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SQAS 2.0 - User guide for chemical companies

Author: Easi
Date: June 2023
Classification: Published

Table of Contents​

  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 The SQAS Member Portal
  • 3 Open the SQAS Member Portal
  • 4 Register your user account
  • 5 Log in on the SQAS Member Portal
  • 6 Planned assessments
  • 7 SQAS Report options for chemical companies
  • 8 Create and manage templates
  • 9 Statistics
  • 10 Further information

1 Introduction​

This user guide is primarily intended for chemical companies. The goal is to introduce them to the SQAS system and its functionalities.

1.1 The SQAS Assessment Process

The general working procedure is as follows:

1. Company to be SQAS assessed

  • Navigates to the PAD section of the SQAS member portal (https://members.sqas.org)
  • Registers the user account (if no account registered yet)
  • Completes the Online PAD
  • Selects one (or more) assessor(s) to share the PAD and sends and automated e-mail notification
  • Optionally: re-selects one (or more) assessor(s) to share a modified PAD and sends an automated e-mail notification. 2. SQAS Assessor
  • Gets an e-mail notification about the received (or modified) PAD
  • Opens and evaluates the PAD in the SQAS Report Editor
  • The assessor can modify the PAD when needed.
  • When the assessment is agreed, the assessor registers the pre-notification of the planned assessment. 3. Company to be SQAS assessed
  • Receives the pre-notification and electronically confirms it 4. SQAS Assessor
  • Imports the PAD in the report of the planned assessment

5. The Assessment takes place 6. After the assessment

  • The SQAS Assessor submits the report
  • The assessed company can o View the report and grant/deny access to customers. o Include comments in the report o Upload an Improvement Program
  • When the report becomes active, a chemical company can: o View and export the report o Apply templates on it

2 The SQAS Member Portal​

On the SQAS Member Portal, chemical companies have access to:

  • The list of all assessments (past and planned)
  • View and compare reports of assessments that have been carried out
  • View and manage templates that can be applied on selected reports
  • View general statistics on SQAS reports

3 Open the SQAS Member Portal​

With the browser of your choice, navigate to the http://www.sqas.org website and click on the SQAS Member Portal in the top menu. Alternatively, you can navigate directly to the SQAS Member Portal by opening the following url: https://members.sqas.org.

Homepage of the SQAS Member Portal:

When logged in, the following quick links are available on the SQAS Member Portal Homepage:

  • Go to the list of all planned assessments
  • Search and compare existing reports
  • Manage questionnaire templates

4 Register your user account​

To secure the data that resides on SQAS 2.0 Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is enabled during the
registration and sign-in process. MFA is a process in which users are prompted during the sign-in process for
an additional form of authentication.

Before you can access the SQAS Member Portal, you will first need to create a user account.

If you didn’t register your user account yet,

  1. click on the “Sign in”-button on the SQAS Member Portal (upper right corner).

  2. On the Sign in page, click the “Sign up now”-link under the Sign in button. 3. On the User Details form, enter your e-mail address in the corresponding field. Important: if you were a user of SQAS 1.0, use the same e-mail address.

  3. Click on Send verification code

  4. A verification code has been sent to your inbox. Copy it to the Verification Code field and click the “ Verify code ”-button.

  5. Enter a password in the New Password field Note: The password must be between 8 and 64 characters and must have at least 3 of the following: a lowercase letter, an uppercase letter, a digit, or a symbol.

  6. Enter the same password in the Confirm New Password field.

  7. Click Create

After clicking “Create”, the MFA-process is launched.

  1. Click the “ Send verification code " button.

  2. A verification code is sent to your inbox. Copy it to the “Verification code" field and click “Verify code”

  3. Once the e-mail address is verified, you can click “Continue”.

After your user has been created, you arrive on the profile page

  1. Enter your first and last name in the designated fields and click the Update button

Afterwards you are redirected to the homepage of the SQAS Member Portal.

5 Log in on the SQAS Member Portal​

To secure the data that resides on SQAS 2.0 Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is enabled during the
registration and sign-in process. MFA is a process in which users are prompted during the sign-in process for
an additional form of authentication.

If you already have a user account, navigate to https://members.sqas.org and click the sign in link in the top menu.

  1. You can now enter your credentials and click the sign in button. After clicking the Sign in button, the MFA-process is launched.
  2. Click the “ Send verification code " button.
  3. A verification code is sent to your inbox. Copy it to the “Verification code" field and click “Verify code”
  4. Once the e-mail address is verified, you can click “Continue”.
  5. Afterwards you are redirected to the homepage of the SQAS Member Portal.

6 Planned assessments​

As a chemical company, you can consult the list of planned assessments via Planning and report > Planning.

Intermediate assessments will be marked light blue, remote assessments are marked as green and out of territory assessments are marked with an orange color.

To view the details of the planned assessment, simply click on the company name or the “i”-icon ( ) of the selected planned assessment.

6.1 Filter the list of Planned assessments

Filters are available to refine the list of planned assessments:

  • Assessor : the dropdown displays all assessors. Select an assessor to use it as a filter.
  • Module : Select a module to use it as a filter
  • Status : filter the list based on the report Status

Complete one or more filters to use and click “Apply” to refine the list. A combination of filters is possible.

6.2 Search the list of Planned assessments

Use the search box on top of the list to filter the list by searching on specific text. To search on partial text, use the asterisk (*) wildcard character. Click the search icon ( ) to display the search results.

6.3 Toggle between Planned assessments and All assessments

When opening the Planned assessments page, the list only shows the planned assessments. You can toggle between Planned assessments and All assessments by clicking the list icon ( ).

7 SQAS Report options for chemical companies​

7.1 The SQAS Report Viewer

To display an SQAS Report, you need to open the Report viewer. This can be done as follows:

  • Open the SQAS Member portal and log in
  • Under “Planning and report”, open “Reports”

By default, all available reports are displayed and sorted based on the report number (descending).

As a chemical company you have access to all reports, except reports for which you or your company have been specifically denied access to. The “Request Access Rights” column contains a ‘link’ icon ( ) when you don’t have access to that report.

When clicking the “Request Access Rights” column header, the reports list is sorted based on the access property. When ordered ascending (arrow up), all reports you have access to will be displayed on top. Note : column sorting is available for all columns.

7.1.1 Request access to reports

In the event where you should not have access to a report, you can request it as follows:

  • Open the SQAS Report viewer (Planning and report > Reports) The list of reports is displayed, sorted descending by the report number Optionally you can use the filters on the left to refine the list of reports Reports you don’t have access to have a ‘link’ icon ( ) in the “Request Access Rights” column.
  • Click the link icon for the report you want to gain access to. The report access request is opened in a new tab.
  • Your name is automatically added in the Requestor field.
  • Optionally enter a justification for the Report owner in the Comment field. Click Submit. An email notification is sent to the Report owner

7.2 Filter the SQAS Report list

You can use the filters on the left to refine the displayed reports. The following filters are available:

  • Assessed Company
  • Report Number
  • Country, Location, Zip code
  • Questionnaire Version
  • Report Status
  • Assessor
  • Module
  • Assessment date range

Refine and select

Click on the filter you want to apply to the report list. Some filters contain a specific search field which you can use to further refine the results. Check the selection boxes of the entries you want to use to filter the list of reports.

Clear a filter selection

When hoovering over a filter field, the erase button will display. Click on it to clear a certain filter selection.

Selecting an assessment date range

Use the date picker fields to select an assessment date range (From/To). Alternatively, you can use the sliders to set a range.

Refine list based on free text

A text filter is available to further refine the list of reports based on text. Enter your search text and click the “magnifier”-icon ( ). To clear your selection, click the “erase”-icon ( )

Number of reports

When applying filters, the Number of Reports will change, and the reports will be refined immediately.

Show results in List or on a Map

You can choose whether to display the results of your search in a list or on a map by clicking the appropriate buttons.

7.3 SQAS Report details

Once the report has been activated by the assessed company, chemical companies will have access to the report.

You can view your SQAS Report as follows:

  • Open the “ Reports ” section in the SQAS Member portal and apply filters when useful
  • When in “List”-mode, select your report in the list by clicking on it and click the “ Detailed View ”- button
  • When in “Map”-mode, select a blue marker of the report you want to open and click “ Show list of reports in selected location to view the details ”

7.3.1 View the Report details

When opening the “Detailed view” of a report, the “ Report View ” is opened by default.

The “Report View” displays the Answer Score, number of “Yes” answers, number of “No” answers and the number of “N/A” answers per chapter. By clicking the “+” icon ( ) you can expand the chapter to the question level and see the scores in detail.

It is also possible to translate the chapters, sub sections, and questions in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.

Important note : To exit the “Detailed View” and go back to the Report List, click the back button on
the left side. Do not use your browser back button.

7.3.1.1 Display the comments and improved score

By using the filters on the left, you can visualize the report without comments (default), with comments and with the improved score (in case an improvement plan was added).

To display the comments , click the “Comments”-button, drill down to the question level and hoover the

speech bubble icon ( ). The assessor comment, assessed company comment and the improvement action are now shown in a tooltip window.

Click “ Improved score ” if you also want to have the Improved Answer score displayed.

To hide the comments and improved score from the report, click “ No comments ”

7.3.1.2 Filter the report

It is also possible to filter the report and only show:

  • Yes answers
  • No answers
  • N/A answers
  • Questions with comments
  • Questions with an improvement action

Click the appropriate button to apply the filter and click it again to remove the filter.

7.3.1.3 Overall and subcontracted integral scoring

The overall score (the percentage of “Yes” answers) is displayed and in the case of a SQAS Transport Service report, the subcontracted integral score is also included.

The subcontracted integral score considers the % of subcontracted payload (A) , the score of the subcontracting section (section 6) (B) and the Overall Score (C).

If the payload is subcontracted is 100%, this score is the same as the score of the subcontracting section. If the payload that is subcontracted is 0%, the score is the same as the Overall Score. This score falls in the range between the score of the subcontracting section and the Overall Score.

The calculation of the subcontracted integral score is bases on the following formula in which these values apply:

Formula = (A/100)xB+((100-A)/100xC) A = % of subcontracted payload (data taken from question 0.3.9) B = Score of Transport Service (section 6 about subcontracting in %) C = Overall Score of the report in %

7.3.1.4 Export the report

You can export the details of the report to Excel as follows:

  • With a Report opened, select the “Report View”-button

  • When you hover over the data with your mouse, you will see that 3 dots ( ) will appear in the top right corner

  • Click the 3 dots (More Options) and select “ Export data ”

  • In the following popup you have 2 options : o Data with current layout : This will export the data as is currently displayed on your screen. This means that if a section is closed, the data in that section will not be exported. o Summarized data : This will export ALL the data currently visible regardless of if a section is opened or not. Select this option if you want to export the full report to Excel.

  • Click Export. The selected data will be downloaded as an Excel file.

7.3.2 Apply a template

After having created company specific templates (see chapter 8 ), all users within the company will have the option to use these templates when viewing reports.

To apply an existing template:

  • Click the “ Apply Template ” button on the right-hand side of the selected report’s Detailed View
  • Select the template you want to apply from the list
  • Once a template is selected, click on “ Report View ” to access the report details with the selected template applied. Now you can use the filters as described above and you can export the reports with the template applied to Excel.
  • To select and apply another template , click the “ Template current selected... " button
  • Click “ Deactivate Template ” to return to the normal view.

7.3.3 View General Comments

An assessor has the possibility to add a general comment to a report before it is submitted.

To display the comments, open the “ Detailed view ” of a report and click the “ General Comments ”-button.

7.3.4 View Improvement Plan Details

When improvement plan actions have been added to a report, the button “ Improvement Plan Details ” will be visible.

Click the button to display the improvement plan actions, their due date, expiration date, Control Date, Status and Validation Responsible.

7.3.5 E-mail notification for re-assessment reports

On the top of the Report Details page a check box is displayed which gives the user the option to enable or disable receiving an automated e-mail notification when a new reassessment is carried out for this specific assessed company.

7.4 Scoring Matrix per country

You can compare the Report score per section, subsection, question with the average European score and the average score per country.

Select a report in the SQAS Report Viewer and click the “ Scoring Matrix ”-button.

Use the “ back button ” ( ) on the report to go back to the Report Viewer.

You can export the data to Excel by hoovering over the data with your mouse, and click the 3 dots ( ) that appear in the top right corner (see 7.3.1.4 Export the report).7.3.1.4

7.5 One Page Summary Report

By clicking on “ Summary Report ” in the Report viewer, members can view and print a summary of the assessment report.

You can also download a PDF of the One Page Summary Report, which can be used to demonstrate that the company has been SQAS assessed:

Use the “Back”-button ( ) on the left side to return to the Report Viewer.

7.6 Attestation Report

A member can also view and print the Attestation Report, which shows the Distribution chart of overall scores, the Industry Range of scores per section, details of the Improvement Action Program and the System certifications that were added to the report.

Select a report in the SQAS Report Viewer and click “ Attestation report ”

You can also download a PDF of Attestation Report by simply clicking “ Export ”

Use the “Back”-button ( ) on the left side to return to the Report Viewer.

7.7 View and download the Full report

To view and download the full report, select a report in the Report Viewer and click “ Full Report ”.

You can navigate through the Report with the following buttons:

Download the report in PDF using the “Export”-button.

Use the “Back”-button ( ) on the left side to return to the Report Viewer.

7.8 Comparing reports

Users have the option to compare reports (if the user has access to the reports) of the same type (SQAS module and questionnaire version). The results are presented in a table format and allow to check answers for each question in all reports.

Important note : you can only compare reports that are the result of applying filters. It is however not possible to select multiple reports in the Report Viewer to compare.

Steps to follow:

  • Apply filters in the SQAS Report Viewer to search for the reports you want to compare. (see 7.3.1.2 Filter the report) Tip : if you want to compare 2 or more reports, you can apply a filter based on report numbers only. Alternatively, you can also use the “Text filter” to make a selection.
  • After a filter is applied, the number of Reports will show you how many reports are selected to compare. Click the “ Compare View ”-button.

7.8.1 How to use the Comparison View

Toggle between % scored and Yes, No, N/A answers

The “Comparison View” displays by default the % scored for each selected report. By using the button at the top, you can toggle between the percentage scored and the number of Yes, No and N/A answers.

Click the “ Show # of Yes, No & N/A Answers ”-button to display the answer scores. With the answer scores displayed, click the “ Show Score ”-button to display the % scored.

Expand and collapse sections

By clicking the “+” icon ( ) before a section or subsection, you can expand the chapter to the question level and see the scores in detail. Click the “-“ icon ( ) to collapse the section or subsection.

Filter the questions

A filter can be applied to the Comparison View to only display:

  • Yes answers
  • No answers
  • N/A answers
  • Questions with comments

Click the appropriate button to apply the filter and click it again to remove the filter.

Export to Excel

You can export the Comparison View to Excel by hoovering over the data with your mouse, and click the 3 dots ( ) that appear in the top right corner (see 7.3.1.4 Export the report).7.3.1.4

7.8.2 Apply a template

After having created company specific templates (see chapter 8 ), all users within the company will have the option to use these templates when comparing reports.

To apply an existing template:

  • Click the “ Apply Templates ” button on top
  • Select the template you want to apply from the list. The Compare view will refresh immediately and only the questions from the selected template will remain visible.
  • You can use the filters as described above and you can export the reports with the template applied to Excel.
  • To select and apply another template , simply select another one in the list of templates.
  • To deactivate a template, unselect it in the list of templates. The view will be restored to normal.

8 Create and manage templates​

Chemical companies can create and save their own company specific templates and apply these to the assessment reports. They can use these templates for instance to get a report score based on certain questions of the questionnaire which are important to them.

Company specific templates are available to all users within the company. These templates are shared between all users of the company. Under the authority of the chemical company, the Supervisor or SQAS helpdesk has the possibility to allow or disallow certain users to create and/or update templates.

If you do not have the possibility to create/update company specific templates, then your company has not given you access to this option and you will only have the possibility to apply the company specific templates to your queries. Please contact the Supervisor or SQAS helpdesk for more information.

8.1 Create templates

To create a new template:

  • Go to Planning and report and select “ Manage templates ”.
  • Click the “ Create new template ”-button.
  • A pop-up window will appear. o Enter a name for the new template o Select the module it is about o Based on the selected module, you can select a standard template in the “ Template to copy ”-field. By doing this, your new template will be based on the selected template. If you leave this field blank a template will be created from scratch. o Click “ Yes ” to create the template
o Next, you’ll arrive in the SQAS Template Editor

The SQAS Template Editor. Here users can select the questions which should be included in the template and can assign different weight factors for these questions. This way users can differentiate questions based on how important they are.

For instance, if a member considers a certain subset of questions as very important, another group of questions less important, and wants to ignore the rest of the questionnaire, he can make a template which includes only the questions that matter and assign higher weight factors to the questions which are more important. The weight factor of the questions can be between 1 and 100. If a question is deselected, a weight factor of 0 will be assigned to exclude the question.

Selecting questions can be done as follows:

  • First select a section and subsection from the list on the left The questions from this section and subsection are displayed on the right.

  • To add a question to your template , simply give it a weight (1-100). Only questions that have a weight > 0 will be part of the template. By adding more weight to a question, users can differentiate questions based on how important they are.

  • You can enable or disable all questions in the selected section by using the buttons next to the section header.

  • Use the filter button ( ) to show all questions in the selected section or only the disabled ones.

  • Use the arrow buttons ( ) to jump to the previous or next (sub)section.

  • Alternatively, you can enable or disable all questions of the questionnaire by clicking the buttons at the top of the page. By doing this, all questions will receive a 1 or 0 weight factor.

  • After all questions and weighing factors have been selected the template can be saved by clicking the

“Save”-button ( )

Click the “Templates”-button ( ) to return to the list of templates.

8.2 Editing, copying, and deleting templates

It is also possible to update an existing template. This can be done by clicking the “ Edit ”-button of the selected template in the list.

An existing template can be used as a basis for a new template, click the “ Copy ”-button to copy the selected template.

To delete a template, click the “ Delete ”-button.

8.3 Using templates

After creating/updating company specific templates, all users within the company will have the option to apply these templates when viewing or comparing reports.

Note : It can take up to a few hours before a newly created template or changes to an existing template are available in the SQAS Report Viewer.

To apply a template, click “Apply template” in the Detailed or Comparison View of a report. Select the name of the template you want to apply. Only those questions which have been selected in the chosen template can be viewed and exported.

For more information, we refer to chapters 7.3.2 and 7.8.2 of this tutorial.

9 Statistics​

The following options are available in the Statistics section of the SQAS Member portal:

  • Number of reports by Module
  • Number of reports by Status
  • Number of reports by Year and Quarter
  • Number of reports by Country

Filters are available on the left to refine the reports in scope.

Hoover with your cursor over a chart bar or bubble to display more info:

Click on a chart bar or bubble to filter the displayed charts based on the item you clicked. E.g.: when you click on the green bubble for Germany on the map, all other charts will display the data specifically for Germany. Click the bubble again to unselect.

10 Further information​

If you need any other information, don’t hesitate to contact us.

10.1 For general and functional questions

Cefic

European Chemical Industry Council Rue Belliard 40 1040 Brussels, Belgium

Tel.: +32 2 436 94 09 Web: https://www.cefic.be

Mr. Victor Trapani Email: vtr@cefic.be

10.2 For technical questions

Easi

Havenkant 6 3000 Leuven, Belgium

Web: https://www.easi.net Email: cefic-sqas@easi.net