Back to the future: Military pay functions return to base

Published Aug. 5, 2011
By 21st Comptroller Squadron

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Changes are coming to comptroller offices worldwide, which will impact the way finance does business.

Since 2006, most travel and military pay processing has been centralized through the Air Force Financial Services Center. The local finance office collected, reviewed and prepared documentation prior to sending it to the AFFSC for final processing.

On Aug. 25, however, military pay processing returns to the 21st Comptroller Squadron and many other base finance offices. This means that finance will locally process documents directly impacting individuals' military pay records.

While this change should benefit members in terms of processing time and accuracy, there will be growing pains.

"Since military pay functions moved to the AFFSC, we eliminated these blocks from our tech training," said 1st Lt. Laura Vergez, 21st CPTS. "We'll have a generation of young Airmen who will learn military pay processing via OJT, which is not ideal. We know there will be issues initially but I'm confident our personnel will quickly grasp the concepts."

One of the best examples of process improvements is stopping deployment entitlements. As soon as the member files a travel voucher upon return from a combat zone, base finance can go into the pay system and stop entitlements thereby eliminating much of the wait time currently caused by AFFSC transmittal delays. This process also prevents debt accruals that can cause "zero-pay" paychecks. Other military pay-related actions include basic allowance for housing changes, changes to allotments and changes to meal deductions.

An important factor to keep in mind is that this will not change the procedure for travel pay.

"Travel vouchers will still be submitted by the same process in PiPs, DTS and eFinance," said Vergez, "and then submitted to the AFFSC. We'll continue to liaise as required with the service center."

In terms of military pay, the change will allow finance offices across the Air Force to provide better and faster customer service.