How to Complete DD Form 200: Blocks 1-9, Attachments, and Submission

To complete DD Form 200, the Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss, download the current fillable PDF from the Executive Services Directorate, fill in the incident date and item data in Blocks 1 through 8, write a factual narrative in Block 9, describe corrective action in Block 10, attach your supporting evidence, and submit the packet to your chain of command.1Executive Services Directorate. DD Form 200 Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss The form itself is only two pages, but the packet you build around it is what determines whether the investigation moves cleanly or bounces back.

Before You Start

The current edition of DD Form 200 is dated July 2009 and lives on the Executive Services Directorate site at esd.whs.mil as a fillable PDF.1Executive Services Directorate. DD Form 200 Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss Marine Corps Logistics Command hosts its own static copy for units that prefer to pull it internally.2Marine Corps Logistics Command. DD Form 200 Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss Most supply offices also keep blanks on a shared drive. Use the electronic version. Handwritten copies rarely make it through.

Before you fill anything in, confirm a FLIPL is the right instrument for your situation. Army Regulation 735-5, Chapter 13, requires one for missing sensitive items such as weapons, night-vision devices, ammunition, or communications-security equipment regardless of dollar value; for non-sensitive losses above the regulatory threshold; and any time a commander suspects negligence.3Arkansas Army National Guard Office of Legal Assistance. Soldier’s Guide to Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss The form also runs the other direction: it is the mechanism a hand-receipt holder uses to get equipment they no longer possess dropped from the unit’s records. Other services route their property-loss paperwork through the same DD Form 200 under their own directives.

Filling Out Blocks 1 Through 8

The first page carries almost everything the initiator is responsible for. The Defense Logistics Agency’s block instructions apply across services.4Defense Logistics Agency. LESO Instructions for Completing DD Form 200

  • Block 1 — Date initiated. The date you begin preparing the form, in YYYYMMDD format.
  • Block 3 — Date of incident. The date the loss, damage, or destruction actually occurred, also YYYYMMDD.
  • Block 4 — National Stock Number. Copy the NSN or local stock number exactly as the property system records it.2Marine Corps Logistics Command. DD Form 200 Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss
  • Block 5 — Item description. Nomenclature, property number, and serial number. When more than one item is involved in the same incident, use the “Add More Items” continuation page rather than cramming multiple lines into one block.
  • Block 6 — Quantity. Number of units lost or damaged.
  • Block 7 — Unit cost. Per-unit acquisition cost as recorded in the property system.
  • Block 8 — Total cost. Block 6 multiplied by Block 7.

The dollar figure in Block 8 is the acquisition cost, not the government’s actual loss. That distinction matters for the depreciation exhibit you’ll attach; more on that below.

Writing the Block 9 Narrative

Block 9 is where most FLIPLs succeed or fail. Check whether the property was lost, destroyed, or damaged, then write a narrative that answers who, what, where, when, and why.4Defense Logistics Agency. LESO Instructions for Completing DD Form 200 Stay factual. Give dates, times, grid coordinates or building numbers, and the sequence of events in order. Leave out emotional language, speculation about who is at fault, and anything you cannot back up with a document or a witness. If the account runs long, put it on attached pages and write “see attached” in the block.

Block 10 asks what the unit will do to keep the same loss from happening again. A couple of sentences on revised procedures or additional training is usually enough. Vague promises to “reinforce accountability” invite follow-up questions; a specific fix does not.

What the Initiator Does Not Fill In

Blocks 11 through 17 belong to later actors: the appointing authority, the financial liability officer, and the approving authority as the packet moves up the chain. The initiator completes the unit address in Block 11 and signs, but leaves the investigative and approval blocks empty. Filling those in yourself does not speed anything up and will get the form returned.

Supporting Documents to Attach

A DD Form 200 turned in with nothing behind it will almost certainly come back. Build the packet before you submit. Depending on the incident, that means some combination of:

  • Police or military police reports for any theft, vehicle accident, or incident law enforcement responded to.
  • Witness statements on DA Form 2823 from anyone who saw the incident or has firsthand knowledge of the item’s status.
  • Photographs of the damage, the scene, or the item’s earlier condition if you have them.
  • Maintenance and inspection records that establish the item’s condition before the loss and can show whether a pre-existing defect contributed.
  • Chain-of-custody paperwork — hand receipts, sub-hand receipts, and temporary loan records — proving who was signed for the property when the loss happened.
  • Combat documentation for losses in a combat zone: field commander statements, tactical operations center logs, and after-action reports that demonstrate the loss resulted from hostile action.

The government’s actual loss is not the same as acquisition cost. The DoD Financial Management Regulation requires straight-line depreciation over the item’s estimated useful life, and property cannot be depreciated below scrap value.5Department of Defense. DoD Financial Management Regulation Volume 12, Chapter 7 – Financial Liability for Government Property Include the depreciation calculation as a separate exhibit so the investigator can see how you arrived at the figures on the form.

What Happens After You Submit

Once you sign and hand in the packet, the appointing authority — usually the battalion commander or equivalent — reviews it and appoints a financial liability officer to investigate. The FLO must be a disinterested party with no personal stake in the outcome, and is typically senior to anyone whose conduct is under review. From that point the FLO gathers additional evidence, interviews witnesses, and produces a report that travels with the DD Form 200 through each level of approval. Every action is annotated on the form so the packet carries its own audit trail.

AR 735-5 gives the appointing authority 40 days from receipt to act on the FLO’s recommendation. Extensions are available on written request when a key witness is unavailable or records are hard to obtain. Service members who later receive a liability recommendation can also request additional time to prepare a rebuttal by memorandum to their commander.6U.S. Army Fort Campbell. FLIPL Rebuttal Extension Request Memo

When the approving authority signs off, the finalized DD Form 200 goes to the property book officer, who drops the item from the unit’s inventory. That is the step that closes the accountability loop: the item is off the books, and whoever was signed for it is released from further responsibility for that specific piece of equipment. If the investigation recommends holding a specific person financially liable, that person has separate notification, rebuttal, and legal-counsel rights that run on their own timelines.7JAGCNet. Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss Those rights belong to a later stage of the process and are not something the initiator addresses on the form itself.