Category: News

Federal Employee Paid Leave Act Update

Message from the Indianapolis Civilian Payroll Office:

As you may be aware, the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act (FEPLA), authorized by NDAA for FY 20 (PL 116-92), is effective October 1, 2020. 

FEPLA allows  for the substitution of 12 weeks of FEPLA paid leave for FMLA unpaid leave in connection with the birth, adoption or foster placement of employee’s child on or after October 1, 2020. 

DFAS is working to program DCPS for this new leave type, but in the interim agencies should do the following:

  • Determine employee eligibility according to the agency’s policy guidance for FEPLA or the regular FMLA process.  Intermittent employees and temporary appointments less than one year are excluded
  • T&A should reflect type hour code ‘LV’ for FEPLA paid parental leave
  • Track employee usage of FEPLA manually to prevent exceeding the 12-week limit.

If you have any questions contact the help desk at 1-800-729-3277 or DSN 580-7500, Monday – Friday 07:30 am to 4:00 pm EST

DFAS Deferred Payroll Tax System Change Request

Please share the  below information with your Time Keepers and members.

Late yesterday evening, DFAS identified three programming issues with the implementation of the Deferred Payroll Tax (OASDI) System Change Request (SCR).  Their IT partners worked through the evening to deploy an emergency SCR to correct the issues, however all records were not updated during final pass last night.  All impacted employees requiring deferral of OASDI were corrected today, are processing in retro, and will see a refund of the OASDI deduction during pay period ending September 26, 2020.

More details below on the nature of those issues…we do not have a list of employees impacted, but DFAS has indicated all impacted employees will receive a SmartDoc when the refund piece has been run.

Issue #1:  Employees who reported time and attendance on Saturday, September 12: Employees that fall within this category who had wages subject to the OASDI collection that were less than $4,000, erroneously had their OASDI deducted during pay period ending.  Our IT partners were able to correct employee records during final pass is time and attendance was reported on Saturday except on the ZL0, Navy Shipyard/Overseas Database.  DCPS was erroneously calculating Day 14 of the pay period twice causing an employee who was close to hitting the $4,000 threshold to have OASDI collected.  For example, an employee’s gross pay was $3,800 in gross wages with 8 hours of time and attendance reported on Saturday.  DCPS erroneously added the 8 hours of pay ($300) twice for September 12 causing the earnings subject to OASDI to calculate at $4,100 versus the actual wages of $3,800.

Issue #2:  Employees who had lump sum payments for leave payouts:  Employees that fall within this category had a form of leave payout such as aged compensatory time.  Within the DCPS programming logic leave payouts are assigned to the last day of the pay period, Day 14.  Similar to the issue described above, DCPS was erroneously calculating these earnings twice.  It caused an employees who were close to the $4,000 threshold and have payouts included in the calculation to have their OASDI collected.

Issue #3:  Non-taxable earnings:  Employees that fall within this category did not properly have the non-taxable earnings reduce the OASDI subject-to wages.  For example, an employee’s gross wages were $4,100 and had non-taxable deductions for FEHB, dental and vision in the amount of $300.  OASDI subject-to-wages should have been $3,800 which would have put the employee below the $4,000 threshold and no OASDI deduction should have occurred. 

Brenda Denton

Financial Management Specialist

AFRC MDTA

HQ AFRC/FMFQ

brenda.denton@us.af.mil

AFAOC Shares Air Force Status of Funds Using Power BI

The AFAOC, in coordination with the DEAMS FMO, has created a BETA version of cloud reporting capability based on an Integrated Status of Funds (e.g. DEAMS and Legacy data).

  • This reporting tool will serve as a stopgap while the DEAMS System Integrator continues to work towards resolving issues with the Status of Funds reports in DEAMS Reports.
  • Please follow hyperlink to access this report and be sure to enter your “us.af.mil” email address if prompted

Instructions:

Once at the site:

  • Click on Data Download
  • Filter Required Data (OAC, OE, Main_Limit, etc)
    • Saves the filter criteria for future reports – YEAH!!!!)
  • Click the big downward arrow in the gray box
    • Click on More Options
    • Click Export Data (if you want to use Excel)

Note: Chad Kukorola and James Johnson are amongst some of the smartest data-wonks I know. I bounce and share ideas with Chad on a semi-regular basis. I am going to highlight some of the great tools he’s built as a Air National Guardsman. If you know other “dataheads”, please share in the comments. I’m trying to compile a list and create an email listserve to share ideas and coordinate our efforts.

There will be a lot of additional Power BI info coming in the near future.

Household Goods W2C Tax Guidance – AFIMSC

The 2018 tax code changed the way certain civilian PCS entitlements are handled. There appears to be a lag in processing these transactions which necessitates a W2C for the employee. This has generated a lot of questions and consternation for our civilians. I was forwarded this email by a member in the hopes that it may help explain the situation.

I hope to amend this post in the future with helpful links I found while researching this issue. In the meantime, google “DFAS CivPCS entitlements”. They have a ton of great info explaining all the changes.

AFIMSC Email to Customers

You are receiving this message as you have been identified as part of the civilian workforce who completed a PCS move in 2019 and utilized a commercial shipping company to move your household goods. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, moving expenses and relocation payments were identified as taxable in-kind-benefit. AF has worked with Transcom to identify the transportation costs per individual who PCSd in 2019. This process has been a very manual process and did not allow these costs to be captured and included in the travel W2 released Jan 31. Therefore, a W2C will be re-issued to capture these costs. The Air Force is validating the costs and will push a file to DFAS to ensure that the W2Cs are mailed by the end of month Feb 2020. *The travel W2C will not be available on myPay.

Please ensure you read the attached info sheet as it provides information and answers to questions regarding filing, penalty relief, and RITA. This information has also been sent to your local comptroller squadron as they
will be able to assist you with the RITA. For tax filing related questions, please consult a tax professional as the base Finance Office is not capable of answering tax filing related questions. Additionally, with it being tax season, the local tax assistance offices are open and available to assist.

If you haven’t filed your 2019 taxes, please hold off until you receive the W2C for the House Hold Goods for 2019. This will eliminate the need for you to file an amended tax return and you will have one complete set of tax documents to file your RITA voucher with. If you have already completed and filed your 2019 Taxes and RITA voucher, you will need to complete a 2019 amended tax return as well as an amended RITA voucher.

Travelers seeking the detail associated with the cost of your HHGs, please send your request for the cost break out to the following workflow. This box is monitored and all inquiries are being answered: usaf.pentagon.saf-fm.mbx.afafo-workflow@mail.mil.

If you received this email and do not receive your W2C for 2019 by 15 March 2020, please send a request to usaf.pentagon.saf-fm.mbx.afafo-workflow@mail.mil

AFAFO Aged Travel Orders Deobligation Policy

Below is the latest policy guidance from AFAFO regarding the deobligation of aged travel orders. This memo supersedes the guidance provided April and May 2019.

The memo lays out specific criteria under which base comptroller offices and the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can deobligate aged vouchers. This memo gives a tremendous amount of authority back to the bases and should help curb an age old problem.

How are you utilizing the memo? What systems have you put in place curb aged orders? Do you have any helpful guides or tutorials you would like to share? Use the comments below to provide feedback and links to any helpful materials.

Source: AFAFO-A

Policy as of: 7 February 2020

AFAFO-Aged-Travel-Orders-Deobligation-Policy

CRIS Migrating to the Cloud Soon

CRIS will be moving to the cloud on or about 10 Feb 2020. While we prepare to make our final move to the cloud, please be aware that any changes made to queries not saved to the local PC after 4 Feb 2020 will not be saved to you CRIS profile.  We need approximately 4 days to migrate the data to the cloud so any changes or new queries created after 4 Feb 2020 will not be available in your cloud profile. Any new or modified queries you need after 4 Feb 2020 should be saved to your local computer for later upload to the cloud.

If all goes well, you will automatically be redirected to the cloud instance of CRIS on 10 February.  You may notice some minor differences in the cloud.  The biggest one will be authentication through the CCE.  After ~15 minutes of inactivity, your ‘token’ will expire and you will need to log back in to CRIS (refresh your IE).  Yes, you will still need to use internet explorer for several more months.

Direct questions to:

AFAOC FM Systems Help Desk

Phone: 937.257.3117 or DSN:  787.3117

Email: saf.fmpaffso.customerservice@us.af.mil

Hours: M-F 0700-1700

Source: CRIS FMO

As of Date: 4 February 2020

Changes to Financial Management Duty Titles (Officer & Enlisted)

In 2017, Ms. Thomas sent out a memo standardizing duty titles for FM Officers and Enlisted Airmen in an effort to provide consistency among the various organizations in which we serve.  Since that memo was signed, there have been some changes in the requirements for our duty titles and in the promotion systems for both Officers and Enlisted.  Because of these changes, Mr. Hartley signed the attached duty title memo.  This memo updates approved duty titles to include officers serving in the acquisition community, where we have lacked standardization up to this point.

Standardized duty titles allow us to quickly describe career paths to promotion and other cross-functional boards that may not have any FM representation on them.  Today, we have 541 O-5s and below in FM, with 327 unique duty titles in use – over half the career field.  The numbers aren’t better on the enlisted side. 

Because of this need, the attached memo requires all members have a compliant duty title by 28 February 2020.  Please work with your local CSS/MPS staff to review your records, and those of your Airmen, to ensure their duty titles match those on the approved duty title memo.  If you have any specific questions, please contact the Officer Assignment Team (Officer Duty Titles) or your MAJCOM Chief Enlisted Managers (Enlisted Duty Title).

  • Source: SAF/FM
  • As of Date: 27 January 2020
200131-Financial-Management-Duty-Titles-SAF_FM-PDAS-Signed

Senior Leader Webchat with CMSgt Kendall Briscoe

In November 2019, CMSgt Kendall Briscoe conducted a Facebook LIVE session where he gave an overarching update on a multitude of issues facing the FM Enlisted team and our Air Force. This is a must listen for both officers and enlisted.

Fast forward to about the 8 minute mark when the briefing actually begins.

Video Link

CET Credit Link

Highlights

  • 8 min – The FM Our Air Force needs overview
  • 12 min – AFIPPS update – Go live date pushed to Jan 2022
  • 14 min – Manpower study, Oct 2022
  • 17 min – AFIPSS way ahead
  • 19 min – Changes to tech school curriculum
  • 24 min – Resource Training Center (RTC) & Finance Information Collaborative Space (FICS)
  • 27 min – Silver Flag update
  • 34 min – FICS
  • 39 min – Culture of Training
  • 43 min – Resiliency
  • 45 min – Q&A from Airmen – Artificial Intelligence/Bots, Business Intelligence, Power BI

DoD FM Connection Newsletter – Winter 2020

Link to Newsletter (CAC Required)

In This Issue

  • Comptroller Corner
  • My DoD FM STARs Program Experience
  • Improve Your Leadership Skills with a Leadership Development Program
  • Mentorship Benefits Mentees and Mentors
  • Tips for Starting a Rotational Assignment Program
  • DoD FM Workforce Virtual Training Program is the Way to Go
  • Quarterly Spotlight – The Naval Postgraduate School
  • Announcements
  • DoD FM Certification Update
  • Frequently Used Links
  • Workforce Brain Bender
DoD-FM Connection Winter 2020 (No CAC Required)Download