Finance_Guy

Might want to check Wright Pat in Ohio. I heard they fly C-5s out of there to east coast for P/U, then on to Germany. If you don't want military air, then BWI or Norfolk NAS are your best bets since those are the only two spots I know of for regular AMC Rotator flights. Check Norfolk flights here (from .mil) https://www.airtermnorva.navy.mil/Flights.htm

I just got my new Homeowners Insurance policy and it increased 33%--what the Heck. They must be soaking all of us for the Marine settlement. They do have strict rules on flooding insurance---I'm no where near a flood zone. I've had nothing but good things to say about USAA up until now. I sent them off a message asking them to explain exactly what has changed so much since last year. I'm interested to see their response. I've had one small claim with them about a year ago, but to increase that much in one year...damn. Keep an eye out on your Homeowner policy if its coming up for renewal.

There is mention in the JFTR. Go to U4145.C PER DIEM COMPUTATION and you will see this. C. M&IE Payment. The M&IE rate is payable to the member without expense itemization and without receipts. Box lunches, in-flight meals and rations furnished by the Government on military aircraft are not a Government mess for per diem computation purposes. NOTE: See par. U4800-E for a member on TDY within a Combatant Command or Joint Task Force Area of Operations. You are right that meals can only be deducted if provided at no cost. The paragraph above stipulates that even if provided at no cost on aircraft, they are not considered government mess. This paragraph is not a blanket statement that box lunches and MREs are not available govt mess, only while provided in aircraft. Now if provided while not on an aircraft, then it would be deductible and considered an available govt mess. This normally isn't an issue since while on a government aircraft that is also a travel day and all Govt Meals are considered unavailable. The only exception to that is while traveling in the same AOR (U4800-E reference). IF filing in DTS, the rules are different. If any meal is provide at no cost on a interim travel day, then that meal must be reported in DTS as a "Provided Meal". This could apply if flying from Qatar to Ramstein. In the morning before leaving Qatar you ate at the DFAC (free). Even though a travel day (most were used to full travel day per diem) , you would get Proportional Per Diem (PPD) for traveling to Ramstein. This is in the JFTR Appendix O which governs those being paid using DTS. Clear as mud now, Huh?

Appears some are confused. MREs are government mess. Show me the JFTR quote that says otherwise. You have to focus in on "deductible Meals". Many get this confursed. Deductible meals means you have to report them whenever provided at no cost by the Govt (all are at no cost at the Died). Box meals are deductible/available meals when not consumed in the air. So those on the ground have to report any box meal they get from the Flight Kitchen as a Govt meal. The JFTR was changed back in the 90s to exempt box meals in the air since the AMC/CC was concerned that aircrew were not getting the meals for nutrition since their per diem was reduced. So the answer was to not deduct them from per diem. So the result was the aircrew received a govt meal (whether paying cash or not) and still received full per diem. IMO, it was all about the money and nothing to do with ensuring aircrew were eating properly. Bottom line, MREs and Box Lunches are Govt Mess. MREs are always deductible meals when provided at no cost and when at cost, are considered available mess. Next time your are on an IGX, tell me MREs don't count as government mess. Or ask your local Services folks.

Makes sense now. Yeah, finance apparently found your paperwork wasn't signed by the installation commander, so it was not in order as you said. The CENTAF/CC put out a policy that any missed meal in the CENTAF AOR must be approved by the Installation CC. This applies to those locations where meals are available and directed at no cost to the member. Hard to see how you could miss a meal with 24/7 DFAC and GrabnGo. I've been on Jingle missions out of the Died and made sure I took some grub with me since I didn't know when I'd get to a DFAC next. I also remember seeing a few cases of MREs in the cargo bay...just in case you get real hungry.

See attached. Appears you can take LV and a Pass in conjunction with no duty days between. Leave rules are a personnel thing, but it seems finance always gets the questions. Leave is in AFI-36-3003. Attached is an MPF Memo from Mar 2007. MPFM0720_LV_Pass.DOC

Attached is the letter as of Jan 2007. LR_PMR_LTR_JAN07.pdf

I could quote a reg if I had more specifics of your scenario. I would have to say it's in the JFTR somewhere. Pretty hard to give a specific answer without knowing the exact situation, like, where you traveling in the AOR. Or, during the 13 hrs of flying where were you at 2400.

Really you provide an apples to oranges comparison. Those with jobs that fly have no common ties with the rest of ALL the AF, but those in Finance and Personnel do--I guess that's why we are the "shoe clerks". What we do has some effect on Everyone in the AF. What you do is limited to only those in the OPS world. I guess maybe that's what I should've said. I don't know what a "perfect 6k Offensive for 2" is, but if I needed to know, was interested, or it remotely affected me, I would do some research to find out, but that's just me. Must not be a common term since Google didn't pull up crap. You Google Military Pay you get many hits to at least start from. It's scary to think you would totally rely on another career field to obtain "every single thing" about your pay or personnel programs. I guess you don't have to do a aircraft inspection since you don't have to know a single thing about what the maintenance folks are required to do.

Its not hard, a 2303 transaction with a start and end date, a code of 1 and a 1 or 2, then the country code you were in. Hit enter and your are done. However, That can only be done with a correctly filled out form. I'm assuming you are using an 1881. I'm sure your travel voucher had the same location. If not, then I'm guessing you did the 1881 for transiting airspace. Different rules and maybe there wasn't enough on the form to show you were assigned duty to the airspace. FWIW, an 1881 is for actual Hostile Fire.and should only be used when fired upon. The travel voucher is the source for IDP.

You are missing the point. So now Finance needs to know Personnel's job. Forget it. I'm done with this conversation. No wonder people have so many problems. My point was don't rag on finance when they have NOTHING to do with it.

Didn't say you needed to know finance's JOB, you should know somethings about YOUR PAY and Entitlements. I don't mean that non-finance people have to know how to process and administer personnel or pay, but at least have some clue. I can say many aircrew know the travel rules better than most finance people. Why, because they do it everyday. Those who travel maybe once a year, are probably in the dark. It must be important enough since there is finance info in the PFE for NCO testing. I don't ever recall Herk Driver asking me question, I was just making comments, and I don't have any more attitude than most others in this forum. If you used to work finance (I mean Military Pay) and didn't know who updates promotion and years of service, I'm sorry. Years of service is pretty much automatic once gained into the system, but for those with a break in service, personnel has to compute it and input. There is no format ID and action codes finance has access to for those items. Do your remember what a Format ID is? If not, then you didn't work the military pay section of the Financial Services Office.e.

Really depends on where you are--I suspect in a Combat Zone AOR. If in CENTAF AOR, only the Installation commander can authorize missed meals. If you spent 13 hours flying, did you fly into the Jetson's Burger King and purchase a meal. I would also say that if you were flying, that day is treated as a travel day and you get full per diem of your location at 2400 hrs...unless traveling in the CENTAF AOR between locations where the meal rates are the same. The purpose of Per diem is to reimburse members for meal expenses required while away from the permanent duty station. People should not expect a windfall of money for merely missing a meal unless you had to purchase one from commercial sources. Per diem is not compensation for the inconvenience of not being able to eat. If MREs were available, then how could you have missed a meal? MREs are deductible meals and must be claimed as such when available whether consumed or not.

I can honestly say there are many young troops who just don't have the experience to see the "big picture". It takes many years of experience. But to retort on your comment, every military member should know that personnel handles your promotion and years of service input. Those are purely personnel items that merely result in payments. It's also due to a separation of duties. So if you don't get a promotion order/notice, do you go see finance...hell no, you go to the promotions office in MPF. PCS moves result in pay, so if you don't get your PCS orders, everyone should know to go to outbound assignments. HR stuff is something everyone should know something about. Not saying you need to know every single detail, but at least have a clue. Just so everyone knows, if anything like this happens to you, there's a system called the Case Mgmt System (CMS) that both MPF and Finance are to use. Regardless of who is at fault, problems like Kayla brought up are to be entered into this system no matter if MPF or Finance is supposed to fix it. So, if it happens to you, have one of those offices enter the case in CMS so it can be routed to the appropriate office and it will have visability within MPF, Finance and with you. You can access your own CMS cases in vMPF.

Your right. But I bet the MPF clerk told them to go see finance. Not enough info provide in the story to know what exactly happened, which is pretty typical.

This is so funny. Finance has no input for Rank or years of service. It's all input by the Personnel office and in the case of officer accession, the AF Personnel center. Once input into MILPDS, the transactions update the finance system. Goes to show much of the finance bashers don't really know how their own entitlements are handled. Yes the end result is in the pay system, but your local finance cannot make those changes.....Change to a new topic, "I hate MPF".

No, even better: DIMHRS (Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System) is a comprehensive, Web-based solution that will integrate many existing personnel and pay processes into one self-service system. It will support the military's Total Force - across the services and components (Active or Regular Component, Reserve, and National Guard). It represents the Department of Defense (DoD) and Air Force's commitment to modernizing business practices and providing enhanced support for today's service member and their families. DIMHRS is expected to launch in 2009. Airmen must get familiar with ‘self-help’ personnel systems https://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section...mp;archive=true "Now the challenge lies in getting the airmen they serve to adjust also, according to Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff, manpower and personnel."

Maybe the funding will get better as they cut all the support positions in favor of the OPs world. See article link below. Financial services personnel has been cut by 50% as of Mar 2008. In my opinion, the customer service you used to receive is in bad shape. Get ready to help yourself more than you already are. Of course you will have the 24hr call center for answers to your questions. Base financial service hours change

Key words from the AFI are, "Authorized Fees". It could be these are not auth. fees. I suspect these fees may not be related to the class, but institutional fees and could probably be only one-time fees not charged on later classes.

You might want to check this with finance there. REF: JFTR (U10400) If you clear out of your dorm room, then YOU are authorized Single OHA (FSH-O) if approved by the housing office. If your spouse joins you as non-command sponsored, then you stop receiving BAH for any stateside location, then begin receiving with-Dep rate OHA. If you kept your Dorm room, I bet finance didn't know that. If you begin the with dependent rate OHA, you should also not have a dorm room.

Why do the shoeclerks get blamed all the time. Per the first post, it was said the tuition was $276. That's what TA is for, to pay the tuition. Sounds like the school is screwing people with extra fees. Also, Finance has nothing to do with TA except for collecting $$ when the course isn't completed. Get the facts from the education office.

Yeah, you know it's all their money, so every dime they can keep makes them richer (a joke). But to answer the question refer to 65-114, Chapter 8. 8.29.3. Promotions after PCS Order Issuance. Members, promoted after PCS orders issuance and on or before the effective date of orders, are authorized DLA based on the higher grade. Examples of valid evidence are: 8.29.3.1. Promotion orders or a “MD” print from the MMPA. Now you ask, "What's my effective date of orders?" Effective date of orders is calculated like this: Take the date you signed in to your new unit minus all authorized PCS travel time, Proceed time and any TDY enroute days and that's the effective date. It is essentially the date you would have been required to depart your last PDS in order to perform your travel and TDY. To provide an example: Scenario, Arrived New PDS on 15 Jan 2008. Orders allowed 5 days PCS travel time and also directed a TDY enoute for 60 days. Sign in date minus 5 days PCS and 60 days TDY gives me an effective date of orders of 11 Nov 2007. Some would say, well I reported on 15 Jan 08 so I should get the higher rate. Not so, you would get the rate of DLA (based on your rank at that time) that was in effect on 11 Nov. If you promotion was after 11 Nov as 8.29.3 mentions, then you get the prior rank rate. None of you provided dates, so I cannot tell if you were "Screwed" or not. I would suspect your payment was done correctly since Finance normally doesn't manually compute this, their automated travel computation system does.

The new DLA rates from the 3.5% payraise are updated. If anyone has arrived to their New PDS 1 Jan or after, they should see finance and request a supplemental payment voucher for the increased amount if authorized. See attachment. DLA_Rates_3_5__Retro_1_Jan_08.doc

You have an AIRMAN as your DTS approver...first problem. Airman do not fit the criteria since they are not in charge of the mission or funds. This isn't a DTS problem, this is an Airman problem, one in your own SQ. UNLESS, you have a Comptroller who inserts an approving step in your document routing flows. This is not the DTS design. All reviewing and approving should come from responsible individuals in your own SQ. Bottom line, if you are not claiming lodging for that second night, you do not need a receipt. Only need receipts for those things you want to get paid for. There is plenty of online training on the DTS website. It's really not that hard.

It's going to happen everywhere. Check out the link to an AF News Story. https://www.eielson.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123081112