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Financial FormsNirvana for the Division
Administrator
What is Financial FormsNirvana?
Financial FormsNirvana is a way to electronically route, edit, and approve (and eventually enter into central systems) requests or transactions in lieu of using an official University paper form or process. It is each department's responsibility to ensure that the "electronic" forms are being used in accordance with University policies and procedures, that preparers and approvers are appropriate, and that routing and approval chain information is kept up-to-date. In general, access to Financial FormsNirvana will be granted only to University personnel to perform their job functions with the authorization of their division administrator (read on for what a division administrator is).
Collusion and vandalism will be prosecuted by the
University to the full extent that state and federal law will
allow. Unauthorized access and fraudulent application for
access will be prosecuted by the University to the full
extent that state and federal law will allow.
Departments will nearly always control who will appear on their lists of approvers and preparers (University policy and SPA requirements are notable exceptions).
Each department is expected to have in place a list of authorized signers (approvers) for all transactions.
See University policies on the World Wide Web for more
specific information on financial responsibilities: http://policy.umn.edu/
How the system works, and getting initial access
RRC managers should remeber to address the following when requesting initial access for a unit: computer support issues, training requirements, equipment needs, telecommunication needs (internet connections), internal controls, and University or college/department policies and procedures. If the RRC manager is the requester of access for the unit, approval of the RRC manager's supervisor is required.
RRC managers are responsible for ensuring that policies or
procedures regarding separation of duties, internal controls,
and monitoring activities exist and are followed.
Financial FormsNirvana allows up to three levels of
approval for department use in the default chains. Everyone
will use the default routing chains unless special
arrangements are made. See sections on default and custom
routing and approval chains for more information.
RRC managers are also responsible for approving or
appointing division administrators. Financial Systems Support
will contact the appropriate RRC manager each time someone
new makes a request to become a division administrator.
Financial Systems Support will maintain the list of
divisions, and will establish new division codes within the
system. (Financial FormsNirvana does not allow duplicate
division names. See the section on divisions for more
information.
Users of Financial FormsNirvana must apply for access. The FormsNirvana access form (FNA) is available only in FormsNirvana. To fill it out, one must sit down with someone who already has access (preferrably FSS or a division administrator). The form requires the X.500 ID and password of the new user, so the new person must be sitting with the current user when the form is completed (we strongly discourage the sharing of one's Internet ID and password-it is a violation of University policy) and must read the access agreement that in included in the request. Submitting the request is equivalent to signing a paper form that states you have read, understand, and will follow the rules (applicable policies for access and use of the system are aviable online, and are linked to Financial FormsNirvana).
If no one in a college or unit has access to Financial FormsNirvana, the interested department should call the University Financia Helpline at (612) 624-1617 for assistance. Financial Systems Support's security office will contact the applicable RRC manager and obtain written permission for the unit, and get a list of administrators and divisions for which they will be responsible (e-mail is sufficient). Assistance is available from Financial Systems Support to aid in setting up users, answering questions, etc.
Students may be granted access to the system if necessary, at the discretion of the division administrator, Area manager, or RRC manager. Each unit should define the criteria applied to determine if a student will be granted access, and should clearly communicate expectations and policies to the student.
There are several levels of access:
- View only - allows user to view
any document in the system (except access
requests and delete requests), all users have
view access
- Prepare - prepare specified
documents
- Approve - approve documents for
specified divisions, or act as alternate approver
if designated as such by primary approver
- Prepare and approve - both
prepare and approve access
- Division administrator - prepare
and approve documents and access requests, and
administer divisions and users within them
- System administrator (available
only to a few users in FSS/OIT) - maintain and
support entire system
FNA form (Financial FormsNirvana Access form) requests for view only access are granted immediately (no human approvers). Preparer and approver access requests are routed to the division administrator for approval, sent to Financial Systems Support if there are training requirements, and then access is granted. Division administrator access is routed to Financial Systems Support--once RRC manager approval is obtained, access is granted.
Any individual may have one or more (or all) levels of
access. There are system edits in place to ensure that one
individual does not abuse the system, and all documents other
than access and delete requests require at least one human
approver who is not the preparer.
Division administrators are "junior system
administrators." They are responsible for approving or
denying access requests for their division(s), requesting new
divisions if needed, and monitoring users within their
division(s) for appropriate use of the system, and
appropriate selection of approvers.
The division administrator, once established in the
system, can request that divisions be set up, preparers and
approvers be added, etc. If you are in an Area that already
is using Financial FormsNirvana, the existing division
administrator(s) can assist you in getting access. If you
request preparer or approver access for an existing division,
the request can be approved by the division administrator. If
you are requesting division administrator access and new
divisions, the request will be sent to FSS for approval and
set-up.
E-mail notifications
If you're an approver worried about being overwhelmed by e-mail, the system provides each user with the ability to turn off some of the e-mail notifications (under the "user preferences" section). We recommend that you leave them on until you have established a routine, are comfortable, and are using the system on a regular basis. This is especially important for division administrators.
Each division administrator will not only receive e-mail
confirmation of access activities performed for themselves
and users in their division, but will also receive notices of
documents awaiting review, access requests awaiting review,
notices of changes in their personal access, and a monthly
report of all users in their division and related access
levels. The monthly report is sent regardless of whether the
e-mail notification feature is turned on or off. If the
administrator is a regular user of the system, and is
confident they can perform monitoring activities using the
monthly report and other tools available within Financial
FormsNirvana, e-mail notifications can be turned off.
General preparers who use the system regularly, and are
familiar with their access levels will probably get along
quite well without the e-mail notification being turned on.
General preparers are only sent notifications of changes in
their own access, so if it is important to the user to
monitor changes to access, the e-mail notification should be
left on.
Approvers are sent notifications of their own access level
changes, and documents awaiting review. It is important for
approvers to have e-mail notifications turned on if they are
not regular users of the system, so they know when to go in
and review their documents. If the approver will be using the
system on a regular basis, and the approver is comfortable
without the notification of changes in access, it is
acceptable to turn the e-mail notification off. It is a good
idea for approvers to let everyone know when they expect to
be using the system if they have turned off e-mail
notifications, so documents that are time-sensitive do not
languish!
Responsibilities
These are some of the responsibilities each type of user
has; there are more in the access agreement you must sign to
use the system, more sprinkled throughout this document, and
more in the various policies of the University, your college,
and your department. Please use these lists as a starting
place rather than the final word on what each type of person
is expected to do.
Division administrator and department
"Department" refers to a department, college,
administrative unit, or other organization at the University
of Minnesota that has a business need to process one or more
transactions available on Financial FormsNirvana. Division
administrators act on behalf of the department, and have
these responsibilities:
- Request access to Financial FormsNirvana, and
designate those within the department who are
authorized to prepare, approve, or administer
divisions for the department.
- Communicate with RRC manager to determine if
there are any special requirements that the
college or RRC may want to communicate to the
division, and users in it.
- Determine access needs for users within the
department, and ensure that access levels are
appropriate based on job responsibilities of each
individual, and approve or deny access requests
for your divisions.
- Create, document, and maintain department
policies and procedures for Financial
FormsNirvana use.
- Attend training as necessary, and allow
department personnel time to receive any required
training.
- Verify that users have the knowledge and skills
to perform required tasks.
- Establish (or communicate already established) routing and approval procedures that are in compliance with financial policies and procedures; monitor system use and assure that changes in personnel are communicated quickly to their department HR person and Financial FormsNirvana division administrator, or system administrator (call the Financial Systems Helpline).
- Provide procedures for "back-up"
preparers and approvers if necessary to include
methods of communication and notification of
alternates that they need to jump into action.
- Enter transactions into Financial FormsNirvana.
- Monitor and track all transactions entered into
Financial FormsNirvana; reconcile or verify that
transactions are processing and appearing on
reports as expected.
- Reference transactions entered into Financial
FormsNirvana on related documents, and close
transactions as necessary. For example, if a POT
is entered into Financial FormsNirvana, that POT
number should be referenced on any related
payment documents.
- Correct, or assist central departments in
correcting, errors on transactions in Financial
FormsNirvana and in CUFS.
- Follow University financial policies and
procedures, and security policies and procedures.
- If using sponsored funds, ensure compliance with
sponsor requirements, policies, procedures,
guidelines, rules, or applicable local, state, or
federal laws.
- Have in place a department security and awareness
program to include: communication of secure
office practices and standards, regular virus
detection and prevention activities for computer
equipment, and security breach and violation
reporting to FSS.
System administrator
The Financial FormsNirvana system administrator is the
department (Financial Systems Support staff) who oversees the
overall operation of the Financial FormsNirvana, collaborates
with customers to prioritize changes, and requests that work
be done by system technical staff. This responsibility
involves administrative staff, security staff, and support
staff within the responsible department.
- Monitors overall module security, and
participates in security audits of Financial
FormsNirvana.
- Ensures that interfaces developed work with other
systems; works with other module system
administrators and central systems support units
to ensure that Financial FormsNirvana files
comply with applicable interface methodologies.
- Establishes a method of communication, change
control processes, and interface requirements.
- Provides a method for assisting in disaster
recovery of Financial FormsNirvana system.
- Establishes and coordinates communication with
X.500 directory people for problem resolution as
needed.
- Acts as a resource for problem resolution and
information gathering between various modules, or
for Financial FormsNirvana system-wide computing
issues.
- Issues, monitors, changes, and deletes digital
signature authority when used for the module.
- Coordinates and communicates module changes with
other module system administrators (like EGMS).
- Provides help desk support for Financial
FormsNirvana user questions.
- Monitors data integrity.
- Provides for a method of data archival and
retrieval.
- Assists division administrators in setting up new
divisions, and in maintaining existing divisions
as necessary.
- Oversees the work of the module security
function, and has control over the functionality
of the financial forms and implementation of
departmental routing logic.
- Ensures that the module complies with University
financial policies, procedures, and internal
control requirements.
- Maintains responsible use and access policies,
procedures, and internal control requirements as
necessary.
- Provides for training or cooperates with training
units to ensure users have resources for
assistance.
- Sets financial module access requirements as
necessary.
- Provides assistance to departments in completing
access requests, requesting routing chains,
writing departmental procedures, and suggesting
reconciling/verifying processes for departments.
- Ensures consistency between inputs on existing
official University mainframe documents or paper
forms and the financial module; uses the existing
forms and documents as a basis for selecting data
fields to be included in electronic versions, and
ensures that various official committee reviews,
function owner approvals, and central systems
approvals are obtained.
- Investigates and responds to financial module or
interface violation reports. Module: reports
violations to appropriate individuals and works
with them to resolve issues. Interface
violations: reports violations to to production
support staff and works to resolve issues.
- Obtains RRC manager approval of division
administrator's access requests, and sets up
division administrators.
- Monitors data, and user and system activity.
- Adds/changes/deletes users per department
requests, or as necessary.
- Adds/changes/deletes departments per requests, or
as necessary.
- Adds/changes/deletes routing and approval chain
requests (coordinate with programmer as
necessary).
- Provides a method of tracking IDs and routing
chains for financial module.
- Assists in audits of data or the security of the
system as requested, and periodically audits
security of financial module.
- Tracks changes to security "profiles,"
routing chains, user IDs.
- Ensures that techinical set-up outside of
Financial FormsNirvana system takes place to
ensure smooth operation and access for
departments.
Programmer
- A Financial FormsNirvana programmer is a
specialist who knows (but is not limited to) the
following: database set-up, SQL, UNIX, Oracle,
Perl, C, and HTML/HTTP/HTTPS.
- This programmer would: physically create or
maintain: databases, the web server, web forms,
new routing chain scripts or sanity checks.
- Assist system administrator with preparing ad hoc
reports on system use.
- Take direction from module administrators with
regard to the business functions of each module,
and work closely with module system administrator
to maintain the system.
- Perform any other tasks that demand computer
programming.
System owner
- The system owner is the vice president,
controller, or designee (a University employee)
who makes overall policy decisions regardling the
use of electronic forms at the University, and
the use of a front-end system to interface to the
official general ledger. This person oversees the
work of module administrator's department, and
may delegate authority for day-to-day operation
of the system to the module system administrator.
Currently, the owner of Financial FormsNirvana is
the University Controller.
Financial Systems Helpline
- Assists departments in properly completing
financial documents.
- Refers all callers with questions about the use and configuration of web browser software (Netscape, MS Internet Explorer, MacWeb, Mosaic, etc.) to the caller's departmental technical coordinator or the ADCS Helpline.
- Forwards system problems with Financial
FormsNirvana to a Financial FormsNirvana
administrator.
- Monitors CUFS SUSF for Financial FormsNirvana
transactions that are not accepted by the system:
notifies department and assists in correcting the
document.
Purchasing Services (function subject matter expert)
- Closes open POTs in CUFS at department
request-requests should be made through the
existing process using the UA641 report (Aged
Open Purchase Orders report). Departments receive
report, note items that should be closed, and
request that Purchasing Services close out the
transactions.
- Assists departments in properly completing
purchasing documents as requested.
Accounting Services (function subject matter expert)
- Reviews all Journal Voucher (JV) transactions
prior to posting to CUFS.
SPA/Certified Approver for sponsored accounts(function
subject matter expert)
- Reviews all transactions that meet certain
requirements and are on sponsored funds prior to
posting to CUFS.
Training Services
- Provides training resources for users of the
system.
RRC managers
- Approves and monitors overall use of the system
by units within their area of responsibility.
(There is another information packet for RRC
managers that provides much more detail.)
- Authorizes division administrators for the unit.
- Promotes effective communication within the unit
and between unit and central departments.
User (preparer, approver, view only, division
administrator)
- Agrees to abide by access agreement, and to
follow all applicable department, college, and
University policies and procedures, and any
applicable local, state, or federal laws.
- Agrees to abide by all applicable sponsor rules,
policies, procedures, etc. if using sponsored
funds.
- Agrees to report and violations of policy or
applicable laws.
Divisions
Divisions are groupings of people within Financial
FormsNirvana for approval and routing purposes. When we first
created divisions, we envisioned them as sub-groupings of
people within a CUFS Area, but they can also be used to group
together people who have many CUFS Areas in common. Each
division needs a division administrator to approve/deny
access requests for preparers and approvers. It also needs
preparers and approvers. The division administrator should be
familiar with the people who work in the unit, and with
department, college, and University policies and procedures.
A division administrator also needs to be comfortable with
and knowledgeable in using the World Wide Web, browser
software, e-mail, and computers in general, because each
division administrator will be expected to help out with user
questions and trouble-shooting.
The name of a division may be up to 30 characters long,
and cannot contain spaces. It also cannot
contain any special characters except a dash
( - ) or an underscore ( _ ). In other words, you may use:
letters, numbers, dash, and underscore--nothing else (no
ampersands, no "at" symbols, no asterisks, etc.).
Divisions do not appear in CUFS, and are not transferred to
CUFS or CUFSRDB in any way. They are strictly for use within
Financial FormsNirvana.
Each form (other than access forms) in the Financial
FormsNirvana financial module requires a submitting Area,
just as the paper forms do. Submitting Areas are authorized
by Financial Systems Support prior to a unit being granted
access to the system.
Submitting divisions are not tied to submitting Area, so
everyone in a division needs to know which division and
submitting Area combinations are appropriate.
Division administrators must be preparers and approvers
for their division (so they can complete FNA and FND forms,
and so they can approve requests).
RRC managers, and division administrators, need to ensure
that everyone who prepares and approves documents within
their realm of responsibility understands who is supposed to
be approving transactions, and when. There are some limited
tools in Financial FormsNirvana to assist in this process.
See section on approvers.
Division administrators should be very familiar with
personal computers, the internet (specifically the World Wide
Web), internet browser software, the individuals within an
Area, department and college policies and procedures, as well
as University policies and procedures. This person should
understand that they are responsible for approving who will
be preparing and who will be approving documents within
Financial FormsNirvana for the division. If there is an audit
that includes documents prepared in Financial FormsNirvana,
the division administrator and RRC manager should be prepared
to assist in the audit. Someone who works closely with the
RRC or Area manager, or in a "central"
college/department office, may be a good choice for a
division administrator.
RRC managers may choose to have more than one division
administrator in an Area, but there can only be one
administrator per division.
If a department or college does not have the resources to
perform their own system administration, arrangements may be
made with Financial Systems Support for assistance.
Examples of divisions
Area 562 is going to use divisions. Division administrator
for 562, 562SECURITY, 562HELP is steff007. Division
administrator for 562BA is s-hend.
Division Preparers Approvers
562 all all
562SECURITY d-anto, p-lamo, l-wooc,
m-bout, steff007
staff004,
steff007
562HELP j-medi, j-keon, l-wooc,
hager001, j-medi,
steff007, steff007
peter132,
m-bout, staff004
562BA c-meye1, l-wooc,
carls144, s-hend,
r-schol, s-hend, secor001
secor001,
m-bout,
staff004,
h-aals, l-cull,
finke, mcmull004
Area 766 has 9 users and 3 approvers total. They do not want
special divisions. User carls139 will be the division
administrator. Each preparer will have to enter "766"
in the "submitting division" field on forms, even
though they really aren't using divisions (we use the Area code
as the "default" division).
Division Preparers Approvers
766 m-bise, m-ritz, s-keit,
c-hoge, carls139, carls139,
hanse098, m-bise
olive012, s-keit,
jonda013,
sewel001
Areas 833, 834, 835, 836, and 837 have 5 users in common and 3
approvers in common. They are going to group several Areas into
one division. User good001 will be the division administrator.
Division Preparers Approvers
833-837ADMIN litto333, good001,
good001, litto333,
foxx555, winn144
fone123, liux001
Forms available
- POT (Purchase Order) - will encumber funds.
- PREQ (pre-purchase order request) - will send a partially
completed POT to a preparer; replaces sticky notes,
emails, phone requests for purchases at a departmental
level.
- IX (Expense Transfer) - currently only for use on
nonsponsored accounts.
- IV (Intra-Institutional Voucher) - any department truly
selling goods or services to another may use.
- JV (Journal Voucher) - all types may be processed; all
will go to Accounting Services for approval.
- AVT (Accrued Vacation Transfer) - move resources associated with an employee's vacation accrual to another account. The only way to perform this activity is in FFN.
- ER (Encumbrance Release) - close out any open purchase order-related encumbrances for an account.
- ILOC (Institutional Locator code) request - will go to Financial Systems Helpline for actual entry into CUFS.
- VEND (Vendor maintenance) - will go to Disbursement
Services for actual entry into CUFS.
- PV (Payment Voucher) - will pay for standard goods and
services.
- USTORES (University Stores order) - JUST a place-holder
for the Stores ordering system's passing of a request for
approval.
- RAR (Research Animal Resources) - JUST a place-holder for the RAR ordering system's passing of a request for approval.
- ECAR (Electronic Card Activity Report) - for recording activity on the proper account, and justifying any activity, originating from the use of a University purchasing card.
- FNA (FormsNirvana access request) - routed to division
administrator for approval if preparer/approver, to FSS
if for division administrator access.
- FNN (FormsNirvana new division request) - used by
division administrators to create new divisions.
- FND (FormsNirvana division maintenance request) - used by
division administrators to delete access
If you need instructions on when to use these forms, contact the Financial Systems Helpline at (612) 624-1617, or Training Services at (612) 626-1373.
FormsNirvana Division Maintenance Request (FND form)
Users may request that their own access be deleted using
the FNA form (using the user's template FNA form, uncheck
boxes that were checked, and select "remove me from
division" next to each division for which the user had
access). Access the user has asked be deleted will be removed
immediately by the system. E-mail notifications will be sent
to the user, the division administrator(s), and FSS.
Division administrators can request that users be deleted
using the FormsNirvana Division Maintenance request (FND
form-using the administrator's template FND form for the
division, check off the users whose access should be
removed). Access the administrator has asked be deleted will
be removed immediately by the system. E-mail notifications
will be sent to the user, the division administrator(s), and
FSS.
System administrators in FSS also have the ability to remove user access in an emergency. Call the University Financial Helpline at (612) 624-1617 for assistance if an emergency should arise.
Default routing and approval chains
Financial FormsNirvana has default routing and approval chains that cover most of the needs and requirements of the Unversity. Financial FormsNirvana requires that there be at least one approver for the document who is someone other than the preparer. Preparers may also choose to route the document to other approvers who may or may not be in their division. For example, a purchase order for computers is prepared in Area 123, and the preparer knows there is a collegiate policy that the Dean approve all computer purchases. The preparer would select one approver from the pop-up menu for the division, and could then type in the Internet ID of the Dean as the second approver. Note that the Dean would need to be an approver in Financial FormsNirvana to be able to approve the document online; if the Dean does not have access, a departmental procedure to secure the Dean's approval and store it would need to be in place. Financial FormsNirvana default chains do not specifically edit for college or department policies that differ from the University's policies.
The default chain for purchase orders works like this:
- User submitts document.
- Financial FormsNirvana checks for things like:
- valid account number,
- are all required fields completed with valid
codes,
- is this on a sponsored account and over the
SPA/certified approver review threshold,
- is it over the U-wide contract threshold, and
if so is a valid U-wide contract number
included, etc.
- If there are problems, the document is returned to
the preparer for correction.
- If everything checks out the document is routed to
the first human approver indicated.
- The first approver is sent an e-mail message stating
that there is a document to be reviewed.
- The first approver reviews the transaction and
approves or denies.
- If denied, the document is returned to the preparer.
- If approved, the document travels to the next human
approver if more than one was selected.
- The second approver is sent an e-mail message stating
that there is a document to be reviewed.
- Second approver approves or denies, and document
moves on or is returned.
- Third approver (if any) works the same as the other
two.
- The system then will route the document to SPA if
this is a sponsored account and over the review
threshold.
- Once SPA has approved (if necessary), the document is
posted to a holding file.
- Each evening the holding file is sent to CUFS for
posting, and a file is returned to Financial
FormsNirvana confirming that transactions were
accepted (or, in the case of problems, rejected).
Custom routing and approval chains
If necessary, a custom routing and approval chain may be
established by arrangement with Financial Systems Support. It
is expected that the need for custom chains will be minimal,
and used only in unusual circumstances. Once such unusual
circumstance could be when a department has only one person
doing all document preparing, approving, and monitoring, and
no other individuals who have adequate knowledge of the
transactions are available to perform online approvals. A
special chain could be established to allow these documents
to pass directly to CUFS without further human approval. It
is up to the RRC manager, and division administrator, to
ensure that monitoring of that person's work takes place on a
regular basis, and that other solutions have been evaluated
before a request for a custom chain is made.
Financial Systems Support will work with departments to
ensure that custom chains (and their related procedures
established by the department, RRC, or division
administrator) do not violate applicable University policies.
Approvers
Approvers should be chosen in accordance with the
University's policies on approvals. Make sure the approver
knows enough about each time of transaction s/he will be
expected to approve to ensure that the approval adds value to
the process!
Approvers may enter up to 30 characters that will appear
after their names in the pop-up approval menus on documents
within their division(s).
Approvers must personally designate alternate approvers
for themselves if alternates are needed. Alternate approvers
must already be approvers in Financial FormsNirvana.
Access to a computer capable of running Netscape or
Microsoft Internet Explorer (a recent version). We recommend
they have the very latested version if at all possible.
E-mail software and immediate access to it is also a very
good idea. It would also be a good idea to get approvers
access to CUFSRDB, Financial Reports on the Web, or other
online reporting tool used by your department or college
(like Clarity) so they have access to reference data and
account status.
Preparers
Preparers will need access to a computer capable of
running Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer (a recent
version). We recommend they have the very latested version if
at all possible. E-mail software and immediate access to it
is also a very good idea.
View only access
RRC managers should seriously consider getting view only
access to Financial FormsNirvana if they are not planning on
using it themselves for preparing and approving documents.
This access makes it that much easier to monitor activities
within the system.
Principal investigators, SPA, and sponsored accounts
A list of all the SPA Grant Administrators at the
University, and their related CUFS account numbers, are
included within the Financial FormsNirvana system so that the
system can identify responsible SPA approvers for sponsored
accounts. Currently, Financial FormsNirvana does not allow
transactions that require PI approval of each line (like an
IX document that references sponsored accounts). The system
will allow each unit to set up PIs as approvers, and will
allow documents to be routed to them, but it does not
currently perform this activity without the preparer of the
document specifically selecting a PI as an approver.
Documents that require SPA approval according University
policy are automatically routed to the appropriate grant
administrator within SPA for approval.
Tour of the screens, and what can be done there!
First, you must have a computer with access to the Internet via a modem, ethernet connection, or similar. The computer must have World Wide Web browser software installed. There are specific browsers that work better than others. Contact the University Financial Helpline for more information (612) 624-1617.
Enter your Internet ID and Enterprise Systems password to enter the system.
You may navigate through the system using the menu that appears at the bottom of each screen in FFN. Each person's access is restricted to the activities they can see on their menu. These are all of the items possible for the general user to access:
- Make a request is where you go to fill out forms like the FNA, POT, JV, etc. The make a request screen will show the documents to which you have access.
- Use a template is where you go to use one of the
default templates set up for you, or to use one you've
created yourself.
- Status of requests is where you go to look at how
your document is doing once you've entered it. This is
the only place you can go back in and see, or edit, an
FNA document.
- View requests is where you go to see the requests
anyone has entered (everything but FNA and FND
documents).
- OK/Deny requests or Alternate OK/Deny Requests will only appears on approvers'
screens, and it's where you go to view and approve or
deny any request for which you are the approver (or
alternate approver).
- User preferences is where you go to turn on or off
e-mail notifications for yourself. Default is
"on." If you are an approver, this is where you
would go to designate alternate approvers and where you
can enter a 30 character description for yourself that
will appear on the pop-up approver lists within
documents.
- System reports is where any user can go to see
information on divisions that are set up, and who is
associated with those division.
So, now you've been lectured at
How does this thing really work?
Things to do now that you are a division administrator:
- Make doubly sure all your preparers know who the
approvers are, and under what circumstances each approver
should be chosen.
- Check with all your approvers to ensure they understand
the importance of the approvals they will be applying.
Make sure they know how to look up a preparer's name, how
to use the new system reports (division properties) tool
to see if the preparer should appropriately be preparing
documents for the division, and how to look up financial
policies on the web if necessary.
- Make sure you communicate regularly with your RRC manager
so that no one is surprised about potential problems with
the use of the system, or changes in department or
college policy.
- Regularly monitor your preparers' documents to ensure
they are routing documents to the approvers you expect
them to use under the circumstances, or if they are
experiencing difficulties with getting documents approved
in a timely manner. And regularly check with your
approvers to see if they are having any trouble
identifying documents, preparers, etc.
- Ensure that all your users know the expectations your
department or college has for timeliness of transactions
and approvals.
- Know that you should be involved in any audits that take
place of your financial data, especially if documents
from Financial FormsNirvana are selected as part of the
audit sample.
- Ensure that all your preparers and approvers receive any
necessary training.
- Know that Financial Systems Support is available to assist you when you need us! Call the Univesity Financial Helpline at (612) 624-1617.
What to expect once you are up and running for a while
You will need to add new view only users (your RRC manager
should be one!), and you will need to add new preparers and
approvers. Use the FNA form for this task. Log in to your own
account while the new person is sitting with you. Complete
the FNA request with the new user. Explain how your
department uses the system, and any special requirements you
have.
You may need to add new divisions. Currently you can do
this with the FNN form. Access your own account, complete an
FNN form.
There will be people leaving your division(s), and their
access will need to be deleted. You can use the FND form to
do this for each division to which they had access, or you
can have the user complete an FNA form, before they leave
your department, requesting that their access be removed.
Either way, once the form is submitted, the access is deleted
immediately by the system and everyone involved is notified
via e-mail.
For those who switch duties, and need access removed from
one division of the many to which they have access, that user
can also use the FNA form, or you can use the FND form to
remove their access for them. If, in an emergency (like
termination of an employee where the employee is escorted to
the exit in a hasty manner), you need assistance deleting
access for a user, contact FSS and we can make sure all the
user's access is deleted with as little pain as possible!
Each month you will receive a report listing all the users
in your divisions, and their levels of access. This report,
when combined with the reports available online (system
reports section), should provide you with enough information
to manage your users' access. If you need more information,
or suggestions on how to use the information, contact FSS.
Courtesy of Financial Systems Support, and the wonderful
people who bring you financial information every day (rain or
shine).
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