Platform¶

Admin Staff

The Platform apps are the foundation every other Amana app runs on. They hold your organisation's structure, the people who can sign in, the rules for who approves what, and where files are kept. Get these right first and Grants, Finance, People and Operations will route work to the right people automatically.

App	What it holds	Guide
Organization	Legal entities, country offices and units, and who holds which role	Organization guide
Administration	Users and access, master data, settings and audit	Administration guide
Approvals	The rules for who approves what, and every approval decision	Approvals guide
Documents	Workspaces, retention and secure sharing for files	Documents guide

Set up in this order¶

Each step uses what the previous one created. On a new system, work through them in this order before anyone starts using the operational apps.

Organization: build the structure. Create the organisation, its legal entities and the country office units, then put them live with a structure version (see Add a unit and put it live). Every request, budget and document is placed in a unit, and approvals follow that placement.
Organization: assign roles. Under People & Responsibility › Role Assignments, record who is Country Director, Finance Manager, Program Director and so on, for each unit. Approval policies look these people up by role, so a new country director starts receiving approvals as soon as their assignment begins.
Administration: invite users and give access. Under Users & Access, create user accounts and give each person the access level they need in each app. See Onboard a new staff member.
Approvals: write the approval rules. Every office needs one approval policy for each type of request it uses, in the right currency. Work through the checklist of policies each office needs, then add any authority limits and separation-of-duty rules. See Build an approval policy.
Documents: set up workspaces. Add members and a records officer to each workspace, and check the requirement rules and retention policies. See Documents.
Administration: check the settings. Review System Settings and Notifications. Then do the practice run below before you hand the system over to staff.

Do a practice run with one office¶

Before everyone starts using Amana, try it out with one office. You send a few practice requests and check that each one reaches the right person. Fixing a setting now means staff have a smooth first day.

Step 1: Choose one office¶

Pick one country office to practise with, for example Kenya Country Office.

Step 2: Finish the setup for that office¶

Work through the six steps above for this office only. When you're done, you should be able to tick every line:

The office appears under Organization › Structure › Country Offices and is live.
Every job that approves things, such as Country Director and Finance Manager, has a person named against it under People & Responsibility › Role Assignments.
Each of those people has a user account and can sign in.
There is an approval rule (policy) for each kind of request the office will use.

Step 3: List the kinds of requests the office uses¶

Write down every kind of request staff in this office will send. For example:

purchase requests
travel requests
leave requests
expense claims
vehicle requests

You'll send one practice request of each kind.

Step 4: Send one practice request of each kind¶

Sign in as an ordinary staff member of the office.
Open the app for the first kind of request, for example Travel for a travel request.
Fill in the form. Use a normal, small amount and write PRACTICE in the description, so everyone knows it isn't real.
Click the submit button, for example Submit for Approval.
Repeat for every kind of request on your list.

Step 5: Check where each request went¶

Open Approvals › Submitted by Me.
Find each practice request. The Current Step column shows who it's waiting for.

Step 6: Approve each request, step by step¶

Sign in as the person the request is waiting for.
Open Approvals › My Inbox. The practice request should be in the list.
Open it and click Approve.
Go back to Submitted by Me to see the next person it's waiting for, and repeat.
When the Status says Approved, that kind of request is working.

For one of the requests, try Return instead of Approve. Check that it goes back to the staff member, who can change it and send it again.

Step 7: Fix anything that didn't work¶

If a request doesn't go through, you'll usually see one of these messages. It just means a setting for this office still needs to be filled in.

What you see	What it means	What to do
No active approval policy matches this request.	The office has no approval rule yet for this kind of request.	Create one. See Build an approval policy.
No approver could be resolved for step …	Nobody is named in the job that this step needs, such as Finance Manager, for this office.	Name someone. See Appoint someone to a role.
The request isn't in My Inbox.	You may be signed in as a different person from the one shown in Current Step.	Sign in as the person shown in Current Step.

After a fix, send that kind of request again and repeat steps 5 and 6.

Step 8: Finish up¶

Tell the approvers and the finance team which requests were practice ones, so nobody orders, pays or books anything for them.
When every kind of request reaches Approved, the office is ready. Repeat steps 1 to 7 for each of your other offices.

Ideas used in every app¶

Organisation structure¶

Amana arranges your organisation as a tree:

The organisation sits at the top.
Legal entities are the registered companies that keep accounts, such as a Kenya entity and a Uganda entity.
Units sit under the organisation, such as country offices and the teams within them.

Rules set on a unit apply to every unit beneath it. An approval policy scoped to Kenya Country Office also covers the teams inside that office.

Roles¶

A role such as Country Director or Finance Manager is a job in the organisation. A role assignment says who holds that job, in which unit and from when. Because policies point at roles rather than at named people, staff changes need no policy edits. You just update the assignment.

Submit, approve, record¶

Almost every business document in Amana follows the same pattern:

Someone fills it in and submits it.
Approvals routes it through the steps in the matching policy.
Once it's approved, the original app carries on, for example raising the purchase order or paying the advance.
Every decision is kept in a permanent audit trail.

Staff always find what's waiting for them in Approvals › My Inbox, whatever app it came from.

Delegation¶

When an approver is away, an approval administrator can set up a temporary delegation so someone else acts for them. The delegation can be limited by unit, request type, amount and dates. See Cover for someone on leave.

Access levels¶

Each app has its own access levels, set under Administration › Users & Access. For the Platform apps:

App	Levels
Organization	Viewer · Officer (draft units) · Manager (prepare changes, appoint roles) · Administrator (activate changes, user scopes) · Global Administrator
Documents	Documents User · Records Officer (Inbox, verification) · Documents Manager (configuration, holds, disposal), plus Confidential / Strictly Confidential clearance
Approvals	User (submit and approve what's assigned) · Manager (see all requests in scope) · Administrator (set up policies and delegations)

Administration is for system administrators only.

Find your way around¶

App	Menus
Administration	Organization · Users & Access · Approvals · Delegations · Countries · Master Data · Integrations · Notifications · System Settings · Audit & Security
Organization	Structure · Legal Structure · Geography · People & Responsibility · Access · Configuration
Approvals	Overview · My Inbox · Submitted by Me · All Requests · My Delegations · Configuration
Documents	Home · Workspaces · Inbox · Compliance · Retention · Sharing · Upload · Configuration