Know How at Noon: Best practices for managing users within the Esker platform

Kia ora, everyone, and…
to know how at noon. Thanks for joining me today. For those of you who haven’t met me before, I’m Ty. I’m a customer success specialist from Fujifilm Business Innovation. I’m part of the Process Automation team. Today online I have with me Joanne, who is the Customer Success Manager.
And we’ll be monitoring the Q&A section of our session today.
So today’s session is all about user maintenance in ESCA. So user administration is one of those areas that can be easily overlooked, but it plays a critical role in keeping your workflows running efficiently and ensuring documents continue to be routed correctly.
So, in this session is really aimed at those within your organization who have light admin or power user responsibilities and who are involved in managing users permissions and maintaining the day-to-day administration of your solution.
Throughout the session, we’ll cover some of the key tasks, best practices to help you confidently manage users and keep your environment running smoothly.
So just to give you a quick overview of what we’ll be covering today. So I’ll walk you through some of the recommended best practices, some common pitfalls to avoid, and a few tips that can make ongoing user management much easier.
and looking at user properties before moving on to how to safely disable users. And when they’re no longer active, we’ll also cover out of office settings and editing users. Then we’ll take a look at groups and how they can help with managing users more efficiently.
And then towards the end of the session, we’ll have some time for Q&A, hopefully. So if you have any questions as we go, feel free to pop them into the chat, sorry, into the Q&A session, and Joe will keep an eye on those throughout the session. And I’ll do my best to
get to them at the end. However, as always, if we do not have time, I will be reaching out to you individually after today’s session. And then finally, I’ll share a QR code for a short survey. So if you have a couple of minutes afterwards, I’d really appreciate your feedback.
back by, you know, on the session by completing this, you do go into the draw to win a blunt umbrella. At this time, I will just ask Joe to actually just check the survey link into the chat. So feel free to actually complete that as you follow along during today’s session.
So let’s start by looking at how you actually add and manage users within Eska. So to access the user list, you would just navigate to the setup and then account setup and select users. This will open up the all users view.
So it should look similar to the screenshot that I’ve got on my screen here. And then you can see users currently set up in the solution. One useful tip is that this view can be amended to display the information that is actually most relevant to
your organization. So for example, you may want to include the user’s name, e-mail address, department, but I find the most useful one is probably the assigned profile. This can make it much easier to search for users and review their current access.
So, from this screen, you can create new users using this button here, or edit an existing user.
As you can see here, I’m pointing to the edit section. You can also resend the welcome e-mail. Or for whatever reason, if a user needs to reset their password, you as the administrator could also just select the user that you want to reset the password.
and then click reset password, which will automatically send that user a link. So we’ll step through the process of adding a new user shortly, but one really important thing to remember is to never make changes to the service user.
that you might see in your solution. This is a system account by the solution, so it should always be left as it is. And then before creating a new user, I do also recommend checking the existing list first. With organizations, they may have
you know, multiple like admins, so someone may already be in the process of setting up a new user. So you want to try to avoid creating duplicate accounts.
Cool. So user properties, so the core Esker functionality. This really is the core area for user maintenance in Esker. So as the light administrator of your organization, this is where all the users and groups need to be set up. So this is a table. So when you’re managing users, this is also where you’ll find
key user properties and settings. So one of the important things to be aware of is where DFA is set. So that can be set in this user properties table. So as this can have an impact on how the user is configured and what they can access.
Just to highlight a few of those key areas to pay attention to is the user identifier. This needs to correspond to the user or the user group set up in your solution. So only one user property entry should exist per user identifier.
Unfortunately, it’s cut off here on my little image that I’ve got on my slide show, but manager identifier. So it defines the user’s manager or a group of managers, which is important for the approval hierarchy.
And then amount to limit as well. This is particularly important for delegation of authority or DFA because it determines maximum amount that the user can approve before additional approval is required. So
Amount limit should be associated with area approver and reviewer involved in the workflow. Now, default company code. So where applicable, this establishes the user’s default company code, and only one default company code can be associated
With each identifier, and then cost center and allowed company codes, this can affect what is defaulted or available to the user, depending on the module configuration. So, with now…
I had a quick look at the user properties table and the key areas to consider when setting up and maintaining a user.
But as you know, user maintenance isn’t just about adding and updating users. There will also be times when someone leaves the organization or changes roles or no longer needs access to ESCA. So there are a few important things to keep in mind when that happens.
So looking at disabling users, first and most importantly, don’t ever delete a user. Best practice is to disable instead. Deleting a user can actually cause issues within with the documents or workflows that are already associated with that user.
And then you also want to check whether that user has an out of office delegation set up. If they have documents or approvals assigned to them, you want to make sure these are dealt with before disabling the account. And then ESCA supports out of office delegation.
So for users who, you know, not only left the organization, but are absent, whether that just be on sick leave, et cetera, allowing assigned work to be delegated to other users. So rather than simply disabling the user and moving on,
I’d recommend just running through a few health checks first. So let’s go through those steps now so we can make sure that the user is safely disabled without leaving anything behind that could impact your workflows. And often when someone exits the business,
These steps are often forgotten about until, you know, something goes wrong within the solution.
So looking at the process for disabling a user in Esker, while it can be tempting to simply lock or remove a user as soon as they leave the business, there are a few checks we would recommend completing first to avoid those workflow issues later on, as I mentioned.
So the first step is to make sure that the user has completed any approvals that are currently sitting with them. This helps prevent documents becoming stalled. And then once that’s been done, lock the user account. Locking the user prevents them from logging
And, while still allowing…
us to complete the remaining cleanup activities. And then next, remove the user from any groups. They’re assigned to before you do this. Make a note of the identifier. This is useful to keep on hand as
You’ll need it later on in the process. If we need to check references to that user, would also recommend setting up an out of office for that user and confirming that the user isn’t responsible for any group lists or cost centres. If they are, you’ll want to transfer that ownership to another user.
before they leave. Now following those steps helps ensure work continues to flow through the system without any interruptions after the user has left.
Now, once those initial steps are completed, there are a few final housekeeping activities that are worth doing. So first, remove the user from the user properties table that we looked at at the start.
So if they’re referenced there, you’ll want to also review the workflow rules and remove any direct references to that user. This is particularly important where approvals or notifications have been hard-coded against a specific individual.
So it’s also a good idea to double check whether the user currently owns any invoices or documents that are still being processed. So in many cases, their out of office setup will take care of that automatically.
but it is worth spending a few minutes validating that nothing has been overlooked. And then finally, and most probably the, you know, most important take away from this section is, as I mentioned again, is do not delete users from ESCA.
you know, always recommend disabling or locking users rather than deleting them. You know, we’ve had these instances happen a few times with end users where, you know,
just autopilot and so they delete a user and by doing so, Eska, you know, later down the track, Eska may still attempt to reference that user on historical invoices or workflows or audit records and this can cause the documents to become stuck.
because the system is trying to locate a user that no longer exists. So leaving the user disabled maintains the integrity of your historical data while ensuring they can no longer access the solution. So just to quickly sum things up.
complete approvals, lock the account, remove group memberships and workflow references, validate ownership of any active work, and then leave the user disabled rather than deleting them.
Now that we’ve covered how to disable a user when needed, quickly just going to touch base on out of office functionality. And this is something that’s come up a lot recently through support tickets. So always a good one to have a refresher on. So
Out of office is one of the most useful features within ESCA because it ensures that documents continue moving through the workflow when someone is available. So not necessarily just when someone leaves the organization, but when someone’s on annual leave or unexpected leave such as sick leave.
you know, simply just away from the business for a period of time. So setting up an out of office delegate helps prevent, you know, approvals or invoices from becoming stuck waiting for action, especially during, you know, end of month end.
Esker supports both reoccurring and non-reoccurring out of office rules. So reoccurring rules are great for users who work part-time. So perhaps they work Monday to Thursday, but they have the Friday off.
So you can set up a out of office just for that Friday or have a regular day off, you know, as I mentioned, each week. While non-reoccurring rules are ideal for holidays or, you know, one-off absences,
The key take away here is that the properly configured out of office rule keeps the business process moving and reduces the risk of, you know, those approval bottlenecks.
So there may be situations where a user is unexpectedly absent or has forgotten to actually set up their out of office rule. So the light admins or the power users within your organization are responsible.
for ensuring those out of office rules are set up on their behalf. So to do this, again, you would just navigate to that setup screen, set up account setup, and then you’d locate that user. So for instance, if Joe is the one that’s called in sick today and I’m the light administrator,
I’d go on to that user screen that I showed earlier on and locate Jo’s profile. And then once I’ve located her profile from there, you’ll be able to find the out of office assistant action button. This allows you to define who will take over approvals.
and workflow responsibilities while that user is unavailable. So this can be particularly useful for longer periods of leave or situations where a user is unavailable unexpectedly and you again still need to keep moving through the system.
So once an out of office rule is actually active, approvals completed by the delegate will be clearly recorded in the workflow history. So this means there is full visibility, you know, for audit purposes of who completing an action.
on whose behalf it was performed. So another point worth noting is that both the original user and the delegate will continue to receive notifications while the rule is active. So this ensures that both parties remain informed about activities
occurring during the absence and provides transparency really around the delegated approvals.
So just taking a closer look at what the out of office assistance screen looks like. So at the top here, you’ll see there’s a date range section. So this determines when the rule will be active. One common mistake is forgetting to
tick the enable during this time period checkbox. So often, you know, the date set, but this is not selected up here. Now before that, below that, sorry, is the reoccurring out of office section.
This is where you can choose which days of the week the rule applies. So as mentioned earlier on, if someone is working part-time Monday to Thursday and they often have the Friday off, so you can just select the Friday here. And then in most situations, you’ll just select every day, you know,
for, you know, when someone’s on annual leave. However, this can be especially useful, you know, as I mentioned, for the part-time staff. Finally, at the bottom, you’ll select a delegate user. So this is the person who will receive approvals and workflow tasks.
while the user is away. You can add more than one delegate. However, it’s best practice that we that you generally only assigning 1 delegate where possible. This helps to avoid confusion around accountability, and it just makes it easier to track who is responsible for
approvals during the absent user. Now, once the dates and days and the delegate had been configured, you simply save the rule and Eska will automatically redirect work during the specified period.
Just a quick tip on this screen here before we move to the next slide. I often recommend backdating. So say the user is on leave today, I’d backdate it a week prior. This just picks up anything that the user that’s on leave
May have missed.
And just jumping, moving on to the other side of user management. So looking at how we can edit and maintain user information in Eska. So the process is very similar to adding a user. So from the user’s view, you just locate the relevant user, you select edit,
and then to open up their user record. And from here you can review and update details such as their name, e-mail address. You’d also lock the user from here if they were leaving the business. But often you’re editing a user perhaps as well to change profiles. So as you can see here in the screen that my user has a procured to pay
buyer profile, perhaps that person is now part of the AP specialist team or whatever that may be, you can change their profile here. So again, your light administrator within your organization have the access to make changes to the individual user
where the individual user may not be able to make those changes themselves. But it’s important to check that when making these amendments, that you’re checking everything off correctly before saving, because
It can affect their notifications, their level of access they have within ESCA, but also remember that any changes to a user’s access should reflect their current role and responsibilities. So once you’re happy with all the details, you’ve, you know, looked them over and everything’s correct, you’ll just simply select save and apply those changes.
Now that we’ve covered how to edit and maintain individual user information, we’ll quickly look at groups and how users can be organized and managed collectively within ESCA groups. They provide a simple way to manage multiple users at once. So rather than
maintaining the settings individually for every user, you’ll often see groups used when multiple people perform the same role or share the same responsibilities within a process. So for example, a team of AP specialists or buyers may all belong to the same group.
In the example on the screen, you’ll notice that we have two panels. On the left are the available users and on the right are the users who currently belong to the selected group. So to add someone to the group, you’ll simply select
them from the left hand side and move them across to the right hand side. Again, only your light administrators should have access to maintain this within your organisation. But likewise, if someone no longer needs to be a part of that group, you can move them back
from this side here over to this side. So one of the key benefits of using groups is that it makes ongoing administration much easier. So if a new team member joins, you can simply add them to the group rather than updating multiple workflow rules individually.
And then similarly, when someone leaves the business, removing them from the group helps ensure they no longer receive work that is intended for that wider team for that group. So as best practice, I recommend reviewing group memberships regularly.
Particularly after staff changes or role changes in team, yeah, just any sort of team changes. So keeping groups up to date helps to ensure documents and approvals are routed to the right people and prevents unnecessary delays in your process.
process. So the way that I like to think of groups is it’s the building blocks that help drive routing and workflow decisions within your solution. So once they’re set up currently, they can significantly reduce the amount of ongoing administration required.
Beautiful. So that covers everything in today’s session for user maintenance. So we’ve got a little bit of time to go through any questions that may have come through during the session. Joe, were there any questions in the Q&A or the chat section?

Joanne Marie Ignacio De Lasan   26:17
Yes, yes, Tai, there are two. Number one is thus out of office allow the delegated person to perform goods receipt in the procurement module.

Tai Manavahetau   26:29
Yep, so as long as that out of office delegate does also have access to that module and that workspace, they should be able to perform, you know, any, yeah, so anything within what that, so what the out of office user had.
access to. But again, it comes down to your environment. But in theory, if someone is, you know, away, you want ideally someone within the same team to be your delegate. And if you’re part of the same team, you ideally have access to the workspace, etc.
But, in short, yes, they should be able to.

Joanne Marie Ignacio De Lasan   27:13
And second one is if a user has invoices in their approval list and doesn’t put their out of office on, if I do and backdate it, do those invoices automatically get rerouted to their delegate or do I have to recall them and all resubmit?

Tai Manavahetau   27:31
No need to recall or resubmit them. Great questions. Again, you’ll just back data. So anything missed by that user will automatically go through to their delegate or that delegate should be able to now have visibility over those invoices on their invoices to approve view that’s configured within their solution.
So as long as you backdate it, it should pick up any invoices that may have been missed.

Joanne Marie Ignacio De Lasan   28:01
Yep, and there’s another one, Tai. I notice in the available members for groups in our solution that a large number of former staff are still listed. How can we tidy this up?

Tai Manavahetau   28:16
Great question. So usually that responsibility does lie within your light admins. My first recommended approach would be to run a report. I’ll reach out to you individually after this. I do have a standard report that I like to run and it just shows users that have been
that haven’t been active within the solution in, say, the last 90 days, it gives you a good indication of, you know, a list of users that haven’t used the solution. You can then check it, you know, by that list of users if those users have now left the organization. And
ensuring that those users are now locked and following the disabling points that we went over. But I can reach out to you individually after this session and just give you some pointers. But it is your administrator’s responsibility. Additionally, if you would like us to jump in and help you in this instance, just
feel free to raise a support ticket and myself or Joe can get in touch with you and discuss that further with you as well. Now, unfortunately, that’s all the time we have for Q&A today. So if you have submitted a question that we didn’t get a chance to address, I’ll reach out to you individually after
the session or by all means chat them into the survey. So I do just want to say a massive thank you for joining us and just taking the time. I do hope that you found the session useful. So we will be in touch with follow-up documentation.
But if you could please take a moment to scan the QR code and just complete the survey. Even if you had any questions that you didn’t want to pop into the Q&A section today, you can chat them into the survey and I can reach out to you individually and we can go from there. But just a wee reminder, by completing the survey, you do go into the draw to win a blunt umbrella. So special shout out
Karen Duncan, who was the winner of the Blunt Umbrella for August, and we look forward to seeing you all at our next Know How It June session in October. Mahi and have a great afternoon, everyone.