1.10 SUPPLY CLAIMS 140
CLAIMS PREPARATION SOFTWARE As FMS6 does not have the facility for the input of supply claims Devon have written some in-house software to cope with the missing functionality. It is intended that all claims for additional hours of any member of staff will be able to be input and electronically transmitted. A database of claimants (supply or other) is maintained by the software independently of any SIMS database. Service Terms, scales, scale point ranges and salary amounts are extracted from SIMS personnel data and therefore it is important that this is maintained for all service terms used in the software. Using the software You can have FMS6 and Personnel running at the same time you are inputting information into the claims software. You are able to enter any supply bookings in advance and produce a report for monitor on commitments outstanding to the end of the financial year. Any claims input to the software will still come down for reconciliation in FMS6 and depending on how your system is set up these will either pass or fail reconciliation. There is an on screen help facility available for all processes. 141
Starting the Claims Preparation Software To use the Claims Preparation Software go to Plymouth Data Transfer and choose Claims Preparation. As information such as ledger codes and cost centre names are validated against FMS6 it is necessary to log onto the software using your FMS6 ID and password. Initial Screen When entering the Claims software you will see the screen below. There are four main focus buttons. 142
Main focus buttons From the menu bar, you have File and Help. Under file you will find the following utilities: Maintain Charges View Commitments Average on-cost set up Export Log Exit For further information on the 5 points above see manual or contact Schools Accountancy Team/Finance Officer. 143
Day to Day Procedures The four main Focus Buttons will be used for day to day procedures. Click on Add/Edit staff details. Delete Deleting a claimant can be done by highlighting the relevant member of staff and clicking on Delete. You will not be able to delete a claimant in the Claims software if they have been used from within the Claims Software for a claim within the last year. 144
Edit You may also wish to Edit existing staff details. This can be done by highlighting the member of staff and clicking on Edit. It is advisable to check that all your supply teachers are on the MPS or UPS scale and that you have been informed of any increments due. Once you have edited the necessary details click on Save. 145
Add Claimant Details To add claimant details go to Add/Edit Staff and click on New. For each new member of staff you will need to add all the above details, it is important that you know the following: Name Surname, Forename and initials Payroll number National Insurance number Date of Birth Pay Scale MPS/UPS NB: The initial, needs to be that of the claimants name, not chosen name e.g. E for Elizabeth not B for Betty. The payroll system will look to match at least 3 of these pieces of information to be able to make the payment. In the event it cannot successfully match 3 out of 4 it will reject the payment. If you nave a member of staff who receives an allowance (e.g. Management Allowance) then the annual monetary value of that allowance needs to be entered in the Annual Allowances box. When you have entered the claimant details click on Save. If any information is missing from the required field then it will display in Red. 146
Once you have entered your staff details you are then able to start entering the claim information for each date. A claim for a member of staff is made up from a series of Day Book Entries, which are then authorised at the appropriate time and an export file produced to be sent to the LA. Adding a New Day Book Entry To add a new Day Book Entry click on New. Click here to add a New Day Book Entry The application defaults to the current date. The top half of the main screen includes a calendar and a display of the Financial Year and the SIMS accounting period containing the chosen date. Select the date required from the calendar. When you have clicked on New, the following screen will be displayed. 147
Add a Day Book Entry Click here to select the Claim Type Fill in the information either by using the browse buttons or by tabbing from field to field. Click here to enter a Charge Enter the type of Claim. (At the moment this will be just Supply you will be advised once the software can be used for other types of claims). Select a member of staff from the Select Staff look up window. The claimant details will then appear. There are 2 ways of entering claim details: 148
If you choose to Enter by Charge this will fill in Reason, Ledger Code, Fund Code and Time Claimed for you as per the list of charges already prepared. This information is also editable. You will still have to enter the Cost Centre and Date Claimed. If you are not entering the claim details by charge then enter the Claim details giving a Reason, Fund Code, Ledger Code, and Cost Centre. When entering the time remember that is must be in hours and minutes, using a colon to separate them (i.e. 05:25). Finally use the Save button to Save. Abandon will undo all the changes you have made. If you choose a valid Fund/Ledger Code combination, when choosing the Cost Centre you will be offered the Cost Centres that are linked to that ledger code. When you choose an invalid Fund/ledger Code combination you will be presented with a list of all cost centres to choose from. If you select a Cost Centre which is not linked to that ledger and fund code you will not be able to save the entry, you will receive a message as below. If you make a mistake you can edit the information by selecting the correct date and using the Edit button, once you have made the changes click on Save. From time to time you may need to delete something, this may be a supply booked and entered in the module in advance that you wish to cancel. Select the correct date and use the Delete button. 149
Change Claim Date You also have the ability to move the claims from one date to another. Highlight the relevant Day Book Entry and click on Change Claim Date and choose the new date either by accessing the calendar via the drop down arrow or by blanking out the date in the To field and entering the new one. The claim will disappear from the display but will be visible by viewing claims for the new date. 150
Clone Day Book Entries The software gives you the ability to Clone Day Book entries. The Day Book Entry that you wish to copy needs to be highlighted (indicated by ). Clone Type The clone type can either be: Daily claim is copied to a consecutive series of days this can be particularly useful if a member of staff is covering long term absence etc. Weekly recurring claim copied to the same day in a range of weeks. You then need to select a method for specifying the range. Number of claims this uses the Start Date provided and generates the number of daily or weekly clones specified in the Number of Claims field. Start/End Range this uses the start and end dates below and generates the relevant daily or weekly claims within that range. 151
This shows a preview of the clone dates There are also check boxes provided to indicate whether Saturdays and/or Sundays should be included within the generated claims (this would not normally be the case for supply staff). Once you have provided the appropriate information then click on Preview. The dates that will be used to generate the new claims will be shown in the Clone Dates Preview Area. At this point the extra claims have not been generated but the Clone button has now become Active and can be used to generate the claims if the dates shown are correct. If the dates are not correct then any of the parameters can be reselected. The Clone button will then be disabled until the Preview has been re-run. Once you have chosen to Clone you will be asked to confirm this. 152
Click on OK. You will then receive the following message. 153
Authorising Claims Once you have entered your claims they can then be authorised. Although it would be normal to authorise all claims for the chosen period together, claims can be authorised in several different sessions. They can all be collected in one file for export. To Authorise Claims click on Authorise Claims for Period. There are various ways to Tag items: Highlighting an individual line and double clicking on it or pressing F5 will tag an individual line. Tagged lines are indicated by a blue in the last column. There is also a Tag All facility this will Tag all claims that are available for authorisation at that point i.e. the date of which the supply is being claimed is either on or before the date of authorisation. Click on OK and the software will go through the list of claims waiting authorisation and tag the ones that are available for authorisation. If you wish to Un-tag any of the claims at this point then either click on Untag All or un-tag individual items then double click on that individual line which will remove the. Once you wish to authorise all the Tagged items then click on print. This will then disable the Authorised Tagged Claims button. 154
You will then get the following message. If printing is satisfactory then click on Continue, otherwise click on Retry or Cancel. Once you have satisfactorily printed the authorised claims you will be returned to the tagged list. The Authorise Tagged Claims button will only be active again if printing has been successful. If you make any changes to the tag list after printing then the Authorise Tagged Button will not become active again until you have said that printing is successful. Once the printing has been successful you will receive a Claims Authorisation Summary for the chosen period which then has to be signed by the Headteacher. 155
Once you are sure that the printout is correct then click on the Authorised Tagged button and you will then get the following message. Note You may not Edit a claim once it has been authorised but you are able to delete a claim once it has been authorised. You will not be able to print out another Claims Authorisation Summary if you have deleted an item and so we would recommend putting a line through the entry that has been cancelled on the Claims Authorisation Summary giving the reason for deletion and have the amendment initialled by the Headteacher Exporting Claims Once the claims for a period have been authorised they need to be exported. Click on Export File for Period and the following screen will be displayed. The year and period for the export are those displayed on the top centre of the screen. 156
Leave a in these boxes to obtain reports on export Two check boxes enable you to decide whether further reports are to be printed. These reports give analyses of the commitment generated in the export file broken down by cost centre or by individual. Either printout or one or both can be selected. Click on Export to Create the file. If you have chosen to print out either of the available reports then you will be presented with the screen which asks whether or not the printout was successful. Once the printing is successful you will receive the following message. You then need to click on OK. 157
Click on Close. Once you have opted to close the software you will be prompted to continue processing the Claim. This involves printing the claims letters for the claimants and also transferring the file to the LA. The letters should be sent to the Supply Teachers as they are then able to check that the supply work they have done is correct with the claim. You will receive the following message. If you select to continue the process then you will be taken straight to the Claims Transfer Screen. If you do not choose to send the file at the export stage you will need to do this at a later date you by going to Plymouth Data Transfer and complete the process then. 158
CLAIM TRANSFER You will be presented with the screen below and you need to click on Collect Claims. Note that the Claims are arranged in the Claim Number order. This can be altered by clicking on the Claimant Name radio button in the View Order part of the screen. For the highlighted item there is a summary on the right hand part of the screen. 159
Clicking on Claim Details in the right hand part of the screen will show the details of the highlighted item. Click on OK to return to the main screen. To continue click on Print and then OK and the software will say the names of the claimants that letters are being printed for. You will then receive a message asking you if printing was satisfactory. If printing was satisfactory, click on continue. If not click on re-try or cancel. Once printing has been successful then click on Create File and you should receive the following message. You will then receive the following message. 160
Click on OK and then click on Close. After completing the Data Transfer, closing the screen using the X button (top right hand corner) this screen will appear. Click on OK. You will then be taken to your SWGfL logon screen. LOG ON. 161
Click on Finance Upload Click on File Transfer 162
Click on Select All Click on Finance Upload Are you sure you want to Upload will appear. Click on YES Upload Complete will appear. Click on Close Click on Log Off The process is now complete 163