Introduction
Audit responsibilities are assigned using Internal Contact Types. Internal Contact Types are a way of grouping GEMS users into distinct categories, for example, approvers. There are three predefined Internal Contact Types:
Updaters - This Internal Contact Type can be used in Verifications. It is also available for use outside Verifications.
Approvers – This Internal Contact Type is used in the Approvals functionality though it is also available for use outside Approvals. Please see the Approvals Tutorial on the Community Support Site for details.
Verifiers - This Internal Contact Type can be used in Verifications, but it is also available for use outside Verifications.
In addition, you can choose not to use these predefined Internal Contacts Types for Verifications and set up your own custom Internal Contact Types instead. It can be useful to use custom Internal Contact Types when there are multiple verification phases running at the same time. For example: two departments, Legal and Finance need to run simultaneous verifications on the same entities. Each department has its own users who are authorized to update and verify entity records on behalf of their department. To set these verifications up, the following steps would need to be taken:
Legal creates the Internal Contact Types “Legal Updater” and “Legal Verifier”; Finance creates the Internal Contact Types “Finance Updater” and “Finance Verifier.”
Both Legal and Finance go to the Internal Contacts screen for each entity included in the verification phase and assigns GEMS users from their own departments to the Internal Contact Types they have just created.
Finally, Legal sets up its verification phase and selects “Legal Updater” and “Legal Verifier” Internal Contact Types as the updater and verifier in the verification wizard. Finance does the same but selects “Finance Updater” and “Finance Verifier” instead.
Once the verification phases become active, the users included in the Internal Contact Type of each department will be able to update and verify the entities for their respective departments.
Please note: In this document, the terms Updater and Approver refer to users who are assigned to the Internal Contact Type specified to carry out the respective role of “Updater” or “Verifier” within the Verification Phase Wizard. While “Updater” and “Verifier” Internal Contact types are available as standard within GEMS, any Internal Contact Type can play the role of the “Updater” or “Verifier,” including custom Internal Contact Types.
Creating Internal Contact Types
Internal Contact Types are lookup items, and all Administrator Users can create them. Those Edit Users who have the appropriate permissions can also create Internal Contact Types.
To create an Internal Contact Type, do the following:
Navigate to Admin > Lookup Lists > Lookup Items.
Click on Internal Contact Types in the left navigation menu. A list of existing Internal Contact Types is displayed.
Click on the New Internal Contact Type hyperlink.
On the data entry screen, enter the name of the Internal Contact Type you want to create.
Please note: Internal Contact Type names must be unique. You cannot use the same name as an existing Internal Contact Type even if the existing one is not active.
Select or clear the “Active” checkbox depending on whether you want the Internal Contact Type to be active or not. Only active Internal Contact types are available to add users to and to use in Verifications.
Click the Save button to save the Internal Contact Type to the database.
Assigning Users to Internal Contact Types
Audit Managers can assign audit responsibilities to users by assigning them to the appropriate Internal Contact Types as follows:
Please note: This method assigns one user at a time to an Internal Contact Type and that Internal Contact Type is assigned to the selected entity only. If you would like to assign multiple users to an Internal Contact Type and/or you would like to assign the Internal Contact Type to multiple companies/ business entities, you should use the Internal Contacts Wizard. Please see How to Assign Internal Contacts Using the Internal Contacts Wizard for details.
If there is an Internal Contacts panel on the snapshot of the legal entity to be audited, click Actions on the menu bar, click New, then click Internal Contacts.
OR
Click View More Details on the Entity Snapshot, then click Internal Contacts. On the Internal Contacts Screen, click on the New Internal Contacts hyperlink.
Next, select the required Internal Contact Type for the “Internal Contact Type” field and then, for the “User” field, select the GEMS user to be appointed as updater or verifier for that Entity. In the following figure, the user CGSLSmith is selected to be a Responsible CoSec.
Please note: Only Internal Contact Types and users with a status of “Active” are available for selection.
Select the “Effective From” date from which the Internal Contact is valid and, if the assignment is for a fixed duration, the “Effective To” date as well.
Click the Save button to save the Internal Contact.
Please note:
You can assign more than one person to an Internal Contact Type—simply create a new internal contact of the same type and select a different user. You can also use the Internal Contacts Wizard to do this. Remember, you can assign the same person to be both an Updater and a Verifier.
When an entity is deleted, its Internal Contacts are also deleted. This means that if a user is assigned to an Internal Contact Type for one entity only, and that entity is deleted, the user is no longer associated with that Internal Contact Type.
Once you have assigned users to the Internal Contact Types, you can select them in the Verification Wizard while setting up a verification phase (see Creating an Audit (Audit Manager)).
Administrator Users can send manual emails to all users assigned to an Internal Contact Type from the Admin Hub.
Users can send emails to all users assigned to Internal Contact Types using the Snapshot Email button.
Replacing Updaters, Verifiers and Approvers (Audit Manager)
Audit Managers can replace the users selected as updaters, verifiers and approvers by using the Search and Replace Wizard. This wizard is accessible using the “Wizard” search in the Search Hub.
Please note: The Search and Replace Wizard is ideal for replacing several people in verification roles at the same time. However, you can also replace the people assigned to verification roles for individual companies/business entities by going into the entity record and selecting new users for these roles.
Please see How to Replace Users in Internal Contact Types Using the Search & Replace Wizard for details on using the wizard.