Updating and Reviewing Staff Accounts
This article outlines the considerations and functionality available to review and update existing Staff Accounts. Including changing a Staff Member's name, deactivating MFA as required, monitoring for and managing blank 'New User' Staff Accounts, and how to review your organisation's SupportAbility subscription utilisation.
Information is also provided about actions required to be completed when a Staff Member ceases to work for a particular Service, or when deactivating a duplicate Staff Account.
Audience: Authorised Representatives, HR Specialist, and Team Leaders
Summary
The following list summarises the content of this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- Prerequisites
- Changing a Staff Member's Name
- Deactivating Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
- Blank 'New User' Staff Accounts
- Actions for completion when a Staff Member ceases to work for a Site/Service
- Subscription Utilisation
Prerequisites
- The 'Edit User Accounts' Security Privilege is required to access the 'User Details' tab of the relevant Staff Account to grant access, update a Staff Member's First name, Last name, Username, and Reset their password
- The 'Edit System Preferences' Security Privilege is required to access the System Preferences::Settings tab to view the Subscription utilisation information for your organisation
- The 'Delete Records' Security Privilege is required in order to be able to delete a Staff Account e.g. a blank 'New User' record
Changing a Staff Member's Name
When there is a requirement to update the First or Last name in a Staff Member's Staff Account, there is no need to make the existing Staff Account inactive and create a new one. Retaining the existing Staff Account will ensure the existing access and privileges the Staff Member has been granted and any information entered on the other tabs of their Staff Account will all be retained. This will also ensure that any Journals the Staff Member has created or Activities they are rostered into will still be linked to the correct Staff Account record.
The following steps through the considerations when changing a Staff Member's name, using the example of changing the 'Last name' for our Staff Member Brooks.
The individuals 'Last name' can simply be updated in this field to the new surname e.g. Pelkowski:
All references to this Staff Member
When a user's name is changed, the change will be applied to all instances of their name across SupportAbility, including historical records. Historical records are not lost and remain unchanged, other than displaying the new name of the relevant Staff Member. This is because SupportAbility uses the Staff Member's 'SupportAbility ID' number, within their Staff Account, not the name, as the unique identifier of that record:
Staff Account Email Address and Username
When an organisation uses the surname in the 'Staff Account Email Address' e.g. brooks.pelkowski@provider.org.au and in the 'Username' e.g. bpelkowski, these fields of information may also need to be updated accordingly:
Logging in when the username has been changed
If an individual's Username is changed the Staff Member will need to be notified as the next time they log in to SupportAbility they will be required to use the new Username. This change can be communicated outside of SupportAbility or via the 'Reset Password' button and 'Send Password Link' option which will send an automated email to the Email Address entered in their Staff Account, noting their new Username and prompting them to reset their password.
More information on resetting a password is available in the 'Account Details' section of the Creating a Staff Account article, or the Assisting another Staff Member to log in article linked below for reference.
Adding a Bookmark
It may be helpful to add a Bookmark to the relevant Staff Account to notify others of the name change and avoid subsequent confusion. The Bookmark could be created for 'All Staff' noting the name change details and the date it was changed:
Then removed once ample notification has been provided. More information about this functionality can be found in the Bookmarks article, linked below.
Deactivating Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
If Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is in use for your organisation, there may be occasions where Staff Members need assistance troubleshooting log-in issues. For example, if they are experiencing an issue with their Authenticator App, or if they change smartphones and have been unable to access their Authenticator App back up from the cloud, deactivating MFA may be required.
A Staff Member with access to the Staff Members Account and the 'Edit User Accounts' privilege can deactivate MFA from the User Details tab of the Staff Member's Account if this is required:
Once selected, a confirmation message is displayed regarding this:
When this has been Deactivated you will notice this appears as such in the Staff Account:
It is important to note that if MFA is configured to be Enforced for your organisation, the Staff Member will be required to activate MFA again when logging into SupportAbility.
Blank 'New User' Staff Accounts
Staff with the 'Edit User Accounts' Security Privilege can create new Staff Accounts, from the Dashboard:
Occasionally blank 'New User' Staff Account records are inadvertently created when the + icon next to the Staff Accounts Search is selected, but no information has been entered. This occurs even when the 'Save User' button has not been selected.
It is important to note that these 'New User' Staff Accounts count towards the total number of Active Staff Accounts available in an organisation's subscription. Therefore it is recommended that this is reviewed periodically to ensure there are no blank Staff Account records, and thereby the number of 'Active Staff Accounts' accurately reflects the utilisation of your Subscription Limit.
N.B. The 'SupportAbility Software' Staff Account is not counted towards an organisation's subscription numbers.
Identifying Blank 'New User' records
There are two methods for reviewing if blank 'New User' Staff Accounts exist:
- Quick Search tool
- Staff Account Search
Information on each of these has been outlined below.
N.B. When using either of these Search tools it is important to be aware of how the 'Search and Active Default' settings have been configured on the Settings tab in System Preferences as this will affect what is displayed in the results of your search:
Quick Search tool
The first and simplest method is to enter 'New' in the 'Quick Search' field. This will automatically display any blank or unnamed (most likely unused) 'New User' Staff Accounts, or 'New Contact' Contact records. Entering 'New User' would specifically display any 'blank' Staff Accounts. In the example below, we can see there are two blank 'New User' Staff Accounts that have been created:
Select the respective 'New User' Staff record and review the contents of each tab to ensure no data has been entered. If the record is completely blank then it can simply be deleted by a Staff Member who has the 'Delete Records' privilege. Alternatively, your organisation may choose to deactivate this and then repurpose it when a new Staff Account is required to be created.
Staff Account Search
The second method for checking for blank 'New User' Accounts is to generate a Staff Account Search from the Dashboard, ensuring that 'Active Staff Only' is selected in the 'User is active' filter.
From here, a full list of Active Staff Accounts can be viewed. Selecting the sort button at the top of the 'User Name' field will sort the Results List alphabetically, making it easy to identify any 'New User' Accounts:
Alternatively, an additional filter can be applied by entering 'new' in the 'First Name' field. If there are any blank 'New User' Accounts, these will be returned in the Results List:
As for method 1, any 'New User' Accounts can be opened in a new window, reviewed, and either deleted or repurposed as required.
More information about the 'Staff Account Search' functionality can be found in the Staff Account Search article, linked below.
Deleting Blank 'New User' records
Only Staff with the 'Delete records' privilege are able to delete a Staff Account. Reviewing the 'Staff Privileges Report' from the Reports menu will identify those Staff who have been granted this privilege.
We recommend only ever deleting 'blank' records, as all other records should be made inactive, rather than deleting them, to preserve the history of those records for reference purposes and to meet audit and legal requirements.
If a Staff Account is linked to certain key records such as Client Journals, Activities, AIR, OFI etc. then it cannot be deleted and the following notification message will display following this attempt:
Other records related to Staff Accounts such as the list below, if present, will not prevent the record from being deleted. It is important to note, however, that these related records, if they exist, will also be deleted when the Staff Account is deleted:
- Reviews
- Training Records
- Documents
- Action Logs
- Contacts
- Qualifications
- Document Access Provisions
- Bookmarks
In this instance the following notification will display when attempting to delete the record:
Actions for completion when a Staff Member ceases to work for a Site/Service
When a Staff Member ceases to work for a specific Site/Service there are a number of actions required to be completed.
In summary, these include the following actions:
- Enter a 'To Date' for the relevant Site/Service in their Staff Account.
- Update their Primary Service, if this Site/Service is listed as the Primary Service in their Staff Account.
- Remove the Staff Member's Shifts from all future scheduled Activities related to this Site/Service.
- Reassign outstanding 'Incomplete Client Journal Actions' assigned to this Staff Member that are related to the Site/Service they are no longer working for.
- Reassign Client Documents set to 'Notify' this Staff Member related to the Site/Service they are no longer working for.
- Update the 'Key Support Worker' in the 'Client Service Participation' section of all Client records related to this Site/Service, where this Staff Member is listed as the Key Support Worker.
N.B. When a Staff Member ceases to work for an organisation the actions requiring completion are outlined in detail in the Deactivating a Staff Account article linked below. This article also includes information about how to deactivate a Staff Account and the automated updates triggered when a Staff Account is made inactive.
Enter a To Date for this Site/Service in the Staff Account
Rather than deleting the Site/Service line item in a Staff Account when the Staff Member ceases to work in that Service, we recommend entering a 'To Date':
Once a 'To Date' has been entered, the following will occur:
- the Site/Service line item will be greyed out
- the Staff Member will no longer have access to Client records who participate in that Site/Service unless they share another Site/Service in common, which will provide them with access.
The exception to this rule is for specialised Services such as Support Coordination or Financial Plan Management, where the Staff Member requires either these Site/Services listed specifically or a high-level global access privilege e.g. 'Edit Client records Across ALL Services' - the Staff Member will no longer be able to view the Roster for that Site/Service
Update the Primary Service
If the Site/Service the Staff Member is no longer working at was selected as their 'Primary' Service, an alternative Site/Service will need to be selected as this is not automated when a To Date is entered:
Remove the Staff Member's Shifts from future scheduled Activities
To remove a Staff Member from future scheduled Activities it may be helpful to first run an 'Activity Staff Report' filtering by the relevant 'Staff Member', Site/Service, and setting the 'Staff Shift Date:From' as the Staff Member's final date with this Service:
This will bring up all future Activities from that date forward which the Staff Member is rostered for. The Staff Member can then be manually removed from each Activity.
Remember to select the 'Save Activity' button for each Activity to save any changes you have made:
Two helpful tips for completing this are as follows:
- Right mouse click on each different type of Activity to open them in separate tabs. The relevant Staff Member can then be easily removed from each of these Activities while retaining the report open as a helpful overall reference.
- If the Activity is part of a replicated set, first remove the Staff Member from the current Activity, then check the 'Staff' setting for 'Replication Management Settings', and Save the Activity. When this setting is turned on any changes made to the current Activity record will be replicated across all future occurrences of that Activity i.e. removing the Staff Member from each future-dated Activity.
N.B.
- When making this adjustment to Activities, it is important to check that no-one else is in the middle of working with any Activities in the same set, as any Staff changes they make to an individual Activity may be replicated or overwritten, if the Staff Replication Management Setting is turned on when saving an Activity.
- Remember to turn this setting off again once you have applied and saved the required change, to avoid other changes which may only apply to a singular Activity being replicated.
- Changes cannot be applied to Activities that have already been signed off.
Reassign outstanding 'Incomplete Client Journal Actions'
As Journals form part of the critical evidence required to meet your organisation's compliance obligations, it is important that any associated Journal Actions are completed. Therefore when a Staff Member ceases to work for a particular Site/Service it is important that all 'Incomplete Journal Actions' related to that Site/Serice and which have been assigned to this Staff Member, are reviewed and reassigned for completion, where required:
Visibility of 'Incomplete Client Journal' Actions
Journal actions by
If a Staff Member ceases to work in a particular Service for which they have been assigned a Journal Action, but the Staff Member still has access to the related Client record via another Service in common, any 'Incomplete Journal Actions' will still be visible to them in their Dashboard Notifications. Only when the Staff Member ceases to have access to the related Client record will the 'Incomplete Journal Actions' Notification no longer be visible on their Dashboard.
Reassigning a Client Journal Action
Staff with the 'Team Leader' privilege for specific Site/Services can select 'Show Dashboard For' any of the Staff who work in the Service they have this privilege for.
Selecting the exiting Staff Member's Dashboard will display any Incomplete Client Journal Actions for that Staff Member:
Selecting the target Icon will open the Journal, from where the Journal Action can then be reassigned to another Staff Member and a comment added to the Action Note advising that the action has been reassigned for completion:
Reassign Person to Notify for Client Documents
All Client Document records related to the Service the person is no longer working in, where the Staff Member has been set as the person to 'Notify' will need updating:
It may therefore be helpful to perform a 'Document Search' to identify the Client Documents records which require updating. The Search is accessible via the Reports menu, and can be filtered by the following search criteria:
- Record Type - Client
- Document Status - select all options
- Notify - the relevant Staff Member's name
- Staff Service - the Service the Staff Member is no longer working in
The results generated list all Client Document records which meet the selected search criteria:
N.B. The results displayed are dependent on the access level of the Staff Member generating the search.
We recommend right-mouse clicking on each of the target icons in the list, and selecting 'Open link in new tab', to preserve the Document List as a helpful reference source. The 'Notify' field can then be updated in each of the Client records where required.
Remember to select the 'Save Client' button after each change.
Update the Key Support Worker Information
When a Staff member no longer works in a Service, it is important to update the 'Key Support Worker' field in the 'Client Service Participation' section of all relevant Client records where this Staff member was selected.
This is important for 2 purposes:
- Ensure information in the Client Record is accurate and current:
- Assists with generating accurate results in a Client Search when filtering by 'Key Support Worker' as the search criteria.
Client Search
Performing a Client Search filtering by the relevant Staff Member in the 'Key Support Worker' field and selecting the relevant Service will assist with identifying all relevant Client records requiring an update:
The results generated list all Client records for this Service, where the Staff member has been set as the 'Key Support Worker':
N.B. The results generated from a Client Search are dependent on the level of access the Staff member generating the Search has.
We recommend right-mouse clicking on each of the target icons in the list, and selecting 'Open link in new tab', to preserve the Client List as a helpful reference source. The 'Key Support Worker' field can then be updated in each of the Client records as required.
Preserving a History of Clients' Key Support Workers
Rather than updating the name of the 'Key Support Worker' in the existing entry, your organisation may choose to preserve a historical reference for each Key Support Worker who supported a Client.
To achieve this an 'End Date' would need to be applied to the relevant existing 'Client Service Participation' entry, and a new 'Client Service Participation' entry created with the new Key Support Worker and the 'Start Date' when they commenced working with this Client:
Once the Key Support Worker information has been updated, remember to select the 'Save Client' button to save the changes:
Once an 'End Date' has been applied, this entry will be greyed out and moved to the 'historical services' section.
Subscription Utilisation
The licence level of your organisation's SupportAbility Subscription determines the number of Active Staff Accounts your organisation has access to creating.
The 'Subscription utilisation' section in System Preferences::Settings provides information regarding your organisation's:
- 'Subscription Limit'
- number of 'Active Staff Accounts' currently utilised
- 'Utilisation' percentage of the Subscription Limit
- number of 'Remaining' Active Staff Accounts available for creation
This may be reviewed periodically by Staff with the 'Edit System Preferences' Security Privilege when new Staff Accounts are required to be created.
Subscription user licence level increase
While the SupportAbility subscription terms are annual, your organisation may elect at any time to increase the user licence level. This can be actioned by forwarding an email request to support@supportability.com.au requesting a quotation for a subscription increase.
If your organisation chooses to accept this quotation, the number of Active Staff Accounts will be increased in your installation, effective immediately, and a pro-rata invoice will be issued for the increased amount, to cover the remaining period of your annual subscription.