“This is our 21st century customer-service tool,” said Capt. Carly Serratore, Secretary of the Air Force of Financial Management CSP program manager. “It’s now possible for customers to submit inquiries and for comptroller squadron technicians to assist customers from any location – at work, home, coffee shop or an airport terminal. It will change business as we know it, while providing better, faster and more accurate services to our customers.”
The innovative program will assist with personnel pay and travel operations and has workflows for unit accounting and unit resource management. These additional capabilities will assist unit resource advisors and cost center managers in seeking help with accounting and budget support. CSP will also help standardize finance processes and communication across the Air Force and offers users access to all things financial management with quick links, knowledge articles and frequently asked questions.
“CSP demystifies and streamlines our financial processes,” Serratore added. “It gives the customer control and transparency over their pay on the same user-friendly platform, regardless of where they’re stationed. It gives the finance community the ability to do data analytics and trend analysis to target training and ultimately better serve our customer.”
CSP is built on the cloud-based SharePoint online platform, which provides new features, improved security, dependability, flexibility and access. It also provides the Air Force a low cost and effective avenue to build future applications.
The 412th Comptroller Squadron and the Edwards Air Force Base, California, community was one of the six test bases chosen for CSP due to its past involvement with the program.
“Edwards AFB has been instrumental in standing up the CSP since the beginning. In fact, the beta version of CSP was developed at Edwards (AFB) in 2015 by my boss, Lt. Col. Michael McPherson. So, we felt it only made sense that they’d be our first test base,” Serratore said. “The 412/CPTS FMF team, Ms. Becky Pituch and Ms. Wende Wagner have shown great leadership in this positive change for the Air Force.”
As CSP was in the early test phase, the benefits were not only seen by the customers, but by the comptrollers working the inquiries at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas – which was the second base to implement the program.
“As a service provider, it helps me ensure nothing falls through the cracks, and provides immediate transparency to the customer on their inquiry,” said Lt. Col. Dane Franta, 502nd CPTS commander. “We appreciate the flexibility to respond to customers systematically, rather than react on-the-fly.”
Lt. Col. Michael McPherson, Secretary of the Air Force of Financial Management director of systems integration, expressed the positive impact CSP will have on Airmen by standardizing the financial process across the Air Force.
“Maintaining mission readiness is always at the forefront of our innovative thinking,” he said. “The CSP creates a transparent and streamlined process, which allows Airmen to spend less time dealing with finance and resource management. It’s our desire that this new capability will inspire confidence in all Airmen knowing FM (Financial Management) has them covered, so they can focus on the mission and their families.”
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