Graduate Student Hourly Form User Guide

You can access the Graduate Student Hourly form here.
  1. Upon Form Opening Section

    1. When the form opens, it will pre-fill the Form Number and the Submitter Name.

      Image of Graduate Student Hourly Form Number and Submitter Name text boxes
    2. If you know the student’s HR Record number please enter it in REC#. If this is a student's first time being hired, the HR record number would be 1.
  2. Student Information Section
    1. Enter the student’s name. You can enter a SPIRE ID, or search by last name, first name, or email address.
    2. Once you select a student, their email address, SPIRE ID and Visa information will populate
  3. Appointment Information Section
    1. Select the Action you are taking with this form
    2. Select the Appointment Type
      1. Note if you select Work Study, you will be required to enter the encumbrance amount (30% of the total budget) and Paula Wetherby will fill out the Work Study section.
    3. Select the Hiring Department
      1. You can search by name or by Department ID
    4. Select a Department Approver.
      1. This list was provided by the Grad School of the Departments and their Department Heads and Admins allowed to review this submitted form.
      2. Note: You may see a spinning icon loading the list. Please wait until it loads to see the options in the drop down.
      3. If no option is available in the drop down, please get in touch with the grad school (gradappt [at] umass [dot] edu (gradappt[at]umass[dot]edu)) or select another Hiring Department option.
    5. Enter the Begin Date and the End Date for this hourly appointment
    6. If applicable you can enter the maildrop code for the student.
  4. Funding Section
    1. Enter a SpeedType (6 digit number)

      1. There is an automation which will search for this speedtype. If this speedtype is not found, you will see this message:

        Image of red text that says Speed type not found - please check it
      2. Note, this message may show up temporarily while the automation searches for the speedtype.
    2. Next enter an Hourly Rate amount.
    3. Budget amount depends on the type of Appointment
      1. If the appointment type is Academic Year Student Hourly OR Summer Student Hourly you can enter a Budget Amount $.
      2. If the appointment type is Academic Year Student Work Study OR Summer Student Work Study you are required to enter an Encumbrance Amount (30% of the total budget)
      3. Select a Financial Approver from the list drop down
        1. This list was provided by the Provost office and will be updated a couple of times a year. It should show the manager’s name for that speedtype along with their approved delegates.
        2. In the event that the approver you are looking for is NOT in the list, you can bypass this list by checking “ The Approver is not in the list”
        3. It will then prompt you to select another Financial Approver from the full list of UMass contacts.
    4. Select a Financial Approver from the list drop down.
      1. This list was provided by the Provost office and will be updated a couple of times a year. It should show the manager’s name for that speedtype along with their approved delegates.
      2. In the event that the approver you are looking for in NOT in the list, you can bypass this list by checking “ The Approver is not in the list”.

        1. It will then prompt you to select another Financial Approver from the full list of UMass contacts.

          image of 2 text boxes that say approver is not in the list and look for another financial approver
        2. You can search for this approver by first name, last name, email, spire ID (similar to the Student look up).
  5. Job Information
    1. Enter the job description for this hourly appointment
    2. Enter the name of the supervisor (who the student will report to)
    3. Enter the average number of hours per week that the student will be expected to work.
  6. Required if different from Funding Department
    1. This section is to be filled out if the student’s employing department differs from their Academic Department. This does not apply to students employed in FCS, Residential Life, UHS or Auxiliary Services
    2. Please enter the student’s academic department
    3. Please select the Graduate Program Director for that Department for approval
  7. Next Steps
    1. If you would like to add an additional recipient to receive a notification with the full completed form you can check the box “Add an additional recipient of the completed form upon student review.”
      1. This step is not required.
      2. You will be prompted to then select a name from the drop down. Again, you can search by first name, last name, email, spire ID (similar to the Student look up)
  8. Form Submission
    1. You can save a draft if you are not ready to submit
    2. Or you can click on Submit
  9. Work Study Review – Filled out by Financial Aid Staff
    1. The Financial Aid officer handling Work Study will receive a notification to fill out the Work Study Review section
      1. Enter the CWS percentage – typically that is 70%
      2. Enter the CWS Amount which will be 70% of the budget
      3. Enter the CWS Account # - without the A
      4. Enter the maximum allowable earnings (100% of the budget)
  10. Workflow Process

    1. Workflow Map

      Image of workflow for Hourly Graduate Student Hiring Form
    2. Email Notifications - Reminder emails to the Departmental Approvers, Financial Approvers and students will be sent every 2 days to approve or send back.
  11. Review Process
    1. Department Approvers

      1. In the email, click on the Begin Review button.

        Image of text box for departmental approval

      2. The Approve button may be at the top of the screen or at the bottom of the page. 

        Image of two buttons labeled Save and Approve

      3. If you need to send back the form, click on the 3 dots and click on send back.

        Image of two buttons Save and Approve plus three dots with a prompt that says send back
      4. Upon clicking “Approve” or “Send Back”, a pop up will open allowing you to add comments.
        1. Approve: You can choose to add comments or continue by clicking Approve.
        2. Send Back: You must enter comments before clicking Send Back.
    2. Work Study Approval
      1. If the hourly form is for a Work Study Appointment, the form will be sent to the Financial Aid team to fill out the work study section and approve the hourly form.

      2. In the email, click on the Begin Review button

        image of text box for work study approval

      3. Fill out the Work Study section

        Image of work study review text box

      4. The Approve button may be at the top of the screen or at the bottom of the page. 

        Image of two buttons labeled Save and Approve

      5. If you need to send back the form, click on the 3 dots and click on send back.

        Image of two buttons Save and Approve plus three dots with a prompt that says send back
      6. Upon clicking “Approve” or “Send Back”, a pop up will open allowing you to add comments.
        1. Approve: You can choose to add comments or continue by clicking Approve.
        2. Send Back: You must enter comments before clicking Send Back.
    3. Financial Approvers

      1. In the email, click on the Begin Review button.

        image of text box for financial approval

      2. The Approve button may be at the top of the screen or at the bottom of the page.

        Image of two buttons labeled Save and Approve

      3. If you need to send back the form, click on the 3 dots and click on send back.

        Image of two buttons Save and Approve plus three dots with a prompt that says send back
      4. Upon clicking “Approve” or “Send Back”, a pop up will open allowing you to add comments.
        1. Approve: You can choose to add comments or continue by clicking Approve.
        2. Send Back: You can choose to send back the form to the Form Submitter or the Departmental Approval. Since only the Form Submitter can edit the form, we recommend keeping Form Submission selected. You also have to enter comments before clicking Send Back.
    4. Student

      1. In the email, click on View Task button.

        Image of text box for student review and confirmation

      2. Instructions will be listed at the top of the page.

        image of text box with instructions for review

      3. The Action buttons may be at the top of the screen or at the bottom of the page.

        Image of three buttons that say send back, save, and mark complete

      4. If you need to send back the form, you can choose to send the form back to the form submitter or either of the approvers. We recommend sending it back to the Form Submitter by leaving Form Submission as selected. You will be required to add comments.

        Image of text back with send back instructions
      5. Scroll down to the Student Approval Section and click on Sign this form
      6. You can sign by typing your name, drawing it or uploading a signature image. Then click Save.
      7. Click “Mark as Complete”. You can enter comments if you chose but it is not required.
    5. Submitter (If Form is Sent Back)

      1. You will receive an email letting you know that the form has been sent back.

        Image of text box with review prompt
      2. When you click on View Item, you will see at the top the message that the approver has left upon Sending Back the form. This will either be from Departmental Approver or the Financial Approver.
      3. You will then be able to:
        1. Withdraw the form
        2. Save it to keep working on it later
        3. Or submit it again once you have made changes
          1. Note this is the only time (other than pre-submission) that you can edit this form.
      4. Upon re-submission, the workflow will restart and everyone will be prompted to re-review and approve the form
    6. Troubleshooting
      1. Common errors when submitting the form:

        1. You may get an error message at the top of the page. You can click on the Arrow down to find out more about the error:

          Image of an error message that says Failed to submit the form has errors details, dismiss
        2. Make sure all required fields are populated
        3. Speedtype must be valid
      2. PDF – received by email when the form is all approved.
        1. The PDF will currently show that the “speedtype is not found” – this is a bug currently being worked on by Kuali build. You can ignore this message on the PDF.
        2. It will also show work study approval even if it wasn’t a work study appointment, you can ignore it.