All users of iLab and core facilities must have a fund assigned to them. If users of core facilities do not have a valid funding source, they will be unable to request time on equipment or request core services. A PI or Lab Manager is responsible for granting a lab member access to funds so that they can perform research.
The short video below demonstrates how to easily grant access to funds for a user who is a member of their lab. Below the video, you will find step by step instructions for granting access to funds.
Please expand the video transcript for more information
Welcome!
In this video, we will walk through assigning accounts and cost centers to members of your lab.
For this example, we will be logged in as the PI, Jane Smith.
When reserving time on equipment at core facilities, or requesting core services, a valid funding source must be provided to charge the time or work to.
As a PI or Lab Manager, you have the ability to assign funding sources to your lab members.
From within your lab, we will click on the “Membership Requests & Accounts/Cost Centers” tab.
Here we can find all of the funding sources you have available to you and assign those as needed.
Scrolling down on this tab, under the “Manage Accounts/Cost Centers” section there is the Accounts/Cost Center grid.
Each lab member is listed on a separate line within this grid.
Following the name column, there is a column for the default account/cost center for this member, followed by a column for each account and cost center that you have available for use within your lab. There is a checkbox at each intersection of the fund column and member row where you are able to grant access to this member for the account/cost center listed at the top of the column.
Hovering over the checkboxes displays the name of the member on the line you are selecting to help with ease of use for large grids.
Jane Smith wants to assign cost center 0101234 UP12345 (Workload Funding) to Fred Nerk for when he does his research. Locate the checkbox for Fred under the column for this cost center (remember that hovering will affirm the name of the individual you are assigning this to). Check the box. The background in that cell on the grid will turn green to let me know that your assignment of this account to Fred has been saved.
To remove access to the fund, so that Fred can no longer charge to it, simply uncheck the box on Fred’s row under the Account/Cost Center you wish to remove. We will uncheck this box so that Fred can no longer use this funding source.
There may be times when we have more funds than there is room for on the screen.
iLab provides the ability to filter down the list of funds that appear in the grid.
There are two text boxes above the grid. The top text box, “Filter Accounts/Cost Center numbers”, allows us to filter the fund columns displayed.
We can specify a word or number and only funds with that phrase in it will display. For example, I will type Workload to filter the display to only show funds with the word ‘workload’ in them. This filtering is instant and automatic as I type.
The grid has changed to only show funds with the word ‘workload’ in their description.
We can also filter using the account number or cost center text. I could also type 1234 to pull up only accounts/cost centers with that numeric sequence somewhere in the account number or cost center name.
Deleting the text in the filter fields returns the grid to its original state.
The second box, “Filter Members”, allows us a similar function to narrow down the member names displayed. If I type in an ‘H’ then both John Doe and Jane Smith display because both have an ‘H’ in their name.
If we have many lab members, it sometimes becomes difficult to see the column headings along the top of the grid when we scroll down the member list in order to find a particular member. Using the filter will allow us to display only the member(s) we need therefore making it easier to assign or remove access to funds to the displayed members.
Keep in mind that these two fields may be used together when filtering your grid to display only the desired members and funds.
I will enter FRED in the “Filter Members” box and the grid immediately changes to display only members with the letters ‘F R E D” in that order somewhere in their name.
I will grant access to two of the displayed funds to Fred Nerk by checking the boxes under each column. I can then unassign one fund by simply unchecking the box.
We have successfully assigned a fund to Fred Nerk so that he can charge to it when reserving time on equipment or requesting services at a research core.
For more information, please see iLab support at help.ilab.agilent.com or you may visit Penn State’s training site at ilabtraining.psu.edu.
Thank you for watching.
- Navigate to your lab within iLab.
- Go to the Membership Requests & Accounts/Cost Centers tab.
- Under the Manage Accounts/Cost Centers section, find the fund column for the fund you wish to assign to the user.
- Click the checkbox of the fund number in the row of the user you wish to assign the fund to. To remove a fund number, click on the checkbox to remove the check.
Learn more about the Membership Requests & Accounts/Cost Centers tab in the iLab Help Manual.
NOTE: Penn State does not allow PIs or Lab Managers to manually add fund numbers as the manual shows. Funds are provided to iLab from the Penn State Financial System.