The next major release (1.6) for the ClimateSuite Application will focus on features to process renewals in 2010 and transaction integration and  reconciliation with the CCX. The following functionality is planned for this release:

• Renewals - We will be enhancing the renewal process within Climatesuite to provide additional visibility within the parcels.  The renewal process had been designed to be a ‘one click’ renewal.  Within this process, we are enhancing the changes that can be made in the renewal process, the communication features to the provider and the aggregator views to renewal status.
• CCX Transaction Integration and Reconcillation  - The objective of the integration is to provide an automated method to reconcile your transactions from the CCX to ClimateSuite – on-screen trades, bilateral trades and registration.   There will be two options to reconcile your CCX account(s): manually or systematically.  There is a cost to use the automated integration (see your CCX representative on pricing).
   -         Option 1:  Manually Update to Transactions: Within ClimateSuite, you will manually update the transaction(s) with the required data to reconcile the transaction with transaction type or trade type, price, costs, etc.  Recommended for low volume registration and trade partners.  
  -         Option 2:  Automated Transaction Updates: Via an automated daily feed from your detailed account statements at the CCX, transactions will be automatically matched.  This service will require an estimated $500.00 monthly fee or a $5,000 yearly fee to be negotiated directly with the CCX.  This fee applied by the CCX to your CCX account.  If you would like to have this service, you will need to negotiate and sign directly with the CCX.  This is recommended for high volume registration, complex sub-account usage or micro-trading. 

If you have feedback on the priority of the features in releases, please let me know.  Any questions, please give me a call or drop me an email - support@climatsuite.com.

Chris Carl
314.480.5886

In the 1.5 release, we have built the functionality to allow Aggregators the ability to manage pools more closely to how the CCX registration process happens.  This was added to the test and live environments on November 23, 2009.   This Quick Tip below is also available to in the Resource Library.

ClimateSuite Quick Tips

Title: Manage Pools

Introduction:

This Quick Tip will detail how the pool management features are used in ClimateSuite.  There are several features closely aligned to the pool management process to register credits at the CCX.  Project pools are most commonly used in land based CCX project types (e.g. Agricultural Soil, Rangeland and Forestry) and have a single project type common across the pool.  Pools allow for many project participants and aggregators to share costs across a large number enrollments.  Pool management are features managed only by the portal administrator.  Verifiers also have a crucial role in this process.

A couple key features to this Quick Tip:
- Pool close dates.  Pool enrollments typically have a time boundary - i.e. Summer Enrollments or Fall Enrollments and thus, need to have a close date to cut-off enrollments.
- Pool error rate. The verification requirements for land based project types only verifies 10% of the enrolled parcels.  If the error rate for the verification is greater than 3% then error rate is applied to the entire enrollments in the pool (e.g. if the error rate is 5% then all enrollments in a pool will have their credits reduced by 5%).
- Certification.  Aggregators must review enrollments and verification data.  Once reviewing, the aggregator will ‘certify’ the results in order to send in applicable documentation for registration of credits.

Step 1: Create Pool

To create a pool - log in to your ClimateSuite instance > click the Project tab > click Manage Pools > Add Project Pool.

1 ) Name -  This is the name of your pool.
2 ) Auto Close Date -   This is the date when the pool will close automatically at the end of the day identified.  NOTE: If you wish to close the pool before this date, click the pool name in the Manage Pools section and click the button - ‘Close Pool’.  This will close immediately and no more enrollments can happen on this pool.
3 ) Verifier - This is the verifier for the pool.  This verifier will apply the error rate.  There are two verifier roles in ClimateSuite - a) Verifier to verify the project parcels (this is set at the project level in Project Creation/Edit).  b) Verifier to  apply the error rate for the pool (shows verification organization as well as person’s name).  The delineation between these verifier roles allows the aggregator to assign control on the verification process if multiple verifiers are part of the pool’s verification.
4 ) Registry - This is the registry for the pool.
5 ) Project Type - This is project type for the pool.
6 ) Available projects to assign to pool - This is the list of projects by project type available to be assigned to this pool.
7 ) Projects assigned to the pool - This is a list of projects currently assigned to the pool.
8 ) Project to pool assignment actions - Starting at the top, the first button takes the highlighted project and moves it to the assigned pool.  The second button takes the highlighted projects in the assigned to pool and removes it the projects.   The third from the top button takes the multiple projects in the available and assigns them to the pool.  The bottom button removes projects from the assigned to pool, then places them in the available projects.
9 ) Add and Cancel Action buttons - Clicking the ‘Add’ button saves all data on the page for the pool and sends user to Manage Pools page.  Clicking ‘Cancel’ does not save data and sends user to Manage Pools page.
All items with a * next to them are required fields.

Step 2: Close Pool

As an aggregator, to begin the certification process , you will need to close the enrollments for a pool.  There are two ways a pool can be closed: Auto close or manual close.  The auto close feature will automatically close enrollments on the scheduled date selected that have a contract acceptance on them.  Any incomplete enrollments will be available for registration on the next pool close date.  To manually close a pool, the aggregator will need to go to the Manage Pools section of ClimateSuite, click on the applicable pool and click ‘Close.’

1 ) Close Pool Button - Clicking the ‘Close Pool’ Action button will immediately close the pool.  Any incomplete enrollments will not be included in this pool’s registration.

Step 3: Apply Error Rate

This step can only be performed by the verifier assigned in the initial pool setup.  The error rate is the aggregated error rate for manual verifications.  The CCX rule is that any error rate greater than 3% of the manually verified parcels will have the acres for registration reduced by the percentage of the error rate.   Anything less than 3% will have their enrolled acres unchanged.

1 ) Error Rate Text Box  - Enter the error rate of pool up to two decimals.
2 ) Apply Error Rate Action Button - To apply the error rate, click the button.  The portal admin will be notified and can schedule the certification process.  This process can not be undone.

Step 4: Certification

Once the error rate has been applied, the last step in the process is to certify the pool.  Certifying the pool is confirmning as an aggregator that you have reviewed all documentation for the pool (including the verification report).  This is the last step before registration.  Once the certification has been applied, all parcels in the project will be in a ‘pending’ state for registration.

1 ) Certify Pool Action Button- Click the ‘Certify Pool’ action button to certify the pool.  A ClimateSuite notification will be sent to portal administrator role confirming the action was taken. This process can not be undone.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at support@climatesuite.com.

In the 1.4 releases recently, we deployed three features in the contract management features of ClimateSuite:

- Initials and password for providers accepting the contract
- Aggregators ability to upload contracts for contract acceptance when enrolling on behalf of providers
- Contract Acceptance document and timestamp on view parcel

Initials and password for providers accepting the contract

We have implemented a feature for provider’s accepting contracts by requiring their initials and password.  By requiring the password, this feature ensures the user accepting the contract is the valid user for the parcels.  If there is an issue with the password, the user will be prompted with the error and will not be allowed to complete the parcel registration.  The initial feature increases the auditibability of the contract acceptance. 

Aggregators ability to upload contracts for contract acceptance when enrolling on behalf of providers

Aggregators can now complete the enrollment registration process on behalf of the provider by uploading a signed version of the contract to ClimateSuite.  This signed document will be stored and available on the view parcel feature of the system.  Allowing aggregators to complete the enrollment process enhances the customer support of their providers who are less Internet savvy. 

Every Parcel has to be associated with a contract. As a Project Owner Enrolling on behalf of the Provider, you cannot accept a contract digitally. You can select one or more than one Parcel in the grid below to associate with this Contract.

Upload Signed Copy Contract– Have the Provider sign the Aggregator contract and upload as a PDF into the system. Once uploaded, you can click on Submit to simply finish the process, or click Submit and Notify. This will finish the process as well as send a notification to the Provider that they have an Account set up and can now access the completed Parcels.

Digitally Accepted by Provider Contract– If the Aggregator requires the contract to be accepted by the Provider online, there are two steps/requirements.  Step 1:   If the Provider has never been notified of their ClimateSuite user account, a button will appear on the contract page to the right of the ‘Submit’ button called ‘Submit and Notify’.  Click this button and this will complete the parcel enrollment process for all selected parcels in the ‘Parcel Section’ and sends the new user account details to the Provider for system access.  Step 2:  The Aggregator will go to the Message Center Tab and send a message to the Provider to log in and complete Digital Acceptance of contracts.  When the provider logs in, they will see a list of all parcels (complete or incomplete) set up for them.  If the Provider has previously been notified of their account, no ‘Submit and Notify’ button will appear.  Aggregator should go to Step 2 and send the system message.

Contract Acceptance document and timestamp on view parcel

We have released the ability to view contract and contract acceptance details on the view parcel feature.  If the provider has accepted the contract, the original contract will be available for view/print-only, along with the date and time when the contract was accepted.  If the project owner or administrator uploaded the contract (per the previous enhancement in this blog), then the signed contract will be available for view/print-only, along with the date and time when the contract was uploaded. 

We will continue to look for ways to enhance the contract management function of the system.  If you have any suggestions or feedback, please contact us at support@climatesuite.com.

In the 1.4.1 release, we have enhanced the functionality to allow aggregators to add parcels on behalf of the Producers (Providers).  This was added to the test and live environments on July 11.   This Quick Tip below is also available to in the Resource Library. 

ClimateSuite Quick Tips

Title:  Add Parcel by Aggregator

Introduction:
This Quick Tip will walk through adding Parcels for Providers.  There are several features that allow portal administrators and project owners the ability to add Parcels for Providers.  Once Parcels have been added, there are a couple methods to notify the Provider of their enrollments being completed:
Setup all enrollments for a Provider and notify them individually of their account details
Setup all enrollments for all Providers and notify all Providers their account details
This Quick Tip will also show you how to import Providers to the Manager Users section of ClimateSuite. 
Page/Location:
 Add Parcel: My Dashboard

Quick Tip

In some cases, aggregators may prefer to setup all Provider enrollments rather than allowing Providers to enroll themselves.  To setup Parcels for Providers, the following are the steps:

1.  Setup Provider(s) in Manage Users section of ClimateSuite
2. Add Parcel for Provider and Parcel details
3. Upload signed contract or notify Provider(s) to accept contract digitally (or allow Provider to accept contract)
4. Notify Providers of account details

Note: An indirect benefit of the add Parcel feature is customer support for adding Parcels.   Aggregators or Project Owners will be able to find incomplete enrolled Parcels.  Aggregators and Project Owners will be able to complete enrollments on behalf of Providers.
 
Step 1: Setup Provider(s) in Manage Users section of ClimateSuite
To start the process of enrolling Parcels for Providers, the user must first be setup as a Provider in ClimateSuite.  There are two ways to setup a Provider either by adding the Provider through the normal user setup process or bulk importing Providers. 

Adding a single user:
To add a single Provider, go to Administration > Manage Users > and click Add New User.  Once the Add User is clicked, fill in the appropriate fields (Note: Notify is defaulted to checked.  This means the user added will be immediately notified with account login details.  Uncheck to not notify the user):
 

Importing Providers:
To import bulk Providers, go to Administration > Manage Users > and click Upload Providers.  To import Providers, the Provider data will need to be in a specific format - a template is provided.  

There will be a message displayed under the ‘Upload Names’ button of the amount of Providers added.  Also, if the CSV file is not formatted correctly, the system will notify the user with a red message.  All rows in the CSV must be formatted correctly or the import will not succeed.   For additional questions on how the import process works, click the red HELP link.
 
Step 2: Add Parcel for Provider and Parcel details
Now that Providers have been added to ClimateSuite, the next step in the process is to add the Parcel and Parcel details for the Provider.  To start this process, go to MyDashboard > click Add Parcel. 

 To add a Parcel, the user must first select a project/pool.  Next, the user needs to filter the possible list of Providers by the following:

Click on the Provider name to start Step 1 of the enrollment process.  For additional questions on how the Add Parcel process works, click the red HELP link.

Step 3: Upload signed contract or notify user(s) to accept contract digitally
When enrolling the Parcel for the Provider, the user has two options for contract acceptance:

To upload a signed contract, click ‘Browse’ and locate the file on your file system.  After selecting the file, the user can either click ‘Submit’ or ‘Submit and Notify’.  Clicking the ‘Submit’ button completes the Parcel enrollment process and does not notify the Provider of their account details.  Clicking ‘Submit and Notify’ completes the Parcel enrollment process and notifies the Provider of their account details. 

Note: the user can setup multiple enrollments for multiple Providers and notify all Providers at one time rather than after each set of enrollments are completed.  Once the Provider has been notified, the ‘Submit and Notify’ will no longer be displayed.
 
Step 4: Notify users of account details
To notify Providers that their Parcels have all been setup, the user will need to use the Notify Users of their account login details.   To notify user(s) of their account details, there are a several ways to accomplish this:

The Notify Providers link in Administration allows the user to notify users of their account login details in bulk. 

 
There are two radial options when notifying users:

To notify a single Provider, the user will need to edit the Provider in the Manage Users section. 
 
To notify the Provider, the user needs to check the Notify checkbox and click Save.