Guide to Custom Reporting in Portfolio Manager - How To Series

April 2016

“How To” Series

Guide to Custom Reporting in Portfolio Manager

PA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool helps you

measure and track the energy and water use, waste and

materials, and greenhouse gas emissions of your

buildings, all in a secure online environment. You can

use the results to identify under-performing buildings, set

investment priorities, verify efficiency improvements, and

receive EPA recognition for superior energy performance.

The reporting feature in Portfolio Manager offers a variety of

reports and graphics to help you view and share

performance metrics. This includes standard reports with popular metrics, as well as custom reports

that allow you to select specific metrics and information to view in a table or export for further

analysis.

To produce a custom report, you must first create a report template. You can then generate your

report for download or display, share the template with others, or use the template to request data

from other Portfolio Manager users. The ability to request data from others is especially valuable for

voluntary and mandatory building benchmarking programs, which need a mechanism to collect and

analyze energy performance data from a large number of participating properties. This document will

guide you through the process of creating and working with Custom Reports.

Create a Custom Report

1. Create a report template.

2. Use the template you created to:

o Generate a custom report.

o Share your template.

o Request data from others.

Create a Report Template

Begin by defining the basic

organization of your report (metrics,

time periods, properties). Follow

these easy steps:

1. Click the Reporting tab and then click

Create a New Template.

2. Enter information in the four fields:

a. Name: Use a unique an

scriptive name for the templ

ate

(

e.g., “Report Template for XY

2013 E

nergy Competition”).

b. Timeframe: Select a timeframe for

which to generate data.

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c. Properties to Include: Select one,

multiple, or all properties to include

in the template. NOTE: If you select

All Properties, Portfolio Manager

creates a report with all properties

in your account at that time

. If you

add new properties, or if properties

are shared with you, you need to

update the template and select All

Properties again in order to include

the new properties.

d. Information & Metrics to Include:

Select metrics across the 15

available categories to include in

your template.

i. Click Select Information &

Metrics to see the list of

available metrics.

ii. Click on a metrics category and

check the boxes for the metrics

you want to include in the template. Click View Selection at any time to view the metrics

currently included in the template.

iii. Click Apply Selection to finalize the list of chosen metrics.

iv. Click Save Template to save your selections. You will be taken back to the Reporting tab

and you will receive a notification that your template has been successfully saved.

Timeframe Options

 Current Year: The most recent year in which each of

your properties has a full year of data. This can be a

different year for each property.

 Single Year: You select a specific year.

 Compare Two Years: Compares your properties for

each of two specific years that you select.

 Compare Baseline Year: Compares your properties

between each property’s baseline period and another

year which you specify.

 Compare Current Year: Compare your properties

between each property’s current year and another year

which you specify.

 Current Year vs. Baseline Year: Compare your

properties between each property’s current year and its

baseline year.

e the Template You Created

Put your template to work! Your new custom template will appear in the Templates &

Reports section on the Reporting tab. You can choose the following options from the

Action drop-down menu next to the name of the template.

 Generate a New Report: View and download a report based on your template.

 Edit this Template: Change your selection of metrics or time periods.

 Share this Template: Share your template with others.

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 Request Data using this Template: Use your template to request data from others.

 Delete this Template: Delete your template if you no longer need it.

Generate and View a Custom Report

Once you have created your template, you can generate a report to see data based on the

specifications defined in your template.

1. Select Generate New Report from the Action drop-down menu next to the name of the custom

template. When the report is ready, you will see a message that your report has been generated and it

will appear in the Templates & Reports section at the bottom of the Reporting tab. If a large number

of properties and/or metrics were selected for inclusion in your template, it may take a few minutes or

longer to generate your report. Once the report has been generated, the Status column indicates

“Generated” with the date and time the report was produced. NOTE: You no longer need to wait

overnight for new data to be included in your report.

2. Select an option from the Action drop-down menu next to the report. You can view the report in

Portfolio Manager, download it in a different file type (XLS or XML), edit your template, generate a new

report after editing your template, share your template, request data, or delete the template.

Shar

e Your Template

You can share a copy of your custom report

template with any of your contacts with whom you

are connected, allowing the contacts to use the

template to run reports on properties in their own

portfolios.

1. Select Share this Template from the Action

drop-down menu next to the designated

spreadsheet. NOTE: Any subsequent edits

you make to the template will not affect the

copy you shared with others. Likewise, any

edits your contacts make do not affect your

copy of the template.

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2. Select the contacts with whom you want to

share your template, and then click Share

Template. Keep in mind that sharing a

template does not share any data that you

may have populated into your own report

using that template.

3. You can also choose for Portfolio Manager to

provide a custom link that will allow any user to copy the template to their account. To generate the

link, select the second check box and click Share Template. Portfolio Manager then generates a

unique link at the top of the Reporting tab that you can copy and paste in to an email and send to

users with whom you are not connected.

equest Data from Others

You can also request data from other Portfolio Manager

users. By asking others to complete your template with

information from their accounts, you will receive the data

you need in order to report on program results.

Follow these steps to request data:

1. Select Request Data using this Template from the

Action drop-down menu next to the designated

template.

2. Enter information in the four fields:

a. Name: This field is pre-populated with

the name of your template; however,

you can change the name when

requesting data from others. If you will

be making multiple data requests from

the same template, you may want to

make the names unique.

b. Verify the Data you are Requesting:

Choose a new timeframe or no

timeframe (which allows recipients to

choose their own). Selecting a location

limits users to only releasing data from

properties located in the specified

country or state. The information and metrics in your template will also be displayed. To make

changes to the metrics, go to the previous page and select Edit this Template from the Action

drop-down menu.

c. Identify a Contact Person: Select a contact person whose information is sent with the

request, so users know who they can contact if they have questions.

d. Provide Detailed Instructions for Your Request: Provide additional information as needed,

such as submission deadline, requested time periods, or any other information that will help

others successfully complete your data request.

Aggregate Collected Data

You can request data from multiple Portfolio

Manager users. Portfolio Manager aggregates the

collected data into one custom report, from which

you can calculate many summary statistics or

program figures, such as total greenhouse gas

emission reductions or total cost savings.

3. Click Save Request to save the request, or click Publish Request to finalize the request. After you

publish the request, you will see a confirmation page, which includes a copy of your instructions and a

dedicated URL that others will use to access and complete your reporting request. You must include

this URL in any communications to your recipients so they can access your data request.

The Difference Between Sharing and Requesting Data from Others

When a connected contact shares a property with you, you can view that property’s data at any time. If you include that property in

any of your reports for any time period, the report will pull the most up-to-date information for the property from the contact’s

account.

When a Portfolio Manager user responds to your data request, you will only receive the information and metrics specified in the

data request template for the specified time period, and only at times when the user responding to your request chooses to send

the data to you.

Report Guidance

The custom reporting feature allows users to view and analyze data in new and exciting ways, and

can help to calculate the impacts of individual energy efficiency measures or the results of a

comprehensive efficiency program. For example, you can identify which of your properties has the

highest score or lowest greenhouse gas emissions footprint, or inform investment decisions by

ranking your properties by energy costs. As you use the reporting feature, please note:

 Reports return values for each metric in each selected time period.

 Reports with two time periods automatically calculate the change in each metric for each property

between the two selected time periods, and display this information on the Comparisons tab. This

allows you to easily calculate useful energy savings statistics for your portfolio. NOTE: A property must

have a value in each time period in order to be included in the Comparisons tab.

 Using the Request Data using this Template feature, you can obtain the same metrics for the same

time period(s) for all properties that return data. This is useful for energy efficiency programs seeking

to aggregate energy savings across participating buildings in order to calculate program impact.

As you develop your custom report template(s), consider whether there are any additional statistics

that you would like to be able to calculate from the returned data, and make sure that the necessary

metrics are included in your template to allow you to make these calculations. The Comparisons tab

can provide the change in specific metrics between two periods, but further calculations may be

necessary if you want to obtain portfolio-wide aggregate metrics, such as:

 Average improvement in ENERGY STAR score across portfolio, weighted by property size (include

ENERGY STAR score and property floor area in your template).

 Total portfolio percent savings since baseline (include source energy use in your template).

 Portfolio-wide average energy savings per square foot (include source EUI and property floor area in

your template).

 Average property percent savings across portfolio (include source energy use in your template).

 Portfolio-wide average cost savings per square foot (include energy cost and property floor area in

your template).

Learn More!

To learn more about Portfolio Manager, visit www.energystar.gov/benchmark.

get

answers to your questions, visit www.energystar.gov/buildingshelp.