Agency Compliance

Purpose of this document

The Agency Compliance functionality described here provides food banks with the ability to setup flexible compliance reporting requirements that Agencies must abide by in order to remain an Active Agency of the food bank (based on UNC Activity Status). As Agencies comply with the requirements, Ceres allows for the recording of the date the Agency fulfilled each compliance requirement.  The process for determining agencies’ statuses can be run on demand or be setup to run automatically through the Job Queue functionality.

Ceres Object release 5.00.00 is required for the functionality described in this document. 

• Setup
  • UNC Status Codes
  • Reporting Requirements
  • Agency Training   
  • Agency Certifications
  • Agency Reporting Requirements
• Agency Reporting Compliance Report
  • Job Queue Setup
• Related Topics

Setup

UNC Status Codes

Before using the Agency Reporting Requirements it is necessary to specify the UNC Activity Status Codes to be used by the automatic process. To do this you must access the Agency & Receivables Setup Card.  Go to Departments à Agencies & Receivables à Setup à Administration. From there select Agencies & Receivables Setup.

The Agency Compliance FastTab has seven fields which are validated in the UNC Activity Status table allowing each food bank to specify the correct UNC Activity Statuses they wish to use for each category of agency compliance. 

In Compliance Status: this will be the value the Agency’s UNC Activity Status will be set to if they are in full compliance with all reporting requirements.

Past Due Status: this will be the value the Agency’s UNC Activity Status will be set to if they are in a past due condition but have met all reporting requirements.

Reporting Violation: this will be the value the Agency’s UNC Activity Status will be set to if they are not considered past due but have one or more reporting requirements that have not been met.

Survey Violation: this will be the value the Agency’s UNC Activity Status will be set to if they are not considered past due but have one or more survey violations.

Training Violation: this will be the value the Agency’s UNC Activity Status will be set to if they are not considered past due but have one or more training violations.

Certification Violation: this will be the value the Agency’s UNC Activity Status will be set to if they are not considered past due but have one or more certification violations.

Multiple Violations: this will be the value the Agency’s UNC Activity Status will be set to if they are past due and have one or more reporting requirements that have not been met.

The Agency Compliance FastTab has three additional fields for the automation functionality to be able to track errors and compliance issues.

Notify Email Address: this is the Email Address of the user who should receive the error report.

Notify From Email Address: this is the Email Address of the system sending the error report, it can be any Email Address as long as it’s valid.

Automation File Directory: this is the location where the compliance report will be saved to. 

Reporting Requirements

Setup of the reporting requirements allows you to specify one or more template reporting requirements that Agencies may be subjected to. If you have programs at the food bank that require additional reporting either for food bank use, or some other entity such as state or federal government, etc., you may set those requirements up as well. 

In addition to specifying a Code and Description for the reporting requirement, you will specify the time period required for each reporting requirement whether it be weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc. The time period allows the entry of any of the standard Ceres date formulas to be used to calculate compliance. You may also build in a grace period into your reporting time period, for example, if you require your standard food bank report to be filed monthly, you may enter the time period as 1M, but Ceres would view Agencies one day overdue as non-compliant. To build in an automatic grace period, you may enter the time period as “1Q+1W” as an example and this would give Agencies an additional 1 week beyond their required reporting date.

To setup the standard report requirements go to Departments à Agencies & Receivables à Administration à Agency Relations à Setup à Reporting Requirements.

Fill in the Reporting Requirements as required. To add a new line select an empty row and enter a unique Code or select “New” from the Home ribbon. To edit an existing line, select the field you wish to modify and make the necessary changes. If you attempt to change the No. field on an existing line, Ceres will prompt you to renumber the existing reporting requirement line. To delete a reporting requirement, right-click on the line you wish to delete and choose delete line from the pop-up menu or select “Delete” from the Home ribbon. The fields of the reporting requirement are as follows:

No.:  This is unique Code used to define the Reporting Requirement. While you can use any Code you desire, it must be 10 characters or less and it is recommended that the Code be somewhat descriptive of the Reporting Requirement. This will make it easier for Agency Relation personnel to select the proper reporting requirements for each Agency.

Description: Use this field (30 characters) to better describe the Reporting Requirement.

Frequency: The frequency field is used to calculate the date when the Agency will be non-compliant. The date formula entered here is applied to the last date the Agency reported for this requirement to determine whether or not the Agency is compliant with this requirement. This field is a standard Ceres date formula. You can access using date formulas in the on-line help for more information on the acceptable characters for a date formula. As an example, 1M+1W would calculate to 1 month + 1 week, 1Q+10D would calculate to 1 quarter + 10 days, etc. It is recommended that you build in an allowable grace period into your date formulas; otherwise, strict adherence to the date policy will be applied.

Agency Training   

Setup of Agency Training records allows the foodbank to track which Agencies are in compliance according to required training. 

To set up new Agency Training Codes, go to Departments à Administration à Application Setup à Agencies & Marketing à Agencies à Agency Profile and select Training under Administration

The Edit à Training window opens. Click New to create a new Agency Training Code or click on an existing Code to modify the Description.

Training Code: This is a unique Code used to define the Training Requirement. While you can use any Code you desire, it must be 10 characters or less and it is recommended that the Code be somewhat descriptive of the Training Requirement. This will make it easier for Agency Relation personnel to select the proper Training Requirements for each Agency on the Agency Reporting Requirements page.

Description: Use this field (30 characters) to better describe the Training Requirement.

To add relevant training records go to the Agency Training page from a particular agency card. Navigate à Agency à Agency Training

From the Agency Training page you can create and track required training.

• Select the appropriate Training Code Then enter the Training Date and Expiration Date.
• Repeat for as many Agency Training Codes as needed.

Training Date: the date in which the Training was received.

Expiration Date: the date in which the Training will expire. 

Agency Certifications

Setup of Agency Certification records allows the foodbank to track which Agencies are in compliance according to required certifications. 

To set up Agency Certification Codes, go to Departments à Administration à Application Setup à Agencies & Marketing à Agencies à Agency Profile and select Certifications under Administration

The Edit à Certifications window opens. Click New to create a new Certification Code or click on an existing Code to modify the Description.

Certification Code: This is a unique Code used to define the Certification Requirement. While you can use any Code you desire, it must be 10 characters or less and it is recommended that the Code be somewhat descriptive of the Certification Requirement. This will make it easier for Agency Relation personnel to select the proper Certification Requirements for each Agency on the Agency Reporting Requirements page.

Description: use this field (30 characters) to better describe the Certification Requirement.

To add relevant certification records go to the Agency Certifications page from a particular Agency card. Navigate à Agency Certifications

The Edit à Agency Certifications window opens. Here you can add and track required Certifications for this Agency. Repeat for as many certifications as required.

Certification Date: the date in which the Certification was received.

Expiration Date: the date in which the Certification will expire. 

Agency Reporting Requirements

You can assign each Agency one or more of the compliance requirements (Report, Survey, Certificate, or Training) for monitoring. If an Agency fails to meet any of the compliance requirements it will be considered non-compliant and have its UNC Activity Status changed as defined on Agencies & Receivables Setup (see A & R Setup à Agency Compliance Setup Window).  Agency Relations personnel with the proper authority can always override the UNC Activity Status of an Agency manually, however, remember that once the Agency Reporting Requirements Report is run again, the Agency will be marked as non-compliant if it still has not met its reporting requirements. 

Setting up the Agency Reporting Requirements is accomplished from the Agency Card.  Select Navigate à Agency à Agency Reporting Requirements (if it does not display on the main “Agency” portion of the ribbon, click the +More button for additional options).

The Edit à Agency Reporting Requirements window will open. To add a new Reporting/Compliance Requirement simply select a new line or select “New” from the Home ribbon. The Agency Number will automatically populate for the current Agency you are working on.

Agency No.: The agency you are currently working with. When you insert a new record this field is automatically populated.

Type: This field is the type of Reporting/Compliance requirement that you are adding for the Agency. The options are Report, Survey, Certificate, and Training. 

Report No.: This is the unique code of the Reporting/Compliance requirement that you are adding. The drill down menu shows you related requirements based on the “Type” you entered before.

Last Reporting Date: This is user defined as to when the Agency submitted the particular requirement.

Enter the Type of Reporting Requirement (Report, Survey, Certificate, or Training) then enter the Report No. or use the drop-down assist to choose from available reporting requirements.  Enter the date the Agency last reported for this requirement in the Last Reporting Date field. 

Note: If the Last Reporting Date is not filled in, the reporting requirement will not be calculated, because of this, it is important that when setting up new agency reporting requirements, it is important to fill in the last reporting date with a valid date for all Agencies.

Note: It will be necessary to return to the Agency Reporting Requirements Page when new Agency report/survey submissions are received by the food bank to update the Last Reporting Date. The Last Reporting Date is used with the Reporting Requirements Frequency Date Formula from the reporting requirements setup to calculate the date the requirements compliance will expire. 

Agency Reporting Compliance Report

The Agency Reporting Compliance report can be run automatically through the Job Queue. To facilitate this automation, a Job Queue and Job Queue Entry will need to be setup. Each time it is run, every Agency that has reporting requirements will be reevaluated to determine its current compliance status. See details below.

Job Queue Setup

To access Job Queue Setup, select Departments à Administration à Application Setup à Job Queue

You will first need to create a Job Queue Category. Select “Job Queue Category List”.

The Job Queue Category List window opens. 

If the Agency Compliance Job Queue Category does not exist, select the “New” action and fill in the Code and the Description.

When you have completed setup of the Job Queue Category, you can return to the Job Queue menu. From the menu select “Job Queue”, then select “New” from the Home Ribbon to open a new Job Queue Card.

Code: Enter the code associated with the Job Queue record.

Description: Enter the description of this Job Queue record.

Job Queue Category Filter: Enter the appropriate Job Queue Category Filter using the drop-down list. Select the correct one to associate with this Job Queue, in our case we used “A_COMP”.

When you have completed setup of the Job Queue, you can return to the Job Queue menu. From the menu select “Job Queue Entries”, create a new Job Queue Entry by selecting “New” from the Home Ribbon to open a new Job Queue Entry Card.

In the General fast tab fill out the following three fields:

Object Type to Run: Codeunit

Object ID to Run:  14012372

Job Queue Category Code: A_COMP, this field must match the Job Queue that was created earlier.

In the Recurrence FastTab select when you want the Agency Reporting Compliance report to run. It is recommended to run Monday – Friday during off hours. In this example we have used 2:00 AM, but this could be at any time when maintenance or other overnight processes are not being ran.