Civilian pay transitions into ATAAPS

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christine Griffiths
  • 355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, ARIZ. --  Davis-Monthan Air Force Base went live with the Automated Time Attendance and Production System for civilians April 21.

The ATAAPS program is an Air Force-wide program designed to prepare audit readiness, as well as financial readiness, across the Air Force.

Kimberly Hervey, 355th Comptroller Squadron ATAAPS project manager, stated the manual system provided little audit capability and too much room for errors compared to the new system.

"The biggest thing for ATAAPS is it's prepping us for audit readiness across the Air Force," said Lt. Col. Simon Scoggins, 355th CPTS commander. "In 2017, the Air Force is supposed to be audit-ready. ATAAPS is going to help with that, because it's going to automate that process. You'll have that recall ability, to be able to go into the automated system and show accountability and readiness."

ATAAPS is also providing cost and time savings.

"The difference between the two systems is you're not hand-carrying a piece of paper from the employee to the supervisor to the time keeper for data entry," Hervey said. "The employee is going into the system directly and inputting their own data. The supervisor is able to go into the system and digitally approve that as well. Time keepers will now be our quality checkpoints, making sure employees and supervisors are putting their data in by the cutoff date."

Trying to provide a smooth process for everyone, Hervey gives users, certifiers and time keepers thorough training to mitigate any future struggles.

"At D-M, I've trained more than 4,000 time keepers, certifiers and regular users," Hervey said. "We've been letting the (Air National Guard) join in the training program that we've created. They went live the exact same date, so they've been kind of piggy-backing our training."

United States Air Forces in Europe, Pacific Air Forces, Air Mobility Command and Air Combat Command have implemented the new program. By 2014, the whole Air Force will be online with ATAAPS.