FMS - Approver Guidance

Role and Responsibilities of the Sub Project Manager

Sub project managers are responsible for managing the income and expenditure for their sub project within the agreed budget. They are accountable to the relevant Head of Department, Executive Dean or Senior Officer for this budget and should ensure that funds are used only for the purposes for which they are allocated.  Please see Key Controls Checklist produced by Internal Audit for further information.

Further information on sub projects including types of project, project and sub project structure, how to create new sub projects and make changes to sub projects can be found here.

Budget Statement Reports

The budget statement reports provide information to the sub project manager to allow them to manage their budgets. These should be reviewed on a regular basis by Sub Project Managers for the purposes of examining income and expenditure transactions, checking the accuracy of coding, assessing budget variances and overall financial position. Detailed guidance on the Budget Statement reports can be found here. See also a brief summary here.

Approving FMS Tasks

Please see table below re Approval Roles – Guidance.

Substitutes

At times when you are not in the University please ensure that you set up a substitute who will take on temporary responsibilities for approving transactions in your absence.  Substitutes are already built in to FMS and instructions on who should act as your substitute and how to set up a substitute on FMS can be found here.

Supervisors

For all staff with an approval role it is necessary to set limits above which they cannot approve their own transactions. In these circumstances the transaction will be approved by the approver’s supervisor. Note, the limit for Expenses will always be zero (i.e. no self-approval). Where the person raising the requisition etc. 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 re proposed limits). Therefore, all staff with an approval role will require a supervisor. Further information on Supervisors can be found here.

Table – Who Approves different transactions?

Table – Approval Roles - Guidance

Table – Other FMS Roles – Guidance

Table – Procurement Approval Roles, Thresholds and Notes

Appendix 1 Budget Statement Report and other Useful Reports