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Theon - InfHR Guide

Using Theon

Theon is the source for all staff, visitor and student records used in the School for account generation, official web pages, telephone lists etc. It is important that the information is correct and up to date. Student information is maintained by ISS.

This document primarily deals with the management of Theon database records for staff and visitors.

New Entry in Theon

When someone is employed, the person doing the Authority to Recruit Process or ATR (an oracle-based process that is University-wide) will get an automatically generated message once HR have generated the contract, which gives the staff number, amongst other information. This is used to look up the UUN through IDMS. Instructions for using IDMS are detailed separately.

Visitors are registered on the Visitor Registration System. Please check to see if the visitor already exists on the system as a new registration generates a new UUN.

Instructions for using the VRS are detailed separately. The UUN appears on this system.

Staff should not normally need to be manually entered in Theon as they are fed automatically from Oracle/HR. However on some occasions waiting for the feed process will delay account generation for too long and a stub entry must be made in advance manually, which the feed will later take over. To do this you need at least the personnel number, the name and UUM which should be entered along with a "Local Contract" with a staff type of "LocalX" where X is one of "Academic", "Administrative", etc,job title and the correct start date and optionally end date.

Visitors...

The term visitor covers anyone who is not a member of staff or a student of this University. They may be physically here or an associate who is collaborating with a member of staff and who is never here. At all times their registration on the VRS should be kept up to date as it can cause problems accessing University services if this lapses.

...with an existing DICE account

If a member of staff or matriculated student of this University requires a DICE account, they already have a UUN and do not need to be registered on the VRS. e.g. students of SLI.

The Theon entry should also be kept up to date as accounts whose end date are passed, and drop off our upstream feed from Oracle/HR, will be deleted immediately in compliance with data protection regulations.

...not requiring a DICE account

For example, for those who require access to the internet and the ability to read external mail only.

Short term visitors who will be using their own laptop and wish to use the University Wireless do not need a UUN but can be provided with a wireless account generated at:- https://vpnreg.ucs.ed.ac.uk/ease/staffguestreg.cgi This account lasts for a maximum of 7 days. These visitors do not need an entry in Theon.

If a visitor is going to be here longer but still only requires access to wireless, a UUN should be obtained from the VRS. The visitor is then able to register with Your University Login and use the wireless service. Their Theon entry requires name, UUN, external e-mail, dates of visit and sponsor details.

...requiring a DICE account

This is a prerequisite for most of our computing resources.

For these visitors, we require name, uun, dates of visit, external mail address and sponsor details. You will need to obtain a UUN for these visitors (from the VRS) and then request a user account. This will mean that an e-mail alias of the form uun@inf will be created for them which will be forwarded to an external email address provided by the visitor.

In both cases it is important that the dates of the visit are correct otherwise local mail could end up being sent to the visitor long after they have left.

All visitors that require a DICE account must also have a sponsor entered who is a current member of staff. A visitor account will be automatically expired when whoever they have as a sponsor is no longer a current member of staff.

If a visitor needs a DICE account the necessary checkbox should be set in Theon.

Updating an Entry.

When staff leave they will be drop off our feed and the necessary tidying is automatic. This can be pre-empted if necessary by setting the end date on the Staff panel on the HR desktop. This ensures that they are no longer automatically put on staff web pages or staff mailing lists. It also ensures that their account has the correct status.

When staff on a fixed term contract have it extended or renewed, if nothing else about the contract has changed, then the end date should be changed. If the person has a new contract that is different ie they have changed grade or job title, then a new contract should be picked up from the feed but can also be manually entered, having first put an end date on the old contract.

Similarly for visitors, if a visit is extended, edit the end date. If a visitor returns at a later date, a new visit should be recorded. Remember that Theon and the VRS must show the same dates.

Staff responsible for HR regularly receive email listing staff and visitors whose contract/visit is coming to and end.

Change of Status.

When staff become visitors they must be registered on the VRS. In order to retain their staff UUN the staff and visitor UUN should be reconciled on the IDMS. It is important that this registration is kept current, as without it, they will lose access to University services such as Your University Login and the wireless service. This also works for visitors who become staff, but normally they don’t wish to keep their visitor UUN. Students who become staff or visitors (and vice versa) must change their UUN. HR staff should change the UUN in Theon as this will trigger the creation of a new account. Support should then be contacted to provide the account details.

Students who become staff during their studies should continue to use their student UUN unless their employment will continue beyond graduation and the grace period of approx. 6 months.

Requesting Accounts.

Account creation is an automatic process. DICE user accounts cannot be created until contract details and a UUN (Unique User Name) are in Theon.

https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/systems/support/form/new_staff_or_move_form.html

The advantage of doing this is that the request will be e-mailed to the support group who will allocate it to the appropriate CO/CSO. It can also be tracked and you will receive an acknowledgement of your request and an e-mail confirming that the account has been created.

How to enter data

Basics

The database has a browser interface with the URL of

https://ui.theon.inf.ed.ac.uk/ui.html

The desktop for the entry of staff and visitor data is called HR. Choose the desktop using the drop-down at the top-left of the screen, and choose the appropriate panel (Staff or Visitor) from the subsequent drop-down which appears to its right.

To query the database, select New Query. Any field can be used for the query but usually the UUN, employee number, visitor number or a name field are used.

Select the field you wish to use by clicking on it. Enter a value (or part of a value) to search for.
The press the Search button. If a record exists, it will appear. If it does not exist a blank entry will show.

If the person is not in the database then create a new entry by clicking the green + button.

Things to beware of:

  1. Always check whether a record exists for the person you are about to enter to avoid duplicating information!
  2. Never enter new staff or visitor details until you have all the information, particularly the employee number for staff, unless you really have to.
  3. Never enter just a name!

Person Information

Title, first name, last name, other names and known as name are all straightforward. They can be amended at any time.

Contract Information

All members of staff should have a contract. It is very important to record the details correctly as the creation of their DICE account depends on this. Many of the web pages and mailing lists are generated automatically from information held in the database so it is important that all information is accurate. Enter details in the Local Contract box including selecting the Type and Post, for example, Research and Research Associate, Academic and Lecturer. Assignment data is fetched from HR and will automatically appear on the day following the contract start date, except for internal transfers where the data will appear on the first day of the month following that of the start date.

Visitor details, excepting local visitors (those that already have a UUN elsewhere in the University), are automatically updated from information in VRS with the exception of the Sponsor. Local visitors must have an entry made manually which should include at least the Start and End dates of the visit and the relevant type (one of LocalVisitorStaff, LocalVisitorStudent or LocalVisitorVisitor). All visitors that need a DICE account must have a Sponsor entered. If you do not want somebody to appear on the Informatics Web telephone/email list then change the type to Commercial or Non-Payroll.

Role Information

Enter/Update the details of the institute that the person is associated with in the Roles section. This is important as it ensures that they are on the correct websites / email lists for the institute.

Location Information

It is important that this information is correct. If a member of staff or visitor moves office, then the existing location should be updated. A new location should not be entered as this would suggest that the person has two current locations (although that is possible in some cases).

Enter/Update details of the Building (for example, IF for Informatics Forum and AT for Appleton Tower), Room (you will have to contact Knowledge Management to add rooms that are not available on the drop-down) and the Extension number. These details are important as they will appear on the website and will ensure that the person gets added to the correct email lists,
e.g. if-people@inf.ed.ac.uk.

Once you have completed the data entry, remember to press the Save Changes button so that your changes are saved. If you get an error message on hitting the Save Changes button, carefully read it and correct your mistake or contact support if the problem persists.

Location details are chosen from fixed options. If a new space is created the details must be added to Theon before they can be used. Contact Knowledge Management to do this.

Dates

Make sure that you use correct dates – the system won’t accept a date that doesn’t exist or is in an ambiguous format. The correct format is usually YYYY-MM-DD which avoids confusion. However it is relatively permissive: you can for example enter 'today' to get today's date. Look at the entry after you have pressed submit to be sure it's been accepted correctly.

Last reviewed: 
14/07/2021

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