Admin¶
The role of an admin¶
There will be approximately four to five admins per client account. The admins will be individuals who are highly involved in the company’s sustainability performance and working with Action Sustainability during the configuration-phase of the Tool, for example: sustainability managers, procurement managers or environmental managers.
An admin has the highest level of authority within the Tool.
They have the highest level of editorial authority and are able to create, make changes to the settings of and delete the following:
business units, projects and reporting packages;
other users;
metrics and indicators;
targets and thresholds.
Admins also have the highest level of viewing authority. They view all business units, projects and reporting packages they are set up in. They see all reports submitted and have the ability to approve or reject reports. As they can see all project dashboards, they see all sustainability measurement data, progress against targets and the RAG (Red, Amber, Green) status of all indicators. They also see the status of reporting packages (Approved, Pending Approval, Requires Revision or Nothing Received). Admins can see the names of all individuals involved, what level of authority they have and what project or reporting package they are associated with.
Getting setup¶
Business units¶
Company admin users can create business units to manage sustainability performance for a subset of their organisation’s operations. A company account can have, directly below it, multiple business units and projects, which all contribute to the data in the company dashboard. In turn, business units can have other business units and projects within them. These will contribute to the data in the ‘parent’ business unit dashboard. Business unit dashboards only show data from other business units and projects that are below them. As such, users can use this functionality to manage performance for groups of projects at multiple levels within their organisation.
Create business unit¶
Go to the company (or business unit) dashboard where the new business unit will feed into
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Scroll down to the Business Units table
Click ‘Add a Business Unit’ found on the top-right of the table
Complete the relevant details and ‘Submit’
To create additional business units, repeat steps 1 to 5
To create a business unit within an existing business unit, go to the existing business unit’s dashboard and repeat steps 2 to 5.
Edit a business unit name¶
Go to the business unit dashboard, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Under Corporate details, edit the Name field
Click ‘Submit’
Projects¶
Create project¶
Go to the company (or business unit) dashboard where the new project unit will feed into
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Scroll down to the ‘Projects at this level’ table and click ‘Add a Project’ found on the top-right of the table
Enter the project name and address if relevant
Define the project settings: - Reporting from: defines the beginning of the first reporting period; when reporting should commence - Reporting to: defines the month after which reporting will cease e.g. by selecting the 10th December 2019, you are indicating that reporting should end in November 2019 - Every & Reporting Increments: define the frequency of the reporting periods e.g. “every 1 months” will generate a project with monthly reporting periods
If using a template for the metrics and indicator settings, select appropriate template otherwise leave on “None”
Click “Submit”
Edit project settings¶
Name¶
Go to the project dashboard, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Under Project details, edit the Name field
Click ‘Submit’
Reporting Start Date¶
Go to the project dashboard, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Under the Reporting Periods table, scroll down to the earliest reporting period with a 0 in the ‘Num Reports’ column
Click on the settings icon and delete
Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have the earliest reporting period that corresponds to your desired reporting start date
Reporting End Date¶
Go to the project dashboard, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Under the Reporting Periods table, click on ‘Edit Reporting Duration’
Modify the Reporting to field to your end date required
Click ‘Submit’
Reporting Frequency¶
Go to the project dashboard, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Under the Reporting Periods table, click on ‘Eidt Reporting Duration’
Modify the Every and Reporting Increments fields
Click ‘Submit’
Note: we suggest that after creating and setting up a project, you also add the project users. To see instructions, click here
Delete a project¶
Select the business unit the project belongs to by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
Click on ‘admin’ in the top right hand corner, then ‘settings’
Under ‘Projects at this level’ click on the cog next to the project you want to delete, then press ‘delete’
Users¶
Users are members who have access to a specific project, it includes both ‘Authority Groups’ and ‘Project Suppliers’. This section outlines how to set up users and how to invite them to join a project.
Add project suppliers¶
Go to the project dashboard, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Project menu, select ‘members’
Click on ‘Add a supplier’ and fill out the required information
Click ‘Submit’
Add a user¶
This option allows you to invite users to join a specific project. Make sure to invite all individuals that will require access to the project.
Go to the project dashboard, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Project menu, select ‘members’
To invite project members, click on ‘Send invite’
Input the user’s email and choose the corresponding supplier
Click ‘Submit’
Delete a user¶
Go to the project dashboard, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Project menu, select ‘members’
In the ‘members’ table (and ‘outstanding invitations’ table if applicable) identify the users no longer reporting
Click on the cog settings icon and delete
Reporting Packages¶
Create reporting packages¶
Go to the project dashboard, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Under the Reporting Packages in Project table, click on ‘Add a Reporting Package’
Click ‘Submit’
To create additional reporting packages within a project, repeat steps 1 to 4
Edit a reporting package¶
Go to the reporting package, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Complete the relevant details: - Set the current Reporting Period: select the first reporting period - Due date: select the date the first reporting period is due. Subsequent months will use the corresponding due date - Appoint report for this package: use the dropdown to determine who is responsible for inputting the data and submitting the reports
Click ‘Submit’
Modify reporting package dates¶
Go to the reporting package, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Under the first section ‘Reporting Package details’, ‘set the current reporting period’ to the month that you want the reporting to start
Select the ‘Due date’: select the date the next reporting period is due. Note: subsequent months will use the selected day of the month as the corresponding due date
Click ‘Submit’
Modify reporting package due dates¶
Go to the reporting package, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Due date: select the date the next reporting period is due. Note: subsequent months will use the selected day of the month as the corresponding due date
Click ‘Submit’
End a reporting package¶
Go to the reporting package, by clicking on the relevant link in the left-hand menu
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
Set the ‘Current Reporting Period’ to blank
Set the ‘reporter for this package’ to blank
Click ‘Submit’
Set reporting package metrics¶
Best practice for setting metrics in your reporting package is to do this with the assistance of Action Sustainability. Please notify your contact at Action Sustainability if you would like to set, amend or delete metrics within your reporting packages.
Metrics¶
Metrics correspond to the fields reporters will input data against in a project e.g. tonnes of waste recycled.
Create Metrics¶
It is recommended that users only create metrics at a ‘Project level’ and then add them to reporting packages using the template functionality. This process ensures data reported by users in their reporting packages correspond to metrics used to generate the indicators displayed in the project-level dashboards.
Users can create metrics at a ‘reporting package’ level but this approach is not recommended.
Go to your project home
In the Admin menu, select ‘Metrics’
Once in the metrics page, click the ‘Set up Metrics’ drop down and select ‘Add Sustainability Issue’
Select the relevant sustainability issue* for your metric and click ‘Submit’
Click the settings icon on the same row as the sustainability issue you selected in step 4. Click ‘Add Metric’
Enter the name and definition of the metric, and select the relevant unit*. Click ‘Submit’
To create another metric, under the same sustainability issue, repeat steps 5 and 6
contact charles.naud@actionsustainability.com for additional dropdown options for sustainability issues and units.
Create sub-metrics¶
Sub-metrics are fields reporters will input data against that will aggregate into metrics. These are often used alongside conversion factors e.g. ‘mains energy consumption’ and ‘mains gas consumption’ may be sub-metrics of ‘carbon scope 2 emissions’ (with the relevant conversion factors applied).
Note 1: metrics are automatically calculated using by aggregating the data reported against their sub-metrics (using relevant conversion factors if applicable). Reporters can over-ride the automatic calculation.
Note 2: there may be several levels of sub-metrics e.g. ‘domestic rail travel passenger miles’ may be a sub-metric of ‘total rail travel emissions’ (with the relevant conversion factors applied), which is in turn a sub-metric of ‘scope 3 carbon emissions’
Go to your project home
In the Admin menu, select ‘Metrics’
Click the settings icon on the same row as the metric you wish to create a sub-metric for. Click ‘Add Sub-Metric’
Enter the name and definition of the metric, and select the relevant unit*. Click ‘Submit’
To create another metric, repeat steps 3 to 5
if the unit of a sub-metric is different to that of its parent metric, a warning icon will appear to indicate that a conversion factor is required.
Editing Metrics¶
Required metrics¶
Set metrics to ‘required’ to prevent reporters from submitting their data without inputting data against these fields.
Go to your project home
In the Admin menu, select ‘Metrics’
Click the settings icon on the same row as the metric you wish to make compulsory. Click ‘Toggle Required’
A red asterisk will indicate that the metric is ‘required’
Set/edit frequency¶
By default, reporters will be able to input data against for each metric for every reporting period. You can modify the frequency of a metric to a lesser frequency than the reporting period defined in the project settings e.g. reports are due monthly (this is the reporting period) but the metric ‘floor area of project’ is only due once.
Go to your project home
In the Admin menu, select ‘Metrics’
Click the settings icon on the same row as the metric you wish to modify/edit the reporting frequency. Click ‘Set Frequency’
Complete the fields: - due every: enter an integer - period: select the relevant - from date: select the second day in the reporting period you wish this metric to be first reported
Click ‘Submit’. The frequency of the metric will now display in the metric row
To edit the metric frequency, repeat steps 1 to 5
Delete Metrics¶
There are two options for deleting metrics within reporting packages. Option 2 is a faster method for if you have a lot of metrics and a lot of reporting packages.
Option 1¶
The first option requires you to delete the metrics that you do not want, leaving those that you do want to keep remaining.
An important point to note is that if you do not want the metric or any of the sub metrics, you can delete the metric. This will remove all sub metrics. However if you want to keep only one sub metric and delete all of the other sub metrics, you must individually delete all sub metrics you do not want, leaving the sub metric that you do want.
Go to your reporting package
In the Admin menu, select ‘Metrics’
Click the settings icon on the same row as the metric you wish to delete. Click ‘Delete’
Option 2¶
The second option is to save the metrics that you want to keep, and delete those you do not want, as a template. This template can then be applied to the reporting packages that you want to change the metrics for.
Go to your project home
Delete the metrics that you no longer require, using the steps in Option 1.
In the Admin menu, select ‘Settings’
In the ‘Project details’ section, give your template a name
In the ‘Template settings’ section, tick the box to confirm that you want to set it as a template
Now go to the reporting package that you want to apply this template to
In the Admin menu, select ‘Metrics’
Delete all metrics, using the metric to delete multiple sub-metrics in one go
In the ‘Set up metrics’ in the right hand corner, select ‘Add from template’
Select the name of the template that you have created from the template dropdown list
To transfer all of the metrics from your template over to ‘Current metrics, you need to select ‘Add’ for each metric.
In the Admin menu, select ‘Metrics’, you will see that all of your metrics have been updated.
Add back a metric if accidentally deleted¶
Go to your reporting package
In the Admin menu, select ‘Metrics’
Click on the option labelled ‘Set up metrics’ in the top right corner and select ‘Add from template’
Select the relevant template by clicking on the scrawl down menu. This will allow you to see all metrics included in the original report set up
Identify the metric you want to add back to the report and click ‘Add’.
Enable document upload¶
Allow reporters to upload documents to complement the data they input against a metric e.g. waste transfer notes
Adding document upload functionality to a metric¶
Go to your project home
In the Admin menu, select ‘Metrics’
Click the settings icon on the same row as the metric you wish to enable the document upload for. Click ‘Enable Document Upload’
Enter the Title and a description of the document you expect reporters to upload. Click ‘Submit’. An integer in a bracket will indicate the document upload functionality is enabled for that metric
Indicators¶
Gauges of performance that gives the user and understanding of how their project is performing in specific measures areas.
Create Indicators¶
It is considered best practice that if you would like new indicators added to your account, this should be supported by an Action Sustainability consultant. Please reach out to your contact at Action Sustainability if you would like to discuss this.
Editing Indicators¶
It is considered best practice that if you would like to edit indicators in your account, this should be supported by an Action Sustainability consultant. Please reach out to your contact at Action Sustainability if you would like to discuss this.
Setting Targets¶
As a Client User, you can set targets and performance thresholds for your Project indicators. These inform the Red, Amber, Green rating you see on your Project’s Sustainability Issues and indicator panels.
Targets can be set at a Corporate (Business Unit), Project and Reporting Package level, allowing you to easily dig down into your project supply-chain to see where targets are and are not being met and who is responsible.
To set your targets/thresholds, you will firstly need to decide if you want these to be set at a Business unit, Project or Reporting package level. Once you have decided, navigate to the dashboard at that level.
On the dashboard, you should firstly click on the Sustainability issue panel your indicator is within. Clicking the issues panel will show all the indicators that are set up in that field.
You then need to click on the indicator you wish to set a target for, to make sure it is only showing the performance data for that indicator in the graph below.
At this stage, two boxes should appear below the table beneath the heading, “Set Target and Thresholds”
You can then use the two boxes to input your indicator target and/or threshold
Note: The tool will automatically pick up whether ‘good’ performance is being above or below the target value (i.e. do you want to be above a certain limit or stay below it). If the Red/Amber Threshold value is set higher than the Target value, then the Tool will automatically know that you want your project to have metric scores below the target vale.
Conversion Factors¶
Conversion factors enable to calculate a metric from sub-metrics in a different unit e.g. ‘scope 3 carbon emissions’ in CO2e from the sub-metric ‘non-hazardous waste’ in tonnes.
To add or edit multiple conversion factors, please contact charles.naud@actionsustainability.com
Adding conversion factors¶
Go to your project home
In the Admin menu, select ‘Metrics’
Click the settings icon on the same row as the sub-metric you wish to apply a conversion factor against. Click ‘Add conversion factor’
Specify the conversion factor to be applied for calculating one unit of the ‘parent’ metric from one unit of the sub-metric. Click ‘Submit’
Editing Conversion factors¶
Go to your project home
In the Admin menu, select ‘Metrics’
Click the settings icon on the same row as the sub-metric you wish to edit the conversion factor. Click ‘Edit/show conversion factor’
Modify the conversion factor to be applied for calculating one unit of the ‘parent’ metric from one unit of the sub-metric. Click ‘Submit’
Targets and Thresholds¶
Setting Targets and Thresholds¶
As a Client User, you can set targets and performance thresholds for your Project indicators. These inform the Red, Amber, Green rating you see on your Project’s Sustainability Issues and indicator panels.
Targets can be set at a Corporate (Business Unit), Project and Reporting Package level, allowing you to easily dig down into your project supply-chain to see where targets are and are not being met and who is responsible.
To set your targets/thresholds, you will firstly need to decide if you want these to be set at a Business unit, Project or Reporting package level. Once you have decided, navigate to the dashboard at that level.
On the dashboard, you should firstly click on the Sustainability issue panel your indicator is within. Clicking the issues panel will show all the indicators that are set up in that field.
You then need to click on the indicator you wish to set a target for, to make sure it is only showing the performance data for that indicator in the graph below.
At this stage, two boxes should appear below the table beneath the heading, “Set Target and Thresholds”
You can then use the two boxes to input your indicator target and./or threshold
Note: The tool will automatically pick up whether ‘good’ performance is being above or below the target value (i.e. do you want to be above a certain limit or stay below it). If the Red/Amber Threshold value is set higher than the Target value, then the Tool will automatically know that you want your project to have metric scores below the target vale
Editing Targets and Thresholds¶
Go to your project home
In the Admin menu, select ‘Indicators’
Click the settings (cog) icon on the same row as the indicator you wish to edit the target and threshold for. Click ‘Set Targets’.
Enter in the target and threshold figures you want to set against the indicator and click submit.
Templates¶
Templates can be set up in the Tool so that if a user wants to create multiple projects with similar structures they do not have to go through the same design process for each. A template allows users to replicate projects, including metrics, indicators, conversion factors and other variables available in the setup process.
If you would like to replicate a project and/or would like to look at this opportunity, please contact Action Sustainability. They will be able to assist with this.