Air Force Open Virtual Finance Published Jan. 11, 2011 By Air Force Accounting and Finance Office RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Recently, the 'Money - Finance Central' page on the Air Force portal was given a major facelift. When the renewed page debuted on the AF Portal on 30 March 2010, it was renamed 'Money - Welcome to virtual Finance!' under the Portal's 'Life & Career' tab. The virtual Finance page offers an online launching point for customers which brings together information and transaction resources. In many cases, the information provided or the available forms eliminate the need for you to make the traditional 'trip to Finance.' To enhance your online experience, virtual Finance utilizes well known applications such as myPay and DTS, and introduces the newer eFinance Workspace application to a larger audience. In many cases, these applications combine to provide more electronic document processing; in other cases, they assist you with creating documents that will be manually processed.either way, greater accessibility is afforded to you, at your convenience. On the landing page, the 'Welcome' tab provides information about virtual Finance, while the 'Navigation' tab provides a quick tutorial. Other tabs provide quick links to a variety of resources. If you know which system you need, the 'Take Me To.' tab links to 12 widely recognized applications. A 'Rates and References' tab provides links to look up information such as current per diem rates and pay tables. Another new feature is the 'Tools' tab, with links to a variety of financial tools, including calculators to estimate your reimbursement for temporary lodging expense (TLE) and temporary lodging allowance (TLA). Additional tools include calculators to estimate your reimbursement for CONUS PCS travel, calculate your deployment entitlements, help you estimate terminal leave dates in conjunction with separation, and determine your reimbursement when you sell leave upon reenlistment or separation. The left navigation menu offers numerous event-oriented options to complete many routine, and some not so routine, transactions. For example, if you need to submit a TDY travel voucher, process an allotment change, or even complete a military PCS voucher, you will find a menu item with an option for you to accomplish this. Among the not so routine transactions, if you need to request advance military pay for PCS travel or request a change to your number of dependents for Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), you'll find a menu item pointing to your subject. The left menu also links you to our knowledge base of 1,000 frequently asked questions (FAQs) about military pay and travel pay. The knowledge base also contains more than 100 instant advice pages. Instant advice pages are short summaries of information in several categories. The advice starts with general information, but users may drill progressively deeper for more detail. This wealth of information available should help to reduce the need to make the 'trip to Finance.' Enhancing online capabilities familiarizes you with how services will be delivered in the future when the Air Force Financial Services Center's Contact Center (call center) opens at Ellsworth AFB, SD. These online capabilities and enhancements are the initial part of the Air Force's 'Click, Call, Walk' vision for providing financial services. 'Click' refers to providing the vast majority of services using online and web resources. The 'Call' and 'Walk' service channels will be used for higher level service or issues which cannot be resolved via the 'Click' channel. There is more to virtual Finance than can be described here. Most customers, including civilian employees, will find valuable content or links on the page. Visit virtual Finance and get a feel for what it offers. Use the 'Email Us' link to tell the Content Managers what you like and don't like about the page. Customer feedback is key to making this page successful; your feedback continues to shape the virtual Finance content and design as it evolves to simplify and expedite service to the Air Force total force.