Before you start
It is good practice to start by thinking about what tasks or activities each person needs to perform. Access should be considered on a case by case basis, reflecting the specific duties of the individual, rather than based on another person’s access.
Taking this approach enables departments to ensure that access is managed in line with the two principles:
- Access must only be granted to those that need it (and removed as soon as it is not needed).
- Access must be limited to the minimum needed to deliver the role, including appropriate approval and journal limits. Edit access should only be granted where the user needs to carry out transaction activity; otherwise enquiry (read-only) access should be used.
To help with this:
- Guidance of which roles to request is available based on what users need to do.
- Additional guidance on which activities are available to which role can be found in the Activities by Role document.
- The Guide to the Purchasing Position Hierarchy may also help in determining the correct position in the purchasing hierarchy.
- You can request an up to date schematic drawing of your purchasing hierarchies and/or General Ledger (GL) journal supervisors and limits hierarchies from FSSC.
Note: the team have to put these diagrams together manually so please allow sufficient time when requesting these.
When requesting access, segregation of duties should also be considered. This is a key principle of financial control aiming to reduce the risk of error and fraud by breaking down processes so that no single person is responsible for every stage. Requests for access creating conflicts (such as self-approval of purchase requisitions) are flagged to Financial Assurance who will contact the department to discuss these and the alternative access options available. Ultimately Director of Finance approval is needed before this access will be granted.
Requesting access to Oracle Financials
To request access, complete the appropriate form for Oracle R12 Department User Access, or Oracle R12 Central User Access. This can be done by the person requesting access, their line manager, the department’s finance team, or by the department’s authorised signatory for Oracle access. This form can be used to:
- Request access for a new user – this may be a new starter resulting from a change of responsibilities for an existing staff member.
To speed up the set up process access can be requested for new starters at the University before they are in post. This means that their account will be set up in advance. Whilst access is not released until training is complete, training courses for new starters can also be booked in advance by emailing the training team so these are scheduled for when the new starter arrives.
Note: Limiting access to University members only
To ensure access is only granted to Oracle Financials for members of the University, the following are required before access will be granted:
- Oxford Username (Single Sign On) - created when a University Card is requested;
- CoreHR number - this applies to all users, including students and temporary staff.
- Request changes to access for an existing user - see maintaining access.
- Reinstate Oracle access for a returning user - if a user has previously had an Oracle Financials account please select the “Reinstate Oracle R12 access for a returning user”.
Please note access requests are valid for three months from submission before being cancelled, if the relevant training is not completed within this time another request form will need to be submitted.
For additional help on completing the form, please see the How to guidance on completing the form.
Tip: Include requesting Oracle access in your department's HR process for new starters
Approval of the request
An appropriate authorised signatory for Oracle access from the department should be selected from the drop-down list. Please note that it is advisable to seek divisional approval for Head of Administration and Finance access.
Tip: Drop-down list returns all authorised signatories and will not scroll
If the drop-down list returns all authorised signatories for Oracle access, including those outside your department you will need to clear your web browser's cache and restart the request.
If the problem persists, or you need advice on how to do this, please contact the FSSC Helpdesk .
The authoriser receives email notification when the form is submitted, and should review, consider and approve the request if appropriate. This submits the form to the Financial Services Support Centre (FSSC) team.
Upon receipt of the approved User Access form, the FSSC will check the form, and, if necessary, contact the department to follow up any queries before creating the new account.
Note: Training and access requests creating conflicts
- Training must be completed before access is released;
- Requests creating conflicts (e.g. ability to breach segregation of duties) will require Director of Finance approval and compensating controls must be in place.
Forms
Access requests are managed via a series of forms:
Use this form to:
- add up to five users to Oracle who only require shopper or reviewer access (UO iProcurement – Shopper, £0.01p & UO iProcurement – Reviewer £0.02p)
Use this form to:
- request access to Oracle R12 for a new user working within a Department
- request access for an existing user changing Department
- request additional access, or amend existing access for a user working within a Department
- reinstate Oracle R12 access for a returning Departmental user
- amend or remove an end date on a temporary Oracle R12 account for an existing Departmental user
Use this form to:
- request access to Oracle R12 for a new user working within a Central Finance
- request access for an existing Central Finance user changing Department or Team
- request additional access, or amend existing access for a user working within Central Finance
- reinstate Oracle R12 access for a returning Central Finance user
- amend or remove an end date on a temporary Oracle R12 account for an existing Central Finance user
Use this form to add or remove yourself as an Authorised Signatory for financial systems (Oracle Financials, BFT, and eExpenses).
Use this form to request access to the following systems or tools:
- SplashGL related access
- SplashXL
- Month End Dashboard
- User Access Dashboard
- User Access Reports (in Oracle Financials)
- Budgeting and Forecasting Tool (BFT)
Use this form to remove access to the following systems or tools:
-
SplashGL related access
- SplashXL
- Month End Dashboard
- User Access Dashboard
- User Access Reports (in Oracle Financials)
- Budgeting and Forecasting Tool (BFT)
If you require further assistance please contact the FSSC .
