Department roles and routing must be setup before any personnel actions are prepared in EPAWeb. The routing establishes the path that a specific action will take as it moves through the system.
Roles are used to designate a particular individual as being an originator and/or an approver of personnel actions for their area. The individual can be setup to originate, approve or receive notification of all or only certain types of actions. A department can and should designate multiple approvers to establish back ups for their primary processors.
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To access the EPAWeb User Guide Table of Contents, click here.
| Department/Center-Level Roles & Routing |
Access to individual employee records and actions in EPAWeb is based on the users assigned department number(s) in their EPAWeb roles and the primary and secondary ranks of EPA employees. Users will be able to view and process actions for employees if one of the employee's primary or secondary ranks is owned by their department or in the case of School/Area-level users, their assigned School or Area. Access is not available due to the presence of a funding source alone absent a rank which is owned by your department, school, or division. There are a few cases when the primary appointing department and base department are not the same. In these cases, the base department, primary appointing department, and secondary appointing department(s) all would be able to access the employee in EPAWeb. Note: A planned enhancement to EPAWeb will allow primary appointing departments to extend access to a non-appointing department or Center to which the employee has a significant administrative/reporting relationship using an EPAWeb Invitation feature. This User Guide will be updated to reflect this functionality once added to the EPAWeb System.
Department/Center-Level Roles
Actions prepared in EPAWeb will go through approvals before being passed to payroll. The personnel that will be approving the actions are determined by the department/center, school/area, and central offices. After approval personnel are identified, they are placed within a role in EPAWeb. Departments/Centers can have up to three approval roles with multiple users in each role and any number of action initiators. The approval roles at the department/center level include HR, Budget, and Manager.
Department/Center-Level Routing
When an action is submitted through EPAWeb it will begin on it's path through approvals. This path is predetermined by the department/center, school/area, and central offices. The approvals that can take place at the department/center level include HR, Budget, and Manager. Small departments may not have enough personnel to fill all three of the approval stops. While it is not required to have an approver in any of the three approval stops it is necessary that at least one approval stop be at either the department/center or the school/area level for each action processed in EPAWeb. Shown below is a diagram of the department/center level routing path an action will take if all three approval stops are filled by an approver. The action is first routed to the department HR and Budget approvers simultaneously. Once the action has been approved by both of these approvers it will be routed to the Manager. Once the Manager approves the action it will be routed to the next level of approvals which could be another department if funding sources are owned by that department or the employees primary appointment is with that department. Otherwise the action will be routed to the school/area level.
| School/Area-Level Routing |
School/Area level action approval routing is based primarily on what type of rank the employee has. Approvers at this level are determined by the school/area. As with the department/center level routing, none of the approval stops are required but at least one stop at the department/center level or the school/area level is necessary. Shown below are several diagrams of the school/area level routing path an action will take if all roles are filled. All roles will receive the action for approval at the same time. Once all approvals are complete the action will route to the Central Office level of approvals. Each diagram is labeled as to what type of rank the employee has that the action is for.
| Central Office Routing |
Central Office level action approval routing is based primarily on what type of rank the employee has but other factors such as funding source and action type will determine required approvals. Approvers at this level are determined by the central offices (Benefits, Budget, Records, etc.). Shown below are several diagrams of the central office level routing path an action will take if all roles are filled. Each diagram is labeled as to what type of rank the employee has that the action is for. Each approver will receive the action after the approver before them approves the action. Once all approvals are complete the action will be placed in a que to await conversion to the payroll system. Dashed lines indicate the routing stop may or may not be required depending on action type and/or funding source used.
| Special Business Rules Related to Routing and Approval |
EPAWeb includes several special business rules that have been implemented to ensure that EPA actions have reasonable management controls and meet University and State auditing guidelines. These rules provide that you may not approve an action on yourself regardless of who originated it. EPAWeb will block any such approval attempt. You are permitted to originate an action on yourself when instructed by higher-level authority as long as this action is then approved in EPAWeb by that authority or their authorized designee.
EPAWeb has a "2-person rule" which must be satisfied as a fraud prevention measure. This rule provides that every EPAWeb action must be touched by at least two individuals -- the originator and at least one other approver -- prior to routing to the various central offices of the University. The Office of the Provost, HR Records, HR Benefits, the Budget Office, OSR, or Payroll do not count towards satisfying this "2-person rule" since while they are reviewing and approving actions for compliance with specific institutional, state, or federal policies, they are unlikely to have any first hand knowledge of the action itself or its validity. This rule translates to the following restrictions depending on which level an EPA action is originated at:
- For actions originated at the Department-level, at least one approval other than and different from the originator is required at either the Department or School/Area level, but not both. The School/Area level for non-academic departments may include an Assistant Vice Chancellor or Vice Chancellor's Office as an example.
- For actions originated at the School/Area-Level, at least one approval beyond and different from the originator is required at either the Department or School/Area level. Approval at more than one of these levels is not a requirement.
- Specific Departments, Centers, Schools, or Areas may impose more stringent standards for units under their areas of responsibility. The above are EPAWeb minimum standards to satisfy internal audit guidelines.
If you have concerns about how to satisfy any of the above requirements in terms of your defined routing, please contact the HRIS Help Desk for further assistance and consultation.
| Setting Up Routing for your Department, School, or Area |
- If you need to add, modify, or delete access for a specific individual user to EPAWeb, Click Here.
- If you need to modify routing for a Department/Center that already uses EPAWeb, Click Here.
- If you need to modify routing for a School/Area office that already uses EPAWeb, Click Here.
If you need assistance in determining which form to use, contact the HRIS Help Desk by calling 962-HELP and indicate that you need assistance with the EPAWeb System or submit a Remedy ticket by pointing your browser to https://www.unc.edu/ar-bin/websub/index.pl.
