ETips - Alberta



eTips: Busting Myths about the Electronic WorkplaceDid you know…?Government of Alberta (GoA) employees, through the Reaching Our Full Potential (ROFP) initiative, expressed a strong desire for a “digital by default” workplace. They recognized that printing, mailing, filing, retaining, accessing, and disposing of paper materials is often more expensive than electronic solutions, particularly for paper records that end up being stored for several years.Many myths about electronic communications affect the way employees handle the document needs of GoA programs and services. These eTips debunk myths, clarify misconceptions, and seek to help realize the full value of ROFP and ‘digital by default’.MYTH: Employee timesheets must be printed, signed, and filed.BUSTED: IMAGIS online time entry has replaced paper timesheets. This means that paper timesheets should only be printed and retained in special cases, such as General Illness reporting, or where MyAgent is not available.MYTH: You must send original signed invoices to Accounts Payable.BUSTED: Signed invoices can be scanned and then emailed to your Accounts Payable contact, speeding payment and reducing paper handling costs and use. Consider keeping the signed electronic copy for your own records and discarding the original, rather than retaining and filing the original or a copy of the invoice. When scanning invoices or other documents reference the GoA Digitization Standards to ensure the images are legally admissible in court.?MYTH: You must print, sign and file a hardcopy of your P-Card Transaction Report each month.BUSTED: Much like time entry approvals, IMAGIS retains the official record of p-card transactions. Approved p-card transactions include the record of the Expenditure Officer’s review and approval. IMAGIS has the builit-in functionality to store all supporting receipts to all p-card transactions. If the “receipt attachment” functionality is used, there is no need to print, sign, submit or file a hardcopy of the P-card Transaction Report and the accompanying receipts.Check with your finance area on whether this functionality is active in your ministry.MYTH: You must print, sign and file a hardcopy of your expense claims form, and attach your receipts to it.BUSTED: ExClaim2 is the official record for GoA expense claims. Approved transactions in ExClaim2 include the record of the Expenditure Officer’s review and approval. ExClaim2 has the built-in functionality to store all supporting receipts to all expense claim transactions. If the “receipt attachment” functionality is used, there is no need to print, sign, submit or file a hardcopy of your expense claim and accompanying receipts.Check with your finance area on whether this functionality is adopted in your ministry.MYTH: There is a legal requirement to print, sign and file 7001 Financial Reports each month.BUSTED: There is no legal requirement to print, sign and file 7001 reports but, for the time being, there is an audit requirement in some ministries. Check with your finance area to see if this applies to you, and also ask when these copies of the 7001 Reports can be destroyed given all the information on the 7001 Report is available in IMAGIS. Note: in Service Alberta, there is no requirement to print and retain these reports as the Expenditure Officer’s control over expenditures is demonstrably exercised through Service Alberta’s monthly forecasting.MYTH: You must submit printed and hand-signed staffing request forms.BUSTED: Staffing request forms can be digitally signed and forwarded by email. There is no human resources requirement to print, sign and submit a hardcopy version of the staffing request form. This also applies to other human resources forms such as the Administrative Change and Expense Distribution Change forms.The most current versions of these forms are listed in the GoA Forms Repository.MYTH: Printed copies or duplicates of master files must be saved and filed.BUSTED: Printed copies of originals do not need to be kept once you no longer regularly need them. They can be safely discarded as transitory records.MYTH: If you scan and electronically file an image of a paper record, you must keep the original.BUSTED: The electronic image of a paper record is as valid a record as the paper original provided the GoA Digitization Standards were followed to create the electronic image. In fact, electronic records that did not start as paper originals are also valid, so you can avoid printing these electronic records.There are only a very few instances where only a paper record with a physical signature is necessary: examples include wills and codicils, or trusts, enduring powers of attorney under the Powers of Attorney Act, personal directives under the Personal Directives Act, records that create or transfer interests in land (including interests in mines and minerals), and guarantees under the Guarantees Acknowledgment Act.MYTH: You must keep a paper copy of any record requested under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP).BUSTED: The FOIP Act does not indicate that records must be provided in paper format nor that only paper records may be requested..MYTH: Electronic signatures won’t be accepted in court.BUSTED: The Electronic Transactions Act sets out the conditions needed by electronic documents and electronic signatures so they are accepted in court. Most electronic records in government meet these criteria, including administrative forms such as staffing request forms, procurement forms and so on. You do not need to print and sign a form if the ability to apply a digital signature is available.Possible exceptions are listed under Myth #8, above.What can each of us do?In addition to helping bust these myths by spreading the word, here’s some simple practices that will support our ROFP goals of a “digital by default” workplace, promote greener business practices, and reduce the cost of printing, mailing and storing documents in the Alberta Public Service:Send memos and short documents by email or other electronic means. Scan items or use a digital signature, and refrain from following up with a hard copy.Collaborate on projects and documents by using online tools such as SharePoint or GoA Connect. Visit Service Alberta’s Service Catalogue to find out more about these tools!Challenge those who insist on physical copies or signatures, and encourage your business to adopt digital processes. Your ministry may also consider changing legislation requiring paper documentation to recognize the changing expectations of citizens.Convert your own paper forms to electronic ones, and challenge other forms owners and managers to do the same. Service Alberta’s Forms & eBusiness Support team can help ministries convert their existing forms to electronic, or digital, versions.Enable digital signatures on all forms needing signatures. Service Alberta’s Forms & eBusiness Support team can help ministries take advantage of digital forms and signatures!Ask your administrative or corporate support about enabling the ‘scan-to-email’ function on your nearest multifunction printer/copier. You’ll be surprised at how quickly and easily you can scan multipage and double-sided documents right to your email inbox as digital Acrobat PDF files! From there it’s a snap to file or forward electronically.Keep in mind that information management requirements must be applied to the electronic workplace.Helpful resourcesForms & eBusiness SupportService Alberta’s Shared Services CatalogueGoA Forms RepositoryElectronic Transactions ActFreedom of Information and Protection of Privacy ActGoA Digitization Standard A000013GoA Digitization Standard A000015Powers of Attorney ActPersonal Directives ActGuarantees Acknowledgment ActDocument Information (hidden text)This document was first recommended and developed as a result of Service Alberta’s Results-based Budgeting review of GoA’s mail services. Our services are pleased to help our GoA customers manage their mail and courier costs by becoming digital-by-default.These e-Tips will be managed and maintained by Service Alberta’s Records and Information Management Branch.Contributors (alphabetical)Frank BuckreusTim DickinsonLaurel FrankAlthea HutchinsonLisa KapphahnRay KeroackJeff KocuipchykRene MellaMathew NeumanChris PatryDeb PhillipsLinda PoetzAngelique RothBarbara SeeleyMaureen TowleBrad WellChange and Review Summary TableVersionChange and review summaryChanged byDate changed1.0First complete draft for ED reviewFrank Buckreus2013-11-261.1Reviewed by Ray.Changes:1. Added document information - hidden2. Added change and review summary table - hiddenFrank Buckreus2013-12-021.2Reviewed by contributors.Frank Buckreus1.3 Removed DRAFT. Forwarded to ADM for review and to RIMS ED for posting.Ray Keroack2013-12-161.4Revised Myth #2, 3, 4, 5 per Althea’s feedback of 2013-12-20Frank Buckreus2013-12-232.0Revisions per RK email exchange with Althea H and per 2014-01-07/08 email exchange with Laurel Frank.Ray Keraock2014-01-08 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download