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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Natural Science
Center for Advanced Microscopy

CAM PPMS FAQ

Have a question about using PPMS at the CAM?  We're happy to answer your question by email or in-person, but here are a few key items and a list of common questions and answers.

The information in PPMS is what will be used for billing.  We realize there is some confusion, so we are going to try phasing out the physical logbooks for most instruments, including the confocal microscopes, AFMs, keyence digital microscope, and TEMs.  You MUST make a booking in PPMS every time you use the equipment.
 
The booked start time is when the billing time starts. If you reserve the instrument at 2 pm and don’t show up until 3 pm, that is keeping someone else from using the instrument.  So only book the time you actually intend to use.  
 
It is your responsibility to take action to record the end of your session in PPMS.  
  • If you finish your session early, log into PPMS immediately and click on your reservation, then choose ‘Cancel the Rest of the Session’
  • If you need more time then you originally booked, then you need to log into PPMS and make another reservation to add additional time than your original booking.
 
Only CAM staff can edit reservations once they finish. Take action right away to modify your reservation if the end differs from your booking. If you need help adjusting a reservation after the fact, you can email the relevant CAM Staff member (you can always email me) with an explanation of why it needs to be changed.  You should also be prompted to confirm the ’Time used’ in minutes the next time you log into PPMS following the end of the session.
 

As of 10/8/2026, we are no longer using physical logbooks to record activities, except for the SEMs and SEM sample prep equipment. The information in PPMS is what will be used for billing, not the physical logbooks. 

For now, we will continue to use the physical logbooks for the SEM prep equipment, and the CAM Staff will enter the data from the physical logbooks into PPMS each month.

If you finish your session early, log into PPMS immediately and click on your reservation, then choose ‘Cancel the Rest of the Session’.  You should also be prompted to confirm the ’Time used’ in minutes the next time you log into PPMS following the end of the session. If you need help adjusting a reservation after the fact, you can email the relevant CAM Staff member (you can always email me) with an explanation of why it needs to be changed. 

We have a record for all of the pre-billed account balances and have entered them in the PPMS system to apply automatically when you use any CAM equipment or services. Currently, you still need to have an active account in the MSU financial system in order to make a booking; then it will apply the funds in the pre-paid account to the charges upon invoicing. As long as the pre-paid balance is greater than the charges, the active account will not be charged anything.

MSU financial accounts live in a system called 'KFS'.  Even if accounts exist in KFS, they have to be added into the PPMS account database. So the system calls it 'creating' an account to add it to PPMS.

Sometimes the system seems to stop searching after the first few terms of the account number, and gives an error, preventing users from submitting their financial account request.  If that happens, try again later or on a different network connection / different device / browser.  This seems to be a bug in the system.  If possible, please take a screen shot of the error and send it to Andy (maddenan@msu.edu).