The use of the AROWS-R online Tour of Duty Certification (TODC) for short tours (30 or fewer days) is mandatory, barring any technical issues. For instructions, go to the
AROWS-R TODC Quick Guide.
If your supervisor or certifier is having issues, share this
TODC Certifiers Guide with him or her.
IMPORTANT TODC ISSUE AND WORKAROUND (1 May 2023)
We are aware that the Tour of Duty Certification (TODC) system in AROWS-R is not working ... emails are not consistently generating and sending to the supervisors for certification. AFRC/FM is actively working to fix the TODC certification function, and HQ RIO is staying connected for any updates. We will push out any change as it occurs.
With that, right now very few short tours can be certified successfully via the TODC process. In the meantime, I want to give you the steps to manually certify your orders and send them to the HQ RIO Reserve Pay Office for manual processing.
1. Try the TODC. Sometimes it works. I recommend you use YOUR OWN personal email to send the link. That way you can tell right away if it the email went through. If you receive the TODC email, simply forward that email to your supervisor.
2. If the TODC doesn't work, go into AROWS-R and download the PDF of the orders and any modifications associated with it. The PDFs are password protected, which keeps you from digitally filling it out and signing it. When you have the PDF open, select PRINT and then choose "Microsoft PDF" as the printer. (NOTE: NOT Adobe PDF, if that's an option available to do you.)
3. The system will prompt you to save the document. Do so with a different file name.
4. Close the downloaded PDF and open the PDF with the new name. Now there is no password needed to edit or sign the document.
5. Fill out blocks A-D with your itinerary, and don't forget the two circled questions and block 40.
6. Use the "certificates" tool in Adobe to create a digital signature area and sign.
7. If you don't have that option, print the PDF, fill it out and sign it with ink. Printing it out and filling/signing with ink is another option if you have trouble with the "Print to Microsoft PDF." You can then scan the PDF or take a picture of it to forward to your supervisor.
8. Once you get your supervisor to sign it and return it to you, submit via myFSS. Always remember to search "IMA Management" and select the IMA Reserve Pay link from there. Submit it to the RIO RPO Pay Requests link.
Again, as we hear anything about the TODC process improving, we will share it with the field. In the meantime, the Reserve Pay Office is standing by to manually process short tour orders.