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This week in history: On September 14, 1985, The Golden Girls debuted on NBC. The show focused on hot topics of the time and became an enduring part of the pop culture lexicon.
OCFO Job Announcements
New! Director (343 series, GS-15). Office of Analytics, Performance, and Improvement - Strategy, Risk, and Performance Management Division. Washington, D.C. Closes Thursday, September 22, 2022.
New! Supervisory Program Specialist (301 series, GS-14). Office of Financial Management - Robotic Process Automation Division. Remote. Closes Thursday, September 22, 2022.
To feature an opening in the next Week in Review, use the OCFO Week in Review submissions form.
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New! Be Sure to Attend the Final Strategic Plan Lunch & Learn Session
Join FAS Commissioner Sonny Hashmi and Associate Administrator for the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Exodie Roe, III, on September 20 from 2–3 p.m., Eastern, for the final virtual lunch and learn in the series to discuss GSA’s strategic goal on acquisition.
Hear how GSA plans to build a modern, accessible, and streamlined acquisition ecosystem and a robust marketplace connecting buyers to the suppliers and businesses that meet their mission needs. This event will be hosted through a streaming link. Live captioning information forthcoming. Add the event to your calendar.
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Don't Wait — Mandatory Training Due October 31!
Due Monday, October 31
- Accountability for GSA Property
- Continuity of Operations Awareness
- Enhancing Customer Experience
- Ethics
- Telework and Remote Work
- Records Management
These courses are now available in Online University.
Tip: To access your mandatory training, click on My Learning on the Online University home page. Once you're on the transcript page, click on the Open Curriculum button next to GSA 2022 Mandatory Refresher Training for Employees. On that page you'll find all the required training courses.
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Feds Feed Families Extended Through September
You still have time to submit your donations to the Feds Feed Families food drive. This year's campaign is all virtual and GSA employees have already stepped up to the challenge of helping those in need by raising thousands of pounds of food since June. When you donate, know that you’re making a difference. The campaign ends September 30.
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ICYMI: This Week's Messages from GSA Leadership
9/15: Administrator Carnahan Marks National Hispanic Heritage Month
Check out the Messages from Leadership page on InSite, where you can find past messages from GSA leaders.
Share Your Story as Part of Hispanic Heritage Month
If you'd like to be featured as part of OCFO's recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month, please share your story by Thursday, September 22.
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New! No September OCFO Article Club
We will have no OCFO Article Club meeting in September. Enjoy the year-end closeout and we'll see you in October!
Poll Results: Are You Ready for Some (American) Football?
Last week we asked if you were ready for some football, and — overwhelmingly — the answer is yes! Nearly 95% of respondents said shared that that they are, in fact, ready for some football.
Among your OCFO colleagues, the Cowboys received the most support at almost 30% of participants. In second place was the Kansas City Chiefs, with 20% of the vote. Finally, the Eagles and Steelers each garnered 12% of respondents support. The Bears, Bucs, Giants, Niners, and Pats rounded out the responses.
Thanks so much for participating in the Week in Review poll. To share ideas for future polls, send us an email. Check back next week for another one and have a great weekend!
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Get Ready for G-Invoicing
In preparation for G-Invoicing, which GSA will begin implementing on October 1, the Office of Financial Management is offering the following G-Invoicing training sessions:
- Tuesday September 20 - 12:30 to 2:00 p.m.
- Thursday, September 22 - 10:30 a.m. to noon
- Tuesday, September 27 - 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
- Thursday, September 29 - 8:00 to 9:30 a.m.
These training sessions will provide an overview of the G-Invoicing system and a demo of key features. Sign up today! Each session will be an hour and a half — one hour for content and a half hour for questions.
For more information about the G-Invoicing rollout, visit the G-Invoicing InSite page.
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ABBYY in Action!
Did you know that the RPA team (BGR) has an exciting new software called ABBYY Flexicapture to complement its RPA capabilities? ABBYY identifies, validates, and automatically processes data from all types of documents, even if they are images or unstructured PDFs. Our pilot use case is using ABBYY to help solve a unique GSA challenge: identifying specific contract elements in over 8,000 federal leases (over 600K pages) so that GSA may update them to comply with a new accounting standard.
Recently, the RPA team received an authority to operate from GSA IT, so we can now use the ABBYY software in a production environment and are exploring its use with even more GSA business processes.
Here are some other neat things ABBYY can do:
- Export data to different file formats or to different places, like systems or even RPA software.
- Distinguish and classify documents by type, like accounts payable from accounts receivable invoices.
- Redact sensitive info, like PII.
- Recognize invoices from different vendors by learning their unique formats.
- Recognize handwriting and transcribe into text.
Do you have a use case that would require using Abbyy? Send BGR an email at RPAOffice@gsa.gov to discuss your idea.
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Welcome to the OCFO Analytics Corner! Each week, the Analytics Community of Practice (A-CoP) team will be sharing events, training, resources, and more. Complete this Google Form to receive more information about the A-CoP or to get involved.
Hacking Excel Charts
Want to tweak Excel charts without starting over in Tableau? There are workarounds to hack Excel to do things it ordinarily wouldn't, like adding totals to stacked columns. Make the most of your visualizations, wherever you build them!
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Every week we will feature OCFO colleagues who have been recognized by their peers for their great work and character. This is a quick, easy, and fun way to acknowledge and thank one another. To recognize one (or more) of your peers in the next Week in Review, use the OCFO Shout Outs Google Form. |
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Shout out to Jennifer Dunham (BGF)!
Just want to give a shout out to Jen for assisting me with numerous audit follow up questions.
Submitted by: Kathleen Contrabasso (BGF)
Visit the Mandatory Training page on GSA's InSite for mandatory training deadlines and watch the Announcements section for training reminders.
Looking for enterprise-wide training opportunities? Check out a selection of the month's offerings below or the full FY22 course list.
Update! Upcoming GSA Employee Break Room on Retirement
The Office of Human Resources Management will be holding an employee break room session on September 27 from 2-3 p.m. Eastern. At the end of the session, there will be a Q&A session for you to get answers to some of your most pressing retirement questions.
The session recording will be available on GSA Central for later viewing.
If you need reasonable accommodation to participate in this session, please reach out to your servicing reasonable accommodations coordinator.
Update! Registration Now Open for the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program
The Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP), a cooperative undertaking of the Treasury, GAO, OMB, and OPM, will hold its JFMIPVirtualsm conference on November 17, 2022, from 9:00–4:15 p.m.
JFMIP provides a forum for those in the federal financial management community to learn about current issues, exchange knowledge, and share experiences in improving financial management operations and policies
This free virtual event will provide up to 4.5 NASBA CPE credits.
Preview the event schedule and register today!
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Learn About Work Schedules at GSA
The Office of Human Resources Management is offering a live, virtual course on the basic types of work schedules available at GSA. This brief, 1-hour class was previously delivered to timekeepers and time administrators and, due to positive feedback, is now being offered to all employees and supervisors.
Topics covered include:
- The differences between a standard schedule, flexible schedule patterns, and compressed schedule types;
- How to address overtime work with flexible and compressed schedules;
- The purpose and proper use of credit hours with flexible schedules; and
- How to record Federal holidays with flexible and compressed schedules.
Sessions are offered September 20, 27, and 29 and October 4 and 11. To attend, first log into the VPN then log into Online University. Pre-register by selecting the class that best fits your schedule. All class sessions will occur at 11 a.m. Eastern.
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Lunch and Learn: How to Write an Effective Self-Assessment
Performance season is just around the corner. Learn to showcase your accomplishments during this lunch and learn session led by Lakita Rivero, a human resources specialist in the Office of Human Resource Management.
Sign up for the September 20 session!
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GSA IT Tech Training
Get to Know Google Slides (September 27 or September 29) - Learn what Google Slides is, why you’d use it, and take a tour of its highlights. Covers common features, view options and presentation options. This class prepares you to take more in-depth classes on Google Slides offered in the future.
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Upcoming Budget Line of Business Trainings & Events
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Apply for the Data to Decisions Data Science Practitioner Training Cohort!
In this program, open to all GSA employees, you’ll build technical skills and learn how to create intuitive dashboards. The program includes:
- Thirteen data science classes to gain better business insights from data
- A capstone project to apply your skills to a real-world business problem
- Self-study with Python, SQL and Tableau to further your learning
Apply to participate by filling out this Google Form.
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