Deltek + ComputerEase User Functionality Tips and Tricks

Security for your data is more important than ever, but how can you be more secure while still allowing users to easily navigate Deltek + ComputerEase (D+CE)? In this webinar recap, D+CE Director of Training and Implementation Maribel Scarnecchia walks us through how to avoid employees running into password and functionality issues. She concentrates on the core module and add-on issues that users tend to experience through either creating a new company or configuring users.

Product leadership has been discussing the possibility of future enhancements within the Deltek + ComputerEase roadmap to add the ability to track what employees post to which module. In the meantime, these tips for which allowances affect what in D+CE provides both better productivity and user experience. By using these tips, you will be able to control and give permissions to your users to provide more checks and balances within your software as well as simplify what your users can view to enhance their individual experience.

Job Costing through Job Access Codes

Job Costing can be configured for individual users. Instead of requiring project managers to have to include their class code just to view their own projects’ reports every time, program D+CE to include their Job Access Code. To do so, include an Access Code to each individual job and communicate that with your project managers. By doing this, it allows faster and easier access from your employees.

GL Period and Date Mismatch and Cost Type Mismatch

While looking at User Settings, you’ll notice there is an option for allowing GL period and date mismatch. This is to better provide flexibility in your business—for example, you may have already closed out a month’s worth of work, but receive an invoice after the fact. You’ll post in the accurate month, but can show in the system for the correct date. If you choose to remove this allowance for a user, it will require them to post any invoice to that month they’re currently in.

To post to a closed GL period, if you allow any given user to have this allowance, it will only allow you to edit in past GL periods as far back as you have set in the General Ledger Parameters.

The same concept applies to the cost type mismatch allowance. You will be able to determine who, if anyone, has the option to post invoicing for non-default cost type within the system. Logically, this would make sense to not have as an allowance for any user in order for your books to stay balanced; however, by checking this allowance for someone, it allows them the subsequent option on the Special Settings list to post to a closed job.

Customer Corner Access

Customer Corner can be removed from user access, but we encourage users to consider allowing for all – this creates a better learning environment and reduces the learning curve for users. The Automatic Check for Updates allows notifications for on-prem users of when there is an upcoming update; you can uncheck this for specific team members who may not need these updates and to reduce the alerts they receive. For those who are currently in the cloud, this Special Setting is already checked off, as it’s part of the cloud package to allow automatic updates.

Access to Add Attachments and Links

The last Special Settings is attaching links; under the attachments, you can add a copy or scan by linking the root file or attaching a copy. Linking an attachment pulls it directly from your specific workstation while adding a copy as a new file in the CE system. If you don’t want users to include links, you can remove this allowance and it will require users to only include copies of their invoices. Doing this avoids the potential of your internal users not having access to the landing page where an attachment could be linked from another user.

As a best practice, it’s recommended to restrict all users for all Special Settings and to then create an Admin User ID for full rights to everything in D+CE under Password Maintenance. This will allow a completely separate user ID to have access to all Special Settings under one account in order to view and edit as needed and create additional security permissions to be aware of when they have the rights to edit outside of normal business practices.

Programs

Accounts Payable

You can edit what capabilities any given user can have access to under Accounts Payable – by unchecking any of these, it removes the option entirely from the Users view, decluttering their screen view. Under Checking Accounts, you’ll find all checking accounts added to your business and within each, there are password groups you can create to reduce the amount of Users that have access to any given checking account report. It’s important to note that if you want a User to be able to run a report on a checking account, you must allow the User that access under Reports as well as that specific Checking Account, otherwise there will be an error in their ability to run it.

Job Costing

For job costing, you have the ability to lock budgets from editing and deleting jobs. You’re able to control who can delete a job under the Can Delete Cost Codes with Detail. This is an important feature for you to decide who can access; even with the reminders put in place to remind Users of the warnings of deleting a job, reducing those who have this capability will further reduce the risk of inaccurate job costing for your overall financials.

Under Reports, there are two options for Job Cost Detail. You can allow Users to view Job Cost Details without seeing specific employees’ rates by unchecking the Job Cost Detail – Show Labor Detail. This hides individual employee rates and instead will show that user running the report the overall payroll cost. Further down on the functionality options within the Job Detail Maintenance is the Clear the Posting Report functionality. We recommend removing that function for the majority of your users to minimize the amount of your employees that have the ability to delete the paper trail of posts to jobs in the software.

Payroll

If someone is tagged to Executive Payroll, it means that user has access to make entries for other employees in the field to manage their time. If you choose, by removing the View/Edit Pay Rates ability for users creates confidential pay rates for all other employees, keeping the privacy of your employees.

General Ledger

If you want someone to be able to edit or reconcile an account but not give them access to force a reconcile, simply uncheck the Reconcile Account Admin. This gives you more control over who has the ability to force an account to reconcile and ensure the right users are the only ones that can. This is not a common occurrence but there are events where you may need to force a reconciliation, such as if you need to void an entry that has already been cleared in the system, like a previously cashed check. This control is put in place to allow for greater flexibility in your work while still remaining accurate to the real cash flows of your business.

Accounts Receivable

Within your company’s AR accesses, users can be given access to creating, editing, posting, and/or deleting Freeform Invoices and AIA Billing Invoices. It’s up to you to decide who within your company should have access to any or all of these functions.

Purchase Orders

Going out of balance within your inventory can create huge headaches to fix within your business. The functionality within ComputerEase automatically gives all users the ability to edit inventory, so it’s important for you to decide which users really should have the Can Change Inventory Item Costs option. This locks the automated rate for each item that was originally and accurately set.

Another important item to note is the Allow Edit of an Invoice Work Ticket under Billing. By allowing this, it opens your business up for the risk of manually overriding locked invoice changes, requiring you to go back and fix your invoicing.

Configure

We recommend that this section of User Settings be strictly allowed for Admin personnel only. This will allow only those who have admin functionality in your software to edit the parameters of how your ComputerEase was set up and built to function.

Data files for User Reports

If checked, the user will have reading and writing abilities automatically; you can edit to the right of your screen to read only, which is recommended as a general rule of thumb. This will allow your system users to generate these reports for the business without having the ability to accidentally edit the reports themselves.

How to Review User Settings

Once you’ve decided on your user allowances for a specific employee, you can run a report called Report User to the right of the screen; which you can copy and paste to that Employee’s file to remember which allowances you gave that specific person.

If you want to remove or add a functionality to a group of users, simply select Edit Multiple Users, select which Users you want to override, and edit their allowance from there. You can view by specific setting which of those selected Users has access, and can edit through that view.

If you have multiple employees that you want to have the same functionality as, you can Copy User for the original user’s setting configuration, and insert the additional user at the top under User ID to configure those additional employees to those same settings.

Although this webinar goes into more detail of a few select settings to review, it’s critical you review each item for every user. For a full summary, you can find them in your software’s System Setup under Creating a Company, where the manual walks users through the steps to configuring and editing new users under a new company or an existing one.

For a full overview of these steps, and further breakdown of password maintenance and user functionality, check out the webinar On Demand. If you have additional questions, be sure to sign up for any of our weekly Meet the Expert sessions held by one of our senior consultants. Hosted twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1pm ET, you can submit your general support questions to have immediate assistance. Log on to your Customer Corner account and navigate to Upcoming Training Sessions and select the Meet the Expert Sessions (Live Q&A) under Recurring Training Sessions to register.