INFINOÉ, the new infocentre of the DGFiP and the Budget Department
Public Local Education Establishments (EPLE) – Colleges and High Schools: provided that they are equipped with the OPALE Financial IS,INFINOÉ, an opportunity to strengthen the Performance of the Finance Function of Public Institutions
From the EPN Infocentre to INFINOÉ
The EPN Infocentre is also used to transmit consolidated data on the public debt and deficit. It thus compiles the data transmitted by the institutions falling within the following scope :
- National Public Establishments (EPN),
- Local Public Establishments for Agricultural Education and Vocational Training (EPLEFPA),
- Public bodies without a Financial Information System,
- Public bodies without a Financial Information System, Public Local Education Establishments (EPLE) – Colleges and High Schools: provided that they are equipped with the OPALE Financial IS,
- Establishments with Financial Autonomy (EAF): these are mainly structures located abroad.
The functioning of the Infocentre EPN is thus schematised as follows:
The data transmitted are aggregated accounting and budgetary data (monthly and annual budget implementation statements, annual accounts) extracted from the organisation’s information system.
These data are sent monthly or annually (only annually for organisations without a Finance IS), by the Accounting Officers, by means of .txt, .csv and/or .PDF files (also known as flat files).
To replace the EPN Infocentre, the DGFiP and the Budget Directorate are developing a new Infocentre tool called “INFINOÉ” (INformation FINancière des Opérateurs de l’État). This new Infocentre tool is a winning project of the Fonds de Transformation de l’Action Publique, in the second half of 2019. The new Infocentre is expected to be operational by the end of 2023.
Infinoé takes into account the general process of improving the reliability of budgetary and accounting information and developing auditability and transparency of accounts.
The objectives are as follows :
- Simplify and make more reliable the production of budgetary documents annexed to the Finance Acts ;
- Create a continuous flow with the financial information systems of operators, in order to feed the Infocentre directly ;
- Set up a common operator repository for the DGFiP and the Budget Directorat ;
- Develop the Open Data of these financial data.
Significant Impacts for Affected Operators
The scope includes all institutions subject to the GBCP (Title I or Title III), whether or not they are subject to the implementation of budgetary accounting, as well as independent public authorities. Each of these entities will be required to implement an accounting-finance tool. Excel-based accounting will not be compatible with “Infinoé”.
In the same vein, extra-accounting adjustments in Excel will be banned. More generally, the implementation of Infinoé requires the institutions concerned to re-examine their processes and to use the standard operation of their management tool as much as possible.
“Infinoé” will be fed directly by the operator’s IS and as and when events entered by authorising officers and accountants have an impact on commitment authorisations and payment appropriations, or generate accounting entries (order, service done, payment request, payment). The API feed will thus take over from the flat files and PDF files of the old infocentre.
The features of the new scheme will then be as follows :
- Much finer granularity : instead of the synthesised information of the old EPN, Infinoé will compile basic budgetary and accounting information.
- Real-time transmission : instead of monthly and annual transmission by the accounting officer, the transfer will be automated and will be done on an ongoing basis.
- Extension of the functions involved : in addition to the Accounting Officer, the entries of the accounting officers, but also those of the authorising officers, will now be integrated into the Infocentre.
- A new reporting reference : night work will configure the regulatory accounting and budgetary packages, which will therefore be updated on D+1. Also to be retained for this new reference:
- The preparation of the budgetary package and the end-of-year accounting statements, for presentation to the Board of Directors, will be carried out on “Infinoé” (with a review by the Accounting Officer).
- “Infinoé” will provide the DGFiP and the supervisory authorities with a real-time view of the operator’s budgetary and accounting progress.
- The PAPs (Annual Performance Projects) and RAPs (Annual Performance Reports) will be launched autonomously by “Infinoé”, in order to supply the operator’s supervisory authority and the Budget Directorate.
- At the same time, each Public Institution will continue to produce reports by responsibility centre. The consistency between the «Infinoé reporting » and the internal dashboards will then have to be verified.
The financial data will thus be transmitted, within the framework of Open Data, for inclusion in the data.gouv.fr website. This operation requires the data to be catalogued, modelled, managed and governed.
An Opportunity for Business Review in Public Operators
DGFiP reporting will be established independently of the institution’s internal reporting. The quality of the data remains the responsibility of the operator, which means that the validation of the data transmitted (for its own purposes, to “Infinoé”, and on data.gouv.fr) must be secured upstream.
Because of the permanent nature of the transmission, a preliminary validation on the basis of control tables seems difficult. The question of the overall organisation of financial data must therefore be addressed.
Questions to ask at this stage may cover, for example :
- Governance in the establishment of accounting-finance nomenclatures ;
- The review of the accounting-finance IS tool to remove as many extra-accounting calculations as possible and to comply with the standard (RRBO, annual circulars on the financial management of public institutions, etc.) ;
- Compatibility of the tree structures and formats, with regard to the « Infinoé » specifications;
- Review of operations, to ensure that practices evolve in line with « Infinoé » standards: review of the chart of accounts(tree structure), generalisation of management objects (…) ;
- Responsibility for the quality, of the data transmitted;
- The precise information to be extracted from the IS, in relation to the stages of the business process;
- Tools for checking the reliability of data from the Finance IS
- Verification of the consistency between internal reporting and the summary statements drawn up from “Infinoé”;
- Involvement of all the stakeholders concerned (in particular authorising officers) in the project ;
- The architecture and network capacity requirements, for authorising officers and accounting officers ;
- The technical arrangements for preparing flows, supervising traffic, and receiving and processing rejections;
- The tools for checking the budget and accounting package before it is sealed at the end of the year;
- (…)
Business At Work, Your Partner in the INFINOÉ Project
Business at Work has been following this project closely since the, end of 2020. We have capitalised on the various sources available but also, following individual support from various public institutions
We can therefore support you in your projects :
- Data governance and budget and accounting classifications,
- Impacts of the implementation of ’Infinoé on your operations, your processes, your Finance and Accounting tools,
- Construction of the action plan,
- Animation of the Governance,
- Evolution of your IS tool
Richard TAYLOR – Director, Public Sector – Philippe STROH – Manager, Public Sector
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