Options for Managing Data in Portfolio Manager

As you consider how best to support your clients’ benchmarking efforts, you’ll want to determine the most effective and efficient means to get data to and from Portfolio Manager. The table below lays out a number of options, which can be used individually or in combination.

	How it Works	When to Use It
Enter Data Manually	Use the online Portfolio Manager interface to define basic property information, enter property use details, and track monthly energy consumption across all fuels used to operate your property. Users can enter data property by property as the tool guides your actions.	Manual data entry can work best if you have a limited number of properties that you are benchmarking and the requests are infrequent. If you need to enter more data for more than a few properties at a time, you may want to try using a spreadsheet upload template.
Upload Data Using Spreadsheet Templates	More advanced functionality within Portfolio Manager allows you to create or edit multiple properties and/or meters at once via customized spreadsheet templates that are generated by Portfolio Manager based on your needs. Simply tell us what actions you are seeking to perform and Portfolio Manager will generate these spreadsheets for you to download, fill in the data, and upload back into Portfolio Manager.	If you need to upload several months of data for multiple properties, you can do it all at once using the spreadsheet upload templates. Please note that this action must be performed by a user that is logged into their Portfolio Manager account. This solution is also a better fit if the uploads are anticipated to be more than a one-time request, but not at a regular/frequent cadence. If you are trying to update buildings that span multiple Portfolio Manager accounts, web services may be the best approach for you.
Use Web Services to Exchange Data with Portfolio Manger	Integrate the extensive Portfolio Manager web services API into your software platform to exchange data with your customers’ Portfolio Manager accounts. This can include updating property and energy consumption data on an ongoing basis, or simply pulling key metrics out of Portfolio Manager for presentation in your own customer-facing dashboards.	This option is most useful for providers that are helping to manage/maintain benchmarking data for multiple clients with large portfolios, and/or are seeking to help customers access the value-added metrics from Portfolio Manager alongside other analytics that you already provide. This solution allows for regular monthly updates from the utility company directly into Portfolio Manager. A list of service providers leveraging the Portfolio Manager web services API can be found here.

How it Works

When to Use It

Enter Data Manually

Use the online Portfolio Manager interface to define basic property information, enter property use details, and track monthly energy consumption across all fuels used to operate your property. Users can enter data property by property as the tool guides your actions.

Manual data entry can work best if you have a limited number of properties that you are benchmarking and the requests are infrequent. If you need to enter more data for more than a few properties at a time, you may want to try using a spreadsheet upload template.

Upload Data Using Spreadsheet Templates

More advanced functionality within Portfolio Manager allows you to create or edit multiple properties and/or meters at once via customized spreadsheet templates that are generated by Portfolio Manager based on your needs. Simply tell us what actions you are seeking to perform and Portfolio Manager will generate these spreadsheets for you to download, fill in the data, and upload back into Portfolio Manager.

If you need to upload several months of data for multiple properties, you can do it all at once using the spreadsheet upload templates. Please note that this action must be performed by a user that is logged into their Portfolio Manager account. This solution is also a better fit if the uploads are anticipated to be more than a one-time request, but not at a regular/frequent cadence. If you are trying to update buildings that span multiple Portfolio Manager accounts, web services may be the best approach for you.

Use Web Services to Exchange Data with Portfolio Manger

Integrate the extensive Portfolio Manager web services API into your software platform to exchange data with your customers’ Portfolio Manager accounts. This can include updating property and energy consumption data on an ongoing basis, or simply pulling key metrics out of Portfolio Manager for presentation in your own customer-facing dashboards.

This option is most useful for providers that are helping to manage/maintain benchmarking data for multiple clients with large portfolios, and/or are seeking to help customers access the value-added metrics from Portfolio Manager alongside other analytics that you already provide. This solution allows for regular monthly updates from the utility company directly into Portfolio Manager.

A list of service providers leveraging the Portfolio Manager web services API can be found here.