Nearly 40 ethics offices in the federal government use FDonline to make it easier for civil servants to file and for compliance professionals to certify those disclosures and mitigate potential conflicts of interest
by Intelliworx
Financial disclosure isn’t the most glamorous part of a government job, but it’s incredibly important for transparency. The federal government manages an incredibly large budget – $6.75 trillion in 2024 – and all of it, including borrowing, belongs to the taxpayers.
The temptation to influence spending decisions for personal gain is a rare but consequential event. When it does happen, the damage to public trust is difficult to repair, so the government has policies in place to avoid such conflicts of interest.
One such policy is the requirement for government employees in a position to influence spending decisions to disclose their personal financial holdings annually. Those holdings are reviewed by their agencies ethics offices for possible conflicts of interest.
Disclosure is a simple idea, but a complicated process
On the surface, financial disclosure seems like a simple process. Employees merely document their holdings on forms, such as the OGE Form 450 or OGE Form 278 series, and submit it for review. However, a closer look shows these forms are long, detailed and come with complicated written instructions.
It can take employees hours or even days to complete these forms, which has obvious effects on productivity. The complexity means that when forms are filed, they are often incomplete. This takes a lot of follow-up and back and forth to finalize them.
The workload can be equally daunting for ethics officials responsible for certifying the disclosures. The traditional means of prompting disclosure is passing PDF forms around by email, storing them in a shared drive and tracking progress with a spreadsheet.
This can work when there are just a handful of disclosures to review, but some agencies we work with manage several thousand disclosure forms annually. It’s not efficient and because these forms are filled with personal and confidential data, email isn’t reliably secure.
FDonline automates the rote work of disclosure
About 40 federal agencies turn to FDonline to streamline the process of financial disclosure. It’s a cost-effective and FedRAMP-authorized SaaS solution often procured through a GSA schedule. To date, the system, developed by Intelliworx, has helped ethics offices efficiently manage nearly 600,000 disclosure forms.
At a high level, FDonline automates routine tasks and frees up staff to focus their attention on higher-value activities. It includes a number of features that make the whole thing easier for individual employees preparing the filing – and the ethics offices overseeing the disclosure process for their agency.
1. Puts ethics officials in control of the disclosure process
FDonline puts everything an ethics office needs for their financial disclosure program at their fingertips. This includes a list of employees who are required to file automatically updated forms, guidance, notifications, the complete disclosures and a number of customizable features to tailor the process to a specific agency’s needs. It’s all stored securely in a searchable database.
2. Automated notifications and follow-up reminders
One of the biggest challenges in financial disclosure is just getting employees to file on time. Many of them are busy and the tedium of the task invites natural procrastination. FDonline enables ethics officials to set up automatic notifications of the filing requirement and establish a cadence of follow-up reminders.
3. Replaces a “form” with an “intelligent interview”
Most people are familiar with software for filing individual taxes. This software breaks down the process into a step-by-step “interview.” The answers provided determine the next logical question or step in the progression. The data entered is validated as the filer progresses. The end result is an accurately completed form that’s filed electronically.
Intelliworx has done the same thing for financial disclosures completed through FDonline. Every variation of every form has been broken into simple steps. It’s easier for those making the filing to complete the process the right way on the first try.
The next year it’s even easier, because just like tax software, FDonline will pre-fill reusable data fields which eliminates repetitive data entry.
4. Automated triage of financial disclosure forms
Not all financial disclosure forms are the same. Some filers have more disclosures than others and the details in those filings may vary every year. In the 20 years we’ve been in this business, about 40% of filers do not change anything in their next annual filing.
FDonline takes all of this into account and triages the forms based on the estimated level of effort it will take to review them and prioritize the forms accordingly. This makes it easier for ethics officials to certify those that haven’t changed and call their attention to those disclosures that necessitate a closer review.
Triage is important for efficiency without sacrificing diligence. Whether an ethics office has a single form to review or 10,000 forms, the deadline to certify an individual disclosure is 60 days from the moment it’s filed.
5. Enables collaboration with field supervisors
Requiring civil servants to complete a form and submit it for review by an ethics office is a good first step, but that alone may be insufficient. Federal agencies have offices and employees all over the country, while the ethics offices tend to be located in Washington, DC. An ethics lawyer may not have a contextual understanding of the disclosures being made.
For example, a reviewer in DC can’t possibly have a good grasp of the relationship between duties and the disclosures by a civil servant working in a rural healthcare facility operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs. A best practice is to have both the field supervisor who does have that grasp, involved in the review, along with the ethics department as reviewers.
FDonline securely facilitates this collaboration. The ethics office can see who approved of what and when, which allows them to observe and fix bottlenecks in the process. Importantly, this also adds accountability to the process.
6. Native tools to improve the quality of reviews
Intelliworx has also worked to build native tools into FDonline that improve the quality and efficacy of reviewing disclosures for potential conflicts. There are numerous tools for reviewers to research holdings, annotate their findings and communicate determinations back to the filer.
Another example is the prohibited holdings list. Ethics officials can develop a custom list of prohibited holdings unique to their agency – and the systems will flag a filing containing these holdings for scrutiny.
Search is a third example that enables the ethics office to be proactive. An ethics lawyer can proactively search through previous filings to review existing disclosures. If a large new contract is up for award, the office can easily search for potential conflicts among the decision makers. Similarly, supervisors can use this proactively to avoid assigning a civil servant to a task if they have certain holdings. In both situations, FDonline’s unique holdings search capability helps the agency avoid potential conflicts.
7. Support for supplemental filings
We continuously get feedback from federal agencies on improving the platform. Examples include adding support for widely attended gatherings (WAGs), engagement in outside positions, and receipt of travel reimbursements from non-governmental sources.
A government employee who participates in one of these activities often must make a separate filing with a different form. This created a separate process and additional repository of information outside of FDonline. At the request of federal agency customers, we’ve added functionality to automate these variations – streamlining the process and keeping all relevant disclosures in one place.
8. Customizable for specific agency requirements
Many federal agencies have unique needs. These can range from supporting agency-specific forms to compartmentalizing information based on the ‘need to know.’ To be clear, this is not classified information, but it is personal and sensitive. Intelliworx has built a number of configurations that enable an ethics office to ensure the right access is given to the right people at the right time.
9. Data retention and purging automation
Data retention policies are crucial to the integrity of a system. For most agencies, disclosure data must be purged at the six-year mark. FDonline provides customizable policy settings that the ethics office can control to automatically purge data based on deadlines specific to their agency or an individual filer.
10. Automated reporting
The automation in FDonline makes reporting a breeze. Ethics officers and key leaders can aggregate and provide an accurate status report on disclosure filings. It’ll show the disclosures that are due, submitted, in review, approved and even those that were disapproved or sent back to the filer for remediation. The reporting feature helps identify bottlenecks and also allows ethics officials to examine filing details on demand.
11. A community of ethics officials
Intelliworx facilitates an active user group of governmental ethics officials focused on financial disclosure. It provides a forum for those in the trenches every day to share best practices, while also providing a feedback loop to continuously improve the product. Many of the enhancements described here are directly attributable to this user group.
Key Takeaways:
- Automates manual tasks: FDonline reduces the burden of preparing and certifying disclosure forms by automating repetitive steps, freeing up staff for more critical review work.
- Guided filing improves accuracy: A step-by-step “intelligent interview” replaces static forms, helping filers submit complete, validated disclosures the first time.
- Smarter reviews through triage and collaboration: The system prioritizes filings based on review complexity and enables secure collaboration between ethics offices and field supervisors.
- Customizable and secure platform: FedRAMP-authorized with configurable access controls, form templates, retention policies, and conflict-flagging tools tailored to agency needs.
- Driven by user feedback: A community of ethics officials informs ongoing product improvements, including support for supplemental filings and evolving compliance requirements.
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Intelliworx has been providing purpose-built software to the federal government for 20 years and currently serves 39 federal government agencies. The company is a certified service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) and is FedRAMP-authorized. All technology is 508 compliant. See how FDonline can bring greater efficiency to your agency. Contact us for a no-obligation demo.
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