DA DD Forms Answers

DA Form 5628-R — VOUCHER FOR SPECIAL MISSION FUNDS (SMF) EXPENDITURES (LRA)

voucher for special mission funds (smf) expenditures (lra) (also available in pdf format at web site www.usapa.army.mil)

A newer edition of this form has been issued (02/01/1987). Download the current edition.

What is DA Form 5628-R? It is the Department of the Army form titled VOUCHER FOR SPECIAL MISSION FUNDS (SMF) EXPENDITURES (LRA), and it exists so that you can voucher for special mission funds (smf) expenditures (lra) (also available in pdf format at web site www.usapa.army.mil). That single line covers most of what people arrive looking for. The rest of this page fills in the details.

Am I looking at the right edition? The copy here carries the date 02/01/1987 and the status ACTIVE. Forms in the DA series are identified by edition date rather than by revision number, so that date is what you compare against. One correction: a newer edition now exists. This one is superseded and remains available only for reference and for files already executed on it.

Who is responsible for this document? ASA (FM&C) maintains it, and not stated prescribes when it is used and where it goes. Completion falls to the person the entries describe or to the administrative staff holding the file. As for effort: 1 page(s), roughly unknown fields.

Download the form

Which formats can I download? These: PDF. All of them carry the same published page — the difference is not what the form says but how you get words onto it.

Should I take the fillable pdf or the printable one? Take the fillable version if you will type, since its entry areas respond to the keyboard and hold what you enter. Take the printable version if you will write by hand — it is the same blank form as a flat page image. The finished result looks the same either way.

What do I open a pdf with? Any current browser will display one, and any dedicated reader will do better. For fillable use the reader is the safer choice, because some browser viewers accept typing and then discard it when the tab closes. Test one field and one save before committing.

Is it free? Yes, entirely. No registration stands between you and the file, and what arrives is exactly what the publisher released.

Where do you start? At the top of the page, with the identifying entries: name as your official records spell it, identification number, unit or organisation, date of preparation. Why first? Because those entries are what the form is filed and searched under later, and a record indexed on a misspelled name is a record nobody retrieves.

How should you work through the entry fields? With the tab key. It follows the order the form was constructed in, which is usually the order the page reads, so nothing gets passed over. Do check boxes work the same way? They are clicked rather than tabbed into. In an exclusive group, a second click elsewhere clears your first choice, as intended.

Why does my text vanish when I print? Because one-line fields have no wrap, and anything past the field width is truncated on paper even though the screen shows all of it. Where should the overflow go? Into remarks, or onto a continuation. What about entries that do not apply? Enter the mark meaning "none". Blank space is ambiguous; a reviewer cannot tell an omission from a considered nil.

When do you sign? Last, after every other entry is settled. Until the signature is applied the document is a draft, however complete it looks. What if more than one signature is required? Reviewing official, approving authority and witness sign in the order the blocks print, and each dates the form on the day of signing rather than the day it was prepared. What goes wrong most often? Mandatory fields left empty, transposed digits in identification numbers, dates with day and month reversed, and old entries surviving in a working copy that was reused instead of a fresh blank form.

Why does the form carry a Privacy Act statement? Because personal information is being collected, and the statement declares the authority, the purpose, who else routinely sees the data, and whether answering is required or optional. Is it worth reading? Read it before you fill the fields it governs, not after. Does it change how you keep the file? It should — a filled copy is a personal record and gets the handling such records receive.

What happens after signing? The form is routed as the prescribing directive requires: to a named office, through the unit administrative channel, or into the personal file. Do you get the original back? No, so make a copy first. Who sets the retention period? The applicable records schedule, not the office holding the document.

What if this form is not the only one you need? Search by series and number. Within the DA series, forms under the same proponent or the same prescribing directive tend to be required as a set, and anything named on the face of one normally accompanies it. Are continuations part of that? They are, along with covers and transmittals, and all of them are collected in advance rather than after a query.

When is an edition replaced? When the proponent revises the form and publishes a new edition date. What should you do with a copy kept on your own machine? Check its date against the edition in force before reusing it. Does the change reach backwards? It does not; work already completed on an earlier edition remains valid as filed.

What exactly is this site? A place to download reproductions of published Department of the Army documents. Is it part of the Department of the Army? No — it is independent, issues no forms of its own, and has no authority over any of them. Can it tell you whether your completed form will be accepted? It cannot, and nothing written here is legal advice. Who answers the real questions? ASA (FM&C) or the administrative office servicing your unit, on any question of entry, requirement or eligibility.

Questions and answers

What is DA Form 5628-R?
VOUCHER FOR SPECIAL MISSION FUNDS (SMF) EXPENDITURES (LRA)
Which edition is current?
02/01/1987
Who is responsible for this form?
ASA (FM&C)
In which formats can it be downloaded?
PDF, PDF

Publisher notes

  1. 41-ITEM ALSO PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA,

Other forms in the series