Changes Coming For Military Pay Systems

The Army online pay system will launch in October 2008.  The Air Force will follow suit in February 2009.  The Navy and Marines have yet to set a launch date.

Hopefully some of the included information will help you and your service member prepare for the upcoming changes.

So, what is this all about?

Here is the skinny:

The Army is planning to launch an online pay and personnel system in October that will bring all three components into a single database.

The Army Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System, or DIMHRS, represents the Army's first efforts to pull the reserves and active Army under one pay system, the program's director, Army Col. Patrick Devine, told Stripes on Tuesday.

The system, the result of a Defense Department mandate to streamline all the service's record-keeping capabilities, is also the first time the Army has merged payroll and personnel data, Devine said.

Once DIMHRS ("pronounced dimers") goes online Oct. 1, 2008, personnel actions will automatically trigger associated pay events, starting the cash flowing to the Soldier's paycheck without delay, Devine said.

For example, when a Soldier is mobilized to deploy to a designated combat zone, DIMHRS will automatically update the payroll section of the Soldier's records, so he starts receiving entitlements such as Hazardous Duty Incentive Pay.

Another change will be to eliminate the choice of being on a monthly or biweekly pay cycle.

Instead, all Soldiers will now receive two paychecks each month, Devine said.

Under the new system, the Leave and Earning Statement (LES), will be renamed a "Pay Slip."

It will have the same data as the old LES, but the information will be displayed on different areas of the page, Devine said.

The Army is sending strategic communications teams that will provide an overview of the program, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Kevin Curry said.

Curry said these "change management" teams are briefing senior leaders, brigade and battalion-level leaders, human resource professionals and Soldiers.

Most Soldiers will be trained via distance-learning, Curry said.

Supervisors will use the program to process leave requests, awards and evaluations. Individual Soldiers can access their records and make some changes, such as address updates, he said.

The DIMHRS Web site, at www.armydimhrs.army.mil, also will have all the training materials available, he said.

The Air Force, meanwhile, is set to launch DIMHRS in February 2009. The Navy, which also oversees pay and personnel for the Marines, has yet to set a date for launching the system.

You can find a variety of information and answers to your questions on the Army DIMHRS website.

Some direct links for specific information can be found via the below links.

Information Fact Sheet

Sample Pay Slip

Pay Slip Terminology and Data Elements

Service Member Self Service

Acronyms used by DIMHRS

Active Army Pay Process Workflow

Reserve Pay Process Work Flow

Guard Pay Process Work Flow

**UPDATES**

Delayed

The Army will begin using an online program next spring to manage pay and personnel records for the entire service — active duty, guardsmen and reservists, according to Army officials.

Originally, the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System was supposed to go online for the Army this fall, with the Air Force set to launch in February 2009, followed by the Navy and Marine Corps.

But Army and Defense Department program managers decided to postpone those dates in late April, after systems integration specialists hit some snags during the initial testing phase of the program, according to Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin Curry, a spokesman for the Army’s DIMHRS program. The Air Force is now slated to go online in November 2009, with the Navy and Marine Corps joining in 2011.

"The date was delayed to ensure that the system was functional and fully operational" before transferring more than 1 million active and reserve soldiers’ pay and personnel records into it, Curry told Stripes on Tuesday.

Based on a commercial program used by companies like Toyota and Wal-Mart, the new system will allow a soldier to review pay stubs, request vacation time, apply for awards, prepare promotion packages and re-enlist.

The system also will allow commanders to approve evaluations, resolve pay requests and track other personnel issues without waiting for a delivery of records, according to Army Col. Pat Devine, the Pentagon’s point man for implementing the program.

The system will combine nearly 70 existing military personnel and pay programs into one, providing each soldier with a single record through all components, assignments and deployments, Devine said.

"In DIMHRS, there will be one record per servicemember for his entire career," he said. "The information to the soldier is transparent," meaning a soldier should be able to track the progression of an awards request as it goes up the chain of command.

Personal records will follow the soldier, no matter status or affiliation — from basic training in Georgia, to field training in South Korea, to war in Iraq and to ready reserve status back at home.

The Pentagon began the project more than a decade ago after Congress mandated that the military have an all-inclusive personnel system for all service branches. Planning was postponed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Devine said.

In the past three years, Army leaders have stepped up the effort to implement the new system by March 1. This year alone, the Army is spending an estimated $50 million to make sure it goes online, he said.

The program will reshape how the Army’s traditional personnel offices and units run, Devine said. Already, the Army has downsized many of its personnel centers around the world to take soldiers out of offices and make them available for war.

Now, with the new system, the Army’s personnel offices will share the responsibility of tracking awards, promotions and demotions more directly with unit commanders, Devine said.

The program will also reshape some of the Army’s traditional language. Within DIMHRS, a soldier will become an employee. He or she will request absence, rather than leave. All will use employee identification numbers instead of Social Security numbers.

But Devine said he thought those changes were mainly semantics and would not affect traditional military language.

"It’s not as dramatic as some people are afraid of," he said last week during a briefing with officers and noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama, Japan.

Still, he said, change will not be seamless and will mean a lot of training and shifting of responsibilities in the next few months. "It’s going to be a serious emotional event," he said.

Comments

[MO]

You know instead of spending money on this, some of it is valid but name changes and what not cost money, how about keeping the promises they made with the Army Family Covenant instead, or gee I don't know spending money at Walter Reed or updating living conditions on military installations around the world. blah!

[RedLegMeg]

The sample pay slip is hideous looking! That probably sounds silly, but that was truly my first impression. And the part where everyone will receive two paychecks a month? Don't like it. We've been doing this Army thing for nearly seventeen years and have always stuck with one monthly pay. It's going to screw me up on my bill pay schedule - what a PITA! All in my humble opinion, of course. :)

[Love My Tanker]

RLM, the funny thing is....I thought the exact same thing about the pay slip.

Hopefully the end result will be in a better format than shown (bc the website does say subject to change) and look similiar to what I think is the easy to read and well formatted LES. We shall see. Sorry about the pay check issue for you, I know it is difficult to change billing schedules, etc.

Thanks for your comments ladies!!

[Dustoffkid]

We've already switched, on the civilian (Army) side. I think it's going to be a good thing, like when we PCS I won't have to go through all of the payroll inprocessing again.

I agree about the once-a-month pay problem, we have our bills set up for the 1st. Going to have to rework that, I guess.

[Dustoffkid]

We've already switched, on the civilian (Army) side. I think it's going to be a good thing, like when we PCS I won't have to go through all of the payroll inprocessing again.

I agree about the once-a-month pay problem, we have our bills set up for the 1st. Going to have to rework that, I guess.

[GBear]

This is tremendous information! I had NO IDEA this was coming down the pike.

Need to get Papa Bear home more often to get the skinny on stuff like this...Thank heavens I've got SpouseBUZZ pals to keep me informed.

Thanks! Now I'll go look into this more. Is it going to affect retired personnel as well?

[longtimeMP]

I think some of the suggested changes are going to be beneficial, however some of us that have programmed our bills based on the current pay selection of once a month. The change is going to really cause some growing pains as we will have to re-budget all of our monthly bills. I am not one to complain but this really will have a significant impact on some of the younger enlisted Soldiers that fall into the same situation as me. For example house payments, car payments...etc.

[MPWifey]

Thanks SO much! This info was very informative and answered all my questions regarding the new pay system and its capabilities. I spent endless time trying to navigate through military sites trying to find this info. Sure glad I decided on old faithful and just googled it. Thanks again.

I'll be saving this to my favorites menu.

God Bless!