IPPS-A Update: Strategic Direction, Orders Writing, Duty Calendar/Duty Participation, Appr

Teammates,

First, Team IPPS-A warmly welcomes SGM Andrew "Drew" Muñoz as the new IPPS-A Senior Enlisted Advisor and deeply thanks SFC Brian Bass for his incredible efforts as filled that role. In this update, we wanted to take the time to walk you through what is on the horizon for IPPS-A as we modernize, consolidate payroll, and integrate AI. Our North Star is to enable Army lethality through decision advantage, complete payroll for the total force, provide the best user experience for commanders and soldiers to buy back their time, eliminate unnecessary clicks, automate, clean our data, and unleash artificial intelligence.

Strategic Direction
Over the next year, IPPS-A will complete a series of transformative milestones — automating pay, consolidating legacy systems, and fundamentally reimagining how the Army serves its Soldiers and their families. For a visual calendar of our upcoming efforts, please review our Campaign Plan. Below are some additional highlights:

Unified Orders Writing, Inactive Duty Training, Checkbook, and Budget Obligation, Disbursement, and Reconciliation Functionality — Consolidating Five IT Systems Into IPPS-A
The future of Army HR and pay modernization is taking a massive leap forward with improved orders writing capabilities to ensure Soldiers receive the proper entitlements! Soon, the ARNG and USAR will officially migrate from multiple legacy platforms—specifically the Army Orders Reservation System (AORS), Regional Level Application Software (RLAS), MyUnitPay (MUP), and the Mobilization Common Operating Picture (MOBCOP) and Department of the Army Mobilization Processing System (DAMPS)—to IPPS-A.

This transition happens in phases.

Phase I (Oct 26): All Duty Calendar/Duty Participation (i.e., Drill), Permanent Change of Station (PCS), and non-contingency short and long tour assignments will be done in IPPS-A. Additionally, all funds obligation, disbursement, and reconciliation processes tied to these orders will be done in IPPS-A.

Phase II (Oct 26-Feb 27): Development of long tour pay automation, contingency orders, and tour of duty.

Phase III (Feb 27 and Beyond): All mobilization and contingency orders – such as Temporary Change of Station (TCS) will be executed, funded, and paid to Soldiers in IPPS-A.

At the conclusion of Phase III, IPPS-A will serve as the consolidated, single authoritative source for recording and reporting all funded orders. See more information on how we are delivering Pay and Orders Modernization Through IPPS-A.

Duty Calendar / Duty Participation
The Duty Calendar / Duty Participation pilot is currently underway with over 15,000 active users, tracking toward a full Go-Live launch on October 1, 2026.

This system empowers Soldiers with direct control over their schedules and administrative needs:

Self-Service Drill Scheduling: Provides a comprehensive, interactive calendar view of the entire duty schedule.

Digital Rescheduling: Enables Soldiers to submit drill reschedule requests directly through the system.

Employer Deconfliction: Allows Soldiers to easily print official copies of their duty schedules for civilian employers.

Commanders gain enhanced operational oversight and a modern, direct role in the unit's pay pipeline:

Enhanced Visibility: Offers a complete view of the unit's Battle Assembly schedule, tracking attendance gaps and documented absence explanations.

Digital Attendance Approval: Replaces slow, legacy paper-based processes by initiating Soldier pay immediately upon digital roster approval.

Personnel with the IPPS-A Budget Analyst role will have the ability to set specific drill limits, directly supporting proactive fund management for unit training.

IPPS-A to Deploy Advanced Approvals Dashboards
Commanders will receive powerful new decision-support tools with the rollout of upgraded Approvals dashboards scheduled for Summer 2027. Enhancements are designed to streamline administrative workflows in a single pane of glass by enabling mass action approvals, placing critical, decision-relevant data directly at leaders' fingertips, and providing a comprehensive view of the entire approval chain—including all prior comments and historical attachments—without requiring extra navigation. These updates will significantly reduce administrative overhead and allow leaders to focus on critical unit priorities.

IPPS-A Streamlines Force Readiness with One-Time Payments
The Army continues its deliberate rollout of direct Treasury payments to Soldiers, increasing speed and accuracy while delivering a markedly better experience for those who need it most.

Upcoming one-time payments will include Adoption Reimbursement in late 2026, Temporary Lodging Assistance in the first quarter of 2027, and lastly, Spousal Certification Reimbursement and Cyber Certification Reimbursement by late summer 2027, all paid direct from Treasury to Soldier’s bank accounts.

Detailed implementation guidelines, technical specifications, and training schedules will be published incrementally in alignment with each phase of the deployment cycle to support a seamless transition.

IPPS-A Modernizes In/Out-Processing
The Army is fundamentally transforming its onboarding and offboarding processes through complete IPPS-A automation and digitization by March 2027. This redesign delivers a real-time, shared operating picture across all installation stakeholders—from Child and Youth Services to Finance. Moving forward, local Personnel Directorates can fully tailor in/out-processing checklists, ensuring Soldiers only interact with agencies relevant to their specific transition needs.

This modernization significantly enhances visibility and support at every echelon. Soldiers will experience unprecedented transparency through an interactive mobile checklist that clearly outlines required steps. Simultaneously, Commanders and First Sergeants will utilize new dashboards to track transition statuses, enabling them to identify friction points and intervene early. Housing Offices will also benefit from immediate visibility of incoming Soldiers and dependents to improve forecasting and family support.

Future rollouts will further streamline retirements, record corrections, BAH and arrival transactions.

Vantage & AI Integration
We are actively working on several trusted, connected AI capabilities to support Self-Service Users, Commanders, and HR Professionals, directly improving the Soldier Experience and reducing the digital burden on the force. Early results demonstrate high-yield potential, particularly in generating rapid-response applications on the fly, enhancing data quality, accelerating developer velocity, and automating infrastructure processes to systematically reduce technical debt.

Our strategic partners at U.S. Army Financial Management Command have delivered a dedicated dashboard for pay mismatches, finance processing, and rejects. Meanwhile, Team IPPS-A is experimenting in Vantage with an HR assistant-style agent that is being developed to have a robust context layer loaded with the IPPS-A User Manual and HR data model. Moving forward, we are progressively integrating design documents, job aids, and business processes. This expansion target is meant to help the field with training and performing functions in the system.

MILPAY User Manual
The MILPAY User Manual has been updated! This manual illustrates the high-level process flow to help the user view the content in visual form and provides processing facts that serve as a quick reference for the user to better understand how to execute tasks in the system. This manual is a living document and will continue to evolve based on user feedback, IPPS-A enhancements and future software releases as Army Military Pay (AMP) deploys. This publication is available at: https://hr.ippsa.army.mil/upk/r3/resources/milpay.pdf

We are Hiring!
Team IPPS-A is seeking passionate individuals with the right skills including technical experience in Java, HTML, SQL, Python, as well as expert HR/MILPAY practitioners to deliver more capabilities and enrich the Army’s HR weapon system for our Warfighters. To join our innovative and transformational team, submit a resume and Soldier Talent Profile (STP) to usarmy.pentagon.hqda-ipps-a.mbx.ipps-a@army.mil. Please do not submit OERs and NCOERs. We highly encourage all applicants to fully utilize and update their self-professed Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviors (KSBs) in IPPS-A to ensure your talent is fully represented.

The Army is changing, and we need your skills to build our lethal force and drive Readiness to fight and win!

Resources
Join the Drive the Change channel on MS Teams to get the latest updates, as well as New Release Training on Fridays (following a release).

If you missed a release update, or if looking for Over the Shoulder Support (OTSS) and Reinforcement Training dates and times, please visit please visit the Drive the Change page.

For additional information and resources, visit https://ipps-a.army.mil/.

Thank you for your continued support and keep driving the change we need in our Army!

V/r,

COL Leonard “Lee” J. Baklarz
COL, AG
IPPS-A FMD Director

SGM Andrew “Drew” Muñoz
SGM, USA
IPPS-A FMD Senior Enlisted Advisor

Learn more about IPPS-A:
IPPS-A Website: https://ipps-a.army.mil/
IPPS-A Connect: https://armyeitaas.sharepoint-mil.us/sites/usaasc-peoeis-IPPS-AConnect

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IPPS-A Update: Strategic Direction, Orders Writing, Duty Calendar/Duty Participation, Approvals Dashboard, One-Time Payments, In-/Out-Processing, AI Integration, MILPAY User Manual, Top Talent and Resources

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