An expense limitation is the financial authority issued by a major claimant or subclaimant to an intermediate level of command, An example of an intermediate level command is the type commander (TYCOM), COMNAVAIRLANT or COMNAVAIRPAC. A field (shore) activity, for purposes of the RMS, is a shore station that is issued an operating budget. It could be issued this operating budget by a major claimant; subclaimant, or expense limitation holder, depending on who has im- mediate responsibility. Because it is issued an operating budget, it is also a responsibility center. A major claimant (or operating budget grantor) is a bureau, office, or command designated as an administering office under the Operations and Maintenance, Navy (O&MN) (regular and reserve) appropriations listed in the NAVCOMPT Manual, volume 2, chapter 2. Major claimants receive operating budgets directly from the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). Obligation authority is the budgeted amount within an operating budget approved in a fixed amount for incurring obligations or unfilled orders. An operating budget is the annual budget and financial authority of an activity or command that contains the resources to perform that activity’s mission. An operating target (OPTAR) is an authoriza- tion of funds subject to administrative control issued to a level below the responsibility center. The recipient of an OPTAR is referred to as an OPTAR holder. A responsibility center is an organizational unit headed by an officer or supervisor who is responsible for the management of all resources within the unit, and who, in most cases, can significantly influence the expense incurred within the unit. Resources consist of military and civilian personnel; material on hand and on order; the entitlement to procure or use material, utilities, services required for performance of the basic mission of the responsibility center; and work or services to be performed for others. Ship Operating Forces include active fleet ships, amphibious battalions and units, staff and commands, and certain designated shore activities, Threshold is an administrative money ceiling established by the fleet commander. With Op- TAR accounting, aged unfilled orders below the established threshold are authorized to be ad- ministratively cAncelled, and OPTaR funds reclaimed. By the same token, unmatched expenditures below the established threshold are authorized by the FAADC to be threshold charged by the fleet to the OPTAR without detailed review by the OPTAR holder, thereby reducing available OPTAR funds. An unfilled order, for accounting purposes, is a general term used to describe a request docu- ment for material or services that has been entered in the OPTAR log. Untilled order documents (chargeable) are assembled and forwarded to the FAADC by the OPTAR holder when the procedures require the chargeable unfilled orders to be matched against expenditures submitted by issuing and paying activities. A work unit is a unit of measurement such as documents processed, tonnage moved, students trained, or gallons processed. The term is used to provide quantitative information of the physical output applicable to a subdivision in the operating budget. BACKGROUND Under the procedures in effect before im- plementation of the RMS, financial management of naval activities was restricted to the materials and services that resulted in expenditures of appropriated funds granted to those activities. Little or no attention was paid to other costs such as military services, material issued at no cost (free issue), or material or services charged to open allotments. These costs were considered as other resources. In this situation, the responsible commander was only controlling a small per- centage of his or her operating costs. The RMS was designed to correct this deficiency by providing the responsible commander with a budget that included all cost incurred instead of allotments to cover only limited portions of those costs. The DOD determined that management would be improved significantly if the financing of an activity was related to the total expense of the task or mission assigned and if the expenses were recognized and recorded against the OPTAR at the time they occurred instead of when they were requisitioned or when payment was made. The responsible commander’s flexibility to shift resources to meet these changing demands is greatly increased by the fact that his or her budget will contain additional resources that were previously provided by individual allotments. 2-2