Overview: About Financial Authority @ Stanford
Financial authority is used to limit what information an employee can access, what systems they can use, and what they can approve in Stanford's Financial Systems.
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Stanford's Authority Management System
Stanford developed a web-based system called Authority Manager to grant authority across many financial systems used on campus including Oracle Financials, ReportMart3, PeopleSoft HR, ReportMart, and Kronos Time and Leave Reporting System. Authority Manager allows employees to:
- View authority assignments for themselves or others
- View all assigned authority records in an organization
- As authorized, grant, change or revoke financial authority to others
To grant authority to another employee, grantors need to specify the grantees organization(s), role or responsibility, and limits (i.e., access to specific projects, project-task combinations, or awards, and dollar amount limits). To grant authority to others, grantors must have an equal or greater authority level themselves and have the "can grant" condition associated with their authority assignment. A grant-only feature in Authority Manager provides the flexibility to identify an employee who can have the responsibility for granting authority to others to complete tasks, even though he or she may not have individual access to do the tasks.
For more information on how to use Authority Manager, take the Authority Manager Online Tutorial.
Types of Authority Privileges
Authority Manager uses privileges to define a specific task or set of tasks that can be granted to an employee. For example, the "administer leave" privilege gives an employee authority to access data and tasks required to administer time and leave records using the Kronos Time and Leave Reporting system.
This type of authority defines the types of transactions an employee is authorized to initiate or view in financial systems, including financial reporting tools.
- Granting authority to access systems DOES NOT automatically allow the grantee to use those systems.
- In some cases, requirements must be satisfied before system access is enabled.
- Reference Authority and Access Requirements for Using Stanford Financial Systems.
Oracle Financials systems are typically used by Stanford regular employees. On occasion, departments may need to request access for others required to perform work at Stanford. In such cases, the process used to authorize access to systems is different. For instructions, reference Resources & Job Aids: Requesting Oracle Access for Non-Employee Students, Hospital Employees, and Temporary Employees.
Approval authority is defined in terms of the types of transactions an employee can approve, within what organizations, for what specific Projects, Tasks, or Awards, and within what dollar limits.
- Oracle Financials System approvers (i.e., iBudget, iJournal, Internet Procurement, iOU, Labor Distribution, and PCard) are required to take and pass the online test component of ORA-1101: Cost Policy & Chart of Accounts training.
- To learn more about the Oracle Financials System approval process, see Overview: Approving Financial Transactions in Oracle – About Workflow.
Reporting authority specifies the data that an employee is authorized to view via reports and queries. For example in ReportMart3, there are several different types of reporting authority which may be assigned; Basic Enterprise Reporting, Reporting Salary View, and Reporting Non-Salary View. Salary view allows access to financial activity including detailed salary information. Non-Salary view allows access to financial activity excluding detailed salary information (shows only summarized salary information, not individual salary details). Certain salary-related reports will only show on the ReportMart3 report list for users with the correct privilege (e.g., SU LD Distribution Adjuster privilege granted to school/department Payroll Administrators).
- Granting authority to access reports DOES NOT automatically allow the grantee to use the reporting system.
- In some cases, requirements must be satisfied before system access is enabled. For example, prior to gaining access to ReportMart3, users must sign a Confidentiality Agreement.
- Reference Authority and Access Requirements for Using Stanford Financial Systems.
To learn how authority is granted for ReportMart3, the Oracle Financials reporting tool, see Quick Steps: Grant Authority for Oracle Financials Reporting.