The Instructor Resource Management system (IRM) is the PantherNet system that allows the user to manage an instructor’s activities and assignments, and report assignments for payment. These functions include:
Determining faculty load is a complex process that requires the user to have expert level knowledge on classes and class scheduling, and a good working knowledge of account numbers, classes and faculty load.
Instructor Credential
First Steps of IRM - Faculty Credentials and Loading of the Instructor to the Class
(See Section B of this manual (Faculty Credentials) for complete details and credentialing criteria by disciplines.)
The first step in the IRM process is for the potential instructor to apply to the College. Once Human Resources has received the appropriate documentation and/or approval, HR completes the new employee paperwork and enters the instructor into PantherNet’s Personnel/Payroll system. If approved by the VPAA and Deans, Academic Services staff is then able to add the instructor to the IRM system and credential him/her for teaching. Only after this process is completed can the instructor be assigned to a class.
When classes are entered into the system and the department wants to assign an instructor to teach a class, the PantherNet system checks to see if the instructor is credentialed to teach the class. If the instructor is properly credentialed, and the class is assigned, the course information is automatically added to the instructor’s schedule. Each department is responsible for the accuracy of its instructors’ credentials.
After the class assignment is made, it is the responsibility of the department to make any necessary adjustments to the instructor’s load (points).
Account Numbers
To use the IRM system, you must have some basic knowledge of the account number structure that the College uses to track classes and all financial transactions. Sometimes account numbers are referred to as “org numbers”.
Each class is assigned an Information Classification Structure (ICS) code, based on the discipline area under which the course falls. This number becomes the basis of the account numbers that are used to create budget positions, expenditure budgets and other financial activity.
Anatomy of an Account Number
We can “disassemble” an account number (sometimes called “org number”) into its smaller elements, so that this long number:
11172200172200105200 can be divided into these elements:
Explanation of Fields:
- Extra Digit – Extra digit ‘1’ is added to the front of each ICS code
- ICS Code – Information Classification Structure code identifies the discipline area.
- Extra digits – Two zeros are added to the end of the ICS code
- Qual-1 – This is the sub-area of the discipline. For example, all health programs are under the same ICS, so creating the Qual-1 allows us to separate nursing from dental.
- Campus – Campus identifier as follows 10 – Lake Worth, 20 – Palm Beach Gardens, 30 – Belle Glade, 40 – Lox Groves, 50 – Boca Raton, 93 - District
- GL Code – The General Ledger Code for an activity. These are state codes from the Accounting Manual that indicate the type of activity. They start with a ‘5’ for personnel (the ‘500’ accounts), and ‘6’ for expenditures which are non-salary (the ‘600’ accounts).
Most Important GL Codes:
- 52000 – Full-Time Faculty
- 52101 – Adjunct Faculty with retirement benefits
- 52100 – Overload for full-time faculty (Aboveful)
- 56000 – Adjunct Faculty without retirement benefits
At a minimum, you should become familiar with the account numbers from areas in which you work. If you would like more detail on the state accounting system, the accounting manual is available on-line at: www.palmbeachstate.edu/finance/documents/State-Accounting-Manual-2019.pdf
This information on account numbers is important to understand the budget positions that you will choose from in working through the IRM screens in PantherNet.
Budget Position Codes
Another important part of the knowledge base of IRM is to understand budget position codes. There are two types of budget positions:
- Individual budget positions
- Pooled budget positions
Each full-time employee and regular part-time employees each have a budget position number that is unique to that person; these are individual budget positions. Other positions where multiple people share the same budget position number are called “pooled positions.” Budget positions such as adjunct instructors and full-time faculty overloads are examples of pooled positions.
Working with Contracts
In order to finish the IRM process, you need to run contracts that will create the pending assignments for Human Resources review. The Pending Assignments that are created by running contracts are held in the HR “queue.” This is an electronic holding area where your pending assignments will be held until they are reviewed and approved by Human Resources.
The Pending Assignment menu resides under Instructor Resource Management using the direct command CU IM.
The Pending Assignment menu has many useful features and reports that you can use to process and browse information that will be submitted to Human Resources for processing and creating assignments.
