The Defense Finance and Accounting Service is rolling out a newly updated online function that allows personnel to check their travel pay more quickly.
Some defense personnel, including military members and civilians, now are able to log onto the Online Status Payment Tool on DFAS's website and check the status of their travel voucher. The tool can be used for monitoring whether travel pay has been processed for cases such as Army active permanent change of station, temporary duty and civilian relocation.
Eligible personnel are those who submit paperwork for transportation, lodging or personal travel for processing through DFAS. Employees who use the Defense Travel System for scheduling transportation and lodging for temporary or permanent travel must submit their claim and documents via DTS and will not receive status updates via the DFAS online tool.
Users can check the status by entering their travel or authorization number and the first four letters of their last name. Customers are able to quickly learn where their voucher stands in the five-step payment process or if it has been returned for correction. Customers can opt to get email updates as their voucher is processed, according to a release from DFAS.
"Once you filled out the travel voucher form and compiled your receipts and you turned it in, you used to have to just wait. You might call a care center to check the status, but you competed with as many as hundreds of thousands of people checking things like tax status, wasting your time on hold or waiting. And if there was something wrong with what you submitted, you'd have to wait to get notice back," said Steve Burghardt, DFAS corporate communications. "With the online tool the latest information on your particular package is pulled right from the system, so you can find out once you get in there that it's been received and processed, and when payment is anticipated or made. It's a lot faster."
Customers can visit the DFAS website for more information and to access the tool.
