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ACRES Release Notes

April 5, 2013 – ACRES v. 5.00.020

A new release of ACRES (v. 5.00.020) was released Friday, April 5th. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

All Users

EPA Reviewers

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

April 5, 2013 – ACRES v. 5.00.010

A new version of ACRES (v. 5.00.010) was released Friday, April 5th. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

All Users

CARs

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

February 5, 2013 – ACRES v. 4.01.120

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.120) was released Tuesday, February 5th. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

All Users

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

January 8, 2013 – ACRES v. 4.01.110

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.110) was released Tuesday, January 8th.  Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

All Users

CAR and EPA Users

Thank you for the feedback you have provided.  We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback. 

December 7, 2012 – ACRES v. 4.01.100

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.100) was released Friday, December 7th.  Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

CAR Users

Project Officers

Thank you for the feedback you have provided.  We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

November 9, 2012 – ACRES v. 4.01.090

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.090) was released Friday, November 9th.  Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

All Users

CARs

Project Officers

ADMIN

Thank you for the feedback you have provided.  We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

October 5, 2012 - ACRES v. 4.01.080

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.080) was released Friday, October 5th.  Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

CA Home Page

Help icons with explanatory text have been added for the “Actual Amount” and “Cooperative Agreement Summary” fields in the Cooperative Agreement Anticipated Performance  section.  These were added to assist users in providing correct information for these fields. 

The help icons are also available on the Anticipated Performance data input screen (Project Officer Module).

Project Officer Home Page - Regional Status Tab

Two improvements have been made to the Regional Status page:

  1. The Regional Status page now displays the name of the Project Officer associated with each work package.  This is especially useful for work packages that have an “Edits in Progress” status.
  2. Work packages that have remained in the same status for more than 90 days  now have the “Status Since” fields displayed in red.  This is a gentle reminder that the work packages need attention.

Area-Wide Planning CAs

Because Area-Wide Planning (AWP) CAs are unique, several changes have been made to the AWP Home page. 

  1. A new section has been added to display leveraged funding information.  The leveraged funding is entered via the PO Module - Funding page (available to POs only).  This new section will appear only for AWP CAs.
  2. Several sections which are not applicable to AWPs do not display on the Home page.  These include CA Accomplishments, Assessment/Cleanup/Redevelopment Activities, and Institutional and Engineering Controls.

ADMIN Home Page

Two updates have been implemented to save Administrators time.

  1. Change Status Page

    The Property ID now displays on the Change Status page.  CARs and EPA Project Officers often forget to include this important data when requesting a status change.  As a result, Admins had to spend time manually searching for the associated ID.
  2. Change Owner Page

    Similar to the Change Status Page, the Property ID now displays on the Change Owner Page, saving the Admins time and frustration.

Thank you for the feedback you have provided.  We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES.  Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback. 

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September 7, 2012 - ACRES v. 4.01.070

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.070) was released Friday, September 7th.  Below is a summary of the change that has been made to the system.

Property Data Update

The property field “Cleanup Required” (PPF, Page 2) contains an important status which is tracked by the ACRES team. Since October 2011, ACRES has been automatically setting the cleanup required field to Yes when a property is associated with a Cleanup CA, associated with a RLF CA, or when the property has a date set for either the Cleanup Activity Start or Completion Dates.

A new utility was created and executed to update the “Cleanup Required” field for open properties added/updated before October 2011. A total of 349 properties had the field set to Yes because they meet the “required” criteria that is currently in place for properties.

Bonus: the warning message indicating ‘this important field is empty’ will no longer appear for updated properties.

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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August 6, 2012 - ACRES v. 4.01.060

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.060) was released Monday, August 6th. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Association to New Grant Types

CAR users can now associate Multi-Purpose and Area-Wide Purpose grants to their accounts. This is accomplished by accessing the My Cooperative Agreement tab on the Home page, opting to “Add a Cooperative Agreement to My List”, and entering the appropriate cooperative agreement number and state.

Multi-Purpose Cooperative Agreement

The option to filter by Multi-Purpose type has been added to the Search Property/CA function. The option for Area-Wide Purpose grants was already available.

PPF Updates

An improvement was made to the Cleanup Funding page. The delete button for Cleanup Funding entries can be easily seen now. Previously the scroll bar had to be used to view the button because it was positioned beyond the right side of the page.

For an RLF property, improvements have been made to the RLF Loan Date field on the Funding page. The calendar selection feature now works correctly and the date can be added/modified whenever loan funding is updated.

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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June 13, 2012 - ACRES v. 4.01.050

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.050) was released Wednesday, June 13th.  Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

FY 2012 Grant Fact Sheets

The 2012 Grant Fact Sheets were uploaded on Thursday, May 24th. The EPA awarded $69.3 million in new Brownfields grants for assessment, clean up and redevelopment activities for use by 245 grantees. In addition, $3.8 has been awarded for Multi-Purpose Pilot Grants which will help nine recipients to revitalize their communities.

Several new features have been added for this year’s release:

  1. Added New Grant Type, Multi-Purpose

    Multi-Purpose grant types have been introduced for the 2012 grant year. Nine have been added as part of the pilot program. Note that there are 4 new funding fields for this grant type only. These funding fields replace the Hazardous and Petroleum funding fields used for other grant types:
    1. Multi-purpose Assessment Hazardous Funding
    2. Multi-purpose Assessment Petroleum Funding
    3. Multi-purpose Cleanup Hazardous Funding
    4. Multi-purpose Cleanup Petroleum Funding

    The new funding fields can be added to the Grant Fact Sheet Search display by hovering the cursor over any of the title bar names (Grant Recipient Name, EPA Region, Grant Type, etc), clicking the drop down arrow that appears, hovering the cursor over Columns, and then checking the boxes for the 4 new fields.

  2. New ARRA Filter Available

    A filter has been added that allows you the option to select Non-ARRA only grants or ARRA only grants. The new filter is located at the bottom of the filter list on the left side of the Grant Fact Sheet Search page. The default is to display all grants.

  3. PDF Version of Fact Sheet Reformatted

    The PDF version of the fact sheet now has Contact information displaying on the left side of the page. This consolidates the data so it is easier to read.

  4. New Grant Types Added to Search Filter

    The filter by Grant Type (located on left side of the Grant Fact Sheet Search page) has 2 new options: Area-Wide Planning and Multi-Purpose.

ADMIN Home Page

Two new utilities have been added to the Admin’s list of tools:

  1. Copy CA Associations

    The Admin can now copy user grant associations from one user to another. This is a time saving tool for situations where a new CAR needs to add many grants to their account. The utility allows the Admin to select the “copy from” and “copy to” users, displays identification information for verification, and then displays the CAs that are copied to the new user.

  2. User Merge and Purge

    Project Officers have requested that duplicate CAR accounts be consolidated. ACRES Admins can now easily consolidate users and remove duplicates. Once the merge and purge process is completed, all work package information from the duplicate is reassigned to the remaining CAR user, and the duplicate account user no longer has access to ACRES.

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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May 11, 2012 - ACRES v. 4.01.040

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.040) was released Friday, May 11th. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Program Accomplishment Report (PAR)

The PAR report that had been retired from ACRES has been restored for use. For users who previously had access, the report is again available from the Reports tab on your Home page. An enhancement on the Excel export ensures that acres Ready for Reuse now include only rows for properties that were made ready for reuse during the FY(s) selected for the report.

CA Home Page

  1. Cooperative Agreement Anticipated Performance

    In-line help text is available for the “Part of a Larger Redevelopment” field that appears on both the CA Home page (in the Anticipated Performance section) and on the Anticipated Performance Measures data entry page. Click the help icon and the following text is displayed:
    For this Cooperative Agreement, the activity is funded for an individual property that is being assessed, cleaned up and/or redeveloped for a self-contained future use (i.e. an industrial property cleaned up and turned into a park); or this property is part of a multi-property, larger scale redevelopment effort (i.e. a series of small parcels addressed, combined and then bundled for a shopping mall).
  2. Cooperative Agreement Profile Information

    A new left navigation link is available to access the Data Documentation page.

ACRES Quarterly Bulletin

The ACRES Second Quarter Bulletin was distributed on Friday, April 27th. If you are not on the distribution list and would like to be added, please contact the ACRES Help Desk (see contact information below).

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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April 13, 2012 - ACRES v. 4.01.030

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.030) was released Friday, April 13th. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Program Accomplishment Report (PAR)

The PAR report feature has been retired from ACRES. Accomplishment reporting functionality for Brownfields data is provided by the OSWER Performance Assessment Tool (PAT).

CA Home Page
  1. Cooperative Agreement Anticipated Performance

    As part of an ongoing effort to provide valuable new management tools, a section titled "Cooperative Agreement Anticipated Performance" has been added to the CA Home page for Project Officers (POs). The section will allow the POs to assess the ability to predict accomplishments for awards and to report on deviation from expected outcomes. It lists the CA's number of expected and actual:
    • assessments (for assessment grants)
    • cleanups
    • cleanup dollars
    • redevelopment dollars
    • cleanup jobs leveraged
    • redevelopment jobs leveraged

    Note that the "actual" numbers are extracted from the ACRES database.

    The anticipated data displayed in this section is entered using a new Cooperative Agreement Profile Information data entry screen. From the CA Home page, click the Cooperative Agreement Profile Information > Enter Data link, and then click the Anticipated Performance Measures link on the left navigation bar. This new data page collects anticipated amounts, dates anticipated, inventory start/completion dates (if applicable) and text for both a CA Summary and Lessons Learned.
  2. Cooperative Agreement Profile Information

    The Cooperative Agreement Profile Information data entry screens allow POs to record information on the recipient award information, budget and financial information, closeout information and to submit a CA for review and approval. POs who have used this module before will notice that it has some welcome updates. There is a new navigation bar that makes it easy to move from page to page, basic CA information is now displayed at the top of every page, and title bars have been added to each page to more easily identify the function of the page.
  3. Reason for Closeout

    A new field has been added to the Cooperative Agreement Profile Information Closeout page to record the Reason for Closeout. There are 3 options available: Completed (project met its goals), Incomplete (POP is over/or funding all spent but goals not met), and Cancelled. If the user selects Cancelled, a popup appears to collect the reason for cancellation (the final option is "other" which can be used to enter text to explain the cancellation).
Property Home Page

For Data Coordinators (DCs) only, there is a new button on the Property Home page for flagging errors. When the flag is activated, a popup is displayed to enter text. The DC enters text to describe the error and clicks a button to email the information to all POs associated with the property.

The email text is displayed in a new section at the top of the DC's Property Home page. The flag remains set and the text displays until the DC opts to clear the flag (the clear flag button displays with the email text). Once the flag is cleared, all references to the error are removed from the Property Home page.

Profile Property Form

The "Indicate Whether Cleanup is Required" field now displays in a yellow box to visually separate the information from the assessment data. If the cleanup is required, an explanatory message is displayed and the Yes/No/Unknown options are disabled.

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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March 9, 2012 - ACRES v. 4.01.020

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.020) was released Friday, March 9th.  Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Profile Property Form

Several enhancements have been completed:

  1. The "Indicate Whether Cleanup is Required" field is an important one to the Brownsfields program. The field will automatically be set to “Yes” if any of the following conditions is true:
    • The property is associated with a Cleanup CA
    • The property is associated with a RLF CA
    • The property has a date set for either the Cleanup Activity Start or Completion Dates
  1. For TBA work packages (this affects Regional Reviewers only), new validation ensures that assessment information already exists before cleanup activity information is added. If an attempt is made to add cleanup information first, an error message is displayed and the cleanup data is not saved.
  2. In the Redevelopment & Other Leveraged Accomplishments section, a correction was made for a date display issue.  This affects Regional Reviewers only.  Previously, for a specific condition, the Date of Form was erroneously displaying in the Redevelopment Start and Completion date fields.

GMS Import Utility

The IGMS Import Utility was developed to import new CA data into ACRES automatically so data managers can reduce time spent importing the data each time it is delivered.  In this release, the utility was updated to automatically update the CA closeout date field, if applicable, as part of the IGMS data import process.  When CAs have a closeout date in IGMS, the new CA in ACRES will display a status of “Closed”.  This automatic update benefits regional reviewers as they will no longer have to manually close CAs via the ACRES interface.

Data Quality Metrics

Data Quality Metrics are a series of reports available to EPA management to help track the success of ACRES.  In this release, a new monthly report is available to Project Officers (POs) for use in monitoring Grantee Reporting Activity.  The report provides the POs with the ability to select information by month and by region (or nationally), and to download the report so it can be printed/distributed to each applicable region if desired.  The report includes baseline numbers, previous month counts, current month counts, trend, national goal and the progress being made towards meeting the goal. Measures which are not meeting established goals are displayed in red. 

The new report is available on the ACRES Utility menu.

Latitude/Longitude Data Cleanup Utility

A data cleanup utility has been run to correct latitude/longitude data that was obviously wrong, including longitudes that were entered without a negative (resulting in a property location in China), properties that were entered without lat/long data, and properties where lat/long data values were reversed.  Properties missing lat/long were updated with values calculated using the property address. 

The first run of the utility corrected older data. In the future, the utility will be run monthly against new data entering ACRES to maintain accurate geographic data.

Thank you for the feedback you have provided.  We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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February 10, 2012 - ACRES v. 4.01.010

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.01.010) was released Friday, February 10th. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

ACRES Quarterly Bulletin

The first ACRES Quarterly Bulletin was emailed to users on January 31st. The bulletin features timely information on updates to ACRES, includes tips and general reminders on how to better use the system as a management tool (see Frank’s Tips) and showcases several ACRES success stories. The bulletin also provides links to ACRES training information including training videos and a schedule of on-line classes.

New Grant Type Added for Area-Wide Planning

A new grant type, Area-wide Planning, was added to ACRES and can be found as a selection option in the search filters (Find Property/Cooperative Agreement/TBA tab, Grant Fact Sheets). It is also available for Administrators when creating new cooperative agreements and properties can now be associated to the new Area-wide Planning Cooperative Agreements.

Property Profile Form (PPF)

A minor enhancement has been made to the Environmental Cleanup Information section. The Acres Cleaned Up field can now be set to zero. Previously, the field could not be changed from a numeric value to zero.

Data Quality Metrics

The metrics are reports available to EPA management to help track the success of ACRES. They were updated to include information for Job Training work packages. The report now lists, by region, the average number of work packages per Job Training Grant and the number of Job Training Grant work packages that have been in a status of “edits in progress” for more than 30 days.

ACRES Utility Applications

Authentication (a new log in window) has been added to the ACRES Utility Applications to provide secure access for authorized users.

ACRES Grant Database Updated

This month, the ACRES database was updated with the latest grants information from Brownfields. This function is completed quarterly.

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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January 20, 2012 - ACRES v. 4.00.110

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.00.110) was released Friday, January 20th.  Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Job Training Home Page

Two additional fields now display in the Profile Information section.  This information was available on other screens and has been added here for reference and ease of use:

  1. Project Officer assigned (includes name, email address and phone number)
  2. Work package status (status values are: "Edits in Progress", "Locked for Editing", "Needs Clarification", "Locked for Review", or "Approved").

Property Profile Form (PPF)

New inline help has been added for the following fields:

  1. Cleanup Start and Completion Dates - not sure whether the date you’re entering is a cleanup or pre-POP date?  Reference this new help to be sure.
  2. Jobs Leveraged - new help text defines both cleanup and redevelopment jobs leveraged, and includes hints on how to accurately calculate the number of jobs.  Also, if you have entered a significant amount of leveraged money and haven’t yet entered the jobs leveraged, ACRES will remind you to enter the number of jobs.
  3. Contaminants & Media Affected Information - for the “REC” and “Found” columns, new help text defines the column fields plus suggests the right time to select these fields.

Project Officer (PO) Home Page

Several minor enhancements have been completed:

  1. Funding summaries for cleanup and redevelopment funding values are now displayed on the Review screen.  These match the totals displayed on the PPF Review screen.
    • EPA Cleanup/Redevelopment Funding
    • Leveraged Funding
    • Total Funding
  2. The “Accept” and “Return to Sender for Clarification” buttons have been repositioned on the bottom of the page for ease of access.

Thank you for the feedback you have provided.  We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback. 

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December 8, 2011 - ACRES v. 4.00.100

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.00.100) was released Thursday, December 8th. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Project Officer (PO) Home Page

For POs only, email preferences have been modified to encourage faster processing of work packages. POs will notice that the following conditions will produce an email and cannot be unselected. The email notifications will be sent whenever the conditions occur.

POs will still have the option to select notification for the following (and how often they are sent as well):

Leveraged Funding Information

New detailed information is available in the Assessment, Cleanup and Redevelopment sections for Leveraged Funding. This has been added to avoid the double-counting of funding and activities, and to have better insight into what other Cooperative Agreements (CAs) are providing funding for on a property/project.

The details are available on both the Property Home page and on the Property Profile Form (PPF):

Property Profile Form (PPF)

Job Training Performance Measures

The header for Part II of this page was modified to clarify that the report is for the fiscal year quarter. The header was changed to replace, for example, “2011/1” with “FY2011, Qtr 1”.

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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November 3, 2011 - ACRES v. 4.00.090

Property Home Page

Property Profile Form (PPF)

Regional/National Reviewers

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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October 7, 2011 - ACRES v. 4.00.080

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.00.080) was released Friday, October 7th. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Property Home Page

Property Profile Form (PPF)

Latitude/Longitude Data Cleanup

Data Quality Metrics Report

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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September 7, 2011 - ACRES v. 4.00.070

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.00.070) was released Wednesday, September 7. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Latitude/Longitude

Work Package Sharing Enhancements

Cooperative Agreement Home Page

CAR Home Page

Property Home Page

HQ Home Page

Miscellaneous Improvements

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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August 4, 2011 - ACRES v. 4.00.060

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.00.060) was released Thursday, August 4. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Work Package Sharing

ACRES Home Page Improvements

Text Clarification

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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July 1, 2011 - ACRES v. 4.00.050

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.00.050) was released Friday, July 1st. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Regional Users

Cooperative Agreement Recipient

Funds Leveraged

Cleanups Not Being Counted by FCA Script

System-wide

Find Property/Cooperative Agreement/TBA Property

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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May 18, 2011 - ACRES v. 4.00.042

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.00.042) was released Wednesday, May 18, 2011. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

System-wide

Home

Find Property/Cooperative Agreement/TBA Property

Data Entry

Thank you for the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 to provide feedback.

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June 17, 2010 - ACRES v. 4.00.040

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.00.040) was released Thursday, June 17, 2010. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

WORKFLOW and ADMIN

Work packages now display the correct owner, status, and action. Also, Change Owner under Admin Module now works; when the owner of a work package has changed, it correctly displays on the new owner's Home screen.

HOME

The Accomplishments in the regional Accomplishment for FY10 box correctly display all accomplishments and match those results reflected in the Program Accomplishment Report.

Email Preferences are working properly. Immediate notification emails are now being generated.

The Contact Us and Legal links correctly navigate the users to the appropriate screens. Previously, clicking the links resulted in a system error.

DATA ENTRY

On the Data Entry screens, for Environmental Assessment Information activities, "EPA" now auto-populates in the Name of Entity Providing Funds if the Source of Funding selected is US EPA.

Corrected a typographical error in the Predominant Past Use(s): section by removing the additional 's' from Uses(s). In addition, resolved an error that occurred when the user entered a comma in the Predominant Past Use(s) field.

Regional Data Entry users were incorrectly given the ability to enter data on Pilot grants through the Cooperative Agreement Information work package. This has been corrected.

Redevelopment Jobs saved in ACRES were not allowing the user to change a number to zero. That has been addressed.

Resolved a system error that occurred when CARs selected a Property from the Find Property search and clicked the Add to My Projects button.

The Parcel text field has been increased to accommodate properties with larger parcel numbers.

A validation has been added to text fields notifying the users when their entry is exceeding the number of characters allowed.

PROPERTY HOME

Resolved a regionally reported error that occurred when the user cut-and-pasted information into the Property History section.

Cleanup and Redevelopment Jobs Leveraged only accept whole number. Decimals are no longer accepted in those fields.

The dollar sign in front of Cleanup Jobs Leveraged has been removed.

A validation has been added to the Acres Cleaned Up field reminding the user that a Cleanup Completion Date must be entered before entering any acres cleaned up.

Resolved an error that occurred when updating funding information for Environmental Assessment.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

Fields marked for deletion in data entry are now correctly displaying on the QA screen.

QA edits made on the Ownership & Superfund Liability section, now display on the QA screen.

The funding amounts in the Environment Assessment Activity and the Redevelopment Leveraged Dollars now provide the correct amounts/total.

The Data for Review column for Redevelopment and other Leveraged Accomplishments section of the QA screens are no longer misaligned for the Greenspace, Residential, Commercial and Industrial categories.

Resolved an error in Quality Assurance that resulted from users clicking the Update Latitude/Longitude below based on address.

Institutional Controls categories will display on the QA Summary when Institutional Controls are indicated as required.

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April 9, 2010 - ACRES v. 4.00.030

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.00.030) was released Friday, April 9, 2010. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

System-wide

Home

Find Property/Cooperative Agreement

Admin

Data Entry

Review and Submit

QA

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January 31, 2010 - ACRES v. 4.00.020

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.00.020) was released Sunday, January 31, 2010. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Home Screens
On the Home screen of Regional users, the accomplishments box in the upper right hand corner has been changed to reflect the current GPRA Accounting Year (FY10).

The Owner filter on the Regional Status tab on the Home screen is now working properly.

On the Cooperative Agreement Home screen, the 'View Details' link has been added below the Key Measures Pilot Assessment and RLF Pilots.

On the Property Home screen, "Cooperative Agreement Comments (View | Enter Data)" incorrectly displayed for Pilot work packages. This has been resolved.

Find Property / Cooperative Agreement
An error that occurred when the Cooperative Agreement Number was entered into the Property ID field on the Search screens has been corrected and no longer occurs.

An error that was occurring on the Find Property - View as Map screen has been corrected.

The 'Export Cooperative Agreement to Excel' and 'Export Property List to Excel' buttons at the bottom of the Find Property/Cooperative Agreement screens have been changed to display 'Export to Excel.'

The default Fiscal Year on the Find Property/Cooperative Agreement screens has been changed to 'All'.

When new Cooperative Agreements are added through Admin, they are now displaying immediately on the Find Property/Cooperative Agreement screens.

When a 'pin' on the Find Properties - View as Map screen was clicked, the corresponding property would be highlighted. When the Property Detail pop-up box is closed, the corresponding row is now refreshed and no longer highlighted.

Data Entry
Corrected a Region-identified issue where Regional TBA data entry users were unable to enter data for properties associated with TBAs. In addition, TBAs now properly display on the My Regional Cooperative Agreements tab.

Corrected an error that was removing text from the 'Property Description/History/Past Ownership' field.

The Submission Archive screen is now displaying consistently.

The Add a Cooperative Agreement to My List screen is now accepting both numbers and letters in the Cooperative Agreement field.

Property Comments have been added to the left navigation links and PPF page navigation ONLY for Pilot property records.

An error that prevented Cooperative Agreement Recipients from entering data for JT Performance Measures work packages has been corrected.

Review Note and Submission Note fields have been added to the JT Performance Measures data entry and Quality Assurance screens.

On the Review and Submit and Quality Assurance screens for JT Performance Measures, the incorrect quarters were displaying. This has been resolved.

The Document Type Selection now properly displays for Data Entry users.

Quality Assurance
Fields on the data entry screens were misaligned in the Institutional & Engineering Controls Information section under the "Data for Review" column. This has been corrected.

The Submission Archive screen now correctly associates the name of owner with the owner's role (EPA, Cooperative Agreement Recipient or HQ Contractor).

A system error that was causing work packages to NOT be submitted has been resolved. This issue related to users entering commas in the GPA amount or to users checking the checkbox under Past Predominant Uses, but not entering the acres.

The Current Owner field in the Ownership section of the PPF screens previously accepted only 50 characters. A system error occurred if more than 50 characters were entered. The field has been expanded to allow 200 characters.

On the Property Home screen, EPA Funding under the Assessment Activities at this Property is now displaying the correct funding.

An error that occurred when the user clicked 'Next' on the Data Document screen or clicked 'Review & Submit' in the left navigation link in a JT Performance Measures work package has been resolved.

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December 28, 2009 - ACRES v. 4.00.011

A new version of ACRES (v. 4.00.011) was released Monday, December 28th. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

HOME

TBA HOME

REVIEW AND SUBMIT

ADMIN

Thank you again for all of the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 if you have any questions on any of the above items or to provide feedback.

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December 12, 2009 - ACRES v. 4.00.010

The newly redesigned ACRES (v.4.00.010) was released Saturday, December 12, 2009.

Some of the new features include:

Learn more on the EPA ACRES Web site: http://www.epa.gov/acres/index.htm

Thank you again for all of the feedback you have provided. We appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 if you have any questions on any of the above items or to provide feedback.

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September 11, 2009 - ACRES v. 3.03.060

A new version of ACRES (v. 3.03.060) was released Friday, September 11, 2009. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Data Entry
Made minor edits to the Property Profile Form (PPF) including:

Removed EPA funding validation from the Assessment and Cleanup cooperative agreements. This is the removal of a validation that was added in 3.03.040.

Modified the 'next' link on the Anecdotal Property Information page so that it skips to Additional Property Information instead of Property Comments.

QA
Corrected an error that occurred on column sort.

Reports - PAR
Updated the PAR queries to include Supplemental Assessment, Cleanup Planning and Cleanup Jobs Leveraged.

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August 21, 2009 - ACRES v. 3.03.050

A new version of ACRES (v. 3.03.050) was released today, Friday, August 21, 2009. Many changes included in this release are based on direct feedback received from Regional and Cooperative Agreement Recipient users. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Admin
Made final changes to the following areas/screens to ensure all references to grant and grantee were changed to cooperative agreement and cooperative agreement recipient, respectively:

Data Entry
A user reported error has been fixed so that all Assessment Activities are properly displaying in the Review and Submit screen.

Corrected an error that caused multiple work packages to be assigned the same grant id and property id.

Under Assessment Activities - for Assessment, 128(a), and TBA cooperative agreements - EPA Funding is required when the Completion Date is entered. For all other cooperative agreements types, at least one funding record is required.

Under Cleanup Activities - for Cleanup, RLF, and 128(a) cooperative agreements - the EPA funding is now required when the Completion Date is entered. For all other cooperative agreements types, at least one funding record is required.

An error was corrected on Part III - Additional Property Information, Property History Information screen, the Type of Predominant Past Uses check mark will pre-fill if the Acreage or Est. Square Feet is entered and Save is clicked.

On the Review & Submit screen, fixed Date of Form validation for existing work packages. Previously, the validation displayed regardless of data supplied by the user.

A change has been made so that Property work packages require at least one Assessment or Cleanup started in order to add leveraged jobs.

Thank you again for all of the feedback you have provided and we appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 if you have any questions on any of the above items or to provide feedback.

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August 7, 2009 - ACRES v. 3.03.040

A new version of ACRES (v. 3.03.040) was released today, Friday, August 7, 2009. Many changes included in this release are based on direct feedback received from Regional and Cooperative Agreement Recipient users. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system. Most of these changes are due to the release of the new 2009 Property Profile Form (PPF), which was released to the public today. The 2009 version of the PPF and instructions are available on EPA Brownfields' website at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/pubs/index.html. In addition, the multi-property spreadsheet has been updated and is available online.

Data Entry
All references to "Grant Number" have been replaced with "Cooperative Agreement Number".

All references to "Grant" and "Grantee" have been replaced with "Cooperative Agreement" and "Cooperative Agreement Recipient", respectively to reinforce the cooperative nature of the EPA funding.

As defined in the Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act (31 U.S.C. 6304 and 6305), a grant or a cooperative agreement is a legal instrument used by a Federal agency to enter into a relationship whose principal purpose is assistance (that is, the transfer of something of value to the recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by U.S. law). Thus, grants and cooperative agreements complement procurement contracts and other instruments used for the very different purpose of acquiring goods and services for the direct benefit or use of the U.S. Government. When providing assistance, agencies must use grants when substantial involvement between the recipient and the Government is not contemplated and cooperative agreements when substantial involvement is contemplated.

When users enter a Cleanup Activity Completion date, a reminder will display to also enter the 'Acres Cleaned Up'.

A User reported error has been fixed so that when an invalid date is entered on the Environmental Assessment screen, the user will receive a notification instead of a system error.

ACRES reflects changes made to the new PPF. These changes also affect the Review and Submit, Quality Assurance, and Summary/Archive screens.

The Data Entry Property screens have been re-ordered to correspond with the new PPF. In addition, the following fields have been added:

Users are now required to enter a Funding Type (Hazardous Substance, Petroleum, or Hazardous Substance and Petroleum) for each ARC and TBA property record. This does NOT apply to pilots or 128(a).

Under Assessment Activities - for Assessment grants, 128(a) grants, and TBAs - EPA Funding is required when the Completion Date is entered. For all other grant types, at least one funding record is required.

Under Cleanup Activities - for Cleanup, RLF, and 128(a) grants - the EPA funding is now required when the Completion Date is entered. For all other grant types, at least one funding record is required.

An Assessment or Cleanup start date must be entered before a user can enter leveraged jobs.

Admin
An error was corrected to ensure that Data Reviewers will be successfully saved to the database. Previously, some work packages appeared to be without an owner.

Thank you again for all of the feedback you have provided and we appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 if you have any questions on any of the above items or to provide feedback.

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July 14, 2009 - ACRES v. 3.03.030

A new version of ACRES (v. 3.03.030) was released this afternoon, July 14, 2009. Many changes included in this release are based on direct feedback received from Regional and Grantee users. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Grants
New Program Codes were added to ACRES to track Recovery Act Job Training and Recovery Act Assessment, Cleanup, and Revolving Loan Fund Cooperative Agreements, 2J and 2B, respectively. Also, Program Code BG was added to track Performance Partnership Grant (PPGs).

A link to EPA's Financial Data Warehouse has been added to the Cooperative Agreement Home screen and Grant Information Data Entry.

Contact Us
The programmatic contact information has been updated. Stacy Swartwood's phone number and email information have been replaced with that of Ramon Torres.

Login - CDX
ACRES will now check if EPA users have signed the Rules of Behavior (one time signature needed), within the system. If required, the Rules of Behavior will be displayed for the user to read and accept. Upon acceptance the user selects 'Continue', the Home screen will open. If the user selects 'Cancel', the Rules of Behavior will display for review and signature, users will not be allowed to proceed until the Rules of Behavior are read and accepted.

Job Training
Corrected an error so that the JT Archive is updated when the work package is 'Submitted' and 'Approved'.

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June 2, 2009 - ACRES v. 3.03.020

A new version of ACRES (v. 3.03.020) was released this afternoon, June 2, 2009. Many changes included in this release are based on direct feedback received from Regional and Grantee users. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Data Entry
Corrected an error caused when attempting to delete an Assessment with no funding.

Corrected an error generated when conducting a Data Entry search that included spaces in the recipient name field (i.e. City of Houston).

Fixed a user reported error that resulted in updates to the property size on the Environmental Cleanup which were in excess of the property size on the Property Information screen.

Login - CDX
A user reported error has been fixed so that a CDX log-in will not fail if the user name in ACRES has extra whitespace characters.

Email Preferences
The email notification text heading has been changed from "Rejected Work Package(s)" to "Returned for Clarification" in order to remain consistent with the screens.

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March 26, 2009 - ACRES v. 3.03.011

A new version of ACRES (v. 3.03.011) was released Thursday, March 26, 2009. A single change was released to address a defect reported by regional users. A System Error occurred when attempting to conduct Regional Review functions and has now been fixed.

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March 19, 2009 - ACRES v. 3.03.010

A new version of ACRES (v. 3.03.010) was released this afternoon, Thursday, March 19, 2009. Many changes included in this release are based on direct feedback received from Regional and Grantee users. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Customizable "Email Notifications" are available for Data Coordinators, Regional representatives and Grantees. Email set-up can be accessed from the "My Preferences" link in the upper right and footer of the screen. The Email Notification screen allows users to select desired email alerts for request statuses and report options. Two new Quick Reference Guides for Email notification - QRG EPA 9 - Email Notification Preferences and QR Grantee 5 - Email Notification Preferences - have been developed and are located on the Brownfields' ACRES web page.

Data Entry
A user reported error has been fixed so that the Redevelopment start date is no longer required when entering Cleanup and Redevelopment Jobs.

Job Training
The system error that occurred when submitting a JT Pilot work package has been corrected.

An error that occurred when the Initial Project Period equals the Current Project Period End Date on the Review & Submit screen has been fixed.

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December 16, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.110

A new version of ACRES (v. 3.02.110) was released on Tuesday, December 16. The changes included in this release are based on direct feedback received from Regional and Grantee users. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Data Entry
A user reported error that occurred when updating the funding information for Environmental Assessment on a property has been fixed.

A previously reported error that navigated the user to the Login screen incorrectly when following the "View Comments Currently in ACRES" link for a Pilot Property has been fixed.

Quality Assurance
A user reported error that occurred on the Quality Assurance Screens has been fixed.

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November 18, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.100

A new version of ACRES (v. 3.02.100) was released on Tuesday, November 18. The changes included in this release are based on direct feedback received from Regional and Grantee users. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Data Entry
A previously reported java script error which did not allow users to Submit a TBA property has been fixed.

Based on user feedback, there is no longer a data validation warning that prevents the "Number of Participants Obtaining Employment" from being greater than the "Number of Participants Completing Training" on the performance measure screen.

Quality Assurance
A previously reported defect that resulted in a "Page can not be displayed" error when changing the status of a work package no longer occurs.

Reports & Query - Program Accomplishment Report (PAR)
Based on user feedback, the number of properties and number of acres are in two separate columns in the Made Ready for Reuse Report.

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October 27, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.090

A new version of ACRES (v. 3.02.090) was released on Monday, October 27. The changes included in this release are based on direct feedback received from Regional and Grantee users. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Reports & Query - Program Accomplishment Report (PAR)
NEW! Acres and Properties that meet the criteria for Ready for Reuse are now available in PAR.

Data Entry
Based on user feedback, the Grant Home screen now includes new text and a link to the new screen to authorize pre-period of performance activities. Those grants with authorized pre-period of performance activities will now be included in the GPRA measures.

A previously reported defect, the Add Grant screen generating an error if a State was not selected prior to clicking the Search button has been corrected.

Based on a reported defect, the Action column sort within the Submission History screen has been fixed.

Quality Assurance
A previously reported defect that the 'Add to Funding History' button in QA generates an error if it is clicked more than once has been addressed.

Reports & Query - Program Accomplishment Report (PAR)
Based on a reported defect, approved leveraged jobs and cleanups completed are now correctly displaying in PAR.

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September 2, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.080

A new version of ACRES (v. 3.02.080) was released on Tuesday, September 2. The changes included in this release are based on direct feedback received from Regional and Grantee users. Below is a summary of the changes that have been made to the system.

Data Entry - Environmental Assessment, Cleanup and Redevelopment
Based on a reported defect, data validations are now being triggered when deleting the last funding source.

Data Entry - Grantee Home
Based on a reported defect, the Grantee Home screen has been corrected to display the announcement year for JT grants to be consistent with other grant types. Also, the PPF Archive link is now displaying properly on the home screen.

Quality Assurance
A previously reported defect that the 'Associate a New Jurisdiction' link on the Edit Community and Demographic screen was broken has been addressed. The 'Associate a New Jurisdiction' link now functions properly.

Quality Assurance - Return to Submitter for Clarification
Based on user feedback, the validation messages that correspond with the newly renamed "Return to Submitter for Clarification" buttons have been updated for consistency.

Database
A new field has been added to ACRES to collect the cumulative grant funding value. The data comes from IGMS and is not editable. The data can be seen on the Funding History screen of the Grant Profile work package using Reports and Query.

Thank you again for all of the feedback you have provided and we appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 if you have any questions on any of the above items or to provide feedback.

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August 5, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.071

Reports & Query - Program Accomplishment Report
A previously reported defect with the Program Accomplishment Report for Assessments Completed has been fixed. The PAR is now correctly counting Pilots in Approved data reports.

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July 31, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.070

Data Entry - Environmental Assessment, Cleanup and Redevelopment
Based on user feedback, data validations for environmental assessments, cleanups and redevelopment funding have been updated.

Data Entry - Grantee Home
Based on a reported defect, the Grantee Home screen has been corrected to display only grants associated to the grantee that are not active grants or pilots.

Quality Assurance
A previously reported defect that the 'Edit Funding' link on the Environmental Cleanup screen was broken has been addressed. The 'Edit Funding' link now functions properly.

Database
A new field has been added to ACRES to collect the cumulative grant funding value. The data comes from IGMS and is not editable. The data can be seen on the Funding History screen of the Grant Profile work package using Reports and Query.

Reports & Query - Document Tracking Reports
Based on user feedback, the Document Tracking Report now shows all work packages that have ever had the status of "Received by HQ" regardless of the current status.

Reports & Query - Program Accomplishment Report
A previously reported defect with the Program Accomplishment Report for Pilot accomplishments in draft data has been fixed. The PAR is now correctly returning draft Pilot accomplishments.

Admin - User Administration
A previously reported defect within User Administration to associate a grant has been fixed. The Associate a Grant link on the second screen of User Administration has been fixed.

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June 30, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.060

Data Entry and Quality Assurance
Three user-reported defects or user-request enhancements were addressed with this release that improve overall appearance, efficiency, and operability of the data entry search, data entry, and quality assurance screens.

Quality Assurance - Return to Submitter for Clarification
Based on user feedback, the "Rejected - Regional Review" and "Rejected - National Program Review" have been renamed to "Return to Submitter for Clarification". The newly named buttons will function the same as the "Rejected" buttons.

Breadcrumbs
Navigation improvements have been made throughout the system and the breadcrumb links have been removed.

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FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS
Thank you to all who participated in the focus groups and phone calls about ACRES. Based on your feedback and ideas, we will be adding the following features to the system. (Please note: timelines have not been determined as requirements and design are still being defined.)

Thank you again for all of the feedback you have provided and we appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 if you have any questions on any of the above items or to provide feedback.

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June 9, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.050

Data Entry
Eleven user-reported defects or user-request enhancements were addressed with this release that improves overall appearance, efficiency, and operability of the data entry search and data entry screens.

Reports & Query - BMS Reports
Based on user feedback, the links to the Old BMS Reports in ACRES have been removed. The old BMS reports will remain available via BMS Query which can be accessed via OBLR's Intranet site.

Reports & Query - Program Accomplishment Report
A previously reported defect for read-only users using the Program Accomplishment Report criteria selection screen has been fixed. The State dropdown now properly displays the correct list of states.

Reports & Query - Document Tracking Reports
One user-reported defect has been made to the appearance and layout of the Document Tracking Report output.

Navigation - Left Navigation Display
Based on user feedback, a new design for the blue Left Navigation display has been released. This new design will help users more easily identify what screen in ACRES they are viewing.

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May 1, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.040

Data Entry
Nine user-reported defects were addressed with this release that fixed the Delete Funding ability, auto-populates the date on the Submission screen, and improves overall appearance, efficiency, and operability of the data entry screens.

Reports & Query - Document Tracking Reports
Four user-reported defects or user-requested enhancements have been made to the appearance, text, and functionality of the Document Tracking Report selection screen and report output.

Request for Participation
We are beginning to focus on making ACRES more useful for Regional and Grantee users. We will be adding new tools and functions and need to know what you want. As each region has different needs and processes, it is important that we hear from ALL regions to ensure our new development meets your needs.

There are two ways for Regions and Grantees to get involved:

Thank you again for all of the feedback you have provided and we appreciate and encourage your continued involvement in reporting defects and recommending ways to improve ACRES. Please contact the ACRES Help Desk at acres_help@epa.gov or at 703-284-8212 if you have any questions on any of the above items or to provide feedback.

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March 28, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.030

Quality Assurance
Three user-reported defects were addressed with this release that fixed data validations and the display of data on the QA: Property Information screen.

Data Entry
More than ten user-reported defects were addressed with this release that fixed data validations, display of data on the Review & Submit screen, allowed for weekend dates to be selected from the calendar icon, and clarified on-screen directions.

User Administration
A previously reported defect that ACRES was not properly saving data within the User Administration screens has been fixed. All user data is now being saved to ACRES.

Property and Grant Search
A previously reported defect that extra blank character spaces in search fields prevented records from displaying in the Search Results screen has been fixed. If an extra blank character space is entered in the search fields it will no longer impact the search query.

System Security
A previously identified defect regarding the webpage that is displayed when a users ACRES session timed out has been fixed. When a session times out, the user will be automatically directed to CDX to login.

ACRES Workgroup
The Measures and ACRES Development and Enhancements (MADE) workgroup is being formed to discuss and prioritize all modifications to ACRES and changes to Brownfields Program Measures. MADE will meet quarterly at the end of the BEAM call and discuss how ACRES enhancements can help regional staff with work load and reporting needs and provide updates and an opportunity to comment on any new Program measures. OBLR would like at least one person from every region participate on this workgroup. We are planning to hold our kickoff meeting at the Brownfields 2008 conference in Detroit.

Request for Participation
We are beginning to focus on making ACRES more useful for Regional and Grantee users. We will be adding new tools and functions and need to know what you want. As each region has different needs and processes, it is important that we hear from ALL regions to ensure our new development meets your needs. There are several different ways for Regions and Grantees to get involved:

Participate in a phone interview (about an hour, scheduled at your convenience) with Marcy Jacobs from SRA International. (if interested, email Marcy Jacobs, marcy_jacobs@sra.com)

Be part of a focus group - the first will take place at Brownfields 2008 in Detroit (one for Regions, one for Grantees) (if interested, email Marcy Jacobs, marcy_jacobs@sra.com)

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March 3, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.020

Reports & Query - Program Accomplishment Report for Draft Data
A new version of the Program Accomplishment Report is now available in the Reports & Query module that allows users to query data in ACRES Draft. This report pulls draft data that has been newly entered into ACRES and not yet approved.

Data Entry - 'See All Property Data' Link
Based on user feedback the 'See All Property Data' link now appears on the property data entry screens. This link appears when the property record being worked on is targeted by more than one grant in ACRES and displays all of the accomplishment data entered previously for the property.

Data Entry - Property Search
Based on user feedback the ACRES property id has been added to the property search screen. Users can now search for a specific property using the unique property id assigned by ACRES.

Data Entry - Add Grant
Based on user feedback explanatory text has been added to the Add Grant screen clarifying which grant records cannot be added to a grantee users My Grants display on their home screen. In addition, grantees users were unable to add a closed grant to their My Grants display. This restriction has been removed and grantees can now add any grant awarded in 2003 and forward to their My Grants display.

Admin - User Administration
User Administration screens now allow for a designation between a Data Reviewer and the Primary Contact for a grant. This enhancement will allow a user to be listed only as a contact for the grant but does not perform Regional Review of work package data. The user assigned as the Data Reviewer for a grant is responsible for Regional Review of work package data. With this release all Primary Contacts have been set as the Data Reviewer. If you need assistance in getting Primary Contacts and Data Reviewers setup correctly for grants in your region please contact the ACRES Help Desk.

Admin - User Administration
A previously reported defect that the search result count was counting incorrectly and multiple records returned for each user has been fixed. The count of users in the search results and each user only displays once in the search results.

Home - Regional Status Filters
A previously reported defect that the filter for the Regional Status display was not functioning properly has been fixed. The filter for work package status and work package owner now works correctly.

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February 20, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.02.010

Reports & Query - Document Tracking Report
A new report is now available in the Reports & Query module that allows you to view all documents received by HQ on a real time basis. Users can query for all documents received in an entire region or for a particular grant using the grant number. Users can also query documents within a particular status in the work flow from 'Received by HQ' to 'Approved & Transferred' and/or query for set date range determined by the user. All results can be exported to MS Excel for analysis. In addition, with Document Tracking in ACRES a submitted document will be connected to a work package for easier tracking of information sources (only available for documents added to ACRES from this point forward).

Note: The biweekly "All Documents Received" spreadsheet will no longer be sent. The information from that file can be pulled using the Document Tracking Report in ACRES. If you have any questions on how to do so please contact the ACRES Help Desk.

Reports & Query - Grant Profile Information Summary Screens
A previously reported that grant funding history was not displaying correctly on the Grant Profile Information summary screen has been fixed. Funding history for a grant now displays correctly.

Data Entry - On-Screen Property Data Entry Instructions
Based on user feedback the on-screen instructions on the 'Environmental Assessment,' 'Environmental Cleanup,' and 'Redevelopment & Other Leveraged Accomplishments' data entry screens have been revised to clarify which fields are required.

Database - Recipient Name Renaming
Based on user feedback the recipient name field in ACRES has been updated to have the locality name come first. For example, the 'City of Boston' has been re-named 'Boston, City of' or the 'Town of Hartford' has been re-named 'Hartford, Town of'. All applicable grant records have been updated and users will see the re-named grants in the Search Results screen in Data Entry or Reports & Query.

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January 3, 2008 - ACRES v. 3.01.120

Job Training Archive
A previously reported defect that displayed data incorrectly in the JT data archive has been fixed. All data now displays correctly in the archive.

Data Entry & Quality Assurance
A series of small changes have been implemented in the Data Entry and Quality Assurance modules to improve operability and efficiency. Changes include fixing broken links and buttons, setting defaults, and fixing bugs that previously prevented data from being edited and/or saved.

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December 10, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.110

Administrative Tools - User Administration
An improved User Administration tool has been released that combines User Admin and Contacts Admin. This enhanced tool allows Data Coordinators to have better control over users in their region - to control access, update information, or add new users. Using an improved Search function, Data Coordinators can now search for Users to prevent any duplication. In addition, Data Coordinators can manage the grant contact associations so that ACRES remains up-to-date for grant contacts.

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November 13, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.100

Data Entry - Redevelopment and Other Leveraged Accomplishments
A previously reported defect that duplicated leveraged redevelopment funding data has been fixed. Redevelopment data now displays correctly on the data entry screen.

Data Entry & Quality Assurance
Data entry and quality assurance users now have the ability to cancel an accomplishment deletion request. If an accomplishment is accidently flagged for deletion by the user, they can cancel the request without using the Submission Notes.

Release Notes & ACRES Website
You can now directly access past Release Notes or go straight to the ACRES public Web site from inside ACRES. Look for the new footer at the bottom of every screen to access these resources.

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October 29, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.091

Home - My QA Tasks
A column for 'Submitted By' has been added that displays the name and organization of the user whom submitted the data for review.

Data Entry - Grant Profile Information
Fields that are imported from IGMS have been designated as ready only and the data can not be edited in ACRES. As a reminder, if you see an error in a data field that is supplied by IGMS it must be corrected in IGMS first. The updated IGMS data will then be uploaded into ACRES at the beginning of the next quarter.

Data Entry - Property Profile Data Validations
New data validations have been placed on the Predominant Past Use, Future Use, and Types of Greenspace field to ensure accurate data entry of acreage and property usage.

Data Entry - Property Highlights
A previously reported defect that prevented the property display of the Property Highlights text field has been fixed. Property Highlights comment text now displays correctly on the Property Highlights data entry screen and the Review & Submit screen.

JT & PPF Archive
A previously reported defect that prevented users from accessing the JT and PPF archives has been fixed. Users can now access the archived data submissions when needed.

Visual Design
The look and feel of ACRES is being regularly evaluated and improved. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are being implemented throughout the system for more control and flexibility in the future.

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October 10, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.090

Reports & Query - Program Accomplishment Report
This new report allows users to query property specific accomplishments in ACRES with filters for fiscal year, grant recipient, state, and region. Data for this report is refreshed nightly. More information regarding this new report and upcoming training will be forthcoming.

Data Entry
All data entry users now have the ability to request the deletion of accomplishment data. All deletion requests must be approved in Regional Review and National Program before the data will be removed.

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September 13, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.080

Data Entry - Institutional Controls Data Validations
New data validations have been built into ACRES requiring responses to the questions on the Institutional Controls data entry screen based on grant type. Data entry users will be notified on the Review & Submit screen if they have not passed this validation.

Print Screen
This new feature in ACRES allows users to print any screen from their web browser window.

Quality Assurance - Grant Profile Information Work Packages for Pilots
The QA process for Grant Profile Information work packages for Pilots has been enhanced. Enhancements to the QA: Grant Profile Information screen more clearly show that there are three screens to review.

Visual Design
The look and feel of ACRES is being regularly evaluated and improved. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are being implemented throughout the system for more control and flexibility in the future.

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August 16, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.070

Data Entry - Grant Profile Information Screens
Fields for which data is provided from IGMS are no longer required for work package submission. As a reminder, if you see an error in a data field that is supplied by IGMS it must be corrected in IGMS first. The updated IGMS data will then be uploaded into ACRES at the beginning of the next quarter.

Data Entry - Property Search Screen
A previously reported defect that prevented the address search field from searching properly when adding a new property has been fixed. When adding a new property, users can now search on the property address to make sure the property does not already exist in ACRES.

Data Entry - Property Search Results Screen
A previously reported defect that prevented all of the search criteria from appearing on the Search Results screen has been fixed. All of the search criteria entered by the user will now appear on the Search Results screen.

Visual Design
The look and feel of ACRES is being regularly evaluated and improved. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are being implemented throughout the system for more control and flexibility in the future.

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July 23, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.060

Data Entry - Redevelopment and Other Leveraged Accomplishments Screen
A previously reported defect that resulted in an error when attempting to add or edit redevelopment funding has been fixed. All data entry users can now add or edit redevelopment funding in ACRES.

Data Entry - Review & Submit for Property Work Packages
A previously reported defect that prevented the 'Unknown' option for the 'Is Cleanup Required?', 'Are Institutional Controls Required?' and 'Are Institutional Controls in Place?' from saving and appearing on the Review & Submit screen has been fixed. If 'Unknown' is selected for one of these fields the data is properly saved and displayed on the Review & Submit screen.

Data Entry - Review & Submit for Property Work Packages
A new feature in ACRES allows data entry users to return directly to their Home screen from the Review & Submit screen in the event the work package is not ready for submission. This new feature will save all data and take the user back to the Home screen.

Data Entry - Review & Submit for Job Training Performance Measure Work Packages
A previously reported defect that resulted in leveraged funding from Job Training grants being duplicated on the Review & Submit screen has been fixed. Leveraged funding from JT grants now only displays once on the Review & Submit screen.

Quality Assurance - Comment Text in all Work Package Types
A new feature in ACRES will compare comment text and highlight the revised text so that QA users do not need to read all the text to determine the revisions.

Quality Assurance - Editing Redevelopment and Other Leveraged Accomplishments
A previously reported defect that prevented QA users from editing the 'Number of Cleanup and Redevelopment Jobs' on Redevelopment and Other Leveraged Accomplishments screen has been fixed. QA users who wish to edit this data element now have the ability to do so.

Reports & Query - JT Archive
All users with access to the Reports & Query module now have access to the JT Archive to view JT data as is at the time of submission in ACRES.

ACRES Home
A previously reported defect that the 'Since' column on the Home screen is not sorting properly has been fixed. The 'Since' column will now sort by the age of the work package.

Visual Design
The look and feel of ACRES is being regularly evaluated and improved. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are being implemented throughout the system for more control and flexibility in the future.

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June 11, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.051

Reports & Query - PPF Archive
The view of the Reports pages was out of alignment. This has been fixed.

Quality Assurance
The Edit screens accessed from the Quality Assurance Edit page previously indicated that the user was in the Data Entry Mode, as opposed to continuing a Quality Assurance Function. This has been corrected and it now indicates that you are performing a Quality Assurance function throughout the process of editing information.

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June 4, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.050

ACRES Public Internet Site
OBCR has launched a new page on their website for ACRES-related information. The website will have the updated ACRES User Guide, Training Schedule, and Quick Reference Guides as well as a link to the CDX Login page. The ACRES website can be found at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/pubs/acres/index.htm

ACRES Help
The ACRES Help links are now page-specific. When a user clicks on Help from any screen they will be taken directly to the ACRES Help file for that screen.

Workflow
A previously reported defect that prevented some work packages from changing from 'Ready for Regional Review' to 'Regional Review' has been fixed. Work packages now travel through the workflow correctly.

Reports & Query - PPF Archive
The PPF Archive is now accessible through the Reports & Query module. The PPF Archive displays all previously submitted and approved PPF data since December 2006.

Data Entry - Property Search
A previously reported defect on the data entry search screen has been fixed. The search function has been updated to be inclusive of all properties meeting the search criteria.

Admin - Change Owner
The Change Owner function in the Administration module has been updated. The property name is now included in the unique ID to assist in determining which work packages need to be re-assigned.

Visual Design
The look and feel of ACRES is being regularly evaluated and improved. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are being implemented throughout the system for more control and flexibility in the future.

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April 23, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.040

ACRES Session Timeout
All users will get a pop-up warning if idle within ACRES for too long. If you receive this warning you have five minutes to resume your session. If you wait more than five minutes after receiving the pop-up warning you will be automatically logged out of ACRES. Please note, that if this happens any un-saved data will be lost.

TBA Property Data Entry - Environmental Assessment
When the 'EPA TBA Funding' option is selected on the Environmental Assessment Data Entry screen, the Funding Source/Provider field will automatically populate with EPA.

Quality Assurance - QA: Property Information
A previously reported defect that prevented the 'Predominant Past Use' data from displaying on the QA: Property Information screen has been fixed. The 'Predominant Past Use' now displays correctly on the QA: Property Information screen.

Home Screen - 'Since' Column
A previously reported defect that the 'Since' column on the Home screen was not sorting correctly has been fixed. The 'Since' column on the Home screen now sorts work packages correctly by date.

Property Data Entry - Contaminants & Media
The order of contaminants on the Contaminants & Media data entry screen now matches the order that they appear on the Property Profile Form.

Grant Profile Data Entry - Data Validation Removal
The following fields are no longer required for submission of a Grant Profile Information work package - Grant Recipient Name, Grant Number, DUNS #, Grant Award Date, Initial Project Period, and Funding Source. Grant Profile Information work packages can be submitted without data in these fields.

Data Entry - Grant Home
Based on user feedback, the state the grant is located in now displays on the Grant Home screen for easier identification of the grant.

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April 9, 2007 - ACRES 3.01.031

Quality Assurance
A reported defect that prevented some users from being able to open a work package to perform Regional Review has been fixed. Users who experienced this problem received the EPA Dynamic Web Error page when attempting to open a work package. All work packages in the status of Regional Review or Ready for Regional Review are now accessible.

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March 28, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.030

Introducing the Reports & Query Module!
The Reports module and Query module have been merged into one for a more seamless way to view data saved in ACRES. Users will no longer have to toggle between modules to view data; all data is available through the new Reports & Query module.

Reports & Query - Management Summary Report (MSR) for Superfund-funded TBAs
A previously reported defect preventing data from displaying properly on the MSR for Superfund-funded TBAs has been fixed. The data on this report now displays correctly.

Data Entry - Job Training Performance Measures
The Job Training Performance Measures data entry screens have been updated to mirror the Job Training Reporting Form.

Reports & Query/Data Entry - Search Results
The Property Name column on the Search Results screen has been reformatted. The Property Name column now displays as a bulleted list of property names for each Grant. The Property Name column only appears if criteria are entered into the Property fields on the Search screen.

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March 13, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.021

Query Module
A reported defect that prevented some users from viewing the Pilot Performance Measure Table and Comments through the Query module has been fixed. All users are now able to view Pilot Performance Measure and Comment data through the Query module.

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February 28, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.020

Data Entry - Navigation
The left navigation box on all data entry screens has been re-ordered to separate out the Review & Submit link.

Data Entry/Quality Assurance - Error Message
The ACRES error message has been modified to give users more information when an error has occurred.

Quality Assurance - QA: Property Information Screen
A previously known defect regarding the display of data for the IC and State & Tribal fields has been fixed. These two data elements now display correctly on the QA: Property Information screen

Home Screen
An additional filter has been added to the Regional Status display box. Users can now filter work packages assigned to a specific Owner.

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January, 17, 2007 - ACRES v. 3.01.010

Reports Module
Changes have been made to the Reports module. EPA Regional users will only be able to generate reports from draft data for their respective region; additionally they will be able to generate reports for approved data for all regions.

Data Entry - Grant Home Screen
The following changes have been made to the Grant Home screen: - The Properties portion now displays up to 25 properties instead of 10; and - The Grant Home screen anchors to the property record selected in the Search results if there are more than 25 properties for the grant.

Data Entry - Property Geographic Screen
A previously reported defect regarding the saving of Latitude and Longitude data has been fixed. All data entered on the Property Geographic data entry screen now saves.

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