Signature register

The signature register is used, among other things, by the staff members of the Accounting Department to control that invoices or expense reports received for payment have been validated beforehand by the authorized employees.

The signature register is based on the EPFL Financial Regulation.

The “right to sign and seal” is the authorization to commit EPFL financially.

The “right to sign and seal” is the authorization to commit EPFL financially.

• All existing and future funds of a financial unit.
• One or more existing funds of a financial unit.

It is possible to grant exceptional signing rights (e.g. the right to sign for an entire vice-presidency or faculty). To do this, it is necessary to contact the reference persons (in particular the financial manager).

EPFL’s financial structure consists of four financial levels:

• Level 1: EPFL.
• Level 2: Presidency and Vice Presidency, School, College, Transdisciplinary   Units (ENT-R, ENT-E; ENT-I), Outposts.                                                           
• Level 2b: Technical level reserved for Associate Vice Presidents associated for the VPA and the Directors of the VPO domain.                                              
• Level 3: Institute, Center, Section, Domain, Technological Platform, other.                                                                                                                    
• Level 4 : Laboratory, Chair, Group, Service, Workshop, other unit.

Each unit or laboratory corresponds to a level 4. Each financial unit is composed of several funds.

The appointment of an EPFL employee to the role of Head of financial unit is carried out automatically via the EPFL Structures’ application. Such appointment cannot be changed manually within the signature register.

The Head of financial unit automatically has the following rights:

• Commit financially all the funds of their unit (existing and future) up to CHF 50’000.
• Grant signing authority of up to CHF 5,000 and, exceptionally, up to CHF 50,000 on all funds (existing and future) of their financial unit, in collaboration with the financial manager of their vice-presidency or faculty.
• Grant signing authority of up to CHF 5,000 on one or more existing funds in their financial unit in collaboration with the financial manager of their vice-presidency or faculty.
• Delete an existing signing authority within their financial unit.
• Consult all the signature rights of their unit (without accessing the images of the corresponding handwritten signatures).
• Grant the role of “Head of Unit” to one or more employee(s) of their unit (or another unit).

The appointment of an EPFL employee to the role of Head of unit is done manually by the Unit Administrator, the human resources manager or the corresponding financial manager. Such appointment is subject to a validation workflow by the human resources manager.

Note that the role of Unit Administrator can be assigned to an EPFL employee who does not belong to the unit (laboratory).

A Unit Administrator automatically has the following rights:

• Commit financially all the funds of their unit (existing and future) up to CHF 5’000.
• Initiate a request to the Head of financial unit (professor) to create signing authority of up to CHF 5,000 on all funds (existing and future) or only on certain funds on the financial unit.
• Consult all the signature rights of their unit (without accessing the images of the corresponding handwritten signatures).
• Access the electronic “HR Transfer Request” form.
• Access to the employees’ personal and salary data (of their unit), which are gathered in HR Infocentre.

The Accounting Department appoints the person responsible for the fund when opening it. This role cannot manually be modified within the signature register.

A person responsible for a fund has automatically the following rights:

• Commit financially their fund up to CHF 5’000.
• Initiate a request to the Head of financial unit (professor) to create signing rights of up to CHF 5,000 on the fund for which they are responsible.

Each EPFL Vice-presidency, Faculty or College has an appointed financial manager.

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The financial manager automatically has the following rights:

• Commit financially all the financial unit of its vice-presidency or faculty up to CHF 50,000.
• Grant signing authority (up to CHF 5,000 or, exceptionally, CHF 50,000) to an employee in all financial unit of his or her vice-presidency/faculty, in collaboration with the corresponding Head of financial unit/professor.
• Delete an existing signing right (up to CHF 5,000 or CHF 50,000) from an employee in all financial units of their vice-presidency or faculty.
• View the existing signing rights of all financial units in their vice-presidency or faculty.
• Grant the role of Unit Administrator within the financial units of their vice-presidency or faculty.