Nature of Action (NOA) Codes in Federal Personnel Actions

Nature of Action codes are the three-digit numbers the federal government uses on your Standard Form 50 (SF-50) to identify every significant event in your employment record, from your first appointment through your last day. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) maintains the list so every executive-branch agency uses the same code for the same event, and each number is paired with a plain-English label called the “literal” — code 702, for instance, carries the literal “Promotion.”¹

How the Three-Digit Code Is Built

Every NOA code has two moving parts: the number and the literal. The number drives automated payroll, benefits, and retirement systems. The literal is what makes the record readable to a human. Both appear together on the SF-50, in Blocks 5-A and 5-B for the primary action, and in Blocks 6-A and 6-B if a second simultaneous action is being documented.²

The first digit is doing the most work. It tells you the broad category — appointment, separation, pay change, and so on. The second and third digits narrow the category down to the specific action. Anything starting with 7, for example, is a position change or a miscellaneous update, but whether it’s a promotion (702), a temporary promotion (703), a reassignment (721), or a name change (780) depends on the last two digits.¹

The Nine Series and What Each One Covers

Once you know what the hundreds digit signals, you can decode any code you find on your records at a glance.¹

100 series — Appointments. All hiring and entries into federal service, including career, career-conditional, temporary, and excepted appointments.
200 series — Returns to duty. Used when an employee comes back from leave-without-pay or another nonpay status.
300 series — Separations. Every way an employee leaves the rolls: retirement, resignation, termination, removal, death. These actions take effect at the end of the day (midnight) rather than the start.
400 series — Nonpay and nonduty status. Leave without pay, suspension, or other status where the employee is temporarily off the payroll.
500 series — Conversions. A change from one type of appointment to another within the same agency with no break in service, such as converting from a temporary appointment to a career-conditional one.
600 series — Reserved for OPM use.
700 series — Position changes and extensions. Promotions, reassignments, changes to lower grade, name changes, and extensions of temporary appointments.
800 series — Pay changes and miscellaneous. General pay adjustments, performance awards, quality step increases, and benefits elections like FEGLI changes.
900 series — Reserved for agency use. Internal tracking codes that aren’t reported to OPM’s Enterprise Human Resources Integration system and generally can’t go on the permanent side of your Official Personnel Folder.

Common Codes You’ll Actually See

Hundreds of individual codes exist, but a smaller set turns up on most employees’ records:

100 — Career Appointment. Initial entry into a permanent competitive-service position after any required probationary period.
170 — Excepted Appointment. An appointment made outside the normal competitive hiring process, usually under a specific hiring authority.
501 — Conversion to Career-Conditional Appointment. Often used when a temporary or excepted-service employee moves onto a career track without leaving the agency.
702 — Promotion. A move to a higher grade, typically through a career ladder or competitive selection.
703 — Promotion NTE. A temporary promotion with a not-to-exceed date, after which the employee returns to the earlier grade.
713 — Change to Lower Grade. Voluntary or the result of a management action.
721 — Reassignment. A lateral move to a different position at the same grade within the same agency.
780 — Name Change. Updates the employee’s name in the system, often after marriage or a legal name change.
840 — Individual Cash Award. A monetary performance award.
846 — Individual Time Off Award. Time off granted as recognition for a specific accomplishment.
892 — Quality Step Increase. An additional within-grade pay increase for sustained high-quality performance.
001 and 002 — Cancellation and Correction. Used to void or fix an earlier action.

The complete list fills an entire chapter of the Guide to Processing Personnel Actions, and your servicing HR office can walk you through any code you don’t recognize.¹

The Legal Authority Code Next to It

Every NOA code on an SF-50 is paired with a Legal Authority code that identifies the statute, executive order, or regulation authorizing the action. The NOA says what happened; the authority code says why the agency was allowed to do it. Authority codes starting with a letter or with the numbers 1 through 5 are reserved for OPM to identify authorities on actions reported to the Enterprise Human Resources Integration system. Agencies can create their own authority codes beginning with 6, 7, 8, or 9 for internal use or as a secondary authority.¹

The pairing matters because a right NOA with a wrong authority code can cause problems during audits, retirement processing, or legal reviews. Agencies are required to follow the Guide to Processing Personnel Actions when selecting both.³

Why the Code on Your SF-50 Matters

NOA codes aren’t just bookkeeping. Your payroll system reads the code on each SF-50 to calculate salary, tax withholdings, retirement contributions, and Thrift Savings Plan deductions. A 702 triggers a pay increase. A suspension in the 460 range stops your pay for the duration. Every benefit tied to your compensation moves with the code.⁴

Retirement is especially sensitive. OPM validates personnel records against multiple business rules before processing an annuity, and errors in NOA codes or effective dates can flag your file for review. If a separation action is recorded before your last day in pay status, or if your service computation date doesn’t line up with the retirement provision the agency reported, the system will catch it. Resolving the discrepancy can delay the start of your annuity payments.⁵

Life insurance runs the same way. Code 881 documents changes to your Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) coverage, whether you’re enrolling, changing options, or canceling. Codes 805 and 806 record elections of full or partial living benefits under FEGLI. If one of those codes is wrong or missing, your insurance records won’t match your intentions.⁶

Reviewing Your SF-50s and Fixing a Wrong Code

Most agencies use OPM’s electronic Official Personnel Folder (eOPF), which lets you view your SF-50s online. Access comes through your servicing HR office, which provides login information and portal instructions for your agency.⁷ Checking your SF-50s when they’re issued is the easiest way to keep your record clean. Catching an error now is far simpler than untangling it years later at retirement.

If you find something wrong, the correction path depends on your status:⁸

Current employees. Contact your servicing Human Resources office. They can initiate a correction action (NOA 002) or a cancellation (NOA 001) to fix the record.
Former employees. Write to the Deputy Associate Director, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Office of Personnel Management, 1900 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20415-6000. The letter must identify the record (your name, Social Security number, and the name and date of the record), explain why you believe it’s wrong with supporting evidence, and describe how it should be corrected.

Draw a line between a record that’s wrong and a decision you disagree with. If your SF-50 accurately reflects what the agency did, but you believe the agency shouldn’t have taken that action, the correction process isn’t the right path. You’d need to file a grievance or appeal within the applicable time limits, and bargaining-unit employees may have a negotiated grievance procedure available. For actions involving a prohibited personnel practice, the Office of Special Counsel is the appropriate body to contact.⁹

If your agency denies a correction request, you can request an administrative review under the Privacy Act procedures in 5 CFR Part 297.¹⁰ OPM’s recordkeeping guide doesn’t set a hard deadline for requesting corrections, but the longer you wait, the harder it becomes to gather supporting evidence. Your long-term SF-50 copies stay in the Official Personnel Folder indefinitely — the form itself is marked “DO NOT DESTROY” — so a code that’s off today will still be off decades from now if no one flags it.¹¹

1
Office of Personnel Management. The Guide to Processing Personnel Actions
2
Office of Personnel Management. The Guide to Processing Personnel Actions – Update
3
eCFR. 5 CFR Part 250 Subpart A – Authority for Personnel Actions in Agencies
4
Office of Personnel Management. Chapter 3: General Instructions for Processing Personnel Actions
5
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Guide to Retirement Data Validations
6
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Guide to Processing Personnel Actions: Change in Federal Employees Group Life Insurance and Election of Living Benefits
7
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. How Do I Access and Use eOPF?
8
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. What Should I Do if My Records Are Wrong?
9
U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. Appellant Questions and Answers
10
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The Guide to Personnel Recordkeeping
11
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Standard Form 50 – Notification of Personnel Action