The Reimbursement Output Process handles the requirements set forth by the FHWA – Rapid Approval and State Payment System (RASPS) (that is, replaces Federal Aid Billing System PR20). FHWA requires the State Department of Transportation organizations to submit the federal billing information in an electronic file format. Consequently, the Reimbursement Output process produces the FHWA Electronic File for the reimbursable disbursement records associated to FHWA – related Major Programs.
When the electronic file is submitted each week to FHWA requesting payment on eligible expenditures, it is immediately executed against an editing process in RASPS. If the RASPS editing process encounters an error on any record on the electronic file, the entire file is 'rejected' by RASPS. Examples of validations performed by RASPS are:
Project-Agreement-Number must be valid and active,
Sufficient budget authority must be available, and
The type of expenditures charged must be allowable against the Project-Agreement-Number.
If the electronic file gets 'rejected' in RASPS due to problems with data not set up in a timely manner or improperly entered, then FHWA will correct the errors in RASPS and reprocess the payment request. If the file gets 'rejected' in RASPS due to errors on the electronic file created by the Reimbursement Output Process, then the information on the electronic file will have to be modified in CGI Advantage Financial and re-submitted to FHWA using RASPS.
Records identified by RASPS that contain invalid data require research and most likely correcting entries to pass the RASPS editing process, therefore the 'rejected' records must be removed from the electronic file in order to resubmit the 'non-rejected' records. This process is known as the FHWA Cleanup Process and it allows users to go on-line and select 'rejected' records to be removed from the electronic file in order to process the re-submission of 'non-rejected' records without having to execute the entire Reimbursement Output Process. Please see the "Reimbursement Output Process" run sheet in the CGI Advantage Financial – Cost Accounting Run Sheets guide for more details.