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.

We have recieved a lot of feedback from prospective and current customers on the field identification process.  We had already been planning enhancements to the map feature but the feedback reinforced our need to redeisgn the way in which users interacted with the mapping functionality.  When we started to think through the revsied map enrollment page, we wanted to make the field identification process a) more inutuitive, b) closely aligned to how the FSA maps are used and c) the increase the speed on the map interaction (pan, zoom in and out).    These new features have been released and are in the test and production environments.

The first step in the enrollment process is to identify the parcel.  The first part of Step 1 - Parcel Identification is outlined below:

1. Project details - These are the details about the project: name, description and term.
2. Parcel name - This is the name of the parcel that the you will recognize in a list of your parcels.  Tip: For Agricultural Soil and Grassland enrollments, name the parcel the FSA tract number.
3. Additional owners - ‘Your Ownership’ is defaulted to 100%.  If you share ownership on this parcel, click ‘Add Owner’ to add owners.  Your Ownership and Additional Owners must add up to 100%.
4. Go to Field Identification - After you have completed the parcel name and additional owners (if applicable) then click ‘Go to Field Identification’ to find the fields associated to this parcel.

1. Field Search - There are two ways to search for a field by address or by section, township and range.
2. To use the section, township and range search - choose your state then populate the applicable fields and click ‘Find It’.  To find your section, township and range  - look for the data on your FSA map or in the legal descrtipion of the property.
3. If the state has multiple meridians - the combination of section, township and range may be duplicated.  A box will appear in the map - choose the corresponding meridian.  To get back to these results - click on ‘Search Results’ in the top right of the map.
4. To zoom in or out of the map - use the scoll bar located on the left side of the map.  The bar can be slid down (to zoom out) or up (to zoom in).  At the end of the scoll bar are two arrows.  Use these to also zoom in and out.
5. In the top right corner of the map are three buttons:
- Search Results, Satellite and Map.  Search Results allow you to view the search criteria (important if you have multiple meridians). 
- Satellite is the default view of the map.  Allows the user to see the raw satellite imagery.
- Map is the more cartograpic view of the map.  It shows all the lables for roads, towns and counties.  This is generally used for trying to find a field using landmarks to identify the right area o fth feidl to zoom in on. 
6.  Once the field has been identified, you will see a blue outline.  Click within these boundaries of the blue line to highlight the field.  When you click a field, it will turn the field yellow and a bubble will appear with field information (CLU ID, county and acres).  Click ‘Select’ to add it to your list or click cancel to close the bubble.  If you have selected a field, the field will turn green and add it to your ‘ Added Fields’. 
7. After selecting the appropriate fields, the fields will be added for reference to the ‘Added Fields’ section.  To start over, click ‘Remove All Fields’ and begin the process again.
8. To go back to the Parcel Name area, click ‘Back to Parcel Name’. 
9) Once you have completed this section, click ‘Next at the bottom right of the page to continue enrollment.  Click ‘Cancel’ to cancel out of the session.

Once you have completed this section, you can finish off the enrollment process.  This feature is available to providers as well as portal administrator or project owners enrolling on behalf of providers.  To access any of this content while on the page, click ‘Help’ next to ‘Parcel Identification’.  Any questions, please contact ClimateSuite technical support 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.

For those new to ClimateSuite or those not familiar with Quick Tips - we have built several documents to better enable your ability to ‘get up to speed’ on core features.  This quick tip and all others can be found in the Resource Library in the top right (beneath your name) in a folder called ‘User Guide Quick Tips’. 

This quick tip is about how to create a project or pool (project and pool are synomous in ClimateSuite).  Projects are the central to the use of ClimateSuite.  There are a one-to-one relationship between protocols and projects.  Projects become a method to assign project attributes to all enrollments within a project(e.g. price paid per contract or crediting rate or contract length).  The following is the quick tip for this process - the document can be found here.

ClimateSuite Quick Tips
Title:  Create New Project/Pool

Introduction:
When an Aggregator is creating a new pool of tons they will choose Create New Project from the ClimateSuite menus.  It is important to note that a ClimateSuite Project can be an entire pool of credits or as simple as one development from a single Provider.  Most frequently the term Project translates to an Aggregator’s pool.  Creating a New Project (pool) in ClimateSuite is an important aspect for Aggregators, Providers and Buyers.  The data entered when creating a New Project will be seen throughout the lifespan of the Project.  This description will show up in:

• The Invite Email
• The Enrollment Steps
• And in The Project Details Page

It is very important that this information is entered clearly and correctly.  The Project Description attached to a Project will be seen through the entire enrollment and transaction process, until the credits are retired.  This Quick Tip will show Aggregators how to effectively communicate the purpose of the Project to all participants and enter all of the Project details correctly. 

Once the Project Name and Description have been entered, Aggregators will need to provide ClimateSuite with a Contract Document and specific contract details.  This includes the contract’s Terms, Start Date and Price.  A Quick Tip for entering the Contract Document and details is listed below.

Page/Location:
          Projects Tab>Create New Project  Or  Dashboard>Create New Project

Quick Tip:
Creating a New Project -
When creating a New Project, the first step is choosing the Registry and Protocol for your Project.  After clicking on Create New Project, ClimateSuite will provide dropdown menus that will ask for each of these.  Once a Registry and Protocol have been chosen, specific Project information can be filled into the provided fields.  Concise documentation and accurate reminder text are important aspects when detailing the Project Description.   Be sure to give your Project an expressive name and accurately describe your Project’s description.

ClimateSuite will ask for additional information about the Project on the Create Project page.  The Aggregator will need to enter the state, information surrounding the contract and reminder text for the Providers.  If the Project being created will have acres enrolled from multiple states, then simply choose a default state from the dropdown menu.  This can be the state under the Project with the majority of acres enrolled.  ClimateSuite also asks for specific information about the contract for the Project.  More detailed information on the Contract can be found in this Quick Tip below, under Setting Up A Contract.

At the bottom of the Create Project screen, ClimateSuite asks the Aggregator to select a Renewal Reminder, Reminder Text and to choose Project Owners to add onto the Project.  Use the Renewal Reminder dropdown menu to choose the number of days (30, 60, 90) before the Provider will be reminded for annual enrollment of the parcel.  The Aggregator can edit the specific text in the Renewal Email by changing the Renewal Text.  This is the text in the email that will be sent on the date selected in the renewal reminder.  Once the Reminder Text has been entered, choose other Project Owners to add to the Project as owners.  The final step before creating the Project is to choose whether or not to delegate property enrollment.  The Delegate Property Enrollment box should always be checked.  This feature will be removed in the July release update.

Sample Description Text:  The red text will be different for each email and will not be automatically entered by the ClimateSuite software.  This text will need to be different for each individual Project.

This Project for [conservation tillage acres] under [The Agricultural Soil Carbon Offset Protocol] at the [Chicago Climate Exchange Registry]. It is specific to [Western Illinois corn acres] starting in the [2009 summer enrollment pool].

Sample Reminder Text:
Dear Carbon Credit Provider,
Please remember that in [30 days] the annual enrollment process for your carbon credits will be due.  Your land is eligible for enrollment in the [2009 Illinois Conservation Tillage carbon credit pool].  These credits can be enrolled through ClimateSuite and traded on [The Chicago Climate Exchange].  The enrollment for your [conservation tillage acreage] will be due on [June 30, 2009].

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me directly.
Sincerely,
[John Doe]
[Carbon Credit America]
[John.Doe@CarbonCreditAmerica.com]
 

Create Project

Setting Up A Contract
The Contract Document is the document that contains your legal terms that all Providers will agree to when participating in your project. Select a contract that corresponds to your project. If a contract does not appear, you will need to Create New Contract.  In order to create a new contract, follow the quick tips below and ensure that your legal documents are uploaded correctly.

To create a new contract, click “Create New Contract.” Contract Title is the name of the contract that will appear in the Contract Document dropdown. Contract Acceptance Text is the acceptance language the provider will see following accepting the contract. Detailed Contract Terms are the legal terms each Provider will accept when enrolling their parcel to the Project.  The most efficient way of doing this is to copy and paste your contract directly out of a Word document.  When ClimateSuite asks if you would like to clean the MS Word formatting, click “OK” or type the text directly into the Acceptance Text box and Detailed Contract Terms box provided.  The following tips can be used when entering the Detailed Contract Terms:

Once a Contract is created and saved, it cannot be edited.  This is a security measure in place for Project Owners and Providers.  In order to modify a saved contract, the user must delete the old contract and recreate a New Contract.Once a Contract is created and saved, it cannot be edited. This is a security measure in place for Project Owners and Providers. In order to modify a saved contract, the user must delete the old contract and recreate a New Contract.

Sample Preview Screen:

Create Contract