Comptroller function moves to South Dakota Jan. 4 Published Dec. 28, 2007 By Tech. Sgt. Kristina Newton 1st SOW Public Affairs HURLBURT FIELD, Fla -- The 1st Special Operations Comptroller Squadron will transfer its processing operations to the new Air Force Finance Services Center at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D. Jan. 4, as part of the largest change in the Air Force's financial management history. This transformation will help provide more efficient finance operations by consolidating processing operations worldwide into one operation at the service center and will save the Air Force $210 million. Maj. Kevin McKinley, 1st Special Operations Wing Comptroller, said transferring document processing from home station to the finance service center should be invisible to the customer. "We'll still be responsible for ensuring what we transfer is prepared correctly and on time," he said. In June, a financial service team visited the base to brief the comptroller squadron and base leadership on the transformation initiative and train the comptroller squadron on the processes. "Since the center will consolidate most military pay and travel pay processing, the focus for base financial services personnel will be one-on-one attention to the customer," said Capt. Angie Blackwell, Chief of the Financial Services Flight. "Also, getting 100 percent accurate documents to the center in a timely manner will be the benchmark of excellence financial services personnel will be measured against." Although there will be fewer financial managers on base, customers will still be able to obtain service 24 hours a day through self-service and contact center options. The base finance office will continue to provide walk-in service. For more information, please call Major McKinley at 884-4030.