Creating custom factors in bulk

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Create or update custom factors in bulk in a custom factor set.

Before you begin

  • Your organization must have one or more custom factors sets configured for use. Contact IBM® Envizi ESG Suite support to create a factor set. For more information, see Contacting IBM Support.
  • You must be logged into the platform as a system administrator.

About this task

When you create a new factor from a copy, if you do not plan to update the fields, verify that the effective or published dates of the new factor are not in conflict with an existing factor within your custom factor set.

You can add factors in bulk. You can use the Setup Custom Factors template to extract, transform, and load factors.

The Custom Factors page includes the following functions:
Extract Factors
Generates a report for you so you can make your changes or add new factors.
Upload Factors
Upload your Microsoft Excel file with your custom factors directly to the platform.
Files Process - Accounts & Setup
Review the status of the upload of your Microsoft Excel file with your custom factors.
Note: It can take 2 to 3 minutes for a file to appear on the File Processed - Accounts & Setup page.
If a file does not appear on the File Processed - Accounts & Setup page, check the following:
  • File name must have the format of: Setup_Custom_Factors<optional text>.xlsx
  • The first tab of the file must be named Setup.
  • The first structure was edited, for example, a new column was added or a column was removed.
  • The region name does not match an existing region name in Envizi ESG Suite.

    A complete list of regions can be downloaded from the following file: Regions_extract.xlsx.

Errors are denoted by <*Error*> in the File Status column. To investigate the cause of the error, right-click the row and select Load Errors and read the message that is displayed for the error. For more information, see Troubleshooting uploaded files.
The validation and security rules that are embedded in the template ensure you do not add duplicate factors or incorrect assign dates.
Note:
  • The best practice is to use the template when you want to create or update ten or more factors.
  • You can export custom factors to an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to review the custom factors that are created for your organization. You can use this spreadsheet to make changes to the existing factors or add new factors. Upload the spreadsheet to Envizi ESG Suite and monitor its status.

For a description of factor fields and a description of field validation logic, see Custom factor fields.

After you add or update factors in Envizi ESG Suite, the emissions calculation engine recalculates factors at the weekend to reduce sever load and ensure a fast and responsive user experience at peak times.

When you update the factors spreadsheet, consider the following:
  • To delete a value in a field you must enter the world NULL contained within square brackets as follows [NULL] . This function is added to increase security so that if some fields are deleted by accident they are not lost when a factor is updated. This applies to all Optional fields.
  • The upload process does not allow you to delete factors entirely. However, you can delete factors by clicking Admin > Custom Factors, select one or more factors, and click Actions > Delete.
    Important: No undo function exists. Proceed with caution when you delete factors.
  • The Action, Organization, Associate_Link fields must always be populated for the file to be processed when you create a new factor. The Factor_Link field must also be populated when you update a factor.
  • Do not add or delete columns in this report. Any columns added or deleted produce a load error.
  • To enter the Country, State, or City, you must enter regions exactly as they are recorded in Envizi ESG Suite. For a list of all regions, download the file Regions_extract.xlsx. If your region is unavailable, you can create a region. For more information, see Creating custom regions.
  • You might encounter an error if your file contains small numbers that result in scientific notation, for example, 3.413E-05. To fix this, format all columns that contain numeric values, where at least 1 value is shown as scientific notation as ‘number’ with 8 decimals. This guidance is particularly relevant to columns CH4 and N2O.
  • Factors cannot be loaded into Envizi ESG Suite that have overlapping effective or published dates that share the same region, data type, sub type, and factor set. For more information, see Custom factors.
Note:

The following error is a common validation error when loading your factors:

This creates a conflict with 1 or more existing factors in the database.
Please check that the effective and published dates do not overlap with any factors that share the same data type,
sub type, factor set and region.

The error usually occurs when published dates are not entered. If your factors are not using published dates, you must still enter a date value in the published dates fields when two or more factors are being created with the same data type, sub type, factor set and region. The best practice is to set the published dates to the same values as the effective dates. when published dates are not entered. Note that even if your factors are not using published dates, you must still enter a date value in the published date fields if 2 or more factors are being created within the same data type, sub type, factor set and region. For more information, see Custom factors.

Procedure

  1. Open the Custom Factors grid. From the main menu, click Admin > Custom factors.
  2. Click Extract Factors to run the Setup Custom Factors report.
  3. Review your factors and make necessary changes.
    Follow the guidance.
  4. Save your changes to a document in XLSX format.
  5. Click Upload Factors to upload the factors to the platform.
  6. Verify that the file is successfully processed from the Files Processed - Accounts & Setup page.
  7. To apply the factors to the data, select the required factors and click Apply Factors.