The Financial Management Operations Manual (FMOM) is the Department of Education’s manual of financial procedures for every office it runs, from the Central Office down to the school. DepEd Order No. 60, s. 2016, dated September 2, 2016, adopted it “for all financial transactions at all levels of the Department”. DepEd completed the manual on March 31, 2016 with World Bank support, and it follows the Government Accounting Manual (GAM) that the Commission on Audit (COA) issued through COA Circular No. 2015-007.

The download holds the 221-page manual as a PDF, the 13 slide decks of the FMOM training in PowerPoint, and two ZIP files: the GAM Volume II forms (Appendices 1 to 81) in Excel and Word, and the instructions for filling them in.

Is the FMOM still current?

Yes. As of November 8, 2026, DO 60, s. 2016 is still in effect and DepEd has not replaced the manual, which the order calls a living document. Many of the rules it cites have changed, so read each procedure with the issuance that now governs it:

  • School MOOE follows DO 008, s. 2019.
  • Cash advances of non-implementing schools follow DO 029, s. 2019.
  • Purchases follow Republic Act No. 12009, the New Government Procurement Act, which replaced RA 9184. The 2016 procurement slides (Session 7) teach RA 9184.
  • Equipment follows COA Circular No. 2022-004, which raised the capitalization threshold from ₱15,000 to ₱50,000. The manual, its slides and the GAM instructions for the Inventory Custodian Slip still use ₱15,000, and so does DO 008, s. 2019, so ask the division accountant how an item between the two figures will be recorded.
  • Fidelity bonds follow Treasury Circular No. 1-2026.
  • Disposal of property follows COA-DBM Joint Circular No. 2024-1.

The FMOM guide lists each change with what the manual says and the rule in force.

What the manual covers

  1. Introduction and coverage: purpose, legal bases, and DepEd’s financial management structure.
  2. Planning, budgeting and procurement: the budget cycle, DepEd’s planning and budgeting, procurement, and asset management.
  3. Revenue, receipts and deposits.
  4. Accounting and disbursement: modes of payment, cash advances, petty cash, payroll and travel.
  5. The UACS chart of accounts, the government-wide coding of budget and accounting data.
  6. The DepEd Provident Fund.
  7. School-based financial management, the chapter written for school heads: implementing and non-implementing schools, planning and budgeting, cashiering, accounting, procurement, assets, reporting, and bonding.
  8. Liability management and financial reporting.
  9. Answers to frequently asked questions, a process matrix, and a summary of forms.

The training slides

The decks come from the FMOM orientation that DO 60, s. 2016 set in three phases: for central and regional finance officers, for division finance officers, and for school heads and designated bookkeepers. Sessions 1 to 7 follow the manual’s chapters: revenue and receipts, accounting and disbursement, the Provident Fund, school-based financial management, liability management, financial reporting, and procurement under RA 9184. The others cover the budget process and asset management, the budget office of a schools division office, the Enhanced Financial Reporting System (eFRS), the accounting and reporting software some DepEd units used in 2016, how the enhanced SIP, the School Report Card and the RPMS fit together, an overview of the manual, and a leveling-of-expectations session that opened the course.

The GAM forms and instructions

The two ZIP files hold the 2015 forms of GAM Volume II, which COA issued with the GAM, with an instruction file for most forms: journals and ledgers, the disbursement voucher (Appendix 32), the journal entry voucher (Appendix 36), the purchase request and purchase order (Appendices 60 and 61), property cards and reports, and the budget and financial accountability reports. The FMOM’s process matrix names which form each step uses. Some have since changed: COA Circular No. 2022-004 set new forms for semi-expendable property, and COA-DBM Joint Circular No. 2019-1 modified the budget and financial accountability reports from FY 2019.

Most of these forms are kept by the offices and by implementing schools, which have their own bookkeepers and books. A non-implementing school keeps no books of accounts; the division records its transactions. Its head records each payment in the Cash Disbursements Register (Appendix 43 in the forms ZIP) and submits it to the division following DO 72, s. 2008, the Manual on Simplified Accounting Procedures for Non-Implementing Units, as DO 029, s. 2019 requires (items 19.1 and 32.2).

Why it matters for aspiring school heads

School finance sits in Domain 2 of the Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads (PPSSH, DO 024, s. 2020), Managing School Operations and Resources. At Career Stage 1, indicator 2.2.1 (financial management) asks for knowledge of the policies on allocation, procurement, disbursement and liquidation, and indicator 2.3.1 (school facilities and equipment) for those on acquiring, recording, using, repairing, storing and disposing of them. The manual’s school chapter and Session 4 are where those policies meet the school.

For the rules a school head applies today, read the FMOM guide, the school MOOE guide and school procurement under RA 12009.