Enlisted Performance Report: Forms, Ratings, and ERAB Appeals

An Enlisted Performance Report, or EPR, is the Air Force’s formal annual evaluation of how well an enlisted Airman performed their duties, and it feeds directly into promotion points, reenlistment decisions, and assignment eligibility. Air Force Instruction 36-2406 governs the entire system: who gets evaluated, when the report closes out, what form is used, how ratings are assigned, and how you challenge a report you believe is wrong.¹ Every enlisted Airman from Airman Basic through Chief Master Sergeant receives EPRs, and each one becomes a permanent part of the military personnel file. Guardians should note that the Space Force runs a separate evaluation framework and is explicitly excluded from AFI 36-2406.

When Your EPR Closes Out

Each enlisted grade has a fixed annual deadline called a static close-out date, or SCOD. Your report covers the service period ending on your grade’s SCOD, no matter when you actually pinned on. For Regular Air Force, Active Guard Reserve, and Statutory Tour members the schedule is:²

Senior Airman: 31 March
Staff Sergeant: 31 January
Technical Sergeant: 30 November

Airmen Basic, Airmen, and Airmen First Class receive their first evaluation once they hit 36 months of total time in service as of the 31 March Senior Airman SCOD. Master Sergeant through Chief Master Sergeant dates, along with the Reserve and Guard variations, appear in Table 4.4 of AFI 36-2406.¹

Not every report follows the annual cycle. A change of reporting official — when your supervisor PCSes or retires, for instance — triggers an out-of-cycle report. Commanders can also direct a report to document a specific period, often tied to a duty change or a disciplinary matter. If you’re a promotion selectee, your close-out date shifts to align with the SCOD of your projected grade.

Feedback Your Supervisor Owes You

Structured feedback is required well before the report is drafted. Within the first 60 calendar days of taking over your supervision, your rater must conduct an initial feedback session. You only get one initial session unless you change supervisors.²

A midterm session follows roughly halfway between the start of supervision and your projected close-out date. After that, follow-up sessions happen every 180 calendar days until the rater writes your evaluation or a new supervisor takes over. Chief Master Sergeants are the exception: they only require the initial session.² If your supervision period is shorter than 150 days and you’re due an annual evaluation, feedback happens about 60 days before the projected close-out instead of on the midterm schedule.

These sessions matter more than most Airmen realize. They set expectations, give you a chance to correct course, and create a documented record that both sides agreed on what “meeting standards” looks like. If you later dispute a rating, the absence of required feedback weakens the rater’s position.

The Right Form and myEval

The evaluation form depends on your grade. Airmen through Technical Sergeants are rated on AF Form 910, Master Sergeants and Senior Master Sergeants on AF Form 911, and Chief Master Sergeants on AF Form 912.³⁴ All evaluations now route through myEval, accessed through the myFSS portal; the offline AF Form 716 for enlisted evaluations is only authorized by exception.² myEval replaced the virtual Personnel Center in 2022 for reports with a close-out date of 31 May 2022 or later.⁵

Before your rater drafts anything, verify your administrative data — Air Force Specialty Code, unit of assignment, duty title, and dates of rank. Everything must match the Military Personnel Data System. A wrong duty title or AFSC is one of the most common EPR errors, and fixing it once the report is filed requires a formal process through AFPC. Catch it early.

Writing Performance Bullets

The core of the report is the set of performance bullets. Each one follows an accomplishment-impact structure: what you did, then why it mattered. Bullets start with a past-tense action verb and must fit within two lines on the form.²

Impact is where most bullets fall short. “Repaired 15 aircraft components” is an accomplishment. It only becomes a strong bullet when tied to a mission capability rate, a cost savings figure, or a readiness metric. If someone outside your career field can’t tell why the accomplishment mattered, the impact isn’t clear enough.

Track your accomplishments as they happen. Dates, quantities, dollar figures, and named exercises or operations are the raw material that separates a generic bullet from one that stands out to a promotion board. Your supervisor needs that evidence to justify the ratings they assign.

Ratings and the Promotion Recommendation

The EPR uses standardized performance categories where your rater marks how well you met expectations on job knowledge, leadership, followership, and related areas. The critical line is between meeting the standard and falling below it. A mark in the far-left block of any performance factor in Section III, or a “1” rating in Section IV, triggers a referral report.²

Separately, your commander assigns a promotion recommendation that carries direct point value under the Weighted Airman Promotion System on your most recent EPR:

Promote Now: 250 points
Must Promote: 220 points
Promote: 200 points
Not Ready Now: 0 points

A second EPR can add 10 to 20 additional points and a third can add 5 to 15, based on the recommendation each report carried.⁶ The 50-point spread between Promote and Promote Now on a single EPR can decide a competitive cycle.

Forced Distribution for SrA Through TSgt

Commanders cannot hand out top recommendations freely. For promotion-eligible Senior Airmen, Staff Sergeants, and Technical Sergeants, forced distribution caps the number of Promote Now and Must Promote recommendations. Headquarters Air Force sets the specific allocation, built around roughly 5 percent of the total promotion-eligible population for the top two recommendations combined.² Units with 10 or fewer eligible Airmen send members to a Forced Distribution Panel led by the senior rater rather than applying the percentages at the unit level.³

Stratification for MSgt and SMSgt

Senior noncommissioned officers work under a different system. Senior raters may stratify up to 25 percent of their Master Sergeants and Senior Master Sergeants. The top 20 percent of Senior Master Sergeants and top 10 percent of Master Sergeants receive a numerical ranking such as “#1 of 12 MSgts.” An additional 5 percent of Senior Master Sergeants and 15 percent of Master Sergeants can receive a narrative “Top 25%” identification.²

Signing and Routing

The rater completes the performance assessment and initial marks, then routes to the additional rater, who adds a second layer of review meant to keep ratings consistent across the unit. The commander then reviews for regulatory compliance and alignment with the promotion recommendation. Digital signatures lock content at each stage; once a signature is applied, comments and ratings cannot be changed without clearing signatures through the CSS or Military Personnel Flight.²

After all evaluators sign, the report routes to you for acknowledgment. Your signature confirms you saw the report. It does not mean you agree with anything in it. If you need corrections before the report becomes a matter of record, your rater or the CSS can clear signatures in myEval so the form can be revised and resigned.

When You Get a Referral Report

A referral report is triggered when any evaluator marks the lowest performance block in Section III, assigns a “1” in Section IV, or includes derogatory comments or comments referencing conduct below minimum standards.² The process is distinct from a normal EPR, and the career consequences are serious.

Your commander must formally notify you with a referral memorandum and a copy of the report. You then have 3 duty days to submit a written rebuttal (30 calendar days if you are not on extended active duty). You can request an extension from the referral reviewer, but the total response window cannot exceed 45 calendar days from the date you acknowledged receipt.² Your rebuttal becomes a permanent attachment to the evaluation.

Downstream, referral evaluations are treated as quality indicators when commanders decide whether to approve reenlistment under the Selective Reenlistment Program. Denial of reenlistment makes you ineligible for promotion, cancels any projected promotion line numbers, and affects retraining and new assignments.⁷ A referral does not automatically end a career, but it puts future decisions under scrutiny. Use every day of the rebuttal window and attach every piece of documented evidence you can.

Filing, Viewing, and Fixing a Report

Once all signatures are complete, the finalized report transmits electronically to the Air Force Personnel Center and is uploaded to the Automated Records Management System and your Personnel Records Display Application file. Reports must be filed no later than 60 calendar days after the close-out date, and that clock runs from the close-out itself, not from the final signature.²

You can view completed evaluations any time through PRDA. Check after each close-out cycle to confirm the report posted correctly and that administrative data matches your records. Errors caught early are far easier to fix than ones discovered years later in front of a promotion board.

How you correct a mistake depends on whether the report has become a matter of record. Before filing, the CSS or MPF can clear signatures in myEval so the rater can revise and resign; the evaluation reflects the new signature date. After the report is filed, even simple administrative corrections require a formal submission: Regular Air Force members go through the Evaluation Reports Appeal Board via the virtual MPF, and Air Reserve Component members submit a DAF Form 948 through myFSS. The one exception is when a report simply is not viewable in ARMS or PRDA or the personnel data system was not updated; those are system issues, not content corrections, and do not require an ERAB or AFBCMR action.²

Appealing Through the ERAB

The Evaluation Reports Appeal Board is the primary venue for active-duty members who believe their evaluation was unjust or violated AFI 36-2406. Every filed evaluation is presumed legal and just as rendered; the burden is on you to prove otherwise with strong evidence.⁸

The board convenes quarterly in March, June, September, and December. All supporting documents must be submitted by the third Friday before the month the board meets, or the case rolls to the next quarter. The ERAB will not consider any case older than three years without a Time Limit Waiver explaining the unusual circumstances that prevented an earlier filing. The board does not accept excuses like not understanding the appeals process, being discouraged by leadership, or not realizing the career impact until a later promotion board.⁸

Evidence the Board Will Accept

The board wants documentation that is factual, specific, and based on firsthand observation from a credible source. Strong evidence includes duty title history printouts, AF Form 2096, deployment manager records, and findings from Commander Directed Investigations or Inspector General inquiries. Personal opinions about why an evaluator gave a certain rating carry no weight. Statements or memorandums you wrote yourself about the events behind the contested report are not considered credible unless corroborated by an independent official source.⁸

If the ERAB Denies Your Appeal

You can escalate to the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records by submitting an AF Form 149. Separated or retired members bypass the ERAB entirely and go directly to the AFBCMR.⁹ Before filing with the AFBCMR, talk with your Military Personnel Flight or the appropriate office; some errors can be resolved administratively without a formal board action.

2026 Update on Fitness Documentation

Air Force Guidance Memorandum 2026-01, dated 25 February 2026, updated AFI 36-2406 with revised requirements for documenting Physical Fitness Assessment scores and exemptions on evaluations.² If your report closes out in 2026, verify that your fitness documentation aligns with the updated guidance before your rater begins the evaluation. Your CSS or unit fitness program manager can confirm the current requirements for recording PFA results on the form.

1
Department of the Air Force. AFI 36-2406, Officer and Enlisted Evaluation Systems
2
Department of the Air Force. AFI 36-2406, Officer and Enlisted Evaluation Systems
3
Air Force’s Personnel Center. AF Releases Form 910, Implements Forced Distribution
4
Air Reserve Personnel Center. Written Promotion Recommendations on Air Force Form 911, Enlisted Performance Report (MSgt Thru SMSgt)
5
Air Force Sustainment Center. myEval Is Now Live
6
Department of the Air Force. AFI 36-2502, Enlisted Airman Promotion and Demotion Programs
7
Department of the Air Force. DAFI 36-2606, Reenlistment and Extension of Enlistment
8
Air Reserve Personnel Center. Evaluation Reports Appeal Board (ERAB) FAQs
9
eCFR. 32 CFR Part 865 Subpart A – Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records