ClimateSuite 1.5 Pool Management Enhancements

The following are the enhancements in the 1.5 release:

- Pool Registration Report
- Detailed Parcel History Details
- Core Pool Management Enhancements

Pool Registration Report

Portal Administrators has the ability to download pool data to use as the basis for building CCX registration reports.  This report is only available for land-based project types.  This data is available for download into a CSV file format.  There are two reports available:

- Detailed Parcel by Pool Report - This report is a detailed parcel report of certified pools with parcel, acres and credit data. 

-  Aggregate Pool Report - This is a summary report by state by pool. 

Detailed Parcel by Pool Report

 To access this report log on to your ClimateSuite portal instance and go to Administration > Reports > Select: Detailed Parcel by Pool Report.

1) Report Dropdowns -  Dropdowns will only display available certified data.
 - Vintage
 - Project Type
 - Pool
2) Click ‘Get Report’ to access data.
3) Click ‘Download Report’ to download CSV report file.
4) When ‘Get Report’ is clicked all data available will be displayed in this grid.

Aggregate Pool Report

 To access this report log on to your ClimateSuite portal instance and go to Administration > Reports > Select: Aggregate Pool Report.

1) Report Dropdowns -  Dropdowns will only display available certified data.
 - Vintage
 - Project Type
 - Pool
 - State
2) Click ‘Get Report’ to access data.
3) Click ‘Download Report’ to download CSV report file.
4) When ‘Get Report’ is clicked all data available will be displayed in this grid.

Detailed Parcel History

We have reorganized the parcel history on the parcel details page to display an accounting of all credits and changes to the parcel’s acres and credits. To view the parcel history log onto your ClimateSuite instance > select a project with more than one year’s worth of credit data > click on a parcel in the parcel grid. 

1) Vintage - The vintages will display all years based on the term of the contract.
2) (E) acres - These are the enrolled acres based on with the CLUs identified or acres entered.
3) (V) Acres - These are the verified acres from the auto-verification or from the verifier.
4) (I) Credits - These are the issued credits calculated from the credit rate multiplied by the verified acres.
5) (R) Credits - These are the registered credits.  There may be differences from the Issued and Registered credits based on the credit smoothing process (rounding to the nearest CFI) and the proporuniate percentage the parcel has of the pool.
6) Adjustments - These are any adjustments (credits or debits) to the parcel.  If a recovery event occurs, there would be a negative value in this column.  When the parcel vests on the last year of the contract, the remaining reserve will show a positive value in this column.
7) (T) Credits - This value is the sum of the Registered and Adjustment values.
Parcel Map Image - To see the image of the map for the parcel, click a corresponding Vintage. 

We also added the ability at the parcel details to add notes that only portal administrators, project owners can edit and view. 

1) To add a note (up to 750 characters), use the text box and then click ‘Add Note’. 
2) To edit or remove a note - click the pencil to edit or click the red x to remove. 

Core Pool Management Enhancements

We enhanced the pool management feature to allow aggregators the ability to schedule multiple pool closings staggered throughout the year to enable parcels that close in between pool closings to be part of the certification process.  Use this example:

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

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.

The next release for the ClimateSuite Application is schedule for July 20, 2009. The following functionality is planned for this release:

• Add parcel by Aggregator - We will be greatly enhancing this feature to allow more flexibility in adding parcels on behalf of providers.  Specifically, the portal administrator can bulk upload users to the manage users screen and associate projects to them in the upload.  This upload will not notify the user of the ‘new account email’ until all parcels are setup for tha provider.  Selecting the right provider to enroll a parcel will also be enhanced.  There will be multiple ways to find the provider - by currently enrolled providers, incomplete parcels for providers or providers associated to projects. 
• Batch verification - Once the ClimateVerify analysis is completed (remote sensning data), this data will be loaded into ClimateSuite along with the process to update existing parcels enrolled before data is loaded.  Other modifications on data analysis of a parcel  to comply with the CCX Remote Sensing Verification Policy will be applied as well.
• Display acres and credits to four decimal points - An update will be made to display acres and credits to four decimal points.  This will be an important enhancement for those aggregators who manage their business as a pool.  For example, error rates or trades made at the pool will have to have the ability to calculate to the 1,000th percent to ensure proper allocation of crredits.
• Updates to Lead Widget - Several updates to the lead widget feature available to portal administrators - e.g. address included on lead record, assign multiple leads to a project. 

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.

Chris

Chris Carl  |  VP of Product Strategy

ClimateSuite™ & ClimateVerify™

Capturing the Value of Carbon

direct: 314.292-8941 |  cell: 314.681.9210

fax: 314.292.8939  |  email:  chris.carl@climatesuite.com

www.climatesuite.com & www.climateverify.com

20 Allen Street - Ste. 202, St. Louis, MO 63119