Using the CMC Nepal Data Management System

This system is where CMC Nepal keeps track of its program work in one place. You use it to record the activities you run, note down who took part, measure how the work is going against the targets you set, keep an eye on risks, and pull together reports.

You don't need to be a computer person to use it. This guide walks through the everyday tasks step by step, in plain language. If a section here doesn't match what you see on your screen, it's probably meant for a different role, and that's completely normal.

There are four kinds of accounts. Yours decides what you can see and do.

Alongside the role, each account can have an office title (like 'MEAL Coordinator' or 'HR Officer'). It's set when the account is created and shows next to the role in the account menu — it's a job label, and doesn't change what the person can do.

Logging in

1. Open the system in your web browser and go to the login page.
2. Enter the email address and password you were given.
3. Select Log in.

If you don't have an account yet, ask your super admin to create one for you. Accounts are set up by hand, so there's no public sign up.

Setting up two-factor security

The first time you log in, the system asks you to turn on two-factor security within seven days. This is a second step at login that makes sure only you can get into your account, even if someone else learns your password. It's required for everyone.

You'll need a free authenticator app on your phone. Google Authenticator is the common choice, and Microsoft Authenticator or Authy work just as well.

1. On your phone, install an authenticator app from your app store.
2. In the system, open Account and then the Security section.
3. Start the two-factor setup and confirm your password.
4. Point your phone's app at the square code on the screen to scan it.
5. Type the six-digit code the app shows to confirm it worked.
6. Save your backup codes somewhere safe (more on this just below).

From then on, each time you log in you enter your password and then a fresh six-digit code from the app.

Finding your way around

After you log in you land on your own home page. The menu down the left side is how you move between areas. On a phone or a narrow screen the menu tucks away, and you open it with the button at the top left. Your name sits at the bottom of the menu, and that's where you find your Account and the Log out button.

Open Account from the menu, under your name, to look after your own details.

This part is for field staff, and for anyone entering participant data. It's the heart of the day to day work.

Find your activities

Select Activity in the menu. You'll see the activities you've been assigned to. If one you expect is missing, ask your MEAL Focal Person to assign you. You can only enter data for activities that are assigned to you.

Open an activity

Click an activity to open it. You'll see its details at the top and the list of participants below, along with a count of how many you've added so far.

Add a participant

1. Select Add Participant.
2. Fill in the details you have, such as name, age, gender, and where the person is from. You choose the location from lists, starting with province, then district, and so on.
3. Set the attendance status for this person.
4. Record the data fields that apply, which are covered just below.
5. Save.

Add many people at once from a spreadsheet

If you already have a list in a spreadsheet, you don't have to type everyone in one by one. Use the Import option. A CSV file is simply a plain spreadsheet that the system can read.

1. Select Import, and first download the template.
2. Fill the template with your participants, keeping the column headings exactly as they are.
3. Save it, then upload it back through the Import screen.

Attendance

Every participant has an attendance status, such as registered, present, absent, partial, or drop. You can change it directly from the participant list as things change on the day.

Data fields

A data field is a specific thing the program records for each person. Some are a simple yes or no, some are a number, and some are a choice from a short list. Record the ones that apply to each participant. Your project decides which fields show up here.

Submit for review

When the activity's data is complete, select Submit. This sends the whole entry to your MEAL Focal Person to check. You need at least one participant before you can submit.

What happens after you submit

While your entry is being reviewed it's locked, so you can't change it. Your MEAL Focal Person will either approve it, which makes it final, or return it with a short comment asking for changes. If it comes back, read the comment, make the fixes, and submit again. You'll get an email when a decision is made.

This part is for MEAL Focal Persons. You look after the projects you're a member of and the activities inside them.

Your projects

Select Project in the menu to see the projects you're part of. Open one to see its activities and the data fields it collects.

Create an activity

1. Open the project you're working in.
2. Add an activity and fill in its name, code, date, place, venue, and facilitator.
3. Save it. New activities start as a draft.

Assign field staff

Assign the staff who'll collect data, both to the project and to each activity. Keep in mind that being on a project isn't enough on its own. A person has to be assigned to the activity itself before they can enter data for it.

Enter data yourself

You can record participant data for activities in your projects in the same way field staff do. This is handy when you're out in the field yourself.

Review and approve

When field staff submit an entry, you get an email and see it in the activity. Open it and check the data.

Choose the project's data fields

Each project collects a set of data fields chosen from the shared list. Open the project and set which fields apply. Those are the ones field staff then see during data entry.

Indicators are the measurable markers a project reports against — the number of people reached, sessions delivered, events held, or the percentage of a group showing a change. Each project keeps its own tracker with a baseline, a target per year, and progress recorded quarter by quarter with a red, amber, or green status.

The important idea to hold onto is this: you do not type indicator results in separately. Most indicators are worked out automatically from the participant data your teams already enter. You set up the indicator once, and it keeps itself up to date as data comes in. This section teaches exactly how, with worked examples you can copy.

Where to find them

Select Indicators in the menu. You'll see a list of your projects, each with its indicator count. Click a project to open its tracker (one row per indicator, showing the year's target, year-to-date figure, and progress). Use the year selector at the top right to switch years. Click any indicator row to open its detail page — a grid of years and quarters where you record and review progress.

The parts of an indicator

When you select Add Indicator, the form has three parts: what it is, how it's calculated, and its baseline and targets. These are the choices that matter:

How the numbers are worked out

• Quarters follow the calendar and use the Activity Date: Q1 is Jan–Mar, Q2 Apr–Jun, Q3 Jul–Sep, Q4 Oct–Dec. So set activity dates correctly — a February camp entered in April still counts in Q1.
• 'Participants reached' counts distinct people. Someone who attends two activities in a quarter is counted once that quarter, and once for the whole year.
• The year-to-date for automatic counts is distinct across the whole year, so it is less than or equal to the four quarters added up (see the callout above).
• 'Sum of a number data field' adds the value on every attendance — it is a quantity, so two visits by one person add both values.
• 'Activities held' simply counts events by their date.
• Manual numbers are added across the quarters you enter.
• Progress against target is the year-to-date divided by the target. In the tracker it shows green at 90% and above, amber from 60 to 89%, and red below 60%. You can also set your own red / amber / green status per quarter by hand.

Recording each quarter

1. Open the indicator (click its row) to see the year-by-quarter grid.
2. Click a quarter cell. Automatic indicators already show a computed value; you only click in to add a status or note, or to override the number.
3. For manual indicators, type the quarter's value. For 'entered each quarter' percentages, also type the denominator.
4. Pick a status (red / amber / green) and add a short note on progress, then save. The year-to-date and progress against target update on their own.

Worked examples — the setup

The examples below use three sample projects. Map them to your own as you follow along.

A few of them use data fields (Section 'Recording data from the field' explains those). Create these first if you want to reproduce the numbers:

Example 1 — Number of women reached (and the year-total surprise)

In PCMH-2025, Add Indicator. Level Output, title 'Number of women reached with psychosocial support'. Measure type Count. Numerator source Participants reached. Filter Gender = Female. Target for 2025 = 200. Now suppose three activities happen in 2025:

The tracker shows this for 2025:

Why 37 and not 45? Each quarter counts the distinct women that quarter: 18, 15, 12. But the year counts each woman once. The 8 women who came in both Q1 and Q3 are counted a single time for the year, so the year total is 18 + 15 + (12 − 8) = 37. This is the number-one thing to explain to your team.

Example 2 — Counseling sessions delivered (summing a number)

Here we want a quantity, not a headcount, so we sum a number field. In PCMH-2025, Add Indicator. Level Output, title 'Number of counseling sessions delivered'. Measure type Count. Numerator source Sum of a number data field, and pick 'Counseling sessions attended'. Target 2025 = 500. As staff enter each person's session count, the values add up:

The year to date is 84 + 96 = 180. Sums add straight across quarters — there is no counting-once here, because we are adding a quantity. If one person attends twice and records 3 then 2 sessions, that is 5 sessions, which is right even though it is one person.

Example 3 — Community awareness events held

In PCMH-2025, Add Indicator. Level Activity / Process, title 'Number of community awareness events held'. Measure type Count. Numerator source Activities held. Target 2025 = 12. If the project ran 3 events in Q1, 4 in Q2 and 2 in Q3, the year to date is 9, and progress is 9 ÷ 12 = 75% (amber). It simply counts activities by their date.

Example 4 — Percentage reached against a fixed target

In RLEP-2024, Add Indicator. Level Outcome, title 'Percentage of targeted households reached'. Measure type Percentage. Numerator source Participants reached (no filter). Denominator Fixed value = 300 (targeted households). Target 2025 = 80%. If 210 distinct participants are reached in 2025, the year-to-date value is 210 ÷ 300 = 70%. Progress compares that to the 80% target: 70 ÷ 80 = 87.5% (amber). The fixed 300 stays the same every quarter.

Example 5 — Percentage who are conflict-affected (both numbers automatic)

In PCMH-2025, Add Indicator. Level Cross-cutting, title 'Percentage of participants who are conflict-affected'. Measure type Percentage. Numerator source Participants reached, filter Conflict victim = Yes. Denominator Total participants reached. Target 2025 = 40%. In Q2, of 25 people, 11 are conflict-affected — that quarter shows 11 ÷ 25 = 44%. For the year, using distinct people on both top and bottom, say 30 conflict-affected out of 75 total: 30 ÷ 75 = 40%, so progress is 100% (green).

Example 6 — A milestone with no number (qualitative)

Some results are a state reached, not a count. In PCMH-2025, Add Indicator. Level Activity / Process, title 'Referral pathway with district hospital established'. Measure type Qualitative — the number and target fields disappear. Each quarter you open the cell and set a status and a note: Q1 Amber, 'MoU drafted, pending district approval'; Q2 Green, 'MoU signed, 8 referrals completed'. There are no totals — just the status and the story.

Example 7 — Clients with severe depression (filtering by a data field)

In PCMH-2025, Add Indicator. Level Outcome, title 'Number of clients with severe depression reached'. Measure type Count. Numerator source Participants reached. Under Filters, add a data-field criterion: field 'PHQ-9 severity', value 'Severe'. Target 2025 = 30. Only people recorded as Severe are counted:

The year to date is 10, not 12, because 2 of the Q2 people were already counted in Q1. Each criterion narrows further and they combine with 'and', so one criterion 'severity = Severe' gives exactly the severe clients. To count 'Moderate or Severe' you would track two indicators, or add a combined option.

Example 8 — Policy briefs published (typed in by hand)

When the number is not in the participant data at all, enter it yourself. In SHAKTI-2025, Add Indicator. Level Output, title 'Number of policy briefs published'. Measure type Count. Numerator source Manual entry per quarter. Target 2025 = 4. Click each quarter and type: Q1 = 1, Q2 = 1, Q3 = 2. The year to date is 1 + 1 + 2 = 4 (manual numbers add up), so progress is 100% (green).

Organization-wide (common) indicators

Sometimes you report one number for the whole organization, adding every project together — total people reached across all projects, for example. That is a common indicator, and only a super admin manages it. Open Indicators and click the 'Common indicators' card at the top of the project list. Add Indicator works the same way, except there is no single project to choose — it applies to all of them.

A common indicator runs the same calculation as a project one, but over every project's data at once, and it still counts distinct people across the whole organization for the year (a person in two projects is one person). Senior management can view common indicators; MEAL Focal Persons see only their own projects, not these.

A risk register is a simple list of things that could go wrong in a project, and what you're doing about them. It helps you and your managers stay ahead of problems.

Open a project's risks

Select Risk in the menu. You'll see your projects with a count of how many risks each one has. Click a project to open its risk table.

Add a risk

1. Select Add Risk.
2. Fill in the details, such as a short title, the category, how likely it is, how serious it would be, your planned response, and who owns it.
3. Save.

The rating, whether low, medium, or high, is worked out for you from how likely and how serious the risk is, so you don't set it by hand.

Keep it up to date

Edit a risk as the situation changes, and set its status to closed once it's dealt with. A risk register is only useful if it reflects reality, so a quick review now and then is worth the time.

Dashboards and reports turn all the data that staff enter into a clear picture. MEAL Focal Persons, senior management, and super admins have this. Field staff don't.

Select Dashboards and Reports in the menu. There are three views.

Choosing a timeframe

At the top of the page is a date-range picker with three settings — Day, Month, or Year. Pick a start and end, and everything below (the Overview and the Builder, and anything you export) is limited to activities in that window. Choose 'All time' to clear it. Like indicators, it filters on the activity date. It's hidden on the Risks view, which isn't based on dates.

Export a report

Use the export button to download what you're looking at as a CSV, PDF, or Word file. This is the quickest way to share figures or attach them to a donor report.

This part is for super admins. You set up the pieces everyone else works with.

Projects

Create projects and set their code, name, donor, dates, and status, then assign the MEAL Focal Persons who'll run them.

User accounts

1. Open User in the menu and add a new account.
2. Set the person's name, email, role, and a starting password.
3. Share the login details with them securely, and remind them to set up two-factor within seven days.

You can edit an account later, and you can deactivate someone who has left. Deactivating blocks their login but keeps their past work and history intact, which is safer than deleting.

Data fields

Look after the shared list of data fields the whole program uses. Each field has a type — a yes or no, a number, or a choice from a list. When you create one, you decide how widely it applies: tick 'Common field' to make it available to every project automatically, or leave it unticked and let each project pick it from the list. These fields are what the indicator filters and 'sum of a number field' indicators read from, so they are worth setting up thoughtfully.

The Activity Log keeps a record of what has been happening in the system, so there's always a clear trail to look back on.

For access problems or account changes, your super admin is the fastest first stop. For anything the system itself isn't doing right, contact the team that builds and maintains it.

You can reach support by email at manish@percime.com or by phone at 9801832779.