By Michael Boldiston
Given that ProMaster Version 7 has now been in place for some months, it occurred to the team here at Inlogik that perhaps it was time to look at all the key functions that have changed/been added in the past few versions. Moreover, taking all these changes into account, it is high time to take a look at how we believe ProMaster should be used in an end-to-end sense.
To that end, we will devote a substantial part of this issue to the topic of optimal or best practice usage - in our view at least! This is easier to tackle by breaking it down by the types of users:
- Accountholders
- Supervisors
- Enterprise Controllers
Obviously every client is different, and as always we would be only too happy to visit onsite to review your ProMaster implementation, see how you use the system currently and investigate how a few minor changes in process could make a difference for you and your Accountholders.
So let's get into looking at system users and what can be done to improve their ProMaster experience!
Accountholders
Being the most common user, it's critical that this group is not only correctly trained, but that their access to the system is as simple and effective as it can be. Which is exactly what the following suggestions are all about trying to achieve! Some of these suggestions may not be switched on for your instance, however, if anything sounds as though it may be useful and/or time-saving, have a chat with your Enterprise Controller and I'm sure it can be organised. So, in no particular order, let's look at their top five!
1. Use the 'GST Split' function to automatically split mixed transactions to two lines.
This is a relatively new function to ProMaster. When you are entering an expense for a transaction, often you will find that the calculated GST amount doesn't match what you have on your receipt. Normally this would involve manually splitting the transaction line and calculating values for each line. With this function switched on, users can simply enter the tax amount on line 1, and the system will ask if they wish to split to taxable/non-taxable components. A simple 'Yes' will automatically split a second line out, duplicate the coding, description and expense type. It's a real time saver!
2. Try using the Fast-Track Home Page.
This view of the homepage provides the ability to verify transactions against Simple Expense Types without leaving the screen. Even for those clients where a number of breakdown expense types are used when verifying, we have found that Accountholders save valuable time by using the Fast Track view to verify those transactions they can, and then revert to the traditional verification method. It also provides a 'statement-like' view of transactions for the selected Statement Period, which can be useful in reconciliation.
3. If you scan receipts, attach them in bulk through Document Control.
Attaching scanned receipts is in itself a fantastic way to increasing system efficiency, but until recently it was always a 'one-to-one' method - i.e. one scanned receipt was attached to one transaction in ProMaster. If, however, you use the Document Control Report to collate your monthly transactions, after producing the report you have the option to attach one or more scanned receipt files for all transactions on the report. So potentially a report with a few dozen transactions could have attached a single 'A3' size scanned image with all 24 receipts.
4. Use Expense Groups to save re-typing the Purpose.
New clients always ask us what the value of the Expense Group is when coding a transaction. Given that at first glance it just looks like a personal list for grouping like transactions, so it's a fair enough question. Those who use Expense Groups would also realise that selecting a Expense Group will also populate the Purpose field for a transaction. For people such as some of us here at Inlogik, where several transactions tend to be for the same event/function, it is a great time saver to be able to simply select an Expense Group and then type a description for each transaction.
5. Use 'Bulk Update' to code multiple items at once.
This is a function of the Fast Track homepage, and it does have limitations, but for 'power users' it can be very useful. If, for example, I have a trip to Sydney and have seven taxi trips - on the Fast Track page I can see and select all of them and hit 'Bulk Update'. I can then code and describe all seven in one panel! The only limitation of which to be aware is that this is a manually coded line only - that is, I cannot choose an Expense Type during Bulk Update.
Supervisors
For many reasons, it is often the Supervisors of a ProMaster instance who tend to be the bottleneck in the monthly processing cycle. More often than not they have a large number of subordinates and less time than most people to take care of the approvals. Hopefully the following provide some value in improving the speed and accuracy of Supervisor approvals.
1. Use the 'Hover Over' at the start of each approval line for transaction details.
Voted by many as the best feature to be added recently, it can be turned-on by the EC by going to 'Configuration Settings' > 'Approval' and checking the 'Approvals - Show Details' box. Thereafter, Supervisors will see a blue box with a question-mark at the front of each transaction line in their approval panel. Moving your mouse over the question mark will pop-up a small screen showing the full coding and any breakdowns associated with the line. This is a massive benefit for Supervisors who would otherwise have to click on the magnifying glass for each line to get the full details prior to approval. It also legitimises the 'Select All' and 'Approve' buttons - after hovering over all the approvals down the page, a supervisor can quite rightly click these two buttons in turn to speed up their work.
2. Query back, don't fix things yourselves.
This sounds simple, and is obviously 'best practice', but you'd be amazed how easy it is to fall back to bad habits at busy times. The end-of-month process can be hectic for everyone, and the temptation is always there for Supervisors to fix coding/description errors themselves rather than query them back to Accountholders. Whilst doing so will always be quicker, it will also negate the single most important training tool for your Accountholders - feedback. Unless users know they are not getting something right, they will just keep making the same mistake! So query it back to them, and the cycle of feedback will do it's job for next month and beyond.
3. View your Accountholders' Document Control Reports online.
As of a recent amendment, Supervisors can now view any of the Document Control reports created by their subordinates. This is very useful in not just viewing submitted transactions and their coding, but it is also the method via which a Supervisor can view scanned receipts attached to a user's DCR (see point 3 in Accountholders above).
4. Use the Expense Type Report to assist in departmental budgeting, (perhaps even schedule it).
One of the least used areas of ProMaster is the reporting. ProMaster has over 70 stock reports allowing in-depth investigation of just about anything. One of the key uses for Supervisors is for assisting in setting/reviewing budgets for areas of expenditure. Given that Accountholders are already using Expense Types to select a category of spend, the Supervisor can run an Expense Type report and view a person or team's spend in, say Domestic Airfares over a defined period. Very useful in working out what you wanted to spend versus what you have!
5. Use Statement Periods when viewing lists/reports.
It's easy to enter a Start and End date on one of any number of ProMaster screens and think you're viewing the same list/report as someone else. However, it only takes a day one way or the other and figures don't match. Using Statement periods ensure that everyone is comparing apples-with-apples. If you select (for example) 'July-09', you can be confident that you are seeing the right number and totals of transactions in any screen/report.
Enterprise Controllers
As the administrators of ProMaster, it is vitally important that anything that can be done is done to improve the administrative overhead. Over the past 12-18 months, there have been several system changes specifically targeted at EC's in their daily role. The addition of 'page' numbers for lists, providing navigation at the top and bottom of lists and scheduled reports to name a few.
1. Use the Temporary Authority Assignment button on the User List.
All too often, someone you desperately need to verify their transaction(s) just happens to be away when you need them. Whilst it's always recommended that you assign another person their authority to do the work, occasionally the EC will need to assume the Accountholder authority directly, just for a short time, to complete an action. In the User List, the very last icon will assign the EC Accountholder authority for the listed user for a single day - in one click. Given that it used to take 8 clicks and 3 screens, it's proven to be a real winner amongst our administrators.
2. Trim your Expense Types List by using Breakdowns to group similar expenditure.
Expense breakdowns have long been used solely to allow accurate reporting of FBT. However, if you have several associated GL accounts, say, 5 types of maintenance, it is far better to create a breakdown where the Expense Type is simply 'Maintenance' and the breakdown that pops up then allows the user to specify which of the 5 types they are costing against. In setting this up, you would also remove the normal participant selection part of the breakdown, meaning a simple screen is presented. The two biggest benefits of this are a smaller Expense Type list, and still achieving the Expense Types' primary goal of saving users having to manually enter an account code.
3. Use Admin Centres and Locations in filtering the User List.
Another simple one, but not everyone seems to take advantage of the feature. When viewing the User List, you can filter on either one or both of Location and/or Admin Centre. So if you have a User list of many hundreds of people, but you wish to perform the same operation to several staff in one location, just filter the list and select them all on the one screen. The best example is if a new supervisor needs to be allocated for people in one location - just filter, select them all and then perform a bulk update.
4. Use Admin Centre and Divisional Controllers.
Whilst Accountholders and Supervisors are common to every ProMaster instance, the Admin Centre Controllers and Divisional Controllers are far less frequently used. Divisional Controllers are like 'mini-EC's', but they are limited to only being able to perform User List functions, and only for their specific Admin Centre. So if you have a large number of people, and wish to decentralise the administration of new users/accounts based on your Company Structure, think about setting up some Divisional Controllers to distribute the administration. Even assigning DC's within the accounts department can be a useful strategy to spread the EC workload. Admin Centre Controller is a reporting security group generally given to senior personnel who wish to have an overview of the expenditure over a larger area than their direct subordinates. Common examples are MD's or CEO's who want to see everything from a reporting point of view, but obviously would not normally be given EC level access to achieve that.
5. Schedule a 'queried transactions' email.
A common complaint from Accountholders is that they receive an email reminding them that they have transactions to process before the end of month, when in fact they believe they did all their required duties yesterday! Inevitably, it will be a queried transaction from their Supervisor that has come back to them with a question, rather than a new transaction that just happens to hit the system the day before month-end processing. Given that most people schedule only one or two reminders a month anyway, it is entirely possible that the text of the reminder will be generic and not take into account this scenario - further confusing the Accountholder! This is easily solved by creating a scheduled email that goes out each morning for a few days either side of month-end that is specifically sent for those with queried transactions. That way, those with normal transactions aren't included, and you can tailor the text of the email to be along the lines of "... your supervisor has queried a transaction back to you for amendment/comment..." so that they completely understand what's going on.
As I mentioned at the top of this article, every client is different, and I would hope that the great majority of our clients have adopted at least some of the above-mentioned strategies/functions already, but if we can give people even one new thing to improve the system by only 1-2% ... then it's a worthwhile exercise.
If you have any questions regarding your ProMaster instance, please contact us.