You need DA Form 7423, and this page gets you to the file and through it. Start with what the form is: CONSULTING COUNSEL`S CHECKLIST, used to consulting counsel`s checklist. Check next that you have the right version — the edition dated 01/01/2001 is the one published here, and its status is ACTIVE. Then look at the size before you begin, because 1 page(s) and roughly 176 fields tell you how long this will take.
Next, find out whether you are the one who fills it. In most cases you complete the entries yourself, and an administrator in your unit reviews what you wrote before it moves on. If you are the administrator, you will be working from what the individual gives you. Either way, G-1 owns the form and AR 135-178 tells you when to raise it and where it goes afterward, so read the directive first if your situation is not routine.
Work from the top down, one block at a time. First the name — copy it from your official records rather than writing it the way you usually do. Then the identification number, then the unit, then today's date. Fill these before anything else. When the form reaches a file cabinet or a database, these are the entries someone searches on, so get them right before you worry about the rest.
Now for the body. Use tab to advance through the fields; the order was set when the form was built and following it keeps you from leaving gaps. Check boxes and option buttons take a click. Where the options are mutually exclusive, choosing one will clear another, which is how the group is meant to behave. As you type longer entries, watch the field edge. One-line fields do not wrap, and anything past the edge prints missing even when you can still read it on screen — when that happens, put the text in remarks or on a continuation sheet. Leave nothing blank because it does not apply; enter the mark that means it does not apply, so the reviewer knows you read the question.
Sign at the end and not before. Use ink or the electronic method your office accepts; whatever the state of the entries, an unsigned form is still a draft. When a reviewer, approver or witness has to sign as well, collect those signatures in printed block order and make sure each one is dated the day it was applied, not the day you started. Then read the form through once from the beginning. Three faults account for most rejections: a required field left blank, an identification number with two digits swapped, and a date whose day and month are reversed. Add a fourth if you began from an old working copy — data left over from the last time will travel forward untouched.
At some point while filling the form you will meet a Privacy Act statement, and you should read it when you reach it rather than after you finish. It tells you who is authorised to collect the information, what it will be used for, who else may see it, and whether you are obliged to answer or may decline. Once you have entered your details, treat the file accordingly: it now holds personal information about you, so store it and send it the way your office handles such records.
Download the form
Next comes the download itself. The formats available are PDF, XFDL, and you decide between them by asking how you will enter the information. If you plan to type, take the fillable pdf: the boxes accept keyboard input and you can save the result. If you plan to write by hand, take the printable pdf and run it through your printer while it is still blank. Both show the same published page, so the decision affects your method and nothing else.
Once the file is on your machine, open it deliberately. A pdf will usually launch in your browser, which reads well enough but does not always hold what you type; certain viewers display the fields and then discard your entries. Save the download to a folder, open it from there in a dedicated reader, and test one field and one save before you commit to filling the whole thing. If the xfdl file is what you need, install the IBM Lotus Forms Viewer first. No pdf reader and no word processor will open it.
Finally, note what the download costs you: nothing. You do not create an account, you do not enter an email address, and the file you receive is the published document with nothing added to it.
What the form asks for
- COU_NAME
- COU_RANK
- COU_UNIT
- ContentArea1
- DATE_A
- DATE_B
- DATE_C
- DATE_D
- DATE_E
- DATE_F
- DATE_G
- DATE_H
- DATE_I
- DATE_J
- DATE_K
- DATE_L
- DATE_M
- DATE_N
- NA_A
- NA_B
- NA_C
- NA_D
- NA_E
- NA_F
With the form signed, send it where AR 135-178 tells you to send it — usually to the office it names, or through your unit administrative channel, or straight into your own record, depending on why you raised it. Keep a copy for yourself before it leaves your hands. How long the receiving office holds it is not your decision or theirs; the records schedule for the series settles that, and local habit does not override it.
If you find you need a second form to go with this one, look by series and number. Forms in the DA series that share a proponent or a prescribing directive are often used together, and any form named on the face of this one normally goes forward with it. Gather continuation sheets, cover sheets and transmittal documents before you submit, not after somebody asks for them.
The next time you open this form from your own files, check the edition date first. Revisions come from the proponent without warning to you, so the only reliable step is to hold your copy against the current edition before filling it in again. Records you already completed under a superseded edition stand, and you do not go back to rework them.
Finally, know where you are. These are copies of published Department of the Army forms, made available for you to download. The site is independent, unconnected to the Department of the Army, and in no position to issue forms or to promise that any office will accept yours. None of this is legal advice. If a specific entry puzzles you, if you are unsure a requirement applies, or if eligibility is in question, put the question to G-1 or to the administrative office serving your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 7423?
- CONSULTING COUNSEL`S CHECKLIST
- Which edition is current?
- 01/01/2001
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-1
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF
Publisher notes
- 42-ITEM ONLY PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA