Customer tips to work better, smarter with finance Published April 12, 2010 By Chief Master Sgt. Stephen Burn 21st Comptroller Squadron PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Waiting in line at the finance office can increase your frustration levels. However, the 21st Comptroller Squadron has a couple of Web-based platforms including E-Finance and Permanent Change of Station In-Processing System, hosted on the Air Force Portal and designed to eliminate waits. E-Finance is a Web-based system designed to streamline and eliminate the need for walk-in customers and filing hard copy forms for military pay changes and travel vouchers. The travel side of E-Finance allows members to file a travel voucher, accrual, and travel advance for a temporary duty assignment not through the Defense Travel Service, and is available to Reservists, active duty, and civilians. E-finance reduces the processing time for TDY's generated by hard copy orders up to 50 percent. PIPS is another web-based application designed to modernize the actions involved with permanent change of station in-processing. Traditionally, a two or three hour Right Start finance brief was done once a week but, PIPS has eliminated the need for that briefing by allowing the member to submit all PCS paperwork to the financial service office electronically within an hour. This application allows a faster response time to update the member's basic allowance for housing rates, dependency status, and all other entitlement changes from a PCS. It automatically generates a travel voucher based on the information input by the member to pay for Defense Logistics Agency travel, per diem, etc. It is critical new military members file their PCS as quickly as possible when arriving to Peterson AFB to ensure their pay is correct and we settle up with their PCS expenses. Staff Sgt. Mathew Lane, 21st FSS noncommissioned officer in charge of financial services, explains the benefits of these systems. "Both systems have cut countless man-hours along with producing a neater, more legible copy of all documents submitted," the financial services officer said. Both operate in a similar manner for approval. The member generates the Web-based request and submits it to a supervisor or approving official. It is then sent to (financial services) for review, and finally submitted in seconds to our regional processing center. These systems are win-win and create efficiencies for the customer and the finance office." These two systems enable us to serve our customers better and we enthusiastically encourage their use. Even though these systems allow us to serve our customer base here, we never lose sight we're here to provide world class superior support. We encourage all customers to take ownership of their financial matters for pay and entitlements, and engage our customer service representatives to work their issues and answer their questions. Our philosophy is to treat all our customers pay and entitlement issues as if it were our own pay. This is because we know it's impossible for members to fully concentrate on their jobs if their pay is incorrect. That's why our goal is to provide nothing less than world-class superior support to our customers.