Financial Code Generation

New financial codes can be generated by logged in users with the Primary, Manager, or Owner application roles. This is done on the New Code page, which can be reached by the New Code link in the header menu. The link only appears when a user is logged in and has the permission to generate financial codes.

Information Gathered

For each financial code, there are two separate groups of information. The first contains details about the fire incident itself, such as its name, the state it occurred in, and the date the fire was discovered. This information is automatically populated from IRWIN, and is entered in the IRWIN Information section of the form.

The second set of information contains the information that is required by Montana DNRC business practices and are generated by the FCG user. This information is entered in the Agency Information section of the form.

Generating A New Financial Code

Before any information can be entered, the fire year of the IRWIN incident that the financial code will be generated for must be selected using the Fire Year dropdown box at the top of the form. Since this defaults to the current fire year, most users won't be able to change it; it will be the only option available to them. For users with the Owner role however, they can use this dropdown to select a previous fire year. This ensures that the agency information and IRWIN incidents for that year will appear as the only options in the form.

Searching and Selecting the IRWIN Incident

In the IRWIN Information section, there is a search bar that can be used to search by either the incident name or unique fire identifier. After pressing the search button, if there is only one incident that matches the given criteria, it will automatically be selected. If there is more than one result, a dialog will appear listing the search results. After a incident is selected, the search controls will disappear, and some data fields from IRWIN will be displayed in its place. If the selected incident needs to be changed, press the Choose Another Incident button to clear out the current selection and make the search controls appear again.

Assigning Multiple Financial Codes to one IRWIN Incident

If the selected IRWIN incident already has one or more financial codes assigned to it, a message will be displayed listing the assigned codes and some basic information about them. If current user doesn't have the correct permissions to assign an additional financial code to an incident, the message will have a red background, and the user will be unable to submit the form. To help color-blind users distinguish between warnings and errors, the icons displayed next to the message will be a triangle if it is a warning and a circle if it is an error.

Entering Agency Information

DNRC-specific information is entered using the Agency Information section of the form. Here's a brief explanation of what each field should contain:

Name
A short title for what this financial code will be used for. This field will auto-fill and become uneditable if an IRWIN incident is selected. For administrative codes that don't have an IRWIN incident, this field must be manually filled in.
Activity Role
The activity role type that will be associated with the incident. This field is required to generate a financial code.

  • Fire Response and Support Orgs: Fire response and support orgs are used to segregate costs related to the suppression of wildland fire incidents. A sequential SABHRS org will be assigned in the 90yxxx number series. All suppression incidents will have unique IRWIN ID’s and will pull information from INFORM. Examples:

    • Mutual Aid General Support
    • Direct Protection
    • Federal Support and County Assist responses
    • NRCC out of area incident response
    • NWC mobilizations
    • Severity and Staffed Station responses

  • Fire Administrative Orgs: Fire administrative orgs are used to segregate specific costs incurred by the Fire Protection Bureau and Forestry Division Office related to non-suppression activities. A sequential SABHRS org will be assigned in the 71yxxx number series. The administrative activities under this role may or may not have incident information in IRWIN that will be pulled from INFORM. Examples:

    • GACC wide cost shares for IMT Staging costs
    • NRCC Expanded Support and GMAC Support
    • FDO costs incurred in FEMA Fire Management Assistance Grant administration
    • FPB General Support to the NR GACC

  • All Hazard Orgs: All Hazard orgs are used to segregate costs related to All Hazard incidents under DES tasking, search and rescue requests and natural disaster FEMA missions. All hazard mobilizations and activities are wildland fire related. The Northern Rockies Coordination Center with approval from the Fire Protection Bureau Deputy Chief of Fire Operations, will assign orgs in the 40yxxx number series. All Risk incidents will have unique IRWIN ID’s and will pull information from INFORM.

Area
The DNRC area that is handling the incident.
Unit
The DNRC unit that is handling the incident.
Business Action
A specific type of business action that can be associated with an incident. This field is required. The business actions available are:
  • Direct Protection: Incidents where DNRC is the protecting agency.
  • Mutual Aid: Aid provided to another protecting unit or jurisdiction where DNRC does not intend to recover expenses incurred.

  • County Assist: A formal request to DNRC for fire suppression assistance from the Board of County Commissioners within a Cooperating County.

  • Other Agency: Support/Assistance provided to another protecting unit or jurisdiction (in-state or out of state) where DNRC intends to recover expenses incurred.

  • Severity: Preposition incidents established to support DNRC staffing and wildfire preparedness efforts.

Remarks
This text box should contain any general remarks to be associated with the IRWIN incident.

Submitting the Form

Once all of the required information has been entered, the submit button at the bottom of the form will become active and clickable. If there are any errors when creating the form, they will be displayed in a box above the submit button. Otherwise, the code edit dialog will open showing the information for the incident that was just created, including the financial code that was generated.

Editing Existing Financial Codes

After a financial code has been created, all fields except the code's activity role can be updated to reflect the latest changes in the fire. To do so, open the code edit dialog by clicking on the incident on the code list page, make the required changes, then press the Submit button to save. On successful save, the dialog will close; otherwise, an error message will appear detailing why the code could not be updated.

Voiding Financial Codes

If a code was created that should not be used for some reason, the code can be voided and removed from the default code list view. Once voided, the code remains in the system and can still be viewed or reactivated. Only users with the Manager or Owner application roles can void a financial code.

To void a code, open the code edit dialog for the code, type in a reason why the code has being voided, then press the Void Code button. In order to void a code, the remarks field must be updated. If there is a problem voiding the code, an error message will appear detailing why the code could not be voided.

To re-activate a code, use the Activate Code button that appears instead of the Void Code button in the dialog.

Viewing Financial Code Modification History

If a user has the Primary application role or higher, they can view if a financial code has changed over time, and what edits were made. To view the changes, click on the Modification History text that is at the bottom of the code edit dialog to view a summary of all of the changes made to the financial code. If a more detailed report is needed, contact the developers to get a full report.