Budget Holder Authorisation
Changes to Budget Holder Authorisation in Proactis
[Posted on 19 June 2012]
On 18th June 2012, we made some changes within Proactis which were announced in a previously published news item after discussions with representatives from each faculty and Support Services. One of the changes involved moving the budget holder approval from the requisition to the order. This was deemed necessary for the following reasons:
- The budget holder is now approving the actual spend after the buyer has made any changes.
- Direct orders were previously being issued without budget holder approval.
- The above issues had been highlighted in recent audits, causing some faculties to abandon direct orders.
- This move also allows us to make other improvements to the process and implement the Purchasing Card module.
How will this change affect me?
Budget holders and their delegates will now be authorising orders rather than requisitions. Many staff will not notice the difference as the screens look exactly the same. The process should not be delayed in as all the same steps exist, just in a different order.
The 'Authorisation Summary' link that is visible in the requisition will no longer produce a display because there is no authorisation required at this stage. Clicking on the link will produce the following message:
Instead this information can be seen in the order. To see the order, click on the order number that is visible in the requisition and the order will appear in a pop-up window. At the bottom of the page, there is a link to the Authorisation Summary.
What if I have an urgent order?
We know that some people like to track their orders in Proactis. If you wish to do this, search for your requisition in the usual way. In the results screen, there is a status column that tells you the stage of your requisition. The table below explains what the different status values mean and who is responsible for each stage.
| Status | Description | Who to contact |
| With Buyer | This means the requisition has not yet been turned into an order | Your Faculty Finance team deal with this stage. |
| Awaiting Authorisation | The requisition has been turned into an order. The order will be with the budget holder awaiting authorisation. | View the Authorisation Summary on the order to see who the budget holder or delegate is for your order. |
| Authorisation in Progress | The requisition has been turned into an order. The order has been authorised by some people but not all. | View the Authorisation Summary on the order to see who has authorised the order and who has an outstanding task. | Ordered | Your order has been placed. All parties have approved the order and an order number will have been produced. | You can view the Authorisation Summary to see when the activity took place and the Output Summary will show you when the order was emailed to the supplier (if relevant). |
| Cancelled | The requisition has been cancelled and was not turned into an order. You should receive an email with an explanation. | If in doubt, please contact your Faculty Finance team. |
| Rejected | Your order was rejected by either the budget holder or a member of Finance Services. | You should receive an email with an explanation. Please look at the Authorisation Summary for an explanation for the cancellation before contacting your Faculty Finance team. |
If you have any queries about the above change, please contact your Faculty Finance team or for technical issues, please email finance-systems@bris.ac.uk