Money is money; it all spends the same way. However, that doesn’t mean it’s all processed or received the same way, especially when it comes to Soldier pay.
To build financial readiness across all three Army components, ten U.S. Army Financial Management Command Army Military Pay Office employees took part in the U.S. Army Reserve Pay Certification Course in Indianapolis March 16-20.
While AMPO employees generally help active component Soldiers with their pay, many times they are also asked to help Army Reserve and National Guard Soldiers who walk into one of their 49 locations worldwide. The active and reserve pay systems are separate, as are the rules surrounding certain entitlements.
Wanting to ensure the AMPOs can support all Soldiers, Ronald Houston, USAFMCOM Military Pay Operations Readiness Division chief, said the command is investing in its employees by sending them to this training so they can support Soldiers regardless of their component.
“A Soldier is a Soldier, and we will provide them the same level of support, regardless of their status,” said Houston.
“Some reserve component Soldiers don’t go to their unit before they come on active duty, and so they don’t get put into the reserve pay system right away,” he explained. “Now our AMPO can put them on the reserve pay system to get their pay and entitlements started quicker if that happens.”
While Soldiers should always start working pay issues with their human resource professionals at their unit, the AMPOs do provide immediate support for five critical pay issues, said Gennaro Penn, USAFMCOM MPO director.
These include a Soldier seeing a ‘No Pay Due’ on their leave and earnings statement, debts on a LES that Soldiers don’t understand, a direct deposit that didn’t post, or allotments and garnishments that didn’t make it to their intended recipient.
“We send a select number of personnel to this training, which is hosted by the U.S. Army Reserve Center here, and our employees can bring back that knowledge to their AMPOs,” said Houston.
“Pay for active component Soldiers is a lot easier for me because I’ve been doing it for five years, but I just started working reserve pay here,” said Diana Stuart, USAFMCOM military pay technician from Fort Knox who took part in the training. “It’s not that reserve pay is harder, it’s just different in how you read it in [the Defense Joint Military Pay System].
“This training helped me a lot.”
Michael Pavinich, USAFMCOM internal control technician from the AMPO at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, agreed with his classmate that the USARC training provided a solid foundation for supporting reserve component Soldiers.
“It was a well put together introduction to Reserve Pay and well suited for employees with no reserve pay background,” said Pavinich. “I learned the Reserve Pay Portal is very effective.”
“I thought it was very informative and a bit of an information overload since I had never worked with reserve pay before,” concurred Amy Randazzo, USAFMCOM military pay technician in Indianapolis, who added that she really appreciated the hands-on training aspect of the course.
Upon completion of the week-long training, the AMPO employees were invited for a tour of both USAFMCOM Headquarters and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, both located in Indy.
“This lets them see the people they are working with here and how DFAS and the Army work together,” concluded Houston. “They are always amazed at how small the teams are up here and leave with a newfound respect for what everyone involved does to support our Soldiers and their families.”
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USAFMCOM delivers precision enterprise-wide financial operations to integrate, synchronize and sustain the battlefield through the Joint Strategic Support Area and directly supports the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management and Comptroller in their role as the principal advisor on all matters related to financial management and comptrollership.
USAFMCOM’s MPO performs the installation-level military support for the Army across the United States, Korea and Japan. The AMPOs perform the full range of military pay services to include in and out-processing, input of transactions generated by orders and forms from Army units and activities, and separations.
As one of the world’s largest finance and accounting operations, DFAS supports military and civilian customers with a mission of delivering financial excellence and quality pay services to its customers. This mission emphasizes the importance of DFAS’ role as a primary contributor in standardizing and improving finance and accounting activities across the Department of War.