The default view in the Policies tab shows the overall Business Unit structure for your company. This view is an expandable "tree" showing the hierarchy of business units extending down from the root business unit. The root business unit will typically be your company name. For ex, HLB, Inc. is the root business unit.
Please Note: Permissions get more restrictive (give the user less access) as you move down the company tree. Permissions at the company level give a user access to the entire company; permissions in the business units below the company level only give access to that business unit and its children.
Navigating the Business Unit Tree
A metaphor ExpenseWatch uses for business unit configuration is "parent business unit" and "child business unit". A parent business unit is one of the main business units in the company, and a child business unit is a sub-business unit or division of the parent business unit. You can set any child business unit to inherit the parent business unit's preference or not. For ex, Corporate HLB is a child business unit of HLB, Inc., And Engineering is the child business unit and Corporate HLB is a parent business unit of Engineering.
For every business unit that you navigate to in the Policies tab, you will see 6 tabs.
Edit Tab
This tab allows you to change information for the business unit.
- Company Code: Enter the Company Code if your company is a corporation and have a company code for every business unit.
- ERP Business Unit ID: This is the ID number that relates the business units to your AP system. The ID displayed will be exported from ExpenseWatch as part of your accounting string. For Quickbooks users, this ERPID may relate to Classes or Customer:Jobs.
- Edit ERP ID Format: The format of the full account string can be edited.
- Update: Click Update to update any edited fields.
- View change history for this BU: This shows system changes by the administrators and a history of those changes.
- Change the position of this business unit in the hierarchy: Click this link to move the current business unit under another business unit. Moving a business unit will move all sub-units, users and roles. Please Note: A business unit set up with a S.A.F. cannot be moved. You must first remove the approvers from the S.A.F. in order to move the business unit.
- Delete this business unit from the hierarchy: Click this link to delete the current business unit. If the business unit has transactions, sub-units, or users, the business unit cannot be deleted.
- Deactivate this business unit and all units its contains: Click this link to deactivate the business unit. This will also deactivate any business unit or as a sub-unit.
Add Tab
To add a business unit, first navigate to the business unit that the new business unit should be added under. Then click the Add tab.
The address, phone, fax, and ERP Business Unit ID will be inherited from the parent business unit but can be edited, enter the name of the new business unit and then click Add New Business Unit.
S.A.F. (Signature Authority Form) Tab
The S.A.F. is used to assign financial approval authority to users. To see how to configure S.A.F. Approval Chain, please see Configuring S.A.F. Approval Chain article.
- View printable SAF: Click this link to view a SAF report on any selected business unit. This report can be printed from the print option in your browser or it can be copy and pasted into another program.
Company Pref. Tab
The Company Preference tab is used to set preferences that involve the entire company.
BU Pref. Tab
The BU Preference tab is used to set preferences that involve a particular business unit.
- Overwrite child business unit preferences with these prefs: By default, preferences inherit from parent business units, as discussed above. However, when a child business unit has explicit preferences set, it will stop inheriting from the parent. Click the checkbox to apply the preference to every child business unit of this business unit.
- Require Projects: This preference only appears if you marked the Track Projects checkbox in Company Pref. Click the checkbox to require users to associate a project to line items on the transactions.
- Default Currency: This will only be visible if your company has enabled MultiCurrency. Click the dropdown menu to set a default currency for this business unit and its sub-units.
- Check Prior Purchase: Click the checkbox to help users avoid duplicate ordering of items that have been recently ordered. To let ExpenseWatch warn a Purchase Requisition submitter that a line item has been ordered within a certain number of days in the past, enter a number of days in the field provided. This warning is an icon that appears next to the line item in the Purchase Requisition.
- Bill to This Bus. Unit: Click the checkbox to cause transactions from this business unit to be billed to the address in the Edit tab for this business unit. This address displays on Purchase Orders and Invoices. If you do not select this checkbox, Purchase Orders and Invoices use the company's billing address.
- Receipt Checker: This is only visible if the Receipt Checker is enabled in Company Preferences. This option gives you the ability to assign a user as an additional approver to the T&E S.A.F.. A receipt checker is either first or last approver in the T&E approval chain. Receipt Checker assigned at the parent level will inherit to the child level.
Please Note: We no longer use Sales and Tax Settings section with the new release of Managing Taxes under Budgeting tab. Do not configure this section.
Permissions Summary Tab
The Permissions tab summarizes all p[ermissions associated with users at the business unit level.
Please Note: The Preferences tab for child business units shows a more restricted set of choices that are available for the company-level. Some settings are company-wide and cannot be set up differently for different business units.
To see a list of all users who have certain permission (at this business unit level and any child business unit leve), click the Review icon next to that permission.
