How to Complete and Submit DA Form 31: IPPS-A and Paper Filing

A DA Form 31 PCS leave request is the document that authorizes your absence from duty during a Permanent Change of Station, recording the type of leave, the dates, and where you can be reached. Most Soldiers now submit it electronically through the Integrated Personnel and Pay System–Army rather than on paper, and Army Regulation 600-8-10 governs the underlying leave and pass program.¹ Get this wrong and you can be marked absent without leave under Article 86 of the UCMJ, which authorizes punishment by court-martial.² Get it right the first time and the whole move gets easier.

The Three Kinds of Absence a PCS Request Combines

Before you open a form or a screen, know what you’re actually requesting. A PCS absence is almost never just “leave.” It’s a stack of different absence types that has to fit inside the window between your final-out date and your report date at the gaining installation.

Ordinary leave. Chargeable leave that subtracts from the 2.5 days you accrue each month of active service. This is your standard time off between duty stations.³
Permissive TDY for house hunting. Up to 10 non-chargeable days to look for housing near the gaining station. You can take it before departure, en route, or after arrival, and you can split it. One trap: you must check in with the gaining installation’s housing office before you start house hunting, or the entire period converts to charged leave.⁴
Travel days. Time the government authorizes for the physical move. Driving gets one day for 350 to 400 miles; beyond 400, divide total miles by 350, and add another day if the remainder is 51 miles or more. Flying, train, or bus travel gets one travel day regardless of distance.⁵

Your PCS orders set the maximum span between the day you depart and the day you’re required to sign in at the gaining unit. All your leave days, PTDY days, and travel days have to fit inside that span.

What to Have Ready Before You Start

Pull these together in one place before you open IPPS-A or a paper form. Missing pieces are the most common reason a request stalls.

Your PCS orders. Every date on the leave form flows from them: report date, authorized travel days, any special authorizations like PTDY. You’ll also need the order number for the Remarks block.
Your leave balance. In IPPS-A, the balance displays automatically when you build a chargeable absence request, so you no longer need to attach a Leave and Earnings Statement. On paper, check your LES or ask your S-1.⁶
A leave address and phone number. A physical street address and working phone where the Army can reach you for emergency recall.
Current unit information. Your organization designation, duty station, and a point-of-contact phone number or email.

Submitting the Request in IPPS-A

IPPS-A is the Army’s system of record for personnel actions and has largely replaced the paper DA Form 31 for leave processing.¹ PCS absences use a specific workflow that is different from an ordinary leave request, and using the wrong path is one of the fastest ways to get a rejection.

Navigate to the PAID tile. Set the Entry Type to “Absence” and choose Absence Type “05-PCS Events.” The system auto-populates the Absence Reason as “01-PCS Entries.” Select the PCS Type using the lookup, then use Absence 1 Reason, Absence 2 Reason, and Absence 3 Reason to capture each segment of the move. For example, one reason line for ordinary leave and another for PTDY house hunting.⁷ If your record shows more than one PCS assignment, pick the correct one under “Related Assignment.”

Do not list travel days as an Absence Reason. The system handles travel time separately, and adding it as a reason creates duplicate entries that then need manual correction. If a parental leave tied to a birth or adoption overlaps your PCS, choose “Parental” in the applicable field; otherwise select “Non-Parental.”⁷

Once submitted, the request routes through your chain electronically. Your supervisor and the approving authority can see your leave balance in the system, which speeds the decision, and you can track status without chasing signatures.

Filling Out the Paper DA Form 31

Some units and situations still call for a hard-copy DA Form 31. The current version is on the Army Publishing Directorate website. Whether you’re writing it out by hand or filling the PDF, here is how the blocks that matter for a PCS work.

Block 1, Control Number. Leave it blank. Your S-1 assigns the number after approval, and that number becomes the tracking identifier for the leave period.⁸
Block 2, Name. Full legal name, last, first, middle initial, exactly as it appears in your military records.
Block 3, DOD ID/SSN. Your Department of Defense identification number. Older versions of the form label this block SSN.
Block 6, Leave Address. Street address, city, state, ZIP, and phone. If you’ll be at more than one location, list the primary here and add the others in Block 17.⁸
Block 7, Type of Leave. Check the applicable box: Ordinary, Emergency, Permissive TDY, or Other. A PCS that combines ordinary leave with PTDY may need both annotated here, with clarification in Remarks.
Block 8, Organization, Station, and Phone. Your current unit designation, installation, and a contact phone number.
Block 17, Remarks. This is the block where PCS specifics live. Include the PCS order number, the number of authorized travel days, the gaining installation, and any special leave categories. If you’re taking PTDY for house hunting, note the authorization here, along with any commander’s statement required for overseas assignments.⁹

The date fields have to align exactly with your PCS orders. Confirm your leave start date falls after your scheduled final-out date, and confirm your report date at the gaining station accounts for every leave day, travel day, and PTDY day.

Approval, and What to Carry With You

Electronic or paper, the request moves from your immediate supervisor to the approving authority, usually your company commander for standard PCS leave. The supervisor checks that dates line up with orders and that your leave balance covers the request. Advance leave that would put your balance in the negative draws more scrutiny and can require a higher approving authority.

Once approved, keep a copy of the signed DA Form 31 or a printout of the IPPS-A approval on you throughout travel. If military police stop you or a gate guard asks, this is your proof that you’re authorized to be away from your duty station. At the gaining installation, you’ll present it during in-processing, and your new finance office uses it to reconcile travel reimbursement. One practical note: the Central Issue Facility turn-in appointment during outprocessing usually requires a signed DA Form 31 with a control number already assigned, so get the leave approved before you book that appointment.

Mistakes That Bounce a PCS Leave Request

The same errors surface over and over in S-1 shops. Watch for these.

Dates that don’t add up. Leave days plus travel days plus PTDY must fit between departure and report date. If the math is off, the request comes back.
Missing order number in Remarks. Block 17 needs the PCS order number. Without it, the approving authority can’t verify the authorization.
Travel days entered as an Absence Reason in IPPS-A. The system handles travel time on its own; adding it as a reason forces manual cleanup.⁷
Skipping the gaining housing office before PTDY. No check-in, no non-chargeable time. The full period converts to ordinary leave.⁴
Submitting too late. Ordinary leave usually needs to be in 15 days before the start date, though PCS leave often gets an automatic exemption. OCONUS travel that involves security review can need 60 days of lead time. Confirm your unit’s policy early.

The best defense against delays is submitting as soon as you have PCS orders in hand, even if dates are still tentative. An amended request is easier to process than a last-minute one.

Sizing Your Leave Request Around the Move

A PCS is a natural moment to check your leave balance, because the financial stakes are real. You accrue 2.5 days per month of active service, and federal law caps accumulation at 60 days.³ Anything above 60 days at the end of the fiscal year is forfeited unless you have approved special leave accrual. Using days during PCS leave is one of the cleanest ways to draw down a balance you might otherwise lose.

Sell-back is paid at your base pay rate only, without special pay or allowances, and those opportunities come at reenlistment, extension, or separation rather than during a routine PCS.¹⁰ If you’re sitting on a large balance and don’t plan to reenlist soon, using it now is better than watching it disappear at the fiscal year boundary.

If your accrued balance won’t cover what you want to take, advance leave puts the balance in the negative. If you separate before earning it back, the Army recovers the value from your final pay. Most commands will approve a reasonable advance leave request tied to a PCS, but reasonable is a call your commander makes based on remaining service obligation and the circumstances of the move.

1
Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army. IPPS-A Updates: Holiday Absence, CRM Case Closures, etc.
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 886 – Art. 86. Absence Without Leave
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 701 – Entitlement and Accumulation
4
MyArmyBenefits. Permanent Change of Station (PCS) CONUS
5
Department of Defense. JTR – PCS Travel Time Computation
6
Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army. IPPS-A Update: PCS Resources, Absence Request Improvement
7
Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army. Submitting a PCS Event Absence Type – IPPS-A
8
Army Publishing Directorate. DA Form 31 – Request and Authority for Leave
9
United States Army. DA Form 31 – Request and Authority for Leave
10
Military OneSource. Military Leave: What It Is and How It Works