Download the form
DA Form 4538 handles one job: abstract of issues/sales. The official title is ABSTRACT OF ISSUES/SALES. Download it below, fill it in, sign it, send it where your directive says. The edition on this page is 07/01/2002, status ACTIVE, running 1 page(s) with about 200 fields to complete.
Authority sits in two places. G-4 owns the form, PAM 30-22 says when it is raised and where it goes. Routine cases need neither read in full — the page itself carries the sequence. The entries are completed by their subject or by unit administrative staff working from what that person supplies.
Pick by how you will enter data: PDF, XFDL on offer. Typing means fillable pdf, where the boxes accept keystrokes and hold them on save. Handwriting means printable pdf, a flat page image sent straight to a printer. Neither version changes what appears on the page.
Use a full pdf reader, not the browser viewer. Browser viewers display fields they cannot always save, and the loss shows up only when you reopen the file — type one entry, save, reopen, verify, then fill the rest. The xfdl file is IBM Lotus Forms, used inside Army systems, and opens in the Lotus Forms Viewer alone — no pdf reader, no word processor.
No charge, no account, no email address. The file is the published document, distributed unaltered.
What the form asks for
- ACCTGPER
- ACTIVITY
- BEVERAGE
- BEVERAGE_1
- BEVERAGE_10
- BEVERAGE_11
- BEVERAGE_12
- BEVERAGE_13
- BEVERAGE_14
- BEVERAGE_15
- BEVERAGE_16
- BEVERAGE_2
- BEVERAGE_3
- BEVERAGE_4
- BEVERAGE_5
- BEVERAGE_6
- BEVERAGE_7
- BEVERAGE_8
- BEVERAGE_9
- BOXLUNCH
- BOXLUNCH_1
- BOXLUNCH_10
- BOXLUNCH_11
- BOXLUNCH_12
Header first, always. Name as your official records spell it, identification number, unit, date of preparation — these four index the finished record, and an error in them hides the document from anyone searching for it later. The substantive blocks can wait thirty seconds.
Tab through the fields rather than clicking. The tab order was fixed when the form was built and generally follows the page, which catches boxes a mouse skips past. Check boxes and option buttons take a click, and an exclusive group clears the previous selection when you make a new one. Single-line fields do not wrap — text past the field width prints truncated while still showing in full on screen, which is why the loss is discovered after printing. Overflow goes to remarks or a continuation sheet. A field that does not apply gets the mark meaning none; blank space reads as an omission.
Sign last. An unsigned form is a draft whatever else is on it, and additional signatures — reviewer, approver, witness — follow printed block order with each signer dating the day they sign, not the day of preparation. Four faults account for most returns: a blank mandatory field, transposed digits in an identification number, day and month reversed in a date, and leftover entries in a working copy reused instead of a fresh blank. Read the form once from the top before releasing it.
The Privacy Act statement is read before the personal entries, not after. It gives the collection authority, the purpose, the routine uses and whether disclosure is mandatory or voluntary. Once filled, your copy is a personal record and gets stored and transmitted accordingly.
Routing follows PAM 30-22 and nothing else — a named office, the unit administrative channel, or the individual's file, according to why the form was raised. Copy it before it leaves. Retention is fixed by the records schedule for the series, which local practice does not shorten or extend.
Related forms are found by series and number. DA series documents under the same proponent or the same prescribing directive are commonly required as a set, and any form named on the face of this one goes forward with it. Assemble continuations, covers and transmittals before submitting, not after the query comes back.
A stored file goes stale silently. The proponent revises, a new edition date is published, and your copy says nothing about it — so compare the printed date against the edition in force before typing into it again. Completed submissions on an earlier edition are not reopened.
What is distributed here are reproductions of published Department of the Army documents. Independent site, no official standing, no forms of its own. Nothing on the page constitutes legal advice, and acceptance by any office is outside what can be stated. Put questions about entries, requirements or eligibility to G-4 or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 4538?
- ABSTRACT OF ISSUES/SALES
- Which edition is current?
- 07/01/2002
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-4
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF
Publisher notes
- 42-ITEM ONLY PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA