Banner Module Review FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Banner?
What is the Banner Module Review report?
What is included in the Classes section of the report?
Who is included in the Users section of the report?
Why are terminated employees listed on the report?
What if the report lists an employee or user who has transferred jobs at the college?
What happens to Banner Security when an employee separates from the college?
What is a Home Department?
What is a Financial Manager?
What is an Organizational Hierarchy?
Why did my session timeout before I certified the report or marked it as in process?
What is the difference between the ‘Html’ and ‘CSV’ options for downloading a report?
What factors might I consider when analyzing the report?
How do I ask questions about this information or report changes needed to this information?
What is Banner?
Banner is the college’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) business management software. It is an integrated information system with modules to handle core functions. Our modules include Student, Finance, Human Resources, Financial Aid, and General. The report includes Banner Security Classes which are used to grant access to these modules.
What is the Banner Module Review report?
A Banner Module Review is required as part of our annual security process to ensure that authorizations to information in Banner are appropriate and necessary. The report is provided to Module Owners to validate Banner permissions for employees and other Banner users so that we can comply with this process. This information is presented in two sections on the report: Classes section and Users section. Although responses and changes are collected annually during the formal review process, the informational report will remain accessible throughout the year and changes can be submitted using the regular Banner Security process.
What is included in the Classes section of the report?
This section will display all of the Banner classes that are associated with the respective module according to the System code. It lists the name of the Banner class, the description of the class (if one exists) and the number of users who have access to that class. The section may repeat for additional modules owned by the same individual.
Banner classes are groups that define access in Banner Admin for Banner Pages, Processes and Reports. Objects associated with a class can be found by searching for the class name in K:\Administration\Technology Systems & Resources\User Services\BANNER\SECURITY\Banner Security Objects by Class - All.xls.
Who is included in the User section of the report?
Banner users who have access to at least one Banner class that is attached to the module the user is the owner of.
This section can be broken down into three types of record:
- The Banner user's base information. These records will include the Banner user’s ID; name; Home Department (Organization) code and title; and the name of the Financial Manager who manages the user's Home Department.
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The Banner user’s job or associate information. A Banner user may have multiple records as there will be one per active position with the college. These records will include the Banner user’s job title, Banner position/suffix codes, job type (P for primary, S for secondary and O for other) and the name of the Financial Manager attached to the job’s timesheet Organization code (with the job’s timesheet Organization code available as hover-text on the Financial Manager’s name). Note: Non-employees will be listed but with their non-employee association type (e.g. Partner Affiliate, Contractor, Agency Worker, Volunteer) since job assignment does not apply.
- The Banner user’s class access. These records will include the Banner security class that the user has access to and the description of the class (if one exists). Objects associated with a class can be found by searching for the class name in K:\Administration\Technology Systems & Resources\User Services\BANNER\SECURITY\Banner Security Objects by Class - All.xls
Why are terminated employees listed on the report?
Employees will appear on the report until their Banner security access has been removed regardless of the status of their employment with the college. If the individual was recently separated, their access may not yet have been changed pending final payouts. If an employee has transferred to another area in the college, their access will still be active, but their permissions may need to be updated if no longer appropriate. If the employee is no longer working for the college, please be sure that the separation has been reported to Human Resources so that they can update records accordingly (this will also unencumber the budget, if needed). Click here for the Human Resources page on Separation Processing.
What if the report lists an employee or user who has transferred jobs at the college?
If an employee has transferred jobs, then their account likely did not go through the workflow to remove permissions associated with their previous position. Please be sure to review their access and report any changes so that their permissions are only necessary to meet responsibilities of their current role. Many employees transfer jobs, so it is important to ensure that unnecessary permissions do not accumulate. Use the export (download) feature to facilitate analysis by job/association to ensure permissions are aligned among counterparts.
What happens to Banner Security when an employee separates from the college?
The college developed a user separation workflow to update and/or remove various permissions when a user sepratates from the college. This process identifies separated employees and non-employees from changes made to the Last Work Date and/or Employee Status fields in their Employee record in Human Resources. In some cases, this process can be manually started when changes in Banner will be delayed or if association continues in another capacity (e.g. adjunct teaching).
What is a Home Department?
The Employee record in Human Resources (PEAEMPL) for each user will list one Home Department which is generally the same as the Organization code in the labor distribution of the their primary job. In cases where a labor distribution is split between Organizations, the Organization with the highest percentage is used as the Home Department. Note that while an employee may have multiple jobs at the college, only one Home Department can be assigned. Requests to update Home Departments can be submitted to Human Resources.
What is a Financial Manager?
A Financial Manager is the manager of record and are is responsible for the day to day management of the Organization and its budget. Funds in Banner are also assigned a Financial Manager who may be different from the Financial Manager associated with the Fund’s default Organization. Fund Financial Managers are often subordinates of the Organization Financial Manager; part of your analysis may include sharing report information with those individuals. The terms Financial Manager and Budget Unit Leader are frequently used interchangeably. The Budget Manual, which can be referenced for more information, defines the Budget Unit Leader as having the “primary responsibility for the development, administration, and maintenance of assigned organizational budgets within approved funding levels, regardless of funding source.”
What is an Organizational Hierarchy?
This is the hierarchical structure of Organization codes in Banner. We use eight levels in our hierarchy, seven of which are Summaries used for reporting purposes; the bottom or Leaf level is where budget activity occurs (i.e. budget, expenses, and encumbrances). The Leaf level Organization will roll-up to Summary level Organizations representing increasing levels of management. For example:
Level 1 Summary: College-Wide
Level 2 Summary: EVP/Division
Level 3 Summary: EVP/Major Operating Unit
Level 4 Summary: Vice President
Level 5 Summary: Executive Director/Dean
Level 6 Summary: Director/Associate Dean or Departmental use
Level 7 Summary: Departmental use
Level 8 Leaf: Department
The Organizational Hierarchy can be found here. The highlighted rows are the Level 4 Organizations (generally, Vice President Level).
Why did my session timeout before I certified the report or marked it as in process?
This feature times out after thirty (30) minutes of inactivity for security reasons. It may be a good idea to Print or Export the report for your analysis and then log back into the solution to certify or mark as in process. Please mark as in process if changes are submitted so that we can both look for the changes as well as monitor that work is in progress to minimize follow-up requests.
What is the difference between the ‘Hrml’ and ‘CSV’ options for downloading a report?
Use the ‘Html’ option to review the formatted report in your brower and optionally print the report or save as a pdf (Ctrl-P) while keeping the formatting for easier viewing. Use the ‘CSV’ option to extract report information in csv format to manipulate the information in Excel for further analysis; however, report formatting will be lost.
What factors might I consider when analyzing the report?
Granted permissions must be both appropriate for the employee/user role and necessary in order for the employee/user to perform their job responsibilities. Please consider if the permission meets these criteria. Generally, employees in similar roles will have similar permissions; variances should be reviewed for appropriateness. Especially consider job transfers because residual permissions from prior positions can accumulate thereby requiring update.
How do I ask questions about this information or report changes needed to this information?
Please click here to submit a question about this information or process. Changes during the Banner Module Review should be compiled on the provided Banner Security Change Request Form Template and submitted through the Banner Module Review application so that participation in the reviewing activity is recorded. Changes outside of the annual review process can be requested by clicking here to submit through the regular Banner Security process (requests will route to Banner Security after the module owner has approved.)