21,922 total certified active households
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41,488 total participants within active certified households
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3,152 household certifications expiring this month
Release 2.3.0 Highlights
Release 2.3.0 is scheduled to go live on the evening of June 30, 2023. The following enhancements are planned to be included:
Household Certification – eSignatures, Document Storage, and Enhanced Certification Notice Capabilities
Household Certification will now include eSignatures and allow for document storage. ITOs interested in using the eSignature and document storage capabilities should purchase electronic signature pen pads and/or a desktop scanner. Reach out to your FNS Regional Office to discuss the type of equipment to be purchased and any other questions related to FDPIR administrative funding.
Detailed release notes can be found in the IFMS Learning Academy (login required).
Issuance Guide Rate
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The IFMS issuance guide rate (pictured at right) is a tiered hierarchy displaying categories, subcategories, and product types (All Materials, Selected Materials, Fruits and Vegetables, Grains, and Bonus/Seasonal).
The order of the food categories and sub-categories are based on the sort order as determined by the ITO Organization Administrator. The food category sort order is determined by site.
To use the guide rate section:
- Select the category, subcategory, or product type to filter the materials that appear in the data entry section for easier selection. The category, subcategory, or product type is highlighted when selected.
- Click the arrows to expand or collapse the category or subcategory levels.
For detailed information on the issuance guide rate, please refer to the Issuing Food as a Manual (Pick and Pack) Model QRG or the Issuing Food as a Store Model QRG in the FDPIR Issuance Training Materials in the IFMS Learning Academy (login required).
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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:
Training Requests
Need IFMS Training? The ITO IFMS Support Program offers training opportunities for the IFMS user community in the form of new staff member training, refresher training, release enhancement updates, and advanced topics.
ITOs can request a range of topic-specific user trainings for their ITO staff using the IFMS Training Request Form. Training is available for existing as well as new users or those switching roles. Completed forms should be submitted to the IFMS Transition Team.
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