Having the ability to trace contract expenditures and obligations for supplies and services back to the budget streams which funded them allows Government leadership, and the American taxpayer, to understand which Defense contract vehicles are being used to execute specific funds. To achieve this level of transparency, procurement and financial systems participating in the P2P process must capture specific data “keys” that will be used to link information contained in disparate systems.
In the following memo, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD AT&L) emphasized that P2P traceability is a top priority, and published a set of objectives necessary to accomplish this goal.
One objective was to establish a bridge between the financial and acquisition communities’ data elements, or keys, used to categorize budgeted commitments and spending, so that contracts for supplies or services (particularly those funded by Operations & Maintenance funds) could be mapped to the appropriate budget allocations. The financial community relies upon Object Class Codes (OCCs) when recording commitments, while the acquisition community utilizes Product Service Codes (PSCs) when issuing obligations. The 2013 USD AT&L memorandum required that PSCs be applied at the line item level on purchase requests and that OCCs be captured when recording obligations.
In 2014, the Deputy Chief Financial Officer (DCFO) and Director, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy (DPAP) published the final “Product Service Code – Object Class Code crosswalk” that established the many to one relationships between PSCs and OCCs, respectively. The publication of version 2.2 of the crosswalk table was announced on December 3, 2020 (see latest memorandum provided) and can be found at the right side of this page, located “in this section”. Version 2.1 of the crosswalk is superseded by version 2.2.
Publication and Distribution of Final PSC to OCC Crosswalk, Version 2.3 Memorandum (September 26, 2023)
Publication and Distribution of Final PSC to OCC Crosswalk, Version 2.2 Memorandum(December 3, 2020)
Publication and Distribution of Final PSC to OCC Crosswalk, Version 2.1 Memorandum (May 21, 2020)
Publication and Distribution of Final PSC to OCC Crosswalk, Version 2.0 Memorandum(March 4, 2016)
Publication and Distribution of Final PSC to OCC Crosswalk, Version 1.0 Memorandum(April 14, 2014)
Additionally, DCFO followed the 2013 USD AT&L Traceability memorandum with one of its own to establish the requirement to record OCCs and PSCs on purchase requests and commitments at the line level for its financial managers and systems.
Requirement to Record OMB Object Class Codes and Product Service Codes on all Purchase Requests and Commitments Memorandum(February 24, 2015)
DPAP then leveraged the PSC-to-OCC crosswalk to build the online PSC Selection Tool (https://psctool.us), which can be used by program or item managers, financial managers, or contracting officers to determine the appropriate PSC or OCC to be put on a purchase request, commitment, or contract at a line item level. For more information, please see the memorandum that follows or visit the tool.
Memo Publicizing the Product Service Code Selection Tool(February 25, 2015)
Lastly, the DCFO published rules (in the memorandum that follows) to the financial community for applying the proper accounting treatment to contracts with financing payments. This memo also required accounting and payment systems to record the key contracting identifiers (Procurement Instrument and Supplementary Procurement Instrument numbers, Contract Line Item numbers, and the Accounting Classification Reference number) when recording obligations and disbursing expenditures. Doing so will enable the successful mapping of PSCs on contracts to OCCs and PSCs on commitments, and streamline downstream entitlement and disbursing activities.