Security - FAQ
Each department should identify a backup administrator. If this is not possible, the department should contact their RC to identify an appropriate backup process.
You can have more than one individual per role. It is encouraged that you have at least two individuals at the Administrator level to ensure continuity of access in the event of employee absence.
The security for the SPAR application resembles the security of the budget application rather than the salary increases (which is based on a static list as of July 1st). Even though the security in the SPAR application is based on people rather than accounts, it was designed in this manner to allow for security to be established automatically as employees are assigned to an organization/department. Leaving the departments with no employee hires blank will not affect the system.
Yes, the role of Modifier at the Department and Subset levels prevents access to the Person and Account Inquiry screens that reflect salary dollar information. The Department and Subset Modifier will be able to process SPAR changes within the current SPAR period and access the SPAR Modification History query. The Person and Account inquiry options will appear on the Modifier's responsibility tree at the Oracle Applications Home Page and the PLD SPAR Navigator Page. They will be able to open the inquiry and attempt a search but no results will be provided. A system message will indicate that they do not have access to the specified individual.
No, non-Pitt personnel with a valid business reason to have access to the SPAR system can gain access. First, they need to complete a request for PRISM access form (available on the FIS website) to be submitted through appropriate departmental processes. Once the PRISM access is granted, they can request SPAR access.
SPAR system users are required to attend the Introduction to SPAR workshop offered by Financial Compliance for Research. Additionally, if a department administrator will be dealing with sponsored awards in their department, the Basics of Effort Reporting and Advanced SPAR & Cost Sharing workshops are also required.
In addition, the Basic SPAR 101 webinar and the SPAR Cost Share 101 webinar have been recorded and are available on the Office of Financial Compliance for Research - Reference Materials Section.
Access to salary information is determined by one's role in the SPAR application. The Administrator and Viewer roles across all levels (RC, Department, Subset) and the RC Modifier role have access to the Inquiry screens which allow access to all salaries. The Modifier role at the Department and Subset levels allows access to the distribution information only through the Labor Distribution and Cost Sharing screen and the SPAR Modification History inquiry, no salary information appears on these screens.
Security is granted by employee home department assignment. If all employees are maintained under one home department, Modifiers will have access to all employee SPAR forms. The Modifier will not, however, be able to perform Account Inquiry, Account Inquiry-No Subcode, or Person Inquiry functions because the Modifier role at the Department and Subset levels has been restricted from these queries containing salary information.
At the RC level, both Modifiers and Viewers may grant access to all roles at the Department or Subset levels. RC Modifiers also have access to all salary dollar inquiries within their area of access. Department level Modifiers and Viewers do not have the ability to grant access, nor do they have access to salary dollar inquiries.
This message appears when the user being added does not have a PRISM account. PRISM access must be requested and granted prior to giving any user access to the web-based SPAR application. See question 6 above.
you have employees hired by your department but working on the other area's sponsored projects you may provide subset access to the individual employee. Specifically, within the SPAR Security screen, you will establish a subset role naming an employee from the other area as either an Administrator, Modifier, or Viewer with access to a listing of employees hired by your department.
As the home department of an employee, you have the right to designate what type of access the subset individual will have. However, if there is a bona fide business reason for the outside individual to have access to your employee(s), you cannot deny at least Subset Viewer access.
As new employees are hired for work in the outside area, you would only need to add the new hire to the subset listing.
Not automatically. You can only access information for employees hired within your department unless you've been provided with subset access by the employee's hiring department. The ability to view the Person Inquiry screen would require Subset Administrator access to that employee.
If you have a legitimate business reason (i.e., providing a portion of an employee's salary) to access SPAR information for employees outside your area of access, you must initiate a written request to the other department specifying the employees for which you are requesting access. Subset level access must be granted at least at the Viewer role, but may be granted at the Administrator or Modifier roles at the granting department's discretion.
Security will not prevent you from entering any account number on the SPAR of an employee in your area. However, it is advisable that you follow one of the options below to facilitate this distribution:
- Coordinate the distribution and account information with the other department offline and enter the distribution yourself, or
- Provide subset access to this faculty member to the outside department so they can modify the distribution. You should be aware that providing subset access to an employee in your department to an outside department, will allow modification to all lines on that SPAR, not only the external account lines.
The level and role of access to grant is at the discretion of each RC/Department. Each area has the ability to enter security for their own area of responsibility. It is also the responsibility of each RC/Department to retain appropriately signed access requests for audit purposes.