The Budget Formulation and Execution Line of Business (BFELoB) was created as an E-gov initiative. The focus of the BFELoB is to build a "budget of the future" by promoting information sharing across Government agency budget offices and building a "community of practice." Through collaboration, the budget community can start to identify best practices for all aspects of budget formulation and execution. The BFELoB strives to find solutions linking budget formulation, execution, planning, performance, and financial management information.

BFELoB has a wide range of stakeholders, summarized below:

• Federal Agencies: Budget Officers Advisory Council (BOAC), Agency budget officers, Agency partners, Agency CFOs and CIOs
• Office of Management and Budget (OMB): OMB executive sponsors, OMB policy leads, E-Gov office, Other E-Gov initiative sponsors

The Department of Education acts as the "Managing Partner", establishing the Program Management Office (PMO) to oversee BFELoB work. OMB is the Policy Lead for the BFELoB.

The BFELoB works with its stakeholders to do the following:

• Coordinate processes that set standards for data, data exchange, modularization and interfaces;
• Identify and promote best practices and guidelines for budget automation while extending the architecture as the LoB develops and grows;
• Manage ongoing coordination and funding of BFELoB priorities and initiatives;
• Provide centralized services and managing service components distributed to agencies where functions are mandated or otherwise conducive to standardization;
• Consolidate acquisitions, such as General Services Agency (GSA) Smart Buys, and shared service providers for functions that are common among groups of agencies;
• Leverage new custom development in a reusable way; and
• Manage the budgeting community of practice through the use of web tools to create easier ways to communicate and share information through the web.

BFELoB products and services are available to all budget professionals within the Federal Agencies.

MAX is a general term referring to the MAX Federal Community and several applications including MAX Collect, MAX Analytics and MAX Publications.

If you are a federal executive branch employee and do not have a MAX account, please go to https://max.omb.gov/maxportal

To register for a MAX Account, click "Register Here" on the MAX Homepage. All new users must complete the Registration form to gain access to the MAX System. You will then receive an email containing the next steps in completing your registration. Once your registration is complete, you will receive an automated email confirming the creation of your MAX Account and instructions for creating your password. After logging in, you will be able to see the applications and groups that you have access to.

You can participate via the following:

• Read our newsletter on our home page
• For Executive Branch employees:
• Visit the BFELoB community page: https://max.omb.gov/community/x/GAE
• Sign up for working groups
• Give us your feedback on products & services that would help your agency