Stronger, Faster, More Secure Payments
The federal government moves trillions of dollars each year. Most of it flows through the United States General Fund: America’s bank account. Two Executive Orders (EO) from March—EO 14249, Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse, and EO 14247, Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account—aim to make America’s bank account stronger, faster, and more secure.
Stop Errors Before They Start
The Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse EO focuses on strengthening financial integrity while improving how the government processes trillions of dollars through America’s bank account. It puts a spotlight on outdated systems, poor visibility, and the operational costs that follow. With support from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Treasury is calling for more detailed, accurate financial information from agencies, well beyond what’s currently available.
The problems are widespread. Some agencies still manage billions using QuickBooks or Excel. Many budget offices operate outside formal financial systems, relying on office productivity suites to track appropriations, apportionments, and allotments. These tools weren’t designed for that scale. And when systems don’t talk to each other, traceability suffers, and risks for Antideficiency Act (ADA) violations increase. ADA violations can result in civil and criminal penalties and jeopardize a federal civilian’s career.
The consequences show up every day. Administrative staff are tasked with manually entering fund controls at multiple levels. Errors are common. When they happen, agencies often spend more time and resources unwinding them, sometimes by directly or indirectly sharing the cost burden. Relying on butts-in-seats contractors to re-enter the same data on a per-transaction fee basis adds up, draining budgets that could be better spent elsewhere.
The EO frames this as a financial risk. A longstanding lack of investment in financial systems and technology has weakened safeguards. Without access to accurate, timely data, agencies are flying blind, making fraud and abuse harder to catch.
Follow the Money All the Way Back
The Modernizing Payments to and From America’s Bank Account EO focuses on digitizing all payments to and from the federal government. But it’s not as simple as flipping a switch at Treasury. It requires fixing what happens upstream.
Funding begins when Congress passes an appropriation, and the President enacts it into law. From there, funding moves through a maze of systems—hundreds of separate processes across the federal government—before funding can be obligated or outlays recorded. Each step adds time and risk. Coordination with Treasury, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the agency can take days at best for newly enacted programs. Apportionments begin only after a new Treasury Account Symbol (TAS) is established. And once that’s set, staff still need to enter the data into multiple systems, generally by hand and wrought with mistakes.
When the funds control data is wrong, the money doesn’t move, and if it does, agencies risk experiencing an ADA violation. Or if funding moves to the wrong place, payments get delayed, programs get disrupted, and American taxpayers can be impacted.
Both orders point to the same core problem: the infrastructure at the beginning of the funding chain is too slow, siloed, and error-prone. It was never built for the speed and scale demanded today.
The Budget Office Can't Be an Afterthought
In many agencies, the budget office still works with limited tools and even fewer resources. Leadership often prioritizes program dollars over internal modernization. But when the systems that control the money break down, so does the mission.
Manual budget work introduces lag time. It introduces errors. And when funds aren’t tracked properly, the government spends more to fix problems than it would have cost to prevent them.
Federal budgeting software is gaining attention as a proven tool to address these gaps. It gives agencies a clearer view of where funds are, when they become available, and what they’re meant to support. It allows new programs to be set up faster and connects financial controls to the correct TAS and contract identifiers (PIID) from the start.
It supports the traceability and speed the executive orders call for without burdening already stretched teams.
A Stronger Start for Better Outcomes
When the budget office clearly sees how funds move from appropriation to obligation, it spends less time fixing errors and more minutes on mission. Reducing manual entry, standardizing data, and tracking funds at the beginning saves money and prevents delays. Agencies will gain transparency and agility across the entire financial ecosystem with a continued push to use federal budgeting software. This approach raises the bar on accountability and sets a stronger foundation for every dollar spent.
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