Tutorial: Managing groups in Circula
This article describes how admin users can manage user groups in the Circula web app.
What are groups?
Groups allow you to create approval and controlling flows within specific company units. You can assign specific supervisors and accountants to specific submitters, thereby allowing for greater control of responsibilities within your company, which leads to a more efficient management processes. You can furthermore add accounting-relevant information to the groups.
What does “Users Outside Groups” mean?
The purpose of the Users Outside Groups is to let Admins see:
which users who have not been added to any group as submitters yet
which users hold company-wide supervisor and accountant roles
In the Supervisors & Accountants tab you can choose which users should have supervisor and/or accountant privileges for the whole company.
Additionally, in the Submitters tab, you can view submitters that have not been assigned to any specific group yet. The expenses of unassigned submitters will appear in the To-Dos of company-wide supervisors and/or accountants.
How do I add a new group?
As an admin, you can create new groups by navigating to the Groups tab in the User Management section. To read more about different user roles, click here.
Simply click on the yellow plus button in the bottom right-side corner and a new side tab will open. Next, add the group details:
Add a group name.
Select the supervisor(s) and accountant(s) that will be in charge of approving and controlling expenses.
Add submitters whose expenses will be reviewed by supervisors and accountants.
You can choose a default cost center for this group from the list of active cost centers that you will see when opening the drop down component. All expenses submitted by a user of this group will receive this specific default cost center. Cost centers can be created here.
📝 Notes:
One submitter cannot be added to more than one group. This allows for greater accuracy and less redundant workflows
If a supervisor/accountant wants to approve their own expenses, they have to be added as a submitter to the specific group they are already a supervisor/accountant for
Pending users will also show up in the Groups tab, so that you can organize users into groups without having to wait until they activate their account
Assigning new users to your individual groups sooner leads to a better Circula experience. Any changes made in the Groups tab will only apply forwards to new expenses. Existing expenses will not be reclassified
How to deactivate a group
To deactivate an Expense Group, go to "User Management", click on the tab "Expense Groups" and click on the three dots on the far right of the group you would like to deactivate.
Now click on "Deactivate". From now on, you will find this group under the tab "Inactive" in your expense groups. It is therefore not completely deleted and can be reactivated at any time.
Important:
In order to deactivate a group, all expenses must be exported, deleted, or be only a draft. So, no expenses that have already been submitted can be lost.
As soon as you deactivate a group, all users, supervisors, and accountants previously assigned to this group are automatically removed. If these users are not assigned to any other groups, they are now located under "Expense Groups" in "Users outside Groups". Please add these users to a suitable group in order to continue to submit expenses successfully.
Reactivating a group
If you now want to reactivate a deactivated group, go to "User Management", "Expense Groups" and to the Inactive tab. Here you will find all deactivated groups.
Now click on the three dots on the far right of the group you would like to reactivate and click on "Activate". The group now appears under "Active" but is still without assigned users, supervisors, and accountants. Please add them again to complete this group.
"Invisible" To Dos
If changes are made in the group configuration, it can happen that a submission is not displayed as a To Do for the approving person or the accountant. The settings that existed at the time an expense or trip was submitted are always applied, so if the responsibility is subsequently changed, it will not be updated.
In this case, you have three options:
The employee can delete the expense (if it has already been checked) or revoke it (if it has not yet been processed) and resubmit it.
You can add the desired supervisors and/or bookkeepers to the expense group "Users outside the groups" so that they can see the expense and approve and/or check it. You can then remove them again from the "Users outside groups" group.
The third option is for the manager or accountant in the "Users outside groups" group to check and approve the expenses.
Do you still have questions?
💬 Chat Support
📞 +49 30 588 491 01
✉️ support@circula.com