Command Sergeant Major / Sergeant Major,
Thank you for encouraging your Soldiers to learn the system and provide us with feedback. Your teams have continued to work hard to make IPPS-A a success, and your guidance has been monumental to this effort.
I want to provide you with some updates, guidance, and resources to share with your units as they continue to navigate IPPS-A. Please ensure this gets down to the lowest levels.
Orders Formatting Updates
Soldiers asked and we listened. Please ensure your units are aware that orders generated by IPPS-A now include the official Army seal.
Prior to this update, Soldiers were often experiencing complications while executing travel, and establishing housing due to questions of legitimacy. Orders now show code descriptions, a Soldier’s home of record address (Hire/Accession Orders), and a Digital Garrison QR code. We have also removed the unclassified information (CUI) markings, which previously caused issues for Soldiers who wanted to use them for renting houses or apartments.
This is a big win for the field, as it will remove unnecessary administrative burdens for Soldiers. You can learn more about the updated orders framework
here.
Inbound Dependent Data from Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS)
We were tracking an issue in which DEERS was not able to send all required changes to dependent information to IPPS-A. This included scenarios of separation in dual-military marriages or removing adult children from benefits.
DEERS also recently adjusted its logic to improve the capturing and sending of dependent changes relayed to IPPS-A. Now, when such updates occur, the data captured in IPPS-A is more accurate and timelier.
The first file with improved logic occurred 10 May 2024, with about 50,000 dependent updates. Please ensure your Soldiers are aware of this update and that they check their data for accuracy.
Attachments in IPPS-A
To moderate redundancies in the system, units should only attach documents that
are required for IPPS-A transactions. Attaching unnecessary documents can clutter the system and extensively drain the available volume.
Please inform your units that attaching a Leave and Earnings Statement (LES), DA Form 31, or Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) documentation to an Absence request, or a DA Form 4187 to a Personnel Action Request (PAR) is not required.
I encourage units to try to streamline workflows and enhance overall efficiency. Per the
SECARMY Memo, personnel should exclusively use IPPS-A for human resource and applicable pay actions.
New Validator Subcategory
Please relay to your units that the NG/AR Validator Subcategory was recently released into production to address the differences of National Provider level between Regular Army and National Guard/Reserve components. This Validator subcategory will contain roles that primarily reside in the Principal Validator subcategory.
This subcategory is designed for National Guard State Level G-1s (2–3 Users per state) and Army Reserve Readiness Divisions (2–3 users per RD) or USARC (2–3 users at USARC) and should not be used by the Active Army component.
To submit an access request for this subcategory, you will need one of the following subcategories: KEEB VALIDATOR, PRINCIPAL VALIDATOR, or NG/AR VALIDATOR.
Consecutive Overseas Tour (COT) and/or In-Place COT (IPCOT) Absences in IPPS-A
Please ensure your units are aware that COT and/or IPCOT absences processed in IPPS-A between 20 December 2022 and present
may not have been processed as chargeable leave. As a result, Soldiers’ accrued leave balance may be incorrect. IAW
AR 600-8-10, COT/IPCOT absences are chargeable absence types.
Actions are being taken to verify impacted accounts and correct errors that may have occurred; therefore, Soldiers may see a reduction in their accrued leave balance. Please have them review their end of month June Leave and Earning Statement (LES) for corrections. General questions and concerns may be addressed to your Army Military Pay Office (AMPO) / Finance Office.
Roadmap
IPPS-A has a roadmap to guide stakeholders through FY26. This outlines the major post-release aspects of IPPS-A development, and provides clarity on project goals, milestones, tasks, timelines, and dependencies.
Though based on rough projections, listing out development efforts and business objectives in a singular flowing timeline ensures we can promote awareness and education while regularly delivering system enhancements.
This roadmap is effectively helping to
Drive the Change we need in Army modernization efforts, and I encourage your NCOs to review the IPPS-A Roadmap to gain a better idea of where we are headed. You may find it here:
https://ipps-a.army.mil/Future-Capabilities.
In its latest iteration, we have removed TDY Tour Credit functionality to give the team more time to further gather requirements and research the best possible avenue for developing this feature. A new addition to the roadmap is the In-Transit Grid (ITG) enhancements (
ALM ticket 12456), which will better streamline the departure and arrival process for the field and enable users to add multiple types of PCS leave in one transaction.
Resources
Your HR Pros should join the
Drive the Change channel on MS Teams to get the latest updates as well as New Release Training every Friday following a release. During these events, the IPPS-A team will walk through items released into production the night before and explain where the updated training packages reside. You may access the channel here:
https://dod.teams.microsoft.us/l/channel/19%3adod%3a1fc38b9ba1714261a5e2e78bddbb92d3%40thread.tacv2/1.%2520Drive%2520the%2520Change?groupId=a0f79218-9101-4c6c-863b-84c8c14309e9&tenantId=fae6d70f-954b-4811-92b6-0530d6f84c43. If you missed a release update, please visit the
Drive the Change page for links to recordings and slides.
Please reiterate to your NCOs that the IPPS-A Team is still conducting
virtual Over the Shoulder Support (OTSS) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. For more information, including dates and times, they can visit:
https://ipps-a.army.mil/Drive-the-Change/.
They can also listen in to the IPPS-A Podcast to hear from our Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and learn what is going on with the program. In our
latest episode, COL Becky Lust chats with MAJ Linda Platt, Chief of Training and Deployment for the U.S. Army Reserve, and CW2 Von Blas, Human Resources Technician, about the IPPS-A Marketplace platform, lessons learned from the April Marketplace launch for Active Guard Reserve (AGR) Strength Managers, and upcoming Marketplace priorities over the next few months. You may find the IPPS-A Podcast on
YouTube,
Apple, Spotify, and Castbox.
For additional information and resources, your NCOs may also visit our website at
https://ipps-a.army.mil/.
Thank you for continuing to inform and support your units. Your leadership is empowering your Soldiers.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need help — we are here for you!
V/r,
SGM Paul J. Smith
Senior Enlisted Advisor
DCS - G1, IPPS-A FMD
Learn more about IPPS-A