A Guide to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service

What is the Defense Finance and Accounting Service?

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service is a Federal agency that operates within the United States Department of Defense to provide finance and accounting services for the civil and military members of the agency. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, more specifically pays all Department of Defense military and civilian personnel, annuitants, retirees, as well as major contractors and venders of the Department.

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service is a working capital fund agency that is financed through the reimbursement of operating costs from its various governmental customers, most notably the military service departments. This unique service to provider relationship with its customers enables the department to experience continuous innovation and improvement in regards to the quality of services offered by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

In 2010, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service processed approximately 168.9 million pay transactions, which accounts to roughly 6.4 million people. In addition, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service coordinated approximately 8.1 million travel payments, paid roughly 11.4 million commercial invoices, maintained over 255 million worth of General Ledger accounts and managed both military retirement as well as health benefit funds (over 490 billion dollars).

Furthermore, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service made over $580 billion in disbursement payments, managed nearly $32 billion in foreign military sales and accounted for roughly 1,130 active Department of Defense appropriations.

Defense Finance and Accounting Service Quick Facts:

The following details outline the administration of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service:

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service was formed in 1991

The headquarters of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana but maintains satellite offices throughout the country.

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service operates with an annual budget of approximately $1.5 billion

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service is responsible for the jurisdiction over the Department of Defense of the United States Federal Government

The head of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service is Agency Director Teresa Mckay; however, the agency is led by various executives including: Richard Gustafson (Principal Deputy Director), Steven Turner (Deputy Director of Operations) and Nancy Zmyslinski (Deputy Director of Strategic Business Management.

Government Agency of the Executive Branch:

Government agencies are defined as organizations, councils, and offices operating under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government of the United States of America; each federal agency retains specific administrative jurisdiction over specific facets latent within the operations of the United States Government.

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service functions as a government agency under the Executive Branch of the United States government, which is comprised of 3 total branches; in addition to the Executive branch – which is responsible for the regulation and enforcement of operational legislation existing within the United States of America – there also exists the Legislative and Judicial Branches.

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