Module 233 - System- Offices and Users (Rev2).ppsx

INTERNAL TRAININGModule Number 233 AMIS Imperium SystemRev 2 18/01/09

Rev 2 18/01/091System

This module gives details on the system functionally of the program.

It covers

Details of velosi offices How Currencies affect the systemHow staff are registeredAnd lastly how the intercompany rates are stored.

The system area was originally selected directly for the main menu. However to simplify the navigation individual parts now found in other parts of the menu.

It is necessary to set up some of the system items before a new office can start using AMIS, failure to get the system elements correct will mean that data may not interact correctly with other parts of the system.

It is therefore important that, who ever is appointed as manager level security, checks all of these parts of the system as it is this level of security that is required for most of the system elements.

Although it is the manager level security that is responsible it is important that all users at least understand the principals.

If you find something that is missing then please contact you own local manager level security person, NOT the system administrator.

2Office Detail & Adding

Lets start with the offices. Section

The offices area is the area which holds all the details regarding each velosi office using the system, this is because many different offices all use the same system and the data is filtered according to staff members which are allocated to a particular office.

Only The System Administrator can create a new office. However what the Administrator will do is create the office record and leave the data fields blank for the Country Manager to fill in.

Once the office record is created it is the responsibility of the manager of that office to complete all the missing data.

Enter the data as prompted noting that the filters and data verification apply.

Enter the Company name as you wish it to appear in printouts such as reports invoicing schedules etc

Enter the Contact Name of the main country / office contact - normally the Country Manager.

Enter the full address of the office, again this is the detail that will appear on invoices printouts etc use commas to separate any parts.

Enter the name of the city, town etc for the office

State/County: Enter the state, county, area or province

Country: Select the country form the drop down

Post Code: enter the postal code. Zip code or other postal reference.

---------------------Phone/ Fax and email: enter the relevant details, it is suggested that you use the full international format for the numbers as again, these are used in printouts reports and invoices so it is important that the data is accurate. The email would normally be the managers or a generic email address if you have one such as info1@velosi.com

Web site: enter the web address only if you have one different to the www.velosi.com

Many of the field are mandatory and Leaving out data in the contact details or address may mean that information sent to you via the system may not arrive.

You will note that there are 3 separate fields for the bank details, this is to enable you to enter up to 3 separate bank accounts if you require.

This is particularly important data as it is used in the generation of invoices and hence needs to be the information necessary for clients to make payments to you. Hence it needs to reference the bank details accounts numbers swift code etc

Company registration: your legal registration number, again used for invoicing purposes.

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Invoicing prefix: this is used in invoicing it has been decided that the system will NOT auto generate invoice numbers because it is considered that most office have an internal invoice register , within their own accounting package or excel. This register will contain records of not only, vendor inspection invoices, but all invoices issued by a particular office, hence if the system did generate invoice numbers automatically it might have overlapped with any existing systems creating duplicate invoice numbers. However you may use a unique prefix that you use in all invoices and to save typing it each time you can add it here.

Tax number: this is your tax code or reference number, again shown on invoices.

Lastly you will note a field for Preferred currency. It is particularly important that you understand how this affects the data which you view. Currencies in general are more fully explained below, however this field is specifically linked to the office record which in turn is linked to your user account. The preferred currency is the currency that your office normally uses, I.e. the currency that you normally think in terms of, or is dominant in your office. Once selected this is the currency that all currency figures will be displayed in. In other words if you select your preferred currency as US$ and you, for instance, view an inspector who agreed rates are in Euros the system will show you the rates in Euros but also convert them into your preferred currency, in this case US$.

This allows you to have a better understanding of the figures immediately without having to do the mental conversions all the time.

It should be made clear that the preferred currency does not necessarily define the currency's fro invoicing etc. this is set separately and will be further explained later.

3Office Search

Once the office has been created you have the facility to search for it.

Note that the security levels apply to offices details and you may be able to see other offices details but not edit them.

The search functionality relative to Boolean searches and the AND connectivity between search fields is fully explained in module 250 and applies to this search.

Once the results are returned it is possible to edit delete copy of review the data entry (again the security levels apply).

Only the System Administrator has the ability to remove an office from the system.

4Office Edit

A record can be edited (with the correct security level) to change the data.

However you will note that some fields are greyed such as the creation date, and cannot be changed as these are system set.

When changing data within the system it should be noted that the changes are not made to the database until the save button is pressed.

If the save action is completed successfully you should get a confirmation message back.

As with all parts of the system, if you make changes to a record and try to navigate away from that page without saving, the system will NOT currently tell you that you have forgotten to save, and your data will be lost.

It is obviously important that changes to the office details are maintained so that new records created within the system carry the latest data.

5Currency

We have already briefly touched on currencies in the office section, regarding the preferred currency.

However it is necessary for you to fully understand how the currencies work. It is particularly important that your accounts staff also understand what is being done in the background of all the calculations so that they can understand what figures are being generated for them to use within their Management Accounts.

6Currency

The system generates the currency conversion rates automatically, every day form a third party conversion web site. Hence the currency exchange rates are constantly being updated.

The system actually has an array table which converts all the currencies against all the other currencies. Hence it converts 145 different currencies by all other 145 currencies, which is approximately 21,000 individual conversion rates at all times.

This allows the system to covert form one currency to another currency directly and it does not convert to a single base currency such as $ or hence variations are removed from all calculations.

Once you open the currency page you can do manual checks of the correct rates by simply selecting the rates required. It should default automatically to your preferred base currency.

7

Currency

The main areas where the currencies are used are within the budget calculations and invoicing sections.

As you can imagine the system has many different rates entered; whether theses are on the costs side, such as the inspectors rates, or on the sales side, such as the charge out rates to the client.

As an example when you are doing a budget calculation for a new assignment the inspector may be paid in Euros, the client charged in Dhirams and the coordinators preferred currency may be US$.

The system takes all of these into account when doing the budget calculation.

It will take the costs from the inspector and calculate them into a cost per visit, then it will calculate the charge out to the client based on the contract rates and calculate the charge out in the contractual currency, and then convert both of these into the preferred currency to show the profit figure. Hence the co-ordinator instantly knows what profit level he is making on a visit in his preferred currency in terms that he can readily understand.

When dealing with Work in Progress or WIP on both the cost and sales sides, the system will also show the actual costs in the currency, but against this it will display the figure in the preferred currency. Hence if a WIP cost report is run it will take all the costs of the inspectors and multiply them up using the hours booked and give a cost figure for that visit. It does this for each visit and will use the currency for each inspector in turn. It then calculates all of these visits back into the base preferred currency. Enabling the accounts to take a single figure into their books as work in progress.

For clarity it should be noted that these rates are not used for doing conversions for invoicing. The invoicing is based on the figures that are entered against the client. Hence if a client has agreed rates in Singapore Dollars then the system will raise the invoice in Singapore Dollars. It does not convert the invoice to the preferred base currency. This is done by the accounts department at the time they post the invoice into the accounts system and allows them the flexibility to use whichever exchange rate they require or consider favourable to the local situation.

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Intercompany rates

The intercompany rates is another section the you do not need to worry about too much, but you and the accounts staff need to understand how it work and affects the system.

The new AMIS is able to raise intercompany invoices between offices. It does this by raising a single invoice for all the current months work.

During the creation of the intercompany invoice the system uses the rates that are entered by the System Administrator at the beginning of the year. You are able to review these rates however only the System Administrator is able to amend them. He will do this once the figures for the next period have been agreed at Board level.

As you are probably aware the way in which the intercompany rates now work is that there is an agreed rate for each country which is used for all intercompany billing.

These agreed figures are simply held within the system.

9Users

This section of the module deals with user accounts.

All persons using the system need to have a user account without this it is impossible to log into the system. As previously mentioned each user needs their own account and they should not be shared.

There is a hierarchy used with regard to the creation of users. This is based on the security levels discussed in module 231. For instance, only the System Administrator can create the first Manager within an office, however that Manager can create additional Manger level user accounts, co-ordinator level users, clients users, inspector users, accounts and admin.

Coordinator level and below are not able to create new users.

10Staff

Each user account holds all the data relevant to that user.

Well go through each of the fields.

Title: select between the options on the drop down.

Enter the First and Last Name.

Enter the Gender: the selection determines the icon identification.

Enter the persons position within the company or their job title, this is a free text field.

Enter the direct dial or switchboard number and any extension number.

Office: select the relevant office from the drop down. You cannot create a user for another office other than your own. The office selection helps determine what data is available to visit for each user. For example when viewing assignments, the system will only display assignments where the owner or coordinator of that assignment is from your office. Assignments for owners or coordinator form an alternative office will not be displayed.

Enter the email address this is very important as the alert system will use this address. Double check that the email address is correct as it is also used for the users login name and the password reminders. -------------------

Enter a password, this can be anything, however the usual rules on using control charterers such as the asterisks and & symbol apply to this filed.

Add the Address / City / Post Code / state / these should be the users home details and is more of and HR function than is used within AMIS.

Country: this is again used as a control filter elsewhere in the system so should be entered.

Mobile number: enter the company mobile number of the staff member, if they do not have a company mobile then they may not wish to have their personal number on the system, so it can be left blank.

The same applies to the home phone number, some staff are uncomfortable having this information available and again it can be left blank if preferred.

Birth date. This is just for reference. The entry is a popup calendar.

The staff member may have a document rubber stamp, if they have one, the number and any prefix should be entered, this is to allow searches on the system as to who stamped any particular document.

The Leaving date is applicable when a staff member leaves the company or that office.

The Notes field is a memo field that can be used for any purpose, perhaps to track performance or audits or supervision etc.11Staff

As the numbers of users increases it becomes more difficult to scroll through the list of all staff it is therefore better to select some search criteria to narrow the results of and search. You can do this by using any of the available fields. Searches can also be completed by using multiple fields.

12Staff

Once the search is completed you can then select the specific record you need. You are able to perform several functions on the record, i.e. Edit / View or Delete, depending on your security level.

13Logging Out

When completed at the end of the day you should log out, this is particularly important if you are using a public computer.

14NextModule 232 Definitions and Conventions

This is the end of this training module on AMISs system functions, you may now go back and repeat an parts that you are clear on.

Once you are happy that you understand all the elements explained, you can complete the further modules which address additional parts.

The next module in sequence is 232.15