1. Capsa and Best Practices
Heads of Groups meeting 18th April 2000

2. Heads of Groups: Best Practices
Agenda
Items for discussion
1. Best Practice -- effects on groups
2. Approvals
3. Security
4. Grants Administration
27-Apr-19
Heads of Groups: Best Practices

3. Background - Capsa organizations.
The University has been set up as three-tier organization hierarchy:
1. University ( / Pension Fund / ???)
2. Department
3. “Cost centre” -- library, admin, workshop, research group …
All employees are member of an organization, not necessarily at the lowest level.
Everyone that uses Capsa has to be an “employee”, even if not paid by the University.
27-Apr-19
Heads of Groups: Best Practices

4. Heads of Groups: Best Practices
Capsa will place a significant obligation on groups to abide by “Best Practice”.
Best practices are required so that we can satisfy sponsors, HEFCE, and our auditors.
Best practices require a real effort from the groups.
Conformance to best practice is currently very variable. Some groups approach it very closely, others have a very long way to go.
Capsa will facilitate best practice: best practice does not require Capsa, and should be a priority regardless of the Capsa implementation schedule.
Capsa and best practice will inevitably lead to a convergence of approach between groups. Group structures may need to change!
27-Apr-19
Heads of Groups: Best Practices

5. Heads of Groups: Best Practices
Group financial roles
(Requestor)
eventually most staff/students
Buyer
find supplier
identify source of funds
raise Purchase Order
Receiver
register receipt
check goods
register statutory items
arrange returns
Invoice approval
receive invoices from accounts
check, approve, update equipment register
Miscellaneous
quotes, expenses, credit cards
Status of accounts
grants
non-grant -- overheads etc
27-Apr-19
Heads of Groups: Best Practices

6. Heads of Groups: Best Practices
- financial roles
Complications
Timeliness -- very fast turnaround required on some matters, such as EEC reporting (11 days from receipts of invoice).
VAT awareness
Tax issues on expenses claims -- receipts etc (employee liable to income tax if not right)
Tax issues when purchasing services (University can be fined £3000 if we get it wrong!)
CIS24 records (construction work)
asset register for items over £10,000
At present, these issues only surface when goods / invoice received. For many groups, problems cleared up by Accounts.
In future (Capsa-era) these issues must be dealt with when order raised.
The more complete and accurate the order is, the easier the rest of the process will be!
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Heads of Groups: Best Practices

7. … further complications
Accounting/legal
(University) commitment is registered when order is placed, and will feed through to statutory accounts. The source of funds has to be identified at this time.
There will be no “control” (suspense) accounts.
Training
Capsa is very powerful. It is not simple, but probably is not much more complicated than it needs to be.
Capsa is probably not suitable for “occasional use”, at least not as a way of learning the system.
Users will be professionally trained -- it is unlikely that users will be able just to “pick it up” by casual observation of another user.
27-Apr-19
Heads of Groups: Best Practices

8. Heads of Groups: Best Practices
Purchasing models
1. Current model.
Most financial functions exercised by a single person -- e.g. P&C (Meg Staff).
The person needs authority to allocate expenditures to grants, overhead accounts etc.
Requires excellent staff.
2. Centralised purchasing.
We could set up a purchasing section in (say) Stores for all purchases
increased bureaucracy
goods would take longer to come
someone would still have to allocate a source of funds for each purchase
But
improved efficiency
reduced costs
3. Collaboration between groups.
Groups that are too small to support someone like Meg Staff essentially full-time could share a purchaser / financial person.
27-Apr-19
Heads of Groups: Best Practices

9. Heads of Groups: Best Practices
Approvals
Capsa allows us to limit the amount that can be requested / committed by any individual without approval from a supervisor.
1. Do we want to use this facility?
2. If so, what should the limits be?
3. Who should be the approver? (approval only possible from inside the application).
4. Do we want to set a blanket upper limit for the department above which some approval is required?
5. If so, what it should be, and who should approve it?
6. What about absences?
27-Apr-19
Heads of Groups: Best Practices

10. Heads of Groups: Best Practices
Security
Two sorts of security:
Organization: Employees can only see purchase orders etc generated within their organization.
Key member / Responsibility: For Grants, employees can only see grants on which they are a named key member, or hold an appropriate grants responsibility -- such as “LK OptoElectronics Grants Admin”.
Is this going to work for your group?
If not, can you adapt?
27-Apr-19
Heads of Groups: Best Practices

11. Grants administration
Access to grants controlled by “responsibility”:
1. RGCS Admin -- can see all grants.
2. Department Admin -- can see all grants in the department.
3. Department Accounts -- can charge expenditures to grants (as with journals in the previous system).
4. Group Admin -- can see all grants in the research group.
5. “P.I.” -- can see all grants on which he/she is a named member.
Who should have Group Administrator responsibility?
27-Apr-19
Heads of Groups: Best Practices