Glossary of Terms

An independent individual or entity contracting with an agency to perform a professional service or render an opinion or recommendation according to the consultant’s methods and without being subject to the control of the agency except as to the result of the work. The agency monitors progress under the contract and authorizes payment.

Written notification from a vendor raising issues or concerns about the evaluation and selection process of a solicitation for which the ASB has been announced.

Money, assets or other resources available for appropriation.

The excess of the assets of an account over its liabilities and reserves. For governmental funds, fund balance represents the difference between fund assets (beginning balance and estimated revenues for the period) and fund liabilities (including reserves and appropriations for the period).

Funds provided by federal and private/local sources.

The ability to define an agency’s plan of estimated expenditures, revenues, cash disbursements, and cash receipts for each month of the biennium.

A person or agency that buys goods or services directly, based on delegated authority or through utilization of DES services.

Also known as a purchase request. A form used by agencies to request DES to order materials, supplies, and equipment, or to request an amendment of a previous requisition. An internal process to initiate the request and approval process.

As used in the context of use of bond/COP proceeds to pay the costs of facilities expected to be owned or used by, or to make any loan or grant to, a state and local government unit as defined in Treas. Reg. 1.103-1. This includes any state or political subdivision thereof that has been delegated substantial taxing, police, or condemnation power under state law or any instrumentality thereof

A measure of the result of a service provided. This type of measure indicates the impact on the problem or issue the service or program was designed to achieve. Also known as results.

The long-term financing and expenditure plan for acquisition, construction, or improvement of capital assets such as land and buildings, and for programs that accomplish facility improvements. The capital budget is included in an appropriation bill for a specific biennium; the Ten-Year Capital Plan is proposed by the Governor but not enacted into law.

Method to make a payment directly from a bank account using an Automated Clearing House (ACH).

The first party to the construction contract, who pays the contractor (the second party) for the construction work; also, the party who owns the rights to the land upon which the work is done and who, therefore, owns the work; also, the client of a designer, a construction manager, a project manager, or a development manager.

Electronic tool hosted on DES website to locate/access master contracts via web contract portal pages.

Person or organization that actually uses a product, as opposed to the person or organization that authorizes, orders, procures, or pays for it.

An agreement between government agencies, entities or departments that defines cooperative work or services to be performed between them. The agreement defines the parties involved, the work performed and the transfer of resources, technologies and funds.

What is the ‘APPLE’ team and what does APPLE stand for? 

A team of subject matter experts solely focused on making enterprise decisions to resolve outstanding design questions. This team was formed in the spring of 2022 to assess and propose needed adjustments to plans to complete functional baseline design. 

A - Accounting 

P – Procurement  

P – Personnel  

L – Legislative Budget 

E – Enterprise & System 

One Washington holds seven advisory committees; one for each process area, overseen by the process owner, and one for OCM, overseen by the OCM Director. Members are comprised of agency leadership and process SMEs.

Client Purchases – Client Service Contracts are for services provided directly to agency clients by contractors, including but not limited to, medical and dental services, employment and training programs, residential care, education and subsidized housing. Clients are those individuals whom the agency has statutory responsibility to serve, protect or oversee. Clients are the targeted individuals in the public that an agency is responsible to serve. Injured Worker Providers – Client services provided by a network of doctors or other providers that L&I or DSHS has approved by the agency that meet standards similar to those used by health insurance providers.

Projects that maintain and preserve existing state facilities and assets, and do not significantly change the program use of a facility. Examples would include roof replacement and exterior renovation, utility system upgrade, and repairing streets and parking lots.

A party to a subcontract who does trade work for a contractor (the other party), which work included under the prime contract between the same contractor and an owner; one who is defined as a subcontractor by the prime contract.

This is work that improves or restores the operational and service capacity to extend the useful life of a facility but does not significantly affect the programs and services housed within the facility. This work generally differs from ordinary maintenance in the extent and cost of the work undertaken. The distinction between ordinary maintenance and preservation is made for the purpose of segregating these types of projects by funding source, either operating or capital budget.

Those lease agreements that extend beyond five years (the normal facility lease period). Leases beyond a five-year term will be considered when: the agency has a stable and consistent program to be housed, there is demonstrated economic advantage to the extended term, and the location meets facilities standards established by the Department of Enterprise Services (DES). A lease of up to 10 years may be negotiated by DES after consultation with OFM. A long-term lease of more than 10 years can be negotiated by DES and must be approved by OFM. Any lease over 20 years in duration must have legislative authorization. Contact OFM Facilities Oversight for more information on this subject.

To help assist agencies with getting outbound information, a new process has been created to give agencies within the SGN access to Statewide Titles and Agency Descriptor tables. Agencies will be able to query data and then create their own unique outbound interfaces using this new server. Agencies who plan to create automated processes will need to refer to OFM Planned Server maintenances to help reduce potential outages.  See Production Schedule here:  Server Patching Schedule. Once agencies create their new AFRS Outbound interface jobs we will request removal of current jobs in AFRS or Enterprise Reporting that agencies are using to gather this data. AFRS Outbound Interface Server

A legal authorization to make expenditures and incur obligations for specific purposes from a specific account over a specific time period. Appropriations typically limit expenditures to a specific amount and purpose within a fiscal year or biennial timeframe. Only the Legislature can make appropriations in Washington State.

The need for cost contingency is generated by a lack of information, at a particular point in time, for the task being estimated. Appropriate contingency amounts are dependent on the degree of risk present and the extent of the technical challenge surrounding the task. The design contingency legitimately covers uncertainties in a project and should be reduced through each phase of the design. Construction contingencies should be limited to 5 percent on new construction and 10 percent on remodeling work. Contingencies should not be considered as opportunities for extra work or to change original budget decisions

Language in budget bills that places conditions and limitations on the use of appropriations. Example: "Up to $500,000 of the General Fund-State appropriation is provided solely for five additional inspectors in the food safety program."

A system for classifying building products and systems by functional subsystem, e.g., substructure, superstructure, exterior closure, etc.

One of 11 classifications into which all individual accounts can be categorized. Governmental fund types include the general fund, special revenue funds, debt service funds, capital projects funds, and permanent funds. Proprietary fund types include enterprise funds and internal service funds. Fiduciary fund types include pension (and other employee benefit) trust funds, investment trust funds, private-purpose trust funds and agency funds. See also: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

A systematic day-to-day process funded by the annual operating budget to control the deterioration of facilities; e.g., structures, systems, equipment, pavement and grounds. Planned maintenance includes: scheduled repetitive work, such as housekeeping activities, grounds keeping, site maintenance, and certain types of service contracts; and periodic scheduled work (preventive maintenance) that has been planned to provide adjustment, cleaning, minor repair and routine inspection of equipment to reduce service interruptions