AF simplifies travel-payment processing

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. A.J. Bosker
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON --  The Air Force has automated the process of filing travel-accrual payment requests for military travelers, making it available on the Virtual Military Personnel Flight Web page.

“This should simplify the process not only for the traveler but also deployed and home-station financial services offices,” said Chief Master Sgt. Larry P. Gonzales, executive for enlisted matters to the assistant secretary of the Air Force for financial management and comptroller at the Pentagon.

According to Gonzales, the result is better customer service for the traveler while reducing the workload for deployed financial services office workers and improving payment accountability for home-station offices.

In the past, travelers who incurred charges en route to their temporary duty or deployment location had to fill out an accrual-payment worksheet and provide it to their home station financial services office, he said.

Many travelers often had to rely on assistance from deployed financial services offices to fax or e-mail the worksheet back to their home-station office for processing, he said.

“Because of technological challenges in some deployed locations, deployed finance offices often had to have one person fully dedicated to just faxing accrual-payment worksheets back to home stations,” the chief explained.

Even when the lines were working, Gonzales said there were no guarantees that the home-station financial services offices, because of the difference in time zones, received the worksheets. The traveler often had to return to the deployed office or try to call their home station to find out if their accrual-payment request was successfully received and processed.

The new secure Web-based process on vMPF is much more convenient, he said.

Travelers can now complete their worksheet when they want and on any computer with internet access, Gonzales said. Once it has been sent, the traveler can rest assured that their home-station financial services office received and processed their request and issued the accrual payment. The payment can be made to the traveler’s account or to their government travel card as directed.

“Although filling out the worksheet on vMPF is the preferred way for travelers to submit their accrual worksheets, because of real-world limitations, worksheets can still be faxed or sent via e-mail,” the chief explained.

The Air Force had been struggling for a while to find a way to improve the travel-accrual payment process for travelers, Gonzales said. There was not a quick solution in sight until Air Force finance officials heard about what officials at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, had developed.

“They created a Web-based system to help their deployed members file their travel accrual-payment requests,” he said. “We liked their idea and wanted to implement it Air Force-wide.”

People from the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, were able to help, he said.

“Three weeks after telling AFPC what we wanted, the travel-accrual worksheet was available under vMPF for deployed and airmen (on temporary duty) to use worldwide,” Gonzales said.

Although the Web-based process of submitting travel-accrual worksheets is currently limited to only military travelers, Air Force officials are working to offer the same service to civilians through the Virtual Civilian Personnel Flight Web site, he said.