FinanceFinancial Management System (FMS) - Users & roles

General guidance

Financial Management System (FMS) allows a greater number of staff to: 

• create transactions
• approve these through online workflows
• manage budget accounts directly

Access to the system is managed on a number of levels and the sections below describe the different types of access that can be requested.

In all cases:

• the appropriate form should be completed this should be sent to financial-systems@strath.ac.uk
• the request should come either directly from the Head of Department (HoD) or the HoD should be copied in on the email request
• any queries about this process should also be directed to financial-systems@strath.ac.uk

Basic & additional (non-approver) roles

At the moment there is no automatic access allocated to FMS. Departments must raise a request that access be granted to staff and/or postgraduate research students.

There is a ‘basic’ role on FMS which allows users to raise requisitions and expenses.

Additional roles can be requested for users where necessary:

• raise sales orders
• raise journals and virements
• request new suppliers
• goods receipting - this is not available to individuals with fast track (see below)
• view detailed salary costs
• create new sub projects
• view masterfile details for projects and sub projects
• allow user to report on all sub projects within cost centres to which they have access
• restrict the user's reporting access to sub projects for which they are sub project manager
• allow the user to access to all cost centres within the department or restrict access to specific cost centre(s)

The FMS Request for Basic and Additional Access form can be used to request access for an individual or for multiple users where they all require the same access.

Approval roles

Most transactions require an Approver. This is often the Sub Project Manager of the sub project being charged (i.e. effectively the budget holder). Others may be involved in the approval workflow, depending on the type and value of the transaction.

The approval levels are summarised below:

Approval levels and their descriptions

Approval level	Description	Optional / Mandatory	Role/Individual
1. Fast Track (Up to and including £1,000)	Staff identified by HoD to be given Fast Track Approval status	Optional	Individual
2. Up to and including £10,000	Staff identified by HoD to be given delegated authority up to £10k	Optional (Held against cost Centre	Roles
3. Greater than £10,000 (if levels 1 & 2 filled) to £25,000	Sub-Project Manager	Mandatory (Held against Sub-Project)	Individual
4. Between £25,000.01 and £50,000	Project Manager	Mandatory (Held against Project)	Individual
5. Between £50,000.01 and £100,000	Cost Centre Manager	Mandatory (Held against Cost Centre)	Role
6. Between £100,000.01 and £250,000	Head of Department /PS Director	Mandatory (Held against Cost Centre)	Role
7. Between £250,000.01 and £500,000	Dean / University Secretary and Compliance Officer / Chief Commercial Officer / Director of Finance	Mandatory (Held against Cost Centre)	Role
8. Between £500,000.01 and £5,000,000	Chief Financial Officer or Vice Principal	Mandatory	Role
9. Over £5,000,000	Chief Financial Officer and Vice Principal	Mandatory	Role

There are additional approval roles that can be set up:

• Delegated Authority
• Fast Track Approval
• Substitutes
• Supervisors

Delegated authority

Departments may choose to identify individual staff who should have delegated authority to approve certain transactions up to £10,000. This will reduce the volume of transactions requiring approval by Sub Project Managers.

The Request for Delegated Authority can be used for this. A Supervisor must also be identified for each member of staff (see note on Supervisors below).

• this should be sent to financial-systems@strath.ac.uk
• the request should come either directly from the Head of Department, or the Head of Department should be copied in on the email request

Fast track approval (optional, applies to requisition process only)

Departments may choose to identify certain staff who should have Fast Track approval. Requisitions under £1,000 raised by staff with Fast Track approval status will not require further approval.

Use the Request for Fast Track Approval to request this.

• this should be sent to financial-systems@strath.ac.uk
• the request should come either directly from the Head of Department, or the Head of Department should be copied in on the email request

Substitutes (mandatory, applies to all processes)

For all staff with an approval role on the FMS, it will be necessary to set up substitutes:

• if you have an approval role, your substitute must have equal or greater approval rights than you
• generally people will only have one substitute but it is possible to have multiple substitutes
• complete the FMS Request for Basic and Additional Access form to request substitutes
• this form should then be sent to financial-systems@strath.ac.uk by the Head of Department, or the Head of Department should be copied in on the email request

Activating a substitute

Staff can activate relevant substitutes by selecting from the list of substitutes on an as-required basis. For example, when staff are due to be absent would select a relevant substitute from list for the relevant period.

When substitutes are active for a user, the task goes to all active substitutes, for any one of them to action.
More information is available on Substitutes.

Supervisors & limits (optional, applies to all processes)

For all staff with an approval role, it will be necessary to set limits above which they cannot approve their own transactions and a supervisor who transactions above the limit will be directed to. Note, the limit for Expenses will always be zero (i.e. no self-approval)

Where the person raising the requisition is also the person due to approve, the requisition will be directed instead to the supervisor. Unless the amount is less than the limit set - see below regarding proposed limits. All staff with an approval role will require a supervisor.

Supervisors:

• your supervisor must have equal or greater approval rights than you
• as a default, all approvers have been set up with the HoD as the Supervisor
• it will be important to identify alternative Supervisors to the HoD where possible to reduce volume of transactions to HoD
• alternative supervisors for each approver can be requested (note only one supervisor can be set per approver)

Limits:

• all approvers in departments where there are staff with Fast Track will have limits set to £1,000 (so that they have at least the same authorisation options as the staff with Fast Track)
• all approvers in departments where there are no staff with Fast Track will have limits set to £0 (i.e. they will not have the option to approve any of the requisitions etc. that they are raising).
• limits for approval of expenses will always be zero i.e. an individual cannot approve their own expenses; if no limit is set in the system the system will treat as zero

Use the FMS Request for Basic and Additional Access form to set up supervisors.

• once completed, this should be sent to financial-systems@strath.ac.uk
• the request should come either directly from the Head of Department, or the Head of Department should be copied in on the email request

Proxies (optional, applies only to expenses)

Proxies will be used only for Expenses. Departments may choose to identify certain staff who can act as a proxy to input (but not approve) their Expense Claims. Proxies are generally used for Head of Department and above.

Use the FMS Request for Basic and Additional Access form to request this.

• once completed, this should be sent to financial-systems@strath.ac.uk
• the request should come either directly from the Head of Department, or the Head of Department should be copied in on the email request

Leavers and/or removal of access

Leavers

Staff and students lose their access to the system automatically when their DS account is closed.

An email alert is sent to the relevant Cost Centre managers to identify when a leaver has an approval role on FMS. For example, a Sub Project Manager, Project Manager or Supervisor leaves the University. These alerts include leavers who:

• have a Substitute (tasks will be picked up by the Substitute if active, but Cost Centre Managers are reminded that they should consider the roles that the leaver held)
• are a Supervisor (Cost Centre Manager is asked to identify a new Supervisor for staff)
• are a Substitute (Cost Centre Manager asked to identify a new substitute)
• have Outstanding Tasks (Cost Centre Manager asked to email Help Desk to reassign tasks to named individuals)
• have a Workflow Role (Cost Centre Manager asked to complete Access Forms for replacements in the role if necessary)
• have Fast Track (Cost Centre Manager asked to complete Access Forms for replacements in the role if necessary)
• are a Project Manager (Cost Centre Manager asked to contact the Finance Business Partner/ Management Accountant - Professional Services)
• are a Sub project Manager (Cost Centre manager advised that the Department can assign a new Sub project Manager)

Removal of access

If access is to be removed from an individual an email to financial-systems@strath.ac.uk from the Head of Department (or copied to the Head of Department) will suffice.

Access reports

A number of reports have been produced to allow departments to enquire about the access rights that have been allocated to staff.

A Users and Roles - Guidance Notes spreadsheet has also been developed.

The first two tabs on the spreadsheet - ‘Notes’ and ‘Approval Roles’ – provide general information about how access is managed on FMS through the assignment of roles.

The reports are as follows:

How access is managed on FMS through assignment of roles

Report	Where to Find it on the FMS Menu	Purpose
Users and Roles	Standard Dept. Reports	Identifies all users and the roles they have. Allows departments to review users and roles.
Cost Centre included in Roles	Your reports	Identifies all roles related to a Cost Centre and which Cost Centres are included in each role (i.e. provides additional information around some of the roles from 'Users and Roles' report
Users with Fast track relation	Standard Dept. Reports	Identifies all staff in cost centres user has access to with Fast Track
Project information	Your Reports	Identifies all Projects in Cost Centres that a user has access including the Project Manager (and other details).
Sub Project information	Your Reports	Identifies all Sub Projects in cost centres user has access including the Sub Project Manager (and other details)