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Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
MSL iLab Site

Financial Authorization for UNC Users

If you are a researcher associated with UNC, you will need financial authorization to use at least one fund (also known as a “chart field string”) to pay for microscope time and services at MSL. This financial authorization must be in place before you can use microscope or receive services.

To obtain financial authorization will require action by your PI or your lab’s financial manager (if one exists). MSL staff do not have the power to authorize funds; your PI or lab’s financial manager must take the steps described below before you can use MSL. There are two alternatives:

Option 1

Your PI or lab financial manager can send an email to coresupport@med.unc.edu saying:

I, [PI or lab financial manager], authorize [your name] to use fund [chart field string] to pay for services in the Microscopy Services Laboratory.

If your PI or lab financial manager wants to empower other lab personnel to authorize funds, they can include that request in the same email.

Option 2

Your PI or lab financial manager can authorize the funds directly using our iLab site:

  1. Sign in to MSL’s iLab website (“Sign in” button, top right corner) using UNC credentials (use ONYEN and password).
  2. Once logged in, look for the link in the left hand menu that says ‘my labs’ or ‘my groups’. Hover-over and select your lab.
  3. To assign an Account Number to a member of your lab, find the member in the above list where it says, ‘Manage Account Numbers.’ Select the checkbox(es) to the right of their name for the Account Number(s) you wish to assign them.
  4. Set an auto-approval amount if you do not wish to approve service requests below a certain dollar amount. To do this, select the ‘Members’ panel and enter a dollar amount in the ‘Auto Pre-Approval’ amount and click ‘save settings.

View a comprehensive guide to everything PIs or lab administrators can do with iLab.

If you are running into problems, please email coresupport@med.unc.edu with a description of the issue, and cc us on the communication.

What if I don’t know who my financial manager is?

Log into our iLab site, click on “my profile” at the top right, click on “labs”, click on your lab’s name. In the list of lab personnel, you will see some icons associated with each one on the far right. People that have a “$” icon are financial managers and can authorize funds.