To fill out an AF Form 40A, record each Inactive Duty Training period you performed outside your normal drill weekend — the date, the start and stop times in four-hour blocks, and a description of the duties — then route the form for supervisor certification and pay processing. Most Air Force Reserve members now build the form automatically through UTAPSweb, but paper copies are still available from Air Force e-Publishing when a unit needs one. Either way, the entries you make feed both your pay and your retirement point record, so the details have to be right the first time.
What Counts as One IDT Period
Before you write anything on the form, understand what a single period actually is. A paid IDT period requires a minimum of four continuous hours of duty, and meal breaks do not count toward that four hours. You can earn a maximum of two periods, and two retirement points, per calendar day. An eight-hour duty day gives you two periods; a shorter day usually gives you one or none.1Department of the Air Force. Air Force Instruction 36-2254, Volume I – Reserve Personnel Participation
Points-only periods, where you earn retirement credit but no pay, can be as short as two hours. A commander may also release members after two hours in unusual circumstances such as severe weather, but that release is narrow, has to be documented, and cannot be used for personal convenience.1Department of the Air Force. Air Force Instruction 36-2254, Volume I – Reserve Personnel Participation
One boundary worth flagging up front: the 40A only covers inactive duty. Active duty status is ordered on an AF Form 938 through AROWS-R, and travel on those orders uses a DD Form 1610.2Air Reserve Personnel Center. RIO AROWS-R User Guide The 40A also does not authorize travel or lodging reimbursement on its own; those claims go through the Defense Travel System.3Headquarters RIO. IDT Travel and Lodging Reimbursement
Completing the Paper 40A
Download the current version from e-publishing.af.mil. Using an outdated form is one of the fastest ways to get it rejected. AFI 36-2254, Volume 1 requires that you either type the form or print in ink. No pencil.1Department of the Air Force. Air Force Instruction 36-2254, Volume I – Reserve Personnel Participation
Fill in the personal identification block first: your name, grade, and Social Security Number, along with your unit information. Then work through the duty log. For each entry you need the exact date of performance, the start and stop times for each period, and a plain description of what you did. The description is not filler. Reviewing authorities rely on it during annual inspections, and it is what an auditor reads if the entry is ever questioned.
A few requirements cause most of the rejections:
- Both your signature and the certifying official’s signature must be original ink signatures. Not digital, not photocopied.
- Every certification date has to fall on or after the last date of training listed on the form.1Department of the Air Force. Air Force Instruction 36-2254, Volume I – Reserve Personnel Participation
- The certifying official must be someone who can actually verify you performed the duty. That is usually your supervisor, not just any officer in the chain.4UTAPSweb IMA Help File. Automated Form 40A
- Each four-hour block must be shown as its own period. Do not lump two periods into one continuous time range.
Once the form is signed, it goes to your supervisor for verification and then to the Unit Training Manager or Financial Management office for processing. Each level checks that your reported time lines up with authorized training.
Submitting Through UTAPSweb
If you are an Individual Mobilization Augmentee, you are almost certainly building the 40A in UTAPSweb rather than on paper. The site is at utapsweb.afrc.af.mil from any .mil network; from a civilian network you have to log in through a CAC-enabled portal.5Headquarters Readiness and Integration Organization. UTAPSWEB for IMAs Quick Start Guide
Building the Schedule
Go to the IMA/PIRR Schedule section and double-click the date you want to build. In the schedule builder, enter the number of consecutive periods, the starting work period, and the duty location. There is a free-text remarks field, capped at 50 characters, for the training location; whatever you type there populates the printed 40A. Indicate whether you need subsistence and lodging, choose your validator from the dropdown (it defaults to your supervisor), and click OK.
Verify the entry in the Schedule Editor, click Save and Close, and when you have built out what you need, hit Submit Schedules. Submitted dates turn yellow on the calendar to show they are pending supervisor approval.5Headquarters Readiness and Integration Organization. UTAPSWEB for IMAs Quick Start Guide
Signing In and Getting Validated
You cannot sign in until your supervisor approves the schedule, which turns the date green. On the day of duty, double-click the green date, choose Edit Schedule, click the Work Date column for the period, and confirm the sign-in. A successful sign-in turns the date gray.
After you finish the duty, your supervisor validates the work from their own dashboard, previews the automated 40A, and clicks Export and then Send to Pay. That is what routes the data to the Reserve Pay Office for pay and point credit. Dates successfully sent to pay turn black.5Headquarters Readiness and Integration Organization. UTAPSWEB for IMAs Quick Start Guide
Printing the Form
An automated 40A becomes available once the supervisor approves the schedule. Go to Reports, pick Automated Form 40s from the dropdown, click on a date and period to highlight it, then use the Personal Data tab to confirm your lodging and subsistence selections and the Signing Officials tab to designate your authorizing and certifying officials. Save before you print.4UTAPSweb IMA Help File. Automated Form 40A
Keep the printed copy. You may need it to prove your duty status at the dining facility, and if you are a non-commuting reservist, it is your proof of the authorized dates for lodging reimbursement, including the night before duty begins.3Headquarters RIO. IDT Travel and Lodging Reimbursement
Confirming Points and Pay Posted
Every IDT period on a processed 40A earns one retirement point. Under federal law, you need at least 50 points in each anniversary year for that year to count as a qualifying, or good, year for reserve retirement. You are credited 15 membership points a year automatically, so the other 35 have to come from IDT, active duty, or other qualifying activity.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 12732 – Entitlement to Retired Pay: Computation of Years of Service There is a ceiling of 365 total points per year, but only 130 of those can come from inactive duty, so IDT periods beyond that cap will not add to your retirement calculation.7MyAirForceBenefits. Retired Pay
Check the Point Credit Summary — the record commonly reached through PCARS — after each period processes. Log in to the AF Portal, go to vMPF under Career and Training, then Self-Service Actions, Personal Data, and pick ANG/USAFR Point Credit Summary Inquiry. The summary lists every instance in which points were earned. Compare it against your signed 40As.8Headquarters Readiness and Integration Organization. PCARS Quick Guide
Catch missing entries early. Within a few weeks, your supervisor or the Reserve Pay Office can usually fix it quickly. A year later, you are working through your local force support squadron to reconstruct the record, which is slower and less certain.8Headquarters Readiness and Integration Organization. PCARS Quick Guide
Do the same check on your Leave and Earnings Statement. IDT pay appears as a separate line after each pay cycle that should include it. If points posted but the pay did not, or the other way around, flag the mismatch with your unit’s Financial Management office. Both systems draw from the same submission, so a split usually means the routing stalled somewhere, not that you entered the form wrong.