Getting started

Account, app, and move setup — about ten minutes, once. After this the app tells you what to do and when.

Create your account

There are no passwords in PCS Pal. You sign in one of two ways:

Email code. Type your email address. We send a 6-digit code; enter it and you're in.
Google. Tap the Google option and pick your account.

Use an email you'll still have after you PCS. A personal address is usually the better choice than a duty-station one — your claim can run for months after the move.

Code didn't arrive? Check spam first, then request a new one. If it still doesn't land, contact support — occasionally a mail provider blocks us, and we can see it from our side.

Get the app

Grab PCS Pal from the Download page. The app isn't in the public app stores yet — the store links on that page go live at launch.

The phone app is where you capture: filming, photographing sheets, checking off delivery, logging damage. The website is where you read and file. You need the app for the move itself.

Phone and website, same account

Sign in on pcspal.app with the same email or Google account you used on your phone. That's what ties the two together.

Once you're signed in on the web, your Dashboard shows every move and shipment with its live status, and your finished claim appears there ready to file. Your Account page holds your license and your support-code box.

Nothing about your claim is web-only, and nothing is phone-only. You capture on the phone; you file from a computer because DPS is miserable on a phone screen.

Set up your move

The first task on your Home screen is PCS Setup. It's a short run of questions:

Branch and paygrade. Paygrade is also what tells us whether you qualify for free access.
Where your move is right now. Still getting ready, packing started, shipments in transit, or delivery started. The app drops you into the right stage instead of making you fake your way through earlier ones.
Your dates. Pack-out date to start; your required delivery date once you have it.
Your route. Where you're moving from and to.
Shipment types. Household goods, unaccompanied baggage, or both.

Everything here is editable later in Settings, under This move: PCS Status, Move Dates, Route, and Shipments. Nothing you answer now is locked in.

Dates matter more than anything else you type. Your claim deadlines are counted from your pickup and delivery dates, so keep them honest and update them when the TSP (transportation service provider — your moving company) reschedules. If a date is wrong, every clock built on it is wrong too.

Shipments: HHG and UB

Most moves are one shipment of household goods (HHG). Some are split: a small unaccompanied baggage (UB) shipment that flies ahead, plus the HHG that follows by truck.

If you tell PCS Pal you have both, it treats them as separate shipments the whole way through — their own inventory sheets, their own delivery day, their own dates and clocks. Past the prep stage your Home screen focuses one at a time: a WORKING ON banner names the shipment you're looking at, and switch cards flip you to the other.

This matters at the end: DPS takes one claim per shipment, so a split move files two. PCS Pal keeps them separate so you're never untangling which broken lamp came off which truck.

Didn't set up a second shipment and need one? Add it in Settings → Shipments. A shipment added mid-move joins at the stage your move is already in.

Your Home to-do list

Home is the whole app. At the top is the PCS STATUS card, showing which of the six stages you're in:

Before Packing Day → Packing Day(s) → In Transit → Delivery Day(s) → Unpacking → Claim

Underneath is a to-do list for that stage and nothing else. Tap a card and it takes you straight to the thing — no menus to expand. A card is tagged Do this now when it's live and Done when it's finished.

You move between stages yourself, with a confirmation: the app never decides on its own that your crew has left or your truck has arrived. That's why the questions are worded as questions — Packing day? Start In Transit? Begin delivery?

The other three tabs:

Catalog — every item the app found in your house, searchable, editable.
Vault — every photo, sheet, and document you've captured, plus Export my vault.
Settings — your move details, your plan, notifications, sign out.

Unlocking PCS Pal

PCS Pal is $99 one time, and it covers every PCS you make for your whole career. It's not a subscription and it doesn't renew. Payment runs through Stripe; Stripe emails your receipt.

E-4 and below move free. Ask your base support office for a support code and enter it on your Account page (or in the app) with Apply code — or email [email protected] with proof of rank and we'll take care of it.

Full detail, including the money-back guarantee: Account & billing.

Next guide Before you move → Also useful Account & billing →