PiPS/eFinance - Finance Forms Online

[Gravedigger]

Don't know. I know some commands thought it was more work, but it is not all about Finance workload. I think PIPS is a rather good program no matter what some may say and you have electrons of filing the voucher and a record of Finance reviewing it that sends it on to Ellsworth AFFSC.

I used PiPS for the second time during my recent PCS and I have to say the experience was incredibly painless. There are a few software glitches still, but nothing major. My base is over 30 minutes away from the servicing finance office, so not having to step foot in an office was a huge plus.

I also have to give credit to the finance troops at Andrews. They didn't just reject my voucher like my last base, they called me to personally ask about corrections and make edits for me. When I wasn't around, they left detailed messages about what I needed to do and how to contact them directly without going through the Andrews 1-800 number. What a refreshing experience, and kudos to whomever is the CPTS/CC over there.

[Jughead]

What a refreshing experience, and kudos to whomever is the CPTS/CC over there.

May I suggest you find out, and write a short email to that effect, including the name of the Airman who helped you?

I make it a point to offer praise where earned as quickly as complain when warranted--goes a long way. If nothing else, the two-striper who worked your voucher will get a bit of recognition, which may inspire him to continue to provide excellent service to the next guy....

[Finance_Guy]

I used PiPS for the second time during my recent PCS and I have to say the experience was incredibly painless. There are a few software glitches still, but nothing major. My base is over 30 minutes away from the servicing finance office, so not having to step foot in an office was a huge plus.

I also have to give credit to the finance troops at Andrews. They didn't just reject my voucher like my last base, they called me to personally ask about corrections and make edits for me. When I wasn't around, they left detailed messages about what I needed to do and how to contact them directly without going through the Andrews 1-800 number. What a refreshing experience, and kudos to whomever is the CPTS/CC over there.

I love to hear stories like this--don't get them often. 2 on what Jughead said. I found one of the glitches has to do with Compatibility Mode in IE. SO for all you out there who have not used PIPS, when you do get logged in, click on the Compatibility Mode in IE. Doing so will prevent hang ups whenever you select from addresses previously entered. I brought this to the PMOs attention and said if they knew this was a problem, then why not program the page to enter in that mode to begin with. I even sent them the Bill Gates technical details on how to set pages up on the IIS server to auto load the compatibility mode. DTS has some of the same issues on certain things.

Later

FG

Edit for dumb grammar

Edited July 10, 2013 by Finance_Guy

[FUSEPLUG]

I'll give credit to the finance folks at my base after my recent PCS. An Airman sat me down in their office and walked me through PiPS (step-by-step) for what ended up being a relatively painless and intuitive process that I certainly could have figured out on my own with minimal frustration. I had to use PiPS one other time for an extended TDY and was relatively happy with the process.

This begs the question... why the ###### do we use DTS?! After 7 years and over 900 TDY days in AMC I never figured that shit out.

[Tonka]

Not sure if this needs a new thread, but interesting article about military finance:

https://preview.reute...by-the-pentagon

This is the first in a series to examine the antiquated, error-prone, non-auditable system used to pay our nations warriors... I am willing to bet that every single person in the military either has a story like the one in this article, or has known someone that does. It is absolutely ridiculous that it has been allowed to continue unabated for so long. I doubt anything will be fixed in my career, but one can only hope.

One highlight:

Pfleider received a separate surprise from the Oregon National Guard: an itemized demand for $1,400, representing the value of equipment - a helmet, a sleeping bag and the like - that he didn’t return before he was medevacked out of Iraq.

“What was I supposed to do?” he says. “Stop and gather up all my gear and make sure I brought every piece with me on the plane?”

Television station KVAL in Eugene, Oregon, did a story about that equipment bill in May 2010. The next day, the Guard said it had dropped the claim.

....

He also was overpaid after Army officials demoted him several months before his discharge.

....

DFAS records show that after the Army demoted Pfleider in February 2008, the Oregon National Guard mistakenly promoted him. After confused communications between the Army and the National Guard, the Guard then demoted and re-promoted Pfleider several times. Because Pfleider was on active duty, the Guard had no legal authority to change Pfleider’s rank or pay; only the Army did. DFAS erroneously accepted the promotions and demotions the Guard reported, raising and lowering Pfleider’s salary accordingly.

....

In response to inquiries from Reuters, DFAS accountants reviewed Pfleider’s pay records and sent to Reuters a four-page analysis that, among other things, found additional debts charged to Pfleider by mistake and benefits not paid.

....

DFAS confirmed that most of the debts charged to Pfleider should have been canceled because of his status as a wounded warrior and other reasons.

....

DFAS deducted that from the $1,533 it already had collected and in mid-April, a month after Reuters inquired about his case, paid him the balance of $717.50.

So, basically what I understand is if you are not getting the results you expect from the finance folks, the only way to fix it is to call a local/national news source to investigate and then the DFAS auditors will actually LOOK at your case... it is not good enough to fix something for our warriors unless it is saving face publicly.

[Tonka]

Another story:

https://preview.reuters.com/2013/7/2/paymasters-hound-a-master-sergeant

Reuters then went to Air Force Secretary Michael Donley. His spokeswoman, Ann Stefanek, said that she checked Koffler’s pay records and that “there’s a possibility there is an error.” She declined to provide details. She said Donley’s office would not look into whether the Air Force and DFAS had erred in claiming the money back.

This is really starting to make me angry... you wouldn't like it when I become angry.

[deaddebate]

Another story:

https://preview.reute...master-sergeant

This is really starting to make me angry... you wouldn't like it when I become angry.

In that same article:

During his years as a first sergeant, Koffler received more than $8,000 in special-duty pay - roughly double the amount it billed him. In a written response to questions, DFAS said that with the aim of recouping the full amount from Koffler, it had already collected $4,130 through withholdings from his last two paychecks.

It looks like he was indeed overpayed, and DFAS is right to try and recoup it. The stupidity is squarely with their methods of how they are attempting to retrieve it, and how difficult it was for them to explain it to the MSgt. Is it really that hard to take 5 minutes and explain it to the guy?

[Herk Driver]

In that same article:It looks like he was indeed overpayed, and DFAS is right to try and recoup it. The stupidity is squarely with their methods of how they are attempting to retrieve it, and how difficult it was for them to explain it to the MSgt. Is it really that hard to take 5 minutes and explain it to the guy?

Not sure how you get that. That just says that he received more than $8K and they had only attempted to recoup about half of it. The article says that he was a Shirt for his last five years (60 mos, give or take). Special duty pay for a Shirt, IIRC, is/was $150/mo. My simple math says that he earned an extra $9K assuming that he was a designated Shirt during that entire 60 mos.

[Finance_Guy]

Another story:

https://preview.reute...master-sergeant

This is really starting to make me angry... you wouldn't like it when I become angry.

This part makes me angry, "He said the personnel center has no responsibility for special-duty pay." --That is total Bullshit. Personnell is the ONLY source who have access to start, stop and adjust SDAP. I would suspect some FSS person screwed something up right as the guy retired. Finance could only see there was a debt and yes could easily tell what it was for, but by that time the MSgt was probably no longer at the base. Shame on those personnell folks for deleting the MSgt's SDAP

Another story:

https://preview.reute...master-sergeant

This is really starting to make me angry... you wouldn't like it when I become angry.

This part makes me angry, "He said the personnel center has no responsibility for special-duty pay." --That is total Bullshit. Personnell is the ONLY source who have access to start, stop and adjust SDAP. I would suspect some FSS person screwed something up right as the guy retired. Finance could only see there was a debt and yes could easily tell what it was for, but by that time the MSgt was probably no longer at the base. Shame on those personnell folks for deleting the MSgt's SDAP

[DFRESH]

You can say that again!

[pawnman]

Another story:

https://preview.reute...master-sergeant

This is really starting to make me angry... you wouldn't like it when I become angry.

I knew a guy who was long-term DNIF for several years. He finally got re-cleared for flight, and in-processed into the training base to go through requal...at which time the finance guys doing the in-processing said "hey, this guy is a flyer, but he didn't get flight pay for the last 3-4 years. Let's pay him all of that right now". The guy had his TSP set up so all his flight pay would got to TSP, and he was just living off the base pay (pretty standard). So suddenly, something like $20K is dumped into TSP. Then finance realizes they screwed up, and tacks on a debt for the amount they paid him for the flight pay...but finance has no authority to take money back from TSP. So now the guy is essentially out the next 6-9 pyachecks while finance takes the money back...in the middle of a PCS...when he wasn't planning to have this kind of cash on hand and was sort of expecting paychecks to, you know, keep being deposited.

[Finance_Guy]

I knew a guy who was long-term DNIF for several years. He finally got re-cleared for flight, and in-processed into the training base to go through requal...at which time the finance guys doing the in-processing said "hey, this guy is a flyer, but he didn't get flight pay for the last 3-4 years. Let's pay him all of that right now". The guy had his TSP set up so all his flight pay would got to TSP, and he was just living off the base pay (pretty standard). So suddenly, something like $20K is dumped into TSP. Then finance realizes they screwed up, and tacks on a debt for the amount they paid him for the flight pay...but finance has no authority to take money back from TSP. So now the guy is essentially out the next 6-9 pyachecks while finance takes the money back...in the middle of a PCS...when he wasn't planning to have this kind of cash on hand and was sort of expecting paychecks to, you know, keep being deposited.

I would suspect that finance didn't single-handedly make the decision to back pay the fly pay. I'm sure they receive a military pay order (MPO) from the flight records office before processing anything. All transactions must be backed with a source document from the authoritative source, which in the case of fly pay is not Finance. Most likely they processed whatever flight records gave them.

BTW, a guy who works with me pulled up the records on this MSgt-DFAS SDAP debt debacle. In a few minutes we discover the reason for the debt was MPF processed a SDAP stop transaction (3002) but made the stop date retro to about 2 years and 4 months earlier. So when it made its way from MILPDS to the pay system, the pay system automatically set up the debt. Not sure why out of all the people Reuters contacted someone couldn't just find out that information. Not really sure why MPF would have input that transaction but they did.

FG

[Tonka]

Obviously not an annomally however you care to look at the statistics... I still do not understand why it takes involving the Media before actual research is done? That level of service should be provided to every service member at any time, and if it cannot be provided or the situation "proven" then the default position should always be in favor of the member. I understand that the Govt has to protect the $ of the people, but a volunteer military member should never have to prove his or her case to receive what they are due. The burden of proof should always be on the service, and that is almost never true.

I know everyone has a story, but I got docked $700 about 5-6 years ago, I asked why and no one could tell me over 5 visits/calls to finance... and thankfully someone saw that I was paid that $ back on the last visit, but a year or so later the same amount was docked and the process repeated. This time they showed me a "receipt" with my name and address on it and the amount paid (there was absolutely nothing else on it!) There was no reason, date, or any colloborating evidence why, how, or when I was originally paid and more importantly why I shouldn't have been paid... it honestly looked like someone put together an excel spreadsheet real quick in the back to try and get rid of me. So I am out $700 for some reason I will never know and have absolutely no recourse, except it seems for me to go to the media (*gasp) so someone will actually determine what happened. And after $1 Billion, we are no closer to solving any of these problems.

[Toro]

why the ###### do we use DTS?! After 7 years and over 900 TDY days in AMC I never figured that shit out.

[ARAMP1]

I'm about to separate from active duty next month and going through my deployment history in vMPF, I've noticed that a couple deployments were missing.  After some quick research and looking for a paid travel voucher for each one, it occurred to me that those were deployments where we used eFinance instead of DTS for the travel claim.  So, I'm trying to get into eFinance to find the travel vouchers to correct my deployment history and receive this error using Explorer 11.  

Any suggestions?  Worst case scenario, I can go into work and use an XP machine.  

[Herkasaurus]

I'm about to separate from active duty next month and going through my deployment history in vMPF, I've noticed that a couple deployments were missing.  After some quick research and looking for a paid travel voucher for each one, it occurred to me that those were deployments where we used eFinance instead of DTS for the travel claim.  So, I'm trying to get into eFinance to find the travel vouchers to correct my deployment history and receive this error using Explorer 11.  

Any suggestions?  Worst case scenario, I can go into work and use an XP machine.  

If you go to finance directly they can access their system and show that you were paid. Then you take that print out to the personnel dude who can then validate your deployment history and update vMPF. It's a dick pain, but that's how I was able to fix mine. If you're trying to do it without going in to the finance/MPF office, I don't know what the work around is. 

[magnetfreezer]

I'm about to separate from active duty next month and going through my deployment history in vMPF, I've noticed that a couple deployments were missing.  After some quick research and looking for a paid travel voucher for each one, it occurred to me that those were deployments where we used eFinance instead of DTS for the travel claim.  So, I'm trying to get into eFinance to find the travel vouchers to correct my deployment history and receive this error using Explorer 11.  

Any suggestions?  Worst case scenario, I can go into work and use an XP machine.  

Try Alt>Tools>Compatibility view settings and set it to compatibility view. If that doesn't work try F12 > Developer Tools > Document Mode > 7 (or whatever version gets it to work).

[ARAMP1]

Try Alt>Tools>Compatibility view settings and set it to compatibility view. If that doesn't work try F12 > Developer Tools > Document Mode > 7 (or whatever version gets it to work).

First off, thank you!  If being "The Man" was a crime, you'd be guilty as charged!  I was able to add the website to the compatibility list and it worked like a charm.  

Okay, next question for those that might know, the one deployment I was looking for was not listed (though there were two more that I had forgotten about that are not in my records) and I'm almost certain it was filed in eFinance.  I returned from this deployment in 2009 but my eFinance account doesn't go back that far.  Could it have been erased?  My guess is there's another issue.  I have the travel order number from my orders, but I'm not on an AF base or have readily available access to a finance office.  

 

Edited September 8, 2015 by ARAMP1

[ShavedDogsAss]

Has anyone seen this fun one?:

PCS'd from school to an overseas GSU back in June. Did the circuitous travel, approved with normal constructed point-to-point cost from school. I even self-procured my tickets (approved) and saved the AF over $1000.

Here's the wrench: my planned flight through Chicago was cancelled the morning of. We were auto-rebooked through Dallas the next day.

Now, finance is trying to argue not only that the tickets would have been cheaper via Dallas than what I bought, but it would have been more advantageous for my family to drive from AL to Dallas before leaving, then they used the Dallas cost as the measure versus the cost for leaving direct from school.

Therefore, while I was authorized over $10k for the normal tickets, I self-procured for $9k, finance has only paid $6k.

I guess I should have foreseen my flight being cancelled and rerouted, then rented a car to drive from AL to Dallas?

Looks like I'm being penalized over $3k for the airline canceling my flight. As if having to repack and reshuffle 2 toddlers on an international flight wasn't bad enough...

[Jughead]

Now, finance is trying to argue not only that the tickets would have been cheaper via Dallas than what I bought, but it would have been more advantageous for my family to drive from AL to Dallas before leaving, then they used the Dallas cost as the measure versus the cost for leaving direct from school.

You are never required to drive beyond the nearest airport with scheduled service--in fact, in order to do so, you would have to request it & get approval, demonstrating that it's advantageous to the government (much as you did with the self-procured travel arrangements).

Your constructed cost calculations are all based on from where you started (AL); how you deviated in the middle, for whatever reason, is completely irrelevant.

Both points above are directly supported by the JFTR (or, they were as of about 4 years ago, the last time I pressed-to-test on any of that).  I'm an ORF now, so you'll have to research the applicable paragraphs on your own--but, Finance is flat-out wrong on this one (imagine that)....

 

ETA:  If you want to give an example to the Finance troop that may save you having to beat them over the head with the JFTR, ask them how they would handle, for example, someone based at Peterson AFB traveling to Base X.  I chose Pete since I was stationed there, but the same would hold true of any base in a medium-ish city within striking distance of a large airline hub.  Living on the north side of C. Springs, it was almost a wash for me to drive to DEN instead of COS--so, if the schedule was better, I would usually do so.  Since the government fares were almost always cheaper than departing COS, I had no issue doing so (could demonstrate advantageous to the govt)...  but I could NOT be required to do so.  This sounds precisely like what you're describing, leaving from BHM vs DFW....

Edited September 8, 2015 by Jughead

[Bojangles]

 

First off, thank you!  If being "The Man" was a crime, you'd be guilty as charged!  I was able to add the website to the compatibility list and it worked like a charm.  

Okay, next question for those that might know, the one deployment I was looking for was not listed (though there were two more that I had forgotten about that are not in my records) and I'm almost certain it was filed in eFinance.  I returned from this deployment in 2009 but my eFinance account doesn't go back that far.  Could it have been erased?  My guess is there's another issue.  I have the travel order number from my orders, but I'm not on an AF base or have readily available access to a finance office.  

 

 

If you call someone from any finance office then they may be able to pull the voucher from the WAWF (wide area workflow) system. They'll need your SSN and should be able to pull any non-DTS voucher from that system. 

Edited September 9, 2015 by Bojangles

[ShavedDogsAss]

Finance is flat-out wrong on this one (imagine that)....

 

Thanks for the info. It's taken me 3 months just to get a partial reimbursement, and now I expect it to take another 3 to get the rest.

It's as if they are trying to convince me that 1) I was in the wrong by doing anything other than what they find most convenient for the paperwork and 2) that I should fund my own PCS in no small part.