POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Trouble Spots & Questions Slide Purpose: Provide guidance on some of the common problems and questions experienced while using PureEdge evaluations and AKO Forms Steps to Success with Electronic Evaluations (3 slides) Senior rater cannot sign – form wants information OER & NCOER Status Codes Common errors on Evaluations (2 slides) Why does the narrative or bullets print oddly? (4 slides) On CPT OER, Missing Functional Category dropdown Signature Issues Missing Signatures, won’t send to HQDA Completing evaluations without rated Soldier signature Signature policy and processes

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Steps to Success with Electronic Evaluations An evaluation form wizard is a series of questions, organized by rating functions, found under specific tabs (top and left side), that guide rating officials and Soldiers through the process of an evaluation. Users select tabs in any order. Answering questions (rather than typing straight on a form) keep rating official’s content and format within policy guidance and avoid most common errors. Check out the Evaluations Website for training (When we get repeat questions we make slides to explain answers. Someone has probably asked it before.) Sign up for S1 Net (It’s not just for S1s...) Use My Forms to create evaluations from completed support/counseling forms or at least always initiate new evaluations off of My Forms or APD’s website Always use the Wizard, don’t type directly on the form unless saving or signing Avoid the common errors (see our other slides on what these are) Use My Forms to its fullest extent possible (i.e., work & route in portal, use wizards). It is flexible if you cannot but deviations from the intended use introduce risk. Ensure evaluation senders knows how the “return policy” works. If you are the sender, forward your AKO to your work (or check AKO frequently) to get the returned for errors notes: Use IWRS to follow up on electronic submission to HQDA

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 1.EMPHASIZE COUNSELING and preparation by rating officials. Rating officials who are involved have an easier time preparing and completing evaluations when due, the Army gets the benefit of developed leaders. 2.USE MY FORMS & FORMS WIZARDS – eliminate most problems early. 3.SEND EARLIER, NOT LATER; Assume an evaluation will not be accepted on the same day of submission. If not sure that your submission is 100% accurate give yourself an appropriate buffer of time to allow for corrections and BE AWARE OF RETURNS or EVALS NEEDING CORRECTION: Make sure AKO is forwarded (or check AKO frequently). Use IWRS reports to find evals on HOLD status. 4. MINIMIZE ERRORS by avoiding them. Have your S1 do a final “sanity check” on the OER. COMMUNICATE – don’t just submit new or revised documents. Contact HRC as soon as you notice a potential misfire situation or problem; we can make adjustments or fixes and conduct damage-control during HQDA-level processing. New reports to correct old reports will be deleted automatically as duplicates if we don’t know about them coming in. See corrections slides. UNDERSTAND KEY POINTS: Evaluations process through HRC in time for near-term boards first; other evals may wait. HRC knows how to get evals completed in time for boards. SR profiles do not misfire automatically without human intervention. Date of receipt at HRC (when we accept in My Forms) stops the clock for any timeliness calculations. Eval Systems Office Recommendations:

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Interactive Web Response System (see User’s Guide for explanation of the reports and their capabilities and problems) is a means of confirming receipt at HQDA level and tracking evaluations prior to placement in an OMPF. Designed for & by HR people but can be used by anyone. Eval Systems Office Recommendations: Status of Evaluations seen in IWRS are: WORKING: HRC has it working. This is good. REDACTING or PROFILE BEING APPLIED: Means an OER is at the stage where the system is technically applying the profile and putting the HQDA label on. REVIEW: final stage, one last look by examiners. COMPLETE: Eval is done at HRC and will be electronically pushed the OMPF. There is a short period of time where it is complete and not yet pushed to the OMPF. Normally this doesn’t last over 48 hours depending on in-house load. ON HOLD / WAITING FOR CORRECTION / RETURNED: HRC found an error and explanation is explained in the admin notes on the IWRS report. See corrections slides to understand how to fix. Most can be corrected by from an authority figure. Date in the upper left corner of the first screen is the load date. Any eval recived after this date at HRC will not be visible to anyone yet. References are sometimes to only OER but it reflects OER & NCOER (minus ARNG NCOER).

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Senior Rater cannot sign OER Situation: Your senior rater is ineligible to senior rate (has not been senior rater for 60 days), yet the form wants information in Section VII and does not physically allow senior rater to digitally sign. Solution: Select the Senior Rater Actions tab in the forms wizard. Answer the questions. Tell the form that the SR is ineligible to senior rate by checking YES for the 2d question. The form will auto-fill the required statement in SR narrative and make all of Part VII read-only. Go back to FORM VIEW and have SR sign the document.

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Use the pull down menus in the wizard and you will see the selection of options for Status Code. You will only gets these pull down menu when you have indicated the Rated Soldier is USAR. For ARNG you have to manually enter Status Codes. OER & NCOER Status Codes These dropdown menus will change on the next form version (7.0) … However for now this is what you get. They are explained in DA PAM

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Common Errors on Evaluations  Signing more than 14 days prior to the THRU date  Sending to HQDA before the THRU date  Missing YES or NO after HT/WT on OER  Missing numeric score from APFT on NCOER with “needs improvement” box checks for Physical Fitness  Functional category errors on OER: missing from Part Vd and VIId for all CPT (except JAG, Chaplain, AMEDD) using Career Field (OPFC, ISCF, etc.) instead of Functional Category groupings (MFE, OS, FS) using them for LT, MAJ or LTC reports (not allowed any more)  Missing basic administrative information such as UIC, senior rater telephone number, rating official rank  APFT date not in YYYYMMDD format or not within 12 months of THRU date  Missing # of officers senior rated  Missing YES/NO on whether was received

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 What Units & Senior Raters Can Do  Use the latest form versions – creating an evaluation from a support form in My Forms is a one step process, automatically copies information, and always ends up on the most recent form version.  Use the form wizard to enter all content to an OER or NCOER; avoid entering data in View Form  Don’t leave blank data fields where information is needed or requested  Avoid the common errors  Submit with a small buffer of time prior to 90 day limit or “received no later than date” for selection boards.  Ensure evaluation sender knows how the “return policy” works.  Follow up on every submitted report using IWRS See training: Form Versions & Why to Use Them. (see POC website link below) Answer rating official questions within the form wizard and avoid most policy & form errors. See previous slide. Confirm evaluation is at HRC by using IWRS. Regularly check AKO for “Reject” messages & check My Forms INBOX tab for returned evals.

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 In VIEW FORM the Rater’s narrative appears to be correctly formatted and fits in the text box... Situation # 1: Evaluation narrative looks good on computer screen, but prints out with gaps or missing text. Why does the narrative (or bullets) print oddly? (1 of 4 slides) PRINTED FORM VIEW FORM... but the printed form shows a gap or missing text.

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Check “ALL” so that all Formatting Marks are visible Paste the text from the data field into Word, then select “Tools”, then “Options, then “View” Solution: Look for excess formatting in narrative... Why does the narrative (or bullets) print oddly? (2 of 4 slides) Situation # 1: Evaluation narrative looks good on computer screen, but prints out with gaps or missing text. (This applies to OER narratives or NCOER bullets.)

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 With the formatting visible in Microsoft Word, you can see where extraneous data (spaces and the carriage return) resulted in the misprinted form. Why does the narrative print oddly? (3 of 4 slides) Situation # 1: Evaluation narrative looks good on computer screen, but prints out with gaps or missing text. Solution: Remove spaces and carriage return on the form and the form should print out correctly.

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Situation # 2: Evaluation narrative looks like it fills the screen in the wizard but in VIEW FORM some of the text at the end is missing. Impact: The bottom lines are not available to selection boards to read. Solution: Always do a final check in VIEW FORM before you submit to HQDA VIEW FORM FORM WIZARD Why does the narrative print oddly? (4 of 4 slides)

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Functional Category dropdown appears for Rater’s Section... Data field is also limited to one line of text.... But is missing in Senior Rater section VIEW FORM is Missing Functional Category Dropdown for SR Section (CPT OER)

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 To have the functional category pull down menus appear in the senior rater section of the form, the senior rater must answer at least the first two questions under the senior rater promotion potential tab. Functional Category Recommendations Senior Rater (#1) Functional Category Recommendations Senior Rater (#1) Answers to the 1 st question makes the 2d appear. The 2d question establishes a senior rater’s qualifications to evaluate. The functional category pull down menu’s will be visible (see next slide.)

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 A senior rater will find their functional category recommendation options under the senior rater (top) and performance and potential (left side) tabs. Entering Information – Senior Rater (#2) But only after answering the first two questions of the senior rater section (see previous slide).

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Rating officials use old career fields, are not aware of new guidance, and add recommendations to OERs written on MAJ and LTC. –See MILPER Msg and previous slide. We must return or correct OER if they use old career field recommendations. –AR 623-3, dtd May 06, changed policy in that this recommendation is to be made only on CPT OER (vice old policy on CPT through LTC OER). We must return or correct OER with a career field/functional category recommendation if the rated officer rank is not CPT (or 1LTP). Errors in Functional Category Recommendations #1 Errors in Functional Category Recommendations #1 Seen below is a major’s OER reflecting two common errors (of which you can figure out 1): - Senior rater used old (superseded) career field categories; needs to use new functional categories. - Senior rater made a career field/functional category recommendation on a major’s report. Such recommendations are only for CPT or 1LTP.

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Pull down menus are not available in Puredge forms (picture below left). –Recommendation options become available when there is a CPT or 1LTP rank entered on the OER and the officer is in a branch receiving this recommendation (i.e., not JAG, Chaplain or AMEDD.) (picture below right) No input on rated individual (specifically CPT or 1LTP rank) filled in – no options for functional categories fields. Individual info added (specifically CPT or 1LTP rank) – options for functional categories fields become available. Errors in Functional Category Recommendations #2 Errors in Functional Category Recommendations #2

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Completing Evals without Rated Soldier Signatures Bottom line: The rated Soldier is the only signature that can be missing from an evaluation. The senior rater must put an explanation in his/her section. On NCOER answer questions and type explanation (see diagram here.) On OER answer questions and amend the answer (or rewrite) that the form produces (similar to diagram here.)

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Signature Policy AR 623-3: para 3-37.f covers key points of signature policy. Highlights are: Rating officials sign on same date or in order (i.e., in order rater, intermediate rater, senior rater, reviewer.) Rated Soldier signs last signifying rated Soldier has seen the completed report, that the administrative information in Section 1 is correct, that APFT and HT/WT information is correct, and that the rating officials are correct. - Officers: a requirement since 1997 implementation of DA Form NCOs: a specified required since AR 623-3, May Signatures may be applied no more than 14 days before THRU date on evaluation. Evaluations may only be received by HRC on or after the actual THRU date. Signatures may be mixed: some digital, some ink. Evals with ink signatures must be mailed to HRC (with exemption.) Deployed units can ink sign and submit per SOP. Digital signatures are applied using CAC:

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Problem: When trying to “Send an OER to HQDA” the system will not give a confirmation of success but will present an error message that says, “cannot submit without all rating official signatures.” Missing Signatures – OER Won’t Send to HQDA (1 of 4 slides) Missing Signatures – OER Won’t Send to HQDA (1 of 4 slides) Solution: Go into the form and delete all blank spaces and carriage returns in IR narrative (Part VI). The cursor should be at left justification. A hold and drag with the mouse will illuminate all spaces that need to be deleted. See next few slides for specific illustrations. Cause: Most of the time this error message is caused because there has been space added to the Intermediate Rater (IR) narrative on the OER. Normally this happens in Form View when someone tabs through the blocks.

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Electronically Submitting to HRC: Common Problem #1 – Phantom Rating Officials (2 of 4 slides) Sender gets an error message that states… Sometimes this message is caused by rating officials who didn’t sign the report … Most of the time this message is a result of empty (blank) space in the intermediate (IR) rater’s section on the OER.

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Detecting empty space in the Intermediate Rater’s section (3 of 4 slides) Detecting empty space in the Intermediate Rater’s section (3 of 4 slides) Open the form to VIEW FORM and drag your mouse (with a left mouse click and held down) as if you are trying to highlight the data (even when Blue seen here indicates that someone in the life of this form entered this section and either tabbed or spaced through the section. The form sees this as an entry of text and will require an IR signature (as this is the IR’s narrative section) prior to submission to HQDA. You will get an error message “missing signatures” if you try to submit. Delete the space so the curser is left justified on the top line.

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Once I deleted the blue (empty) space in the IR narrative this form no longer “thinks” it needs an IR signature (as seen on the first slide in this series) and can now be submitted to HQDA. (4 of 4 slides)

POC: ESO, (703) (DSN: 221) As of: 1 Aug 08 Errors found here put eval on HOLD for corrections