GNM_RCS_Commission_Approval_TS

• 1. Introduction

     1. Purpose

The document GNM_RCS_Commissions_FS.docx is the functional specification that describes what business functions RCS supports in relation to Commissioning content from contributors.

This document is one of a set of technical specifications that provide details of how those functions are implemented in RCS.

• 1. Scope

This document focusses on the approval of commissions entered onto the system, from both a fee approval and rights approval perspective.

This document is intended as a high-level technical document outlining how the relevant business functions are implemented in terms of software modules.

Importantly, this document does not aim to provide the level of detail that would be required in a programming specification in areas such as program structure, detailed business rules, data integrity, validation, locking considerations, data security, and calls to/from other software modules, performance considerations, and so forth.

For details of program logic and coding, the reader should refer to the program files themselves.

• 1. Fee approval

Fees are not paid to contributor until a number of criteria have been met including the approval of the fees, if required.

• 1. Queuing fees for approval

Commissions are queued for review for the following reasons:

• • The total of the fees exceeds the editor’s spending limit;

  • The contributor is on staff – a fee may not be due if the commissioning editor did not realise the contributor was on staff;

  • The contributor is on contract – again a fee may not be due if the commissioning editor did not realise the contributor was already on contract.

Commissions that do not fall into the above categories are automatically approved when entered.

• 1. Approval of fees

Commissions with fees in excess of £5000 can only be approved by Managing editors. (This figure is set in a system parameter that only the RCS Administrator can change.)

All other commissions queued for review can be approved by the Editorial Administrator on the Desk, or the Department Head, subject to their spend limits.

The approval screen is accessed from the menu as follows: Commissions → Commissions approval

This opens an Oracle Form named rcs_comm_020_pc.fmb

Approvers see commissions awaiting requiring approval for their cost centre(s). They also have a count on the Welcome screen that advises them how many commissions are awaiting their attention.

The approver has the option of cancelling individual fees where appropriate.

• 1. Payment of fees

Payment instructions are not sent to AP or Payroll if a commission is subject to fee approval.

• 1. Timing

RCS also has a built in delay (48 hours from the time of the last change) before commission payment instructions are sent to Oracle AP or Payroll. This is a grace period allowing the commissioning editor to revise what has been agreed. (This 48-hour period is defined by a system parameter that only the RCS Administrator can change.)

A commission can be marked as being due for immediate payment, and these bypass the 48-hour delay.

Also, any commission linked to an entry in the Picture diary is also deemed due for immediate payment, subject to the criteria below.

• 1. Other payment criteria

The following criteria must be met for a commission fee to be sent as a payment instruction to Accounts:

• • The commission payment must be approved;

  • The commission payment must have a value in all 8 Chart of Accounts segments;

  • The commission must not be cancelled;

  • If paid via payroll the payee must have a payroll number;

  • If not paid via payroll then Oracle AP must have confirmed the payee’s bank details;

  • The payment is due if:

  • it has a due date that is not in the future; or

  • it is an advance; or

  • it is a spike payment and the commission is spiked; or

  • payment is due on signature of the assignment, and the paperwork has been returned; or

  • it is another payment type and the commission is fulfilled or marked to be paid immediately.

  • There are no outstanding “problems” logged against the commission;

  • The rights are approved;

  • The payment is not in the transaction hold/error queue awaiting the RCS administrator;

  • The commission is not linked to a book extract;

  • The payee’s contact details are complete;

  • The payee’s details are not queued in the Duplicate suppliers screen, un-cleared;

  • The payee’s details have been sent to Oracle AP.

• 1. Rights approval

All commissions are queued for approval by the Rights department. This is because the rights recorded on a commission need to be checked by the team with most expertise in rights and who have the broadest knowledge of contributor relationships. This process identifies and corrects most problems, such as:

• • Editors sometimes agree non-standard rights that should have been completely standard;

  • Other times editors record standard rights when the contributor always insists upon a non-standard set of rights.

The commissions queued for rights approval are listed in the Rights approval screen, accessible from this menu option: Rights → Rights approval

This opens an Oracle Form named rcs_comm_050_pc.fmb

For ease of management the queue of approvals is separated in to 7 distinct lists, each with its own tab:

• • Text

  • Pictures

  • Illustration

  • Audio

  • Video

  • Staff (these commissions are excluded from the above lists)

  • Book extracts (these commissions are excluded from the above lists)

Beyond this there is one further tab which lists recently approved commissions that can be un-approved if a mistake has been made, or if they need further investigation or negotiation.

The user can limit the commissions displayed by choosing one from the radio group options in the top right of the screen:

• • Matched

  • Fulfilled

  • Unmatched

  • All

Displaying “Matched” commissions is the default behaviour - these are the priority given that we know the content has already been published and so the contributor will be expecting payment.

The user has the option to change the order of the commissions shown: they can be queried in order of CRN which reflects the order they were entered, date agreed, or contributor name. This is done by clicking the button above the field. By clicking the button a second time the list order is reversed. Ordering by contributor name enables a user to more easily process all commissions for the same contributor together, which can be more efficient.

The rights model occupies the right hand side of this screen for ease of reference, as opposed to being in the more usual popup window. The detailed features of the rights model are documented in separate Rights documentation and so are not repeated in this document.

• 1. Fees

The individual payments that make up the commission fee can be seen in the window shown below:

• 1. Buy-in

Creative contributor and book extract information can also be reviewed:

• 1. Matches

Matches to content can be checked in the following window:

End of Document