How to Fill Out and Submit AF Form 3821: Sections and Filing

AF Form 3821, Employee Accounting Data, is the source document the Department of the Air Force uses to load or change a civilian employee’s line of accounting (LOA) in the Defense Civilian Pay System (DCPS). Three offices touch it: the resource manager fills out Section I with the employee’s identifying data and accounting codes, the budget office fills out Section II, and the payroll technician who enters the LOA into DCPS signs Section III. The completed form goes to the Civilian Payroll Office before the end of the pay period the change affects, or the employee’s paycheck slips.1Air Force E-Publishing. AF Form 3821 – Employee Accounting Data

When You Need to File One

The form itself lists two routine triggers: new and permanent-change-of-station employee lines of accounting, and any other situation where an employee’s LOA is changing.1Air Force E-Publishing. AF Form 3821 – Employee Accounting Data In practice that covers four situations:

  • A civilian employee entering Air Force service for the first time, so an LOA can be established in DCPS before the first payroll cycle runs.
  • A permanent change of station, where the gaining unit prepares a new form with its own accounting codes.
  • A mid-year funding source change that shifts a position from one appropriation to another.
  • A reorganization, office symbol change, or mission transfer that reassigns the employee’s cost center or program element code.

A change in grade or work schedule alone does not require a new form unless it also changes the LOA. The test is simple: if any of the accounting codes in Section I would be different, file a new AF Form 3821.

Where to Get the Current Version

The current version is dated August 1, 2017 and is hosted as a fillable PDF on the Air Force e-Publishing site.1Air Force E-Publishing. AF Form 3821 – Employee Accounting Data You can go straight to the PDF or search “3821” from the e-Publishing homepage.2Department of the Air Force E-Publishing. Department of the Air Force E-Publishing Use the official version. Local spreadsheets and older templates can be missing fields, and the payroll office will reject them.

Completing Section I

Section I is the resource manager’s responsibility. It has two parts: the employee’s identifying information and the accounting codes that make up the LOA. Disclosure on the form is voluntary, but the form warns that incomplete or late submissions can delay the employee’s initial payment or charge payroll against the wrong LOA.1Air Force E-Publishing. AF Form 3821 – Employee Accounting Data

Employee Identification

  • Block 1, Employee’s Name: Last, first, middle initial, exactly as it appears in the official personnel file.
  • Block 2, Office Symbol: The office symbol at the gaining organization.
  • Block 3, Manpower Position Control Number (MPCN): The alphanumeric code that identifies the authorized slot in the unit manning document. It is not a position number from another personnel system.
  • Block 4a, Employee ID (SSN): Social Security Number, no dashes.
  • Block 4b: Confirms that the MPCN and the Program Element Code (the first five positions of the code you enter later) match the Unit Manning Document. If they do not match, the form directs you to contact the organizational budget office before going further.

Accounting Codes

The rest of Section I is roughly 18 blocks that together form the LOA string. Most come straight from your unit’s budget documents, but a handful cause repeat problems:

  • Block 5, Date Effective: The date the LOA takes effect. For new hires that is normally the entry-on-duty date.
  • Block 6, Date End: The last day of the fiscal year. The form notes this field auto-populates after the DCPS record is saved, so leave it as-is on a paper submission.
  • Block 7, Departmental Reporter: Always “DFASDE.”
  • Block 11, Fiscal Year: A single digit for the current fiscal year.
  • Block 12, Basic Symbol/Fund: The appropriation or fund code paying for the position.
  • Block 17, Program/Budget Year: A single digit.
  • Block 23, EEIC Shred: Leave blank.

The remaining blocks (Accounting Activity, Department Code, Transfer Department, Limitation/Subhead, Fund Code, and the others) come from your unit’s budget documents or the Unit Manning Document. If a code is not clear, ask the organizational budget office rather than guessing. A single wrong digit here can take weeks to unwind after payroll has run against it.

Completing Sections II and III

Section II is filled in by the organizational budget office or the resource manager and covers three fields: Job Order Assigned (Block 24), Cost Center (Block 25), and Performance Code (Block 26). The RM or LOA point of contact then prints their name in Block 27a, signs Block 27b, and dates Block 28. That signature certifies the accounting data is authorized and accurate for the unit.1Air Force E-Publishing. AF Form 3821 – Employee Accounting Data

Section III belongs to the payroll technician who actually enters the accounting classification data into DCPS. That person prints their name in Block 29a, signs Block 29b, and dates Block 30, which creates an audit trail of who loaded the LOA and when.

Submitting the Form

The completed and signed form goes to the Civilian Payroll Office, not the Civilian Personnel Office. The instructions on the form emphasize forwarding it to payroll before the end of the pay period the change affects, to avoid an adverse impact on the employee’s pay record.1Air Force E-Publishing. AF Form 3821 – Employee Accounting Data Missing that window is the most common reason new employees do not get paid on their expected first payday.

The Colorado National Guard’s in-processing checklist puts a sharper deadline on it: if the completed gain package (including AF Form 3821) is not turned in to Finance by the second Tuesday of the first pay period the employee is working, the employee will not be paid on time.3Colorado National Guard. New Technician In-Processing Checklist Your installation may set its own internal cutoff, but the pattern holds: submit early in the pay period, not at the end.

Most installations accept the signed PDF by secure email or through an electronic personnel management portal. Whichever route you use, the transmission needs to be encrypted or run through a system approved for personally identifiable information, because the form carries the employee’s SSN. Keep a copy of the signed form and any confirmation of receipt.

After the Form Is In

Once the Civilian Payroll Office receives the form, the payroll technician who completes Section III verifies that the codes are valid for the current fiscal year and enters them into the DCPS employee-level accounting classification screen. Changes usually appear in the employee’s payroll profile within one to two pay cycles, depending on where in the pay period the form arrived.

Employees can confirm that the LOA loaded correctly by pulling their Leave and Earnings Statement through myPay. DFAS processes biweekly civilian payroll through DCPS and posts LES documents online.4Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Civilian Employee Pay and Benefits Resource managers and supervisors can also verify the update through internal manning reports or the unit’s budget execution tracking system.

Fixing Pay Problems

If the LES shows incorrect charges, a missing payment, or an LOA that does not match what was submitted, start with your local pay representative. DFAS directs civilian employees to contact that representative for pay questions, and your immediate supervisor can point you to the right person.4Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Civilian Employee Pay and Benefits Most LOA errors come back to a transposed code in one of the Section I blocks, and the fix is a corrected AF Form 3821 pushed through the same workflow.

For anything the local pay representative cannot resolve, DFAS runs the askDFAS online ticketing system for pay inquiries, prior-year W-2 requests, and DCPS access problems.5Defense Finance and Accounting Service. AskDFAS Attach the most recent LES and the signed AF Form 3821 with the ticket. The more documentation you send up front, the faster the resolution.

Privacy and Record Retention

Because the form contains a Social Security Number and accounting data tied to federal appropriations, it carries a “For Official Use Only” designation under the Privacy Act of 1974. Anyone handling it must protect it accordingly, and unauthorized disclosure can bring civil and criminal penalties.1Air Force E-Publishing. AF Form 3821 – Employee Accounting Data If a copy arrives in error, do not copy or forward it. Contact the sender or your organization’s Privacy Act officer.

Completed forms must be kept for as long as the employee is part of the organization, plus two additional years. After that, dispose of the form in accordance with the Air Force Records Disposition Schedule in AFRIMS.1Air Force E-Publishing. AF Form 3821 – Employee Accounting Data For most offices that means shredding the paper copy or securely deleting the electronic file once the clock runs out.