Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)	Help Home Page

These lists, although grouped by topic, are best searched for using <CTRL> F at this time.

The questions are based primarily on Escendency customer support tickets and calls and do not, at this time, represent an exhaustive list of every question you might have (but we would like it to be).

So, if you do not see what you are looking for please email us your question at support@escendency.com and it will be answered and included in this page (unless it is a technical fault or has been addressed in a subsequent release of the software).

Questions:

FAQs 1st Draft:

All Users / My Staff:

Question: I cannot seem to be able to access user’s desktops using either All Users or My Staff tab from the control panel.

Answer: Check that you do not have a pop-up blocker on. If so, disable the blocker for Escendency.

Tasks:

Question: On the Corporate Performance Overview report we have the icon for validation being outstanding but there is no task for validation to be completed on the validator’s task list.

Answer: The validation is probably set at a greater interval than the measurement. For example, if a yearly target is set up on April 1st for monthly measurements and the validation is set up quarterly, if values for August are input the report will show that they are not validated but the validator will only be prompted to validate in September. In practice, it is less confusing for the user if validation and measurement tasks are set the same.

Question: Is there ever a case for setting different validation and measurement intervals for a performance target?

Answer: Only if it’s a question of timetabling for the responsible posts, otherwise it may well lead to confusion when tasks are showing as not validated on the performance reports but the validator is yet to be alerted because their validation interval is set as greater than the measurement interval.

Question: On my task tab I see both ‘PI Measurement’ and ‘Measurement’ tasks. What is the difference?

Answer: ‘PI Measurement’ refers to performance indicator measurement set up in the usual way either through target creation or in the performance indicator module whereas ‘Measurement’ is a component of an equation and was set up in the measurement option in the equation module.

Validations:

Question: We have 2nd measurement and validation tasks due for April 1st. Before the first measurement was entered the validation task was showing for April 1st (with the yellow warning icon that measurement was due) but it is not anymore. Measurement and validation tasks are set at the same interval.

Answer: This actually isn't a bug and is known behaviour, albeit a bit confusing!

If measurements are in then validation does not show if last measurement is due. That is why before measurements were in the validator could see measurement tasks overdue.

This is because IF measurement and validation interval are out of step (which they are not in this case) then there is a possibility for measurements to be validated when one is still to be put in (for example if measurements are quarterly and validation is 6 monthly).

However, there is a JUDI with medium priority (JUDI 628) for 5.0 review (our next major release focusing on removing outstanding JUDI's). This states that validators will be warned that there is an overdue measurement yet to be entered.

Once these measurments are in the validation task will show.

Strategy Map: Setting up Targets:

Question: I am unable to add targets when right clicking on a strategy map item for certain performance indicators as the menu does not show a view/add target option.

Answer: It appears you have not set the strategy map item as measurable. Click on the item (left click) and in the strategy map item edit page ensure Measurable ‘Yes’ radio button is checked. You will now see the add/view targets option when you right click on the option.

Equation Builder:

Question: We use an equation that comprises measurement of number of phone calls received at the front desk in conjunction with number of phone calls answered within 5 rings. Can we also report the number of phone call measurements for tracking purposes without creating another performance indicator.

Answer: You can use any measurements as often as you like for any number of indicators. However, at time of writing (Release v3.4) the only way to do this was through the equation builder module. Create an equation that comprises just the measurement you want then link this to a performance indicator of the same name and give the target associated with that indicator zero contribution to mission.

Question: We have just input three months of measurements for an equation linked to a monthly reporting indicator and run the overnight job. However, only one month of data is showing in the performance graph.

Answer: At time of writing (release 4.1) the overnight job only runs on one outstanding measurement at a time so run the overnight job once for each month of measurements put in up to current month (though this behaviour is slated to change in release 5.0).

Multiple measurements:

Question: We have noticed that our outturn value is double what it should be.

Answer: Was the performance target set up with multiple measurers? If so, the system will sum up each measurer’s input.

Question: On target set-up, how does multiple measurement work?

Answer: During target set up you will have the option to set up single or multiple measurers in Step 4. Each measurer will be prompted to enter a value at the same time and dependant on the interval set in the performance indicator edit field. The system will sum these values in the performance report.

Question: What scenarios would it be useful to have multiple measurers for a performance target?

Answer: Actually, there aren’t many. However, could be useful if you are reporting a value that is the summation across different locations but you are not specifically interested in reporting the value for each location, for example District museum attendance: Each museum could be responsible for entering in their own museum’s attendance numbers and these could then be summed up for the District as a whole. However, you would not have track of individual museums if you were trying to determine why overall attendance was down. In most cases, it is more beneficial to use the equation builder than multiple measurers.

Question: We have one target set up with 4 measurers and it shows up on the group report four times. How can we display just the one target on the group report?

Answer: At time of writing (17/10/2007) there isn’t a way to show one target singly when split between more than one measurer. There is an enhancement request (JUDI 537) to allow measurers to be displayed in addition or instead of target owners on the group report. Current workarounds are limited to either not use multiple measured targets on the group report or to create an equation summing up individual measurement tasks.

Question: We have the same target reported several times on our group report. Why is this?

Answer: The targets are probably assigned to multiple measurers (see question above) or last year’s target has the same title as this years and is not yet completed or if completed year end rollover has not been performed.

Indicator tab

Question: What is shown on the Indicator tab?
Answer: A list of active targets that are measured by the user.

Question: We have a user that reports and validates a number of targets but these do not show on her ‘Indicators’ tab. What responsibility do you need to have for targets to show here and where can you find a list of targets that a user validates and/or owns?

Answers: You have to be the measurer to see targets in the indicators tab (Note: this shows as ‘View Indicators’ if viewed from All Users or Staff tab).

To see a list of targets you own, go to the reports tab and click My Performance Indicator (owner) link. To see individual reports listed in situ scroll down to the Performance Indicator Owners report list and the same for Validator Reports (neither of these will display unless the user has targets they own or validate).

Performance Indicators ‘Save as new’

Question: I created a ‘save as new’ indicator but now can’t delete it even though I have not added it to any performance targets

Answer: check that it is not related to any perspectives by clicking on the ‘assign perspectives’ button in the performance indicator edit page. When creating a new PI from an existing one any assigned perspectives from the original are automatically saved to the new indicator [note this is actually a JUDI 520]

Performance Graphs not displaying correctly

Question: We have a one year target with one measurement validated but the performance graph is displaying a date two years later than the measurement entry date.

Answer: Check your performance indicator reporting frequency. If you have used a three year performance indicator for an annual target you will have effectively forced the system to require the three year measurement two years early but the graph will report this as the three year date. [not assumed to be a system issue per se but because of possible down time in support this has been added as JUDI 521 for review]

Question: We have a three year target but the measurement task is not showing on the inputter’s task list.

Answer: Check your measuring and reporting interval. If the performance indicator is set up as a 3 year measuring interval the inputter will not be alerted to input a measurement until the end of three years.

Performance Graphs not displaying latest target

Question: I've inputted additional data for the Reduce Vehicle Crime measure element. However when I create a report it still shows the old data and not this year’s data. Where am I going wrong?

Answer: You probably need to perform a year end rollover (this is the same as a target update). All completed targets will then be marked as complete and new targets not yet completed will become visible. The old targets will be found by clicking the history icon ( ) in the drill down options of the Corporate Performance Overview report.

Measurement Entry

Question: We have several concurrent targets but the Measurement History tab in Measurement Entry does not show previous target measurements.

Answer: The Measurement History tab displays only past measurements for the current target (JUDI 477 is an inhouse enhancement request to add the option to see historic measurement).

Measurement Interval: Appears incorrect

Question: We have a Bi-annual indicator but it's acting like an annual indicator i.e just wanting one measurement for the year.

Answer: Bi-annual means two measurements a year. To set up a two year interval go to ‘Time Interval’ module, click ‘add’ and then type a title as needed and select duration (e.g. 2) and an interval from the dropdown (e.g. ‘years’).

Measurement Interval: Different target durations

Question: Some services may have indicators that run from January to January and not April to March. What the implications of using these in Escendency?

This should pose no problems. If the targets ran, say, June 1st to May 31st then they would still be visible in your current year’s performance graph if you performed year end rollover before they were complete. To consign them to history you might therefore need to perform year end rollover twice. Once in April for April to March targets and once in June May to June to May targets (assuming targets were completed in those time frames for each targets).

Measurement Interval: Changing on active target

Question: How hard is it to change an indicator’s measurement interval?

Answer: Provided the indicator is not in use with an active target this can be done easily in the performance indicator edit window. However, once a target is attached to an indicator it will have to be deleted in order for the interval to be changed (or Escendency Support can make the changes if no previous targets are associated with it).

Question: We have an indicator set for monthly measurements but we would like to make it a quartile measure. How can we do this if the indicator is attached to an active target?

Answers: You cannot change a performance indicator’s measurement interval once it is attached to an active target. If there are no previous targets, delete the target, readjust the performance indicator interval accordingly, recreate the target and then re-enter the measurements. For performance indicators that have previous targets already associated, create a new indicator based on the old by using ‘save new’ and then change the intervals accordingly and follow the steps above (suggest that you re-name the indicator with the new interval in parantheses, e.g. ‘No. of minor planning applications approved within 7 days (quarterly)’ to avoid confusion with the old indicator).

Measurement Type: Changing percentage measure from snapshot to average or cumulative:

Question: We have an indicator we have used for the past three years but we would like to change it from average to snapshot.

Answer: Because reports, even historic reports, use the indicator definition to calculate measurements changing an indicator associated with current and / or past targets from average to snapshot will result in erroneous data reporting. It is better to create a new indicator and start the target afresh.

Question: We set a percentage indicator as a 'Snapshot' measurement but the data that the measurers and validators receive is monthly and so they've been entering it per month, and not pre-calculating it as the year to date. Can you change it from Snapshot to Average? That will give us a better result.

Answers:

Only use snapshot indicators on percentages. NEVER use average or cumulative indicators on percentage targets EVEN IF the percentage to be reported is an average.

If you have to report percentages per quarter for a year target, the input percentages should, in almost all cases, be values to date. If you are only interested in percentages for each discrete quarter that’s different (but for BVPIs, or now NI’s, not what the Audit Commission is looking for in annual targets measured more frequently than annually).

Also, if you have to report average percentages per quarter for a year’s target the data values entered should be snapshots of averages to date.

This is a problem when your Services provide you with an average for the quarter or the month and no other figures. In almost all cases such data is not helpful for a year target unless it includes the raw numerator and denominator value for each month.

An example:

A target of 80% planning applications processed within 8 weeks as a percentage of planning applications received are measured per quarter but reported for the year as a whole.

The table below shows three possible ways of measuring this information:

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Planning applications received (per quarter) 10 20 30 10
Applications processed in 8 weeks (per quarter) 10 10 20 5
1. Processed (per quarter) % 100.00 50.00 66.67 50.00
2. Processed (average per quarter) % 100.00 75.00 72.23 66.68
3. Processed (to date) % 100.00 66.67 66.67 64.29

The 4th quarter value on the bottom row is the correct value to report for the year. The two 4th quarter values above it are incorrect (one is the percentage processed for that quarter only and the other is an average of four percentages that do not share a common denominator).

3. If the measure was not a percentage, the indicator could be set to cumulative type and measurers could then input values for each interval without having to pre-calculate a cumulative to-date value.

Equations:

Question: How do I set up an equation?

Answer: Please refer to the online help at: http://help.escendency.net/eqbuilder_help.html

Question: We have an equation based indicator and have incorrect measurements. How do we change them?

Answer: Go to Equation menu option, then Measurements. Select Edit for measurements to be corrected then select Edit Measurements and input the corrected value in the New Value field.

Question: We need to correct several measurements for an equation based indicator. How do we do this?

Answer: Please refer to the online help at:
http://help.escendency.net/eqbuilder_help.html#editmeas

Question: We have corrected some measurements for an equation based indicator but do not see any changes in the performance graph.

Answer: Updating measurement values will not necessarily update a report that is based on those measurements if the outturns are already calculated.

When new measurements are due and entered then the equation calculator will take into account any changes (and then only if the calculation uses a sum of the measurements).

In most cases, it is probably best to additionally go into Add/View Target > Edit Measurements to change the calculated outturn directly.

As in all reports, to update performance status in real time the overnight job would need to be run from Systems Tools > Recalculate Reports.

At time of writing there is a development request to have equations recalculate when any measurements are changed (JUDI 559).

Changing Performance Target Measurement:

Question: Is it possible that you could change the measurement score for the indicator FS14 Low Risk Food Premises. The previous measure for 01/04/06 - 30/06/06 was entered incorrectly, it should read 69.56%.

Answer: We have changed the measurement value for you, but you could have done it yourself by going to the relevant item in the strategy map and selecting add/view targets, then clicking on the 'edit measurements' option for the relevant target.

Change Target Value:

Question: How do you change a target value?

Answer: This can only be done if the target is still active and/or year end rollover has not been completed. For a full description on how to change a target value see the context sensitive help at: http://help.escendency.net/perftargets_help.html#editvalue. This is done in the strategy map by right clicking the target item and selecting Add/View Responsibility. Edit Targets is then an option if the target is still active.

Question: We need to change a target value but noticed that the option ‘Edit Target’ option is not present. What do we do?

Answer: It turns out that this target’s end date has passed and all the measurements for this target are in.

Changing Measurer / Changing Responsibility:

Question: We want to reassign measurement responsibility. How do we do this?

Answer: Right click on the strategy map item that holds the target, select ‘Add/View Responsibility’, click on ‘Add/View Responsibility’ link. You will need to remove responsibility of existing measurer first – do this by clicking on the ‘Remove Responsibility’ button. You will be alerted that if you already have measurements in place these will be deleted. If this is acceptable click ok. You will then be prompted to enter responsibility ratios in a view of the organisation chart. In practice, as most targets are only assigned to one individual to measure, expand the organisation chart to where the new measurer is located and type in ‘1’ next to their post. Click ‘Save Ratios’ button and the measurer is reassigned.

More information can be found at:

http://help.escendency.net/perftargets_help.html#responsible

Question: We have to reassign measurement responsibility for a target that already has several measurements. How can we do this without losing the measurements?

Answer: You cannot. However, it is possible to delegate one or all of the outstanding measurement tasks (see http://help.escendency.net/perftargets_help.html#delegate). When these tasks are completed you can then change the measurer for subsequent targets through add/view responsibility (see http://help.escendency.net/perftargets_help.html#changemeas) before new measurements are entered.

Questions: We have recently reassigned measurement responsibility on an existing performance target halfway through the target duration however the new inputter is being prompted for measurements from the start of the target.

Answer: Whoever attempted to change measurement responsibility would have received a warning that any measurements currently in the system for that target would be erased if measurement was reassigned (see previous question for measurement delegation).

Changing / Deleting Performance Indicator:

Question: We have been using a set of indicators (BVPIs) mandated by the ODPM (now the DCLG) that are being replaced by new National Indicators (NIs). Where an NI is effectively the same as a BVPI should we just change the name of the BVPI?

Answer: You could but this would distort any historic data you have (the historic reports would report what the BVPI title had been changed to). It is better to create a new indicator and attach your new targets to that.

Question: If we change indicators for a performance target will this affect the historic reports.

Answer: It shouldn’t do. The history will use information from the previous performance indicator and eventually the new one as well where relevant.

Question: We have redundant performance indicators and wish to remove them from our indicator library. However, many of them have been used for past targets. Will deleting them affect historic reports?

Answer: No. When you ‘delete’ anything in the Escendency system you are really marking it as deleted so any information from it that is still needed can be read by the system – it just won’t be visible in the application anymore (other than in historic reports).

Measurement Type: Percentage:

Question: We have a percentage indicator and an outturn of 120% but the system will not let us input the value.

Answer: The percentage measurement type only takes values of 0-100. If you wish to report values other than that you will need to set the measurement type as floating point (i.e. decimal). You can then create a unit called ‘%’ (trailing) in the Units module and select that as the unit for the indicator from the Unit of measure dropdown in the performance indicator edit page.

Measurement Interval: From and to date on task misleading:

Question: We have a monthly snapshot indicator running for a year and we require measurers to input pre-calculated to date values (i.e. summing all previous months for the period in question). However, on the measurement task window the measurement date is give as ‘From: <start of month> To: <end of month> and this would appear to be asking measurers to input a value just for that month.

Answers:
1. Actually the ‘From and To’ range is the period in which you are required to enter a measurement. It says nothing about whether the measurement should be ‘to date’ or just for that interval. The way a measurement should be entered can be described by yourselves in the Measurement description field in the performance indicator edit page.
2. If you are requesting measurers to input pre-calculated values summing up previous measurements, but they find it easier to enter in values for the current time period instead it might be better to make the indicator cumulative.

Reports: Scorecard:

Question: Is their any sense to the order of performance target blocks on the scorecard report?

Answer: Yes. Items that contribute the most to the organisation’s mission are on the left then ordered by target title.

Question: We have assigned action plans to several performance targets that are attached to a specific perspective, however, although there is an action plan flag attached to the perspective too it doesn’t contain all the actions in the related performance targets.

Answer: Action plans have to be assigned to perspectives directly to appear next to the perspective name. Performance indicators can be related to perspectives but this does not automatically mean that action plans related to performance targets using these indicators will be attached to the related perspective.

Reports: Scorecard Perspective Category:

Question: What is the difference between a perspective and a perspective category?

Answer: Basically, a perspective category enables you to filter perspectives.

For example, in Lancaster District Council their council housing service has a bunch of perspectives they use that are specific to them only. Therefore LDC has a perspective category called Council Housing. Each council housing perspective is therefore assigned to the perspective category called council housing.

This enables that (or any other service that uses this approach) to run the perspective by category report, select the appropriate category and just see the scorecard perspective reports with the perspectives relevant to them.

You could use this, for example for each school where you create a category for each school. Because you can assign a perspective to as many categories as you wish you could include perspectives that relate just to one school but also to all schools (or any number thereof).

Question: Council housing have a lot of their own scorecard perspectives and would like to report on just these in the Scorecard Perspective report. How can we do this?

Answer: (see above) Use Scorecard Perspective Categories and create a category called ‘Council Housing’ then for each of the Council housing perspectives, edit and click on the ‘Perspective Categories’ button and check the ‘Council Housing’ category. To report this go to Scorecard by Categories report and select the ‘Council Housing’ category from the filter.

Reports:

Question: We have input measurements today but do not see performance report in the group report.

Answer: Reports are calculated during the overnight job. Either wait until the next day to see the reports or if needed now go to system tools > recalculate reports (overnight job) > recalculate.

Reports: Status Report:

Question: We have several performance targets with measurements in but although the relevant indicator type shows on the Performance Indicator by Status Report there is no block on the histogram graph.

Answer: The performance status report shows contribution to top level objective (i.e. mission or vision etc). If the indicators you wish to display have their contribution set to zero then they will be listed on the histogram plot or the pie chart but will show zero contribution.

Question: We have selected All Active Targets, All Active Targets I measure and All Active Targets I Own on the Dashboard customise menu but the graphs only display as grey blocks even though we know there are active targets.

Answer: Check your target contributions. If they are at the default of zero then the graphs have nothing to display as they show relative contribution to top level objective by status.

Contributions / Weightings:

Question: We have an important performance target and have weighted its contribution in the strategy map to 25 but its contribution to our overall performance does not appear to have changed in the corporate performance overview or the performance indicator status report.

Answer: That is because the default of the Escendency system is to calculate the proportion of the target to its immediate parent relative to other siblings. If the target was the only target for an item then its weighting would have no noticeable affect as it would always be contributing 100% to its parent.

Question: How do we ensure an important target has a noticeable impact on performance overall?

Answer: Two ways or a combination of both:

1. Place the performance target high up in the strategy may (e.g. create a node right under the top level objective).
2. Weight the contribution of the performance indicator high and then cascade up the strategy map (see http://help.escendency.net/stratcontrib_help.html#contribnorm)

Document Library:

Question: I click on the document library and get navigated to a blank page. How do I set up documents in the library?

Answer: At time of writing (28/09/2007) any documents you want in the library you email to Escendency. We will then convert word files to pdf and spreadsheets to html and upload onto a customer unique directory. A page of contents will link to documents in this directory and will be the first page you see when clicking on your document library link.

Question: How long after submitting a document to Escendency will I see it in our document library?

Answer: At time of writing (28/09/2007) we guarantee document upload to be no more than two working days.

Email Task Prompts:

Question: Users are not receiving email prompts for overdue tasks.

Answer: The email response has to be turned on by Escendency per client. Please contact Escendency support and request the frequency that you would like the prompts sent out.

Traffic Lights / Performance Status

Question: Do non-assessed items have an impact on the dashboard?

Answer: If there are no overdue measurements, non-assessed items will not affect performance status. If there are overdue measurements for a not assessed target then performance status will be downgraded accordingly.

Question: If measurements are in on time but have not been validated will this affect the target’s performance status?

Answer: Validation has no affect on performance status only the value and punctuality of the measurement entry does.

Deleting

Question: How do I delete a reporting group when I keep getting the message “Sorry, this record could not be deleted because it has active children”?

Answer: Check that the group is no longer associated with any organisation or strategy map items. Also, users associated with this group should have been unchecked from the group reporting list for that group.

Question: How do I delete a performance indicator when I keep getting the message “Sorry, this record could not be deleted because it has active children” even though it is not attached to any performance target?

Answer: Go to the performance indicator edit page and click on ‘Assign perspectives’. If there are any perspectives checked unselect then save. You should be able to delete the indicator now.

Performance Indicator: Change High/Low/Range:

Question: We have an indicator that’s attached to a target that reports ‘High’ is good when it should be ‘Low’ is good. How do we change this to ‘Low’ is good?

Answer: Only Escendency Support can do this at time of writing (05/11/2007). It is important to know what your indicator should be set at before attaching it to performance targets.

Performance Graphs not Displaying Correctly:

Question: We have an annual target measured quarterly set up as low is good with a target of 22. For the first quarter we have an outturn of 18 but the performance graph shows the indicator is failing.

Answer: Check your target start value (in target set up, can be accessed from add/view targets from the strategy map). In this case, if the target start value was the default of zero the system would calculate a first quarter result of 5.5 or less as being on target (22/4=5.5).

Question: We have an annual target measured quarterly set up as high is good with a target of 100. Target start value is set at 0. For our first quarter result we had an outturn of 20 but for our second quarter just entered we an outturn of 60 but the performance graph is still showing failing.

Answer: If the Q2 value was entered today then the overnight job would not have run and updated the performance graph’s status even though the value is showing on the graph. If the value has been entered before then either the overnight job is not running (you can check by going to System Tools > Recalculate Reports (Overnight job) and clicking on ‘recalculate’ if you receive an error message contact Escendency support).

Question: We have a current target showing as failing when clearly it should be ahead of target (we have set target start value as the target value so it is not that).

Answer: Check previous targets for that indicator. If they have not been completed and year end rollover not complete the latest target might still be displaying the status of the previous target. Solution: ensure previous target is completed or ended and then run year end rollover from System Tools.

Duplicate Targets:

Question: We have last year’s target still displaying on the group report along with this year’s.

Answer: Year end rollover had not been run. All targets, even if completed, will still display until year end rollover is run to consign them to history.

Ending Targets:

Question: If a target is ended but existing measurements still have validation tasks due can those measurements be validated?

Answer: No. Once the target is ended any un-validated measurements will remain so.

Searching Stategy Map:

Question: It is very frustrating trying to find items on the strategy map if you are not sure of their precise location. How can I find a specific performance target?

Answer: This is a roadmap goal but the work around at time of writing (16/10/2007) is:

1. Go to reports
2. Open up the Corporate Performance Overview
3. Check the ‘+’ button to expand the whole report (note: this may take a few minutes but don’t despair) then
4. Use the windows <CTRL> F command to search for the target or strategy map item.

Note: An expanded strategy map, search facility and means of identifying measurable items that have inactive and active targets attached is in the development roadmap post version 3.4.

Question: I have entered a target and (all?) the measurements for last year. How do I make sure it doesn't appear in group reports?

Answer: Run the year end job. If all the measurements are in and there is another target for the next year already in place the old target will disappear (you can find it in history) and will allow the new target to be displayed in all the reports it is associated with.

Reporting Groups:

Question: What exactly is a reporting group and how does it work?

Answer: Reporting groups (see http://help.escendency.net/repgroup_help.html for more information) are set up from the reporting group menu option and are particularly useful for project based reporting that typically may cut across the strategy map and organisation. Users can then be linked to any number of the available groups in the user edit menu option and these users will then see those reports listed in the their report tab under the heading Group Reports (see http://help.escendency.net/reports/groups/cpreport_allgroup_help.html for an example group report)

Question: I have added a reporting group and selected several nodes of the strategy map but do not see any targets in the group report.

Answer: When selecting strategy map items only items that have target/s directly attached to them will display (an enhancement request, JUDI 598, has been made to pull nested targets from any strategy map item).

Users:

Question: We would like to give users the option to edit action plans. How do we do this?

Answer: In Escendency you can create as many different types of user groups as you wish. The system comes with a default of three, User, Manager and Administrators. Only Administrators have an access level assigned (Sysadmin, which is all access), the other two have, as default, the minimum access. Additional access rights can be added as required (see http://help.escendency.net/user_group_help.html for more information).

You could, therefore, create a new user group called Action Plan Creator and check the Action Plan Admin and Action Plan Creator options in the access level module. You could then select the new group from the user edit function for each user that you wished to have access to action plan creation. When these users log onto the system they would then see the Action Planning menu option.

Question: We have been asking people to use the additional comments field, I have just reliased that you can only use this feature if you are an administrator. Ideally this would be good if at least manager posts could access this feature to make comments on performance that will display in the reports.

Answer: You can give any group access to this facility.

Go to 'access levels' and assign the 'add oversight comments' option to any group you wish to be able to make comments.

Question: We would like to assign an organisation post to a user but when we go to edit that user we cannot see the drop down for organization post.

Answer: Still in User Edit, check to see if the user is checked as an officer or a member. Members are read only access and as such do not have the option to be assigned to an organisation post. Check the box for Officers and the organisation post drop down should show (right below the list of Group Report membership options).

Year End Rollover:

Question: What does Recalculate Targets actually do?

Answer: All that recalculation of targets will do is archive all completed targets and remove them visibly from the system's reporting (unless they are the last active target for a particular stategy map item) and remove too their contribution to mission (i.e. no performance graphs and no statuses will show)). They can still be accessed from the Historic CPO.

Question: Do I have to wait until all target measurements are in before doing year end rollover?

Answer: Not necessarily. Any overdue tasks will still show. When those tasks are complete you will need to update the targets again in order to clear them from the system. Note: if a new target has been created this will supersede the old target on group and executive overview reports.

Question: Why do I still have a performance graph showing from the previous year despite all the out turns being entered for that target?

Answer: If no other target has been created for the current year then the last target, even if completed, will show until a new target is created (for a given stategy map item).

Question: I have the CPO (corporate performance overview) traffic light report showing targets are on target but when I view the performance report there is no data showing.

Answer: Quite likely a new target has been created for the new measurement period and year end rollover (recalculate targets) has not been performed so the status for the last target is still showing while the graph is displaying the new, active target. The system always displays the latest currently active performance target so this should be considered when using the target creation wizard.

Question: If I perform year end rollover will I still be able to set up new targets from the Strategy map using the target wizard?

Answer: Yes. Unless you delete a target it will always be visible in the strategy map by right clicking a measurable strategy map item with targets and selecting 'Add/View targets'. The new target creation will default to using information from the most recent target for that strategy map item (you can change the defaults as needed).

Question: In Add/View targets it is possible to end a target before it's original set up time. How does this affect year end rollover?

Answer: It won't but for a clear explanation of the choices on ending a target prematurely, see Performance Target Help: End Targets. If a target is ended on last measurement date (or today), new targets created in the wizard will default start one day after the new end date. If 'end measurement' is selected target wizard default start is not affected.

Question: We have created new targets and still have measurements pending in some of last year’s targets. If we run year end rollover will we still see the old targets in group reports.

Answer: They won’t be listed but can be accessed from the performance history drill down for the new target.