USG Finance System
USG has a web application that maintains records of student group organizations, members, and funding for these organizations. The web site is http://usg.case.edu/funding/
Contents
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[edit] History of the Finance System
USG created an ad-hoc IT commitee in 2004. This commitee was charged to use IT to help USG streamline its processes and make information about USG easily accessible for all members of the university. The first major product to come out of the IT committee was a complete replacement for USG's funded organization system. With the new system, records are all kept digitally and students and USG need not worry about filling out countless volumes of paperwork.
The Finance System originally started as just a replacement for the paper registration process, using forms to collect data and later pulling this collected data from a database. After time, the project snowballed into an accounts payable system for USG. The Finance System currently handles not only group registrations and membership, but also all of the finances for those groups. The only paper remaining is the physical submission of receipts to the USG staff assistant. The rest happens inside the Finance System. The only external interfacing done is by the USG Staff Assistant, who takes reimbursements from the Finance System and enters them into the university's accounts receivable system.
The USG Finance System is written in PHP 5 and was mostly coded by Gregory Szorc.
[edit] Using the Finance System
[edit] Logging In
To log in to the USG Finance System, go to http://usg.case.edu/funding/ . Click the button with the content Log In. If you are not logged in to the Case SSO service, you will be taken to the login page for that service.
[edit] Navigating
After you have logged in to the USG Finance System, you willl most likely be taken to the Welcome Page. If you have administrative rights, you will be taken to the main administrative page.
[edit] Welcome Page
The Welcome Page summarizes your association with USG and its groups. If you are the member of any groups, those groups will be listed. If there are any active group registration phases, you will be able to start a new group. Also, there is an option to view detailed finances for all groups that use the USG Finance System.
[edit] Registering a Group
There are two methods to register a new group. Either 1) create a new organization, or 2) continue an existing organization.
[edit] From an Existing Organization
When an organization already exists in the USG Finanace system, the registration procedure for the next semester is easier because all the info from the current organization is copied over to the new entry. The one caveat to registering an existing organization is that only the organization's current president or treasurer (as identified by the finance system) can register the group this way. If the listed president and treasurer of the organization are not available to register the group, contact the USG VP of Finance to allow an override.
[edit] Starting from Scratch
When a group does not yet exist in the USG Finance System, the registration process must be started from the very beginning.
[edit] Registration Steps
The following are the basic steps that must be completed for organizations to register for USG funding. Note, all organizations, both continuing and new must complete all of these steps. However, for returning organizations, most of the form fields will be automatically completed with the values from the semester before.
[edit] Step 1: Basic Info
This step collects basic info about your organization.
[edit] Step 2: Adviser and Officers
This step allows you to define the group's staff/faculty adviser as well as the student officers of the organization. The most important officers are president and treasurer, as they will have the ability to see and modify much of your group's functionality in the USG Finance System. If you do not have an elected vice president or secretary of your group, just enter in your own name or duplicate the president's or treasurer's info.
The form requires you to supply valid Case ID's of individuals. When you click the Confirm Officers button, the finance system will verify that the Case ID's you entered are valid. For confirmation's sake, the person's name will also be listed next to their ID, just in case you typed something wrong. Once you have confirmed all roles on the following page (which resembles this one except names are filled in), click the form box to submit the form.
Once this is done, you will be taken back to the Welcome Screen. At the very top of the Welcome Screen, you should now see a section about the pending registration of this new group. It will look like the following:
It is also worth noting that at this time, e-mails will be sent out to the adviser and officers informing them of the creation of this group and the role they have been assigned.
[edit] The Organization Registration Control Panel
By clicking the edit link for the organization on the Welcome Page, you will be taken to the registration control panel for this group. From this page, you can control every aspect of your group's registration. This page will look similar to the following just after your group is created:
[edit] Getting People to Join Your Group
USG determines the amount of funding for your group based in some part on the size of the group. Therefore, USG needs to keep track of who is a member of what groups. This membership information is also used to personalize info on the rest of the site and in other sites, like the Case Portal.
Joining a group is as simple as having a person follow a link to a group's unique join page. This page has an address like https://usg.case.edu/funding/signup.php?orgid=ff874c5d6a6c76ce4d98008ca91edda7 . The simplest method for getting people to go to this page is to probably use an existing mailing list to send this link to its members.
Alternatively, you can follow the View/Edit Membership Roster link on the registration control panel to go to the roster management page. Immediately after initial registration, the page will resemble the following:
From this page, you can specify one or many Case ID's of individuals that you want to invite to join the group. When a person is added to this list, the finance system will automatically send them an e-mail informing them they have been invited to join a group. You can later check this page to see who all has accepted the invitation to join the group by looking at the status of the confirmed check box.
[edit] Constitution Upload
USG requires that your organization has a constitution on file. The registration control panel has forms directly on it to upload both a local organization constitution and a national group charter or constitution. USG has sample constitutions on file if you need help writing one. Please contact the USG VP of Finance.
[edit] Budget Info
Organizations may submit budget requests. These requests should be for items that do not relate to events, as those budget items should be requested as part of their respective events.
[edit] Event Info
USG funded organizations are required to submit information about events for which they seek funding.
The form to add an event sponsored by your organization can be accessed by click the Add Event link on the Registration Control Panel. It should look like the following:
[edit] Finishing Registration
At the very bottom of the Registration Control Panel is info about finalizing your group's registration. Once registration is finalized, all details about the group, such as budget requests, event info and requests, and officer information is locked. The only thing that isn't locked is the membership roster. People may still join your group once registration is finalized.
USG requires that certain parameters be met before a group's registration is finalized. Some of these parameters are
- Roster meets minimum requirements for group category
- All officers and adviser have confirmed role
- Budget may not exceed max allowed for a group of certain category
- Has a constitution on file
If some of these parameters are not met, you will not be able to finalize your group. Instead, you will see reasons why you cannot finalize your group. This list will resemble the following:
If you feel that your group meets the registration requirements, members of the USG Finance Committee have the power to override a group's finalization status. This also means that they can unfinalize a group when this is desired.
[edit] Modifying Existing Groups
[edit] Add New Event
[edit] Modify Membership Roster
[edit] Change Event Date
[edit] Change Organization Web Site
[edit] Handling Organization Finances
[edit] View Allocation Information
[edit] File a Disbursement
[edit] Submit a Reallocation Request
[edit] Submit Monetary Credit
[edit] System Administration
[edit] View Member Info
[edit] View/Edit System Permissions
[edit] Prune the Database
[edit] Update Directory Info
[edit] Deal With Offending Users
The USG Finance System records attempted security violations so offending users may be confronted.
[edit] Group Administration
[edit] View Group Registration Status
[edit] Allocate Funds for Groups
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