Act As — FAQ

Because our primary goal is to give investigators access to financial data about their research projects and accounts, the PI Dashboard does not support the full Kuali Data Warehouse access model. It displays account and project data where the visitor is the account manager (AM) or is the Principal Investigator (PI). We also make it possible for those who support these investigators to Act-As them. We provide a description of the access model elsewhere.  This document describes how to use Act-As permissions and how to request Act-As permission. It also describes how to find out who has act-as permission and how the PI Dashboard access models compares to access models for other dashboards.

What is Act-As

If you have the right permissions, you can act as someone else and see the PI Dashboard exactly as they see it, including all transaction and labor data. Any changes to "My Accounts", project and account nicknames, or notes you make will be visible to the person you are acting as. Act-As is typically used by administrative staff to support their faculty.

Choosing Who to Act As

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  • Use the Menu: A menu in the upper-right of the screen allows you to select who to act as. It always shows the name of the person you are actings as. (Initially, it will show your own name.)

  • Edit the URL: People can copy and send the URL of a page in the PI Dashboard. That URL will change who you are acting as to who they are acting as at the time they copied the URL. You can also edit the URL parameter "actAs=netid" instead of using the menu. In this case you'd insert the NetID of the person you want to act as.

  • NOTE: If you try to act as someone for whom you don't have permission, you'll see an error message.

Requesting Act As Permissions

  • Your Act-As privileges in the PI Dashboard are the same as in the Accounting (OBIEE) Dashboards.

  • The colleges and units have different guidelines for authorizing Act-As Proxy permissions. Normally you can start by contacting your Financial Service Center. They can work with the Authorized Authorizers for your unit to set up the access you need.

  • Once you have act-as privileges in the Accounting (OBIEE) Dashboards, it may take one or two days for the PI Dashboard to catch up.

  • Administrators who can act as a faculty member can see what the faculty member sees in the PI Dashboard including labor details they may not see elsewhere.

Who Can Act As You

  • Look it up in the Financial Data Access Dashboard. If you don't have access to this dashboard, contact your Research Administrator. Eventually this list will be available in the PI Dashboard.

How do PI Dashboard and the Accounting Dashboard Access Models Compare

  • Since this is an investigator focused tool, ONLY the PI/AM access and “Act-As” privileges are supported.

    • The user will see summaries, labor information, and transactions on accounts where they are Account manager.

    • The user will see summaries on projects and accounts where they are PI.

    • PI’s will not see transactions on accounts where they are only the PI, not the Account manager.

    • Anyone who is able to “Act-As” someone will be able to see everything that person sees.

  • The following access models that are supported in the accounting dashboards are NOT supported in the PI Dashboard:

    • Labor access control – Labor data access given at the college and department level.

    • Staff accounting – Allows access to view all account and transaction details at the university, except detailed labor.

    • Local account access control – Allows access to specific accounts, or the accounts administered by a specific department or college.

Accessibility

If you have a disability and are having trouble accessing information on this website or need materials in an alternate format, contact rais-help@cornell.edu for assistance.

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