ASMC winner helps Navy clear massive purchase card invoices

Story by Tony Hardman, DFAS Corporate Communications

DFAS Headquarters, June 10, 2021 – When the Navy's Purchase Card Program had to transition from Citibank to U.S. Bank after their contract expired, several issues led to more than $300 million in suspended invoices. Luckily, Amy Soccorsi, division director of entitlements in Accounts Payable at Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), sprang into action to assess the issues and correct them. Her work helped clear the suspended invoices and successfully processed more than $1.5 trillion in purchase card invoices. Therefore, it is no surprise that she won the American Society of Military Comptrollers (ASMC) award, Distinguished Individual Award for Resource Management.

When asked how she felt about winning, Soccorsi said, "I'm very honored, I was a little shocked, it's a part of my job but it was a big accomplishment. I was just honored and surprised."

Though Soccorsi is humble about her win, helping to smooth out the Navy's transition from Citibank to U.S. Bank was no easy task. There were myriad problems at the onset of the transition. Invoice files were not systematically transmitted from the bank to DFAS, and this went undetected until purchase card accounts became past due and interest was assessed to cardholder accounts. This happened because the process flow for invoices from U.S. Bank to DFAS is extensive. It includes the notification to the cardholder to perform their audit and certification of the invoice in the bank system. From there, an electronic file is created and transmitted via the Global Exchange Server (GEX) to the entitlement or accounting system for each Navy or U.S. Marine Corps command. When Soccorsi analyzed this workflow, she found processing and transmission issues at every step.

To solve the problem, Soccorsi had to identify each issue and work with numerous stakeholders across the bank, branch of service, and DFAS to develop corrective action. She worked tirelessly to clear the backlog of suspended invoices. Often she did this on a one-on-one basis with members of the command's functional and financial personnel.

Soccorsi's root cause analysis and collaborative work in corrective action implementation resulted in clearing suspended transactions in excess of $300 million. She identified undelivered invoices from U.S. Bank, submitted invoice packages, and cleared the backlog.

Additionally, to help ensure there were no new issues, Soccorsi developed a One Pay System training for military business offices and facilitated many virtual training classes on invoice research and invoice package preparation and submission for approving officials.

"We set up training sessions so each of the major commands would join our sessions and we would show them how to properly submit their invoice packages, what needs to be included, and how to track and research their payments as they proceeded through the process," Soccorsi said.

Thanks to Soccorsi, the Navy Purchase Card Program's transition was ultimately successful, and she led DFAS in clearing the staggering $1.5 trillion in purchase card invoices. Congratulations on an award well deserved.