A fund approval hierarchy (FAH) allows you to require up to four levels of approval for a given edit test. You can define separate and distinct tolerance thresholds for each approval level for tolerance based edit tests.With a fund approval hierarchy, you can define the approval role levels used for Control Center edits and can assign an approval level to an edit test, such that edit does not clear until all defined Eagle users in the approval hierarchy verify the edit. The approval process, in turn, can use the fund approval hierarchy to help you approve edits more efficiently based on approval hierarchy role levels and to view edits based on approval hierarchy role levels.
Understand Approval Statuses
Certain edit tests require manual business review, while other edit tests do not require manual business review. An edit test result can display the following statuses in Control Center:
- Cleared. Cleared results were cleared by the Eagle system.
- Approved. Approved results were reviewed and manually approved, with notes, by an Eagle user.
- Unapproved Unapproved results are edit tests that are still raised and require manual or systematic attention.
- N/A, N/A or not applicable, indicates that the edit test is not defined for that approval role level.
Understand User Roles
When you create a fund approval hierarchy, you can set up user roles that correspond to the available approval levels from 1 to 4. You can change the role names and descriptions. The default roles provided include:
- Annotator (Role 0), used only with dual approvals
- Preparer (Role 1)
- Reviewer (Role 2)
- Accounting Manager (Role 3)
- Unit Manager (Role 4)
You can change the role name and description for your business. You do not need to use all the levels in your hierarchy. After you create user roles, you can assign specific user roles to specific Eagle users. Once you assign a user role to an Eagle user, that Eagle user can approve edits that break a tolerance at their assigned approval role level or at a lower level. For more information, see Manage User Roles and Set Up Eagle Users for Fund Approval Hierarchies.
Understand the Highest Approval Level That an Edit Test Requires
At a minimum, the systematic accounting checks that Control Center provides demand one level of business approval as long as the user role level meets, or is above, the error tolerance level that was raised. Within each edit test that uses the fund approval hierarchy, you can configure up to four approval levels required for business review. Eagle provides a set of FAH edit tests designed for use with a fund approval hierarchy.
For tolerance related edit tests, you can configure separate and distinct thresholds for each role level. You can set up and change the approval levels based on your current and future business needs. You can also set up error severity based on role level. For example, you can specify an error severity as a warning (LOW) or an error (HIGH) at the edit test level. If not assigned, the system uses the default error severity from the error dictionary. You can also assign a warning (LOW) or an error (HIGH) at the individual error tolerance level.
For more information, see Manage Approval Levels for FAH Edit Tests.
writers note: need more info about tolerance and error severity changes.
Understand Approvals for Sign-Off Edits
A user-level option allow Eagle users with certain rights the ability to approve Sign-Off edits (Transaction, Valuation and Audit Sign off edits), similar to the allowance to clear prior period edits. Status sign-off edit tests allow you to ensure that approval role levels 1 and 2 completed the necessary review for a fund. For more information, see Manage Status Sign-Offs.
Approve Edits with the Fund Approval Hierarchy
When you use a fund approval hierarchy, Control Center allows you to approve edits in a sequential role level manner, disabling higher level approvals until the lower level approvals are complete. As a result, an edit test result can show multiple approval statuses that correspond to different required approval levels. For example, say you require four levels of business approval for an edit test. The lowest reviewer in the hierarchy reviewed and approved the edit, but the higher reviewers in the hierarchy did not yet review the edit. In this case the edit has an Approved status at the lowest level of the fund approval hierarchy and it has an Unapproved status at the three higher levels of the fund approval hierarchy.
Control Center allows you to view data based on its approval status,in addition to other criteria.
- The Fund Group Summary view displays the Fund Group Summary results only by Control Center composite. You can view a count of the edits approved or not approved at each role level by a set status. You can view all edits at the entity level, transaction status, valuation status, or audit status by accounting date.
- The Fund Group Details view allows you to view by your approval user role level and to approve or unapprove edit test results at a specified level of the fund approval hierarchy. You can also view a history of approval notes from an edit test result.
- The Edit Test Results view shows all Control Center edits or allows you to review results based on the edit’s approved, cleared, or unapproved status. You can see the status of all edits and if they were approved by specific role level users. You can also view a history of approval notes from an edit test result.
Understand Approval Options
When you approve or unapprove edit test results, you can approve one or more results at a time. You can approve results at a single approval level or at multiple approval levels, based on your rights in User Administration. The approval and unapproval options follow:
- Approve As, Allows you to approve one or more selected edits at a specified approval role level. For example, you approve the edits as a Preparer (Role 1).
- Approve All As. Allows you to approve all edits shows on the page at a specified approval role level..
- Final Approval. Allows you to approve one or more edits at all role levels.
You can press the CTL key to select multiple rows. This option allows managers at upper levels of the fund approval hierarchy to approve an edit at multiple role levels at once, rather than approve at one level at a time in sequence - Final Approval of All. Allows you to approve all edits displayed in the page at all role levels.
- Unappprove As. Allows you to unapprove one or more selected approved edits at a specifed approval role level. For example, you unapprove the edits as a Preparer (Role 1).
- Unappprove All As. Allows you to unapprove all the approved edits in the page at a specified role level. This option is not available when you use dual approvals.
Understand the Approval History
Control Center allows you to use the Show Approval History option to see a list of the approvals and unapprovals for a selected edit test result. You can view the date of the approval or unapproval, the user name of the person who approved or unapproved the results, and the approval role level they used for the approval.
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