1
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
FARM PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION MISSION AREA
BUSINESS CENTER
WASHINGTON, DC 20250
FPAC NOTICE
NUMBER:
FPAC-N 2300-001
SUBJECT: Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Farm Production and
Conservation (FPAC) Annual Plan for Conferences,
Meetings, and Trainings
DATE:
July 30, 2019
APPROVING OFFICIAL: Thomas W. Christensen,
Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Business Services
EXPIRATION DATE:
August 19, 2019
1. PURPOSE
This notice announces the requirements and instructions for submitting the FY 2020 FPAC Annual
Plan (Conference Plan) for conferences, meetings, and training requests that are $7,000 or more
(excluding salary and benefits). This plan is due from each FPAC agency by close of business
August 16, 2019.
2. SCOPE
This notice applies to the Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS), Risk Management Agency (RMA), and the FPAC Business Center (FPAC-BC).
3. MESSAGE
a. Background
The FPAC Annual Plan is a process that captures planned events hosted, sponsored, or attended
by FPAC agencies that include conferences, meetings, and training activities for FY 2020. The
FY 2020 Annual Plan is required per Departmental Regulation (DR) 2300-005, “Agriculture
Travel Regulation” dated December 8, 2015. This Annual Plan assists FPAC agencies to comply
with DR 2300-005 by:
(1) reviewing and assessing the relevance of each request with respect to the FPAC core mission
before it is entered into the Conference Transparency, Accountability and Tracking (CTAT)
tool; and
(2) ensuring that adequate funding is available throughout the FY for approved conference,
meeting, and training requests.
FSA/RMA Notice FI-3384
FPAC-N 2300-001 2
(July 30, 2019)
3. MESSAGE (CONTINUED)
b. Explanation
To comply with the Department’s requirements, each Agency (NRCS, FSA, RMA, FPAC-BC)
must enter their Agency Head approved FY 2020 Annual Plan into CTAT by August 16, 2019.
Only the requests approved by the FPAC Under Secretary will be authorized for entry into the
CTAT tool during FY 2020. The Annual Plan, which captures information utilizing the
Conference Planning Template must include all conferences, meetings, or training events that
are $7,000 or more (excluding salary and benefits) that are hosted, sponsored, or attended by
FPAC agencies. Estimates are permitted when developing the FY 2020 Annual Plan, which may
be based on data from previously held conferences, meetings, or training events, if applicable. If
the estimate of an event is $75,000 or more (excluding salary and benefits), an Attendee
Detailed Cost Analysis Spreadsheet (ADCAS) must be submitted with the plan. The
Conference Planning Template and Attendee Detailed Cost Analysis Spreadsheet are available
from the USDA Office of Chief Financial Officer Conference/Training Templates page at
https://www.ocfo.usda.gov/travel-express/ConferenceTrainingTemplates.
4. PROCESS
a. Step 1: All requested events that were approved by the respective Agency Head using the
Conference Planning Template must be entered individually into CTAT by clicking
Annual Plan/Add New Conference. See Attachment A, CTAT User Guide, September
2016, Version 2.0 (Section VIII. Annual Plan, pages 32-34) for detailed instructions on
how to enter an event in CTAT.
Note: When entering an event, include a point of contact, telephone number and email
address in the “Justification/Reason for Conference or Training” text box in
addition to the justification description.
If an event is $75,000 or more (excluding salary and benefits) an Attendee Detailed Cost
Analysis Spreadsheet (ADCAS) is required to be completed for each event that meets
this dollar threshold. When entering salary information on the ADCAS, actual names are
strongly encouraged. If names are not available, then positions are acceptable as long as
there is a GS grade listed for each position attending. The Conference Planning
Template and ADCAS have instructions and samples on separate tabs within each file.
Note: All national conferences, meetings, and trainings should have only one (1) entry
per event.
Training Events: Do not include FPAC-BC Human Resources Division Employee
Development Section (EDS) sponsored training courses as these are being captured by
EDS. All non-EDS sponsored training courses are required to be included in the
Annual Plan (including curriculum-based training). All currently registered CTAT
users have access to enter individual conferences, meetings, and training activities in
CTAT for the FY 2020 Annual Plan.
FPAC-N 2300-001 3
(July 30, 2019)
4. PROCESS (CONTINUED)
b. Step 2: Each agency will upload a Conference Planning Template (one per agency) that has
been converted into a PDF file and digitally signed by the respective Agency Head as
well as any Attendee Detailed Cost Analysis Spreadsheets, if applicable, in CTAT
according to the following instructions:
(1) access CTAT at https://www.eservices.usda.gov/ctat/
(2) click “Annual Plan/Add New Annual Plan”
(3) select the appropriate Agency name and Year (2020) from the drop-down menus
(4) select “attach file(s)”, “Upload Selected Files” and “Submit New Annual Plan”.
Add the appropriate agency name to each file uploaded and ensure the event name
entered into CTAT is the same event name that is included on the Conference Planning
Template. Incomplete spreadsheets will be returned for correction. The FPAC-BC
Budget Division will notify Agency POC’s once Annual Plans have been approved by
the FPAC Under Secretary.
Note: Do not submit any conferences, meetings, and training requests in CTAT until
your agency has been notified that the FPAC Under Secretary has approved the
FY 2020 Annual Plans.
c. REMINDER: Supplemental requests for approval to host, sponsor, or attend events that are not
included in your FY 2020 approved Annual Plan must be reported to OCFO by
the FPAC-BC Chief Financial Officer (CFO) prior to attending the event. If
applicable, the FPAC agency will enter the non-approved Annual Plan event
into CTAT during FY 2020 and the request must be submitted in accordance with
the meeting approval requirements for timeliness, information required, approvals
required, and a justification must be provided as to why the event was not
included in the FY 2020 Annual Plan (e.g., emergencies, newly emerging issues,
or others with acceptable justification). Once the event request arrives to the
FPAC-BC CFO approval routing stop in CTAT, the request will then be provided
to OCFO for post-approval. If post-approval is granted by OCFO then the
FPAC-BC CFO will approve the request in CTAT and continue the routing for
final approvals. If the request is denied by OCFO, then the FPAC-BC CFO will
disapprove the request in CTAT and the requestor will be notified via CTAT
email.
5. CONTACT
Questions regarding this notice should be submitted through the myFPAC Portal at
https://usdafpacbc.service-now.com/fpac?id=bu_intake&sys_id=4a766a40db946700b34efb0e0f961901.
Select “Meeting Management” for the “Request Type”.
Attachment A – CTAT User Guide Section VIII, Annual Plan (pages 32-34)
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Page | 32
VIII. Annual Plan
A. Add New Plan
1. Annual conference plans are due to OCFO by August 31. To add a new plan, agency users or the POC
navigates to the Annual Plan tab and clicks on the Add New Conference option.
2. The Annual Plan page appears, which consists of drop down fields and text boxes. Enter or select the
applicable information and click on the Submit New Conference button.
Attachment A - CTAT User Guide Section VIII, Annual Plan
Page | 34
4. Click on the Annual Plan tab to view the list of all conferences entered. Select the fiscal year (FY) and
click on Get Reports to filter the list by FY. To export the list – either filtered or unfiltered – click on the
Open in Excel button and select Open (or Save) and Yes on the dialog boxes that appear (see VII.B.3
and 4). The spreadsheet will contain data entered in VIII.A.2.
B. Edit Plan
1. Each conference in an annual plan can be edited or deleted. Click on the Annual Plan tab to view the
list of conferences (see VIII.A.4). To delete a conference, click on the corresponding “X” icon in the
Delete column; to edit, click on the number in the View column corresponding to the conference.
2. The Annual Plan page opens (see VIII.A.2). Edit the applicable fields and click on Submit New
Conference. A successful submit message appears (see VIII.A.3). Click on Home and repeat VIII.B.1 and
2 for each conference as needed.
C. Plan Submission
1. OCFO will retrieve annual plans from CTAT by exporting the data to a spreadsheet as explained in
VIII.A.4.
2. Alternatively, agencies may submit their plans to OCFO at USDA.ConferenceR[email protected].
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