The Treasury Right to Know website is accessed through the left navigation bar of the current patreasury.gov site (fig. 1). Under the title bar “PA Contracts” there are two options:

Search for Public Contracts
Agency Log In

Clicking on the “Search for Public Contracts” link takes the public user to a search contracts page. There are no login requirements for the public.

Clicking on the “Agency Login” link will take agency users to the log in page, from which they can log in and access agency functions.

To simplify the access process, Treasury has decided to match Agency User IDs to the Agency user’s e-mail address. Treasury has reached out to all applicable entities to gather a listing of agency users and Right to Know officers. These agency users will be added en masse to the system database. To add, modify, or delete agency users after the initial system rollout, agency Right to Know officers must forward the First and Last Name, e-mail address, and office phone number to the Treasury Bureau of Contracts and Public Records, e-mail contractinfo@patreasury.gov.

1.3 Getting your Temporary Password

As agency users are added to the system, temporary passwords will be e-mailed to each user to allow initial system access. Each password forwarded is a unique, secure, system-generated password which the agency user may copy and paste into the password textbox of the login page. The initial log on by the agency user will generate a required password reset. This process will be explained in detail in the next section of this document, First Time Login.

1.4 First Time Login

Clicking the “Agency Login” link will bring up the following (fig. 2):

Figure 2. Agency Login Page

As you can see, the User ID is defined as the user e-mail address. The user should type his/her e-mail address into the “Email Address” textbox. The user may then paste or type the assigned temporary password into the password textbox. Clicking the “Login” button will initiate the login process. The functionality of the “Forgot your password?” link will be discussed later in this manual.

The initial login to the system will automatically generate a “Change Password” page as shown (fig. 3):

Figure 3: Change Password Page

As with any password change page, this system requires that the agency user input the currently active password into the “Current Password” box prior to entering a new password into the “New Password” textbox. The password entered must be a minimum of seven characters. The agency user must then reenter the new password into the “Confirm Password”, and click “Update”. The system will propagate a “Success! Password changed” message automatically, and the agency user’s password will be reset. All subsequent agency user logins will bypass the “Change Password” page, and take the agency user directly to the control panel page.

1.5 How to Change your Password

The “Change Password” link is accessible from all agency users’ pages. The function of this page will be discussed under “Control Panel”.

1.6 Agency User Forgets Password

If an agency user forgets his/her password, a link exists on the login page titled “Forgot your Password?” Clicking on this link will take the agency user to a page that requires inputting an e-mail address to recover the agency user’s password, as shown in figure 4 below:

Figure 4. Forgot Password Page

The agency user should type in his/her user id (e-mail address) in the Email textbox. Clicking the “Send Email” button will send an e-mail with a temporary password for the agency user, which must be reset on initial login.

Figure 5. Control Panel

2 Control Panel Functionality

2.1 The Agency User Control Panel

The agency user Control Panel is shown in figure 5 below, and provides links to the “Upload Contract” (Add New Contracts to the System), and “Search for a Contract” (To Attach an Amendment or PO) pages. Additionally, links to the “Change Password” page and “Logoff” functionality are present. This page is the gateway to virtually all agency user interaction with the system.

Figure 5. Control Panel

2.1.1 Change Password

The “Change Password” link is present on all of the agency user pages. When clicked, it brings up the page shown below (fig. 6):

Figure 6: Change Password

This page functions similarly to the initial logon password reset.

2.1.2 Logoff Button

Clicking on the “Logoff” button located on all agency users’ pages will log the user out of the system, and return the user to the logon page.

2.1.3 Upload Contract

The “Upload Contract” icon is used to upload new contracts to the Treasury file system. Clicking on this link will take the agency user to the contract summary page.

A detailed explanation of the “Upload Contract” function is contained in section 5 of this manual.

2.1.4 Search for a Contract

Clicking on the “Search for a Contract” icon on this page will take the agency user to the Contract Search page. From the Contract Search page, the agency user may retrieve a contract, to which an amendment or purchase order may be attached.

A detailed explanation of the “Search for a Contract” function is contained in section 6 of this manual.

3 Upload Contract (Add Contracts to the System)

The manual upload process is composed of inputting the required document summary data in addition to uploading the actual contract files. If the agency is utilizing FTP procedures to automatically preload the contract summary data, the contract file will be uploaded manually using the “Search for a Contract” function. These procedures will be covered under the “Search for a Contract” section.

3.1 Contract Summary Data

To upload a new contract, the agency user will click on the “Upload Contract” icon on the “Control Panel” page. This will produce the “Contract Summary Data” screen, as shown in figure 7 below:

Figure 7: Contract Summary Page

On this screen, the agency user will input the summary data for all uploaded documents, and attach the document files. There are eight summary data elements for upload. The “Begin Date” and “End Date” entries are the only ones that are not required for document upload. We will address each part of this page individually in the following sections.

3.1.1 Upload Document Summary Data

The first section of the upload document summary data is comprised of the entries shown in figure 8:

Figure 8: Initial Summary Page Entries

The “Contract #” entry must be a unique contract number for the agency. The amount of the contract should be entered in the “Amount” box. You may use any format (commas, no commas); however, if more than one decimal point is input the system will not accept the upload. The dates may be input either with the calendar icon functionality or manually; the date textbox will accept most manually input date formats.

3.1.2 Subject Matter Box

The subject matter box is a textbox requiring a description of the uploaded document:

Figure 9: Subject Matter Box

The input to the subject matter box should use the following example as a guide:

“This agreement requires that the PA Institute for the Blind & Handicapped, Inc. provide material and labor to perform janitorial and mowing services for the PA DOT sign shop”.

This subject matter description will appear in the contract search results table.

3.1.3 Agency Upload

The agency upload box is shown in figure 10 below:

Figure 10: Agency Dropdown and Collection Box

To upload the agency or agencies associated with the document, you may use the dropdown box below the “Agency” label by clicking on the arrow on the right side of the box and scrolling down to find the appropriate agency, as shown in figure 11:

Figure 11: Agency Dropdown Box

Click on the agency name in the dropdown. The dropdown should disappear, and the selected agency should appear in the Agency dropdown window as shown in figure 12 below:

Figure 12: Agency Name displayed in Window

Finally, to enter the selected agency in the collection box on the right, click the right arrow adjacent to the agency name dropdown. The selected agency should appear in the collection box on the right, as shown in figure 13:

Figure 13. Agency moved to Collection Box

If there is more than one agency associated with the contract, follow the same procedures to add the agency to the collection box. If an incorrect agency is added to the collection box, simply click on the agency name to highlight, and then click on the left arrow to remove the agency from the collection box.

You may also add agencies by typing directly into the window below the agency label. The entry will auto-fill if it is found within the dropdown.

3.1.4 Adding Contracting Party

With one important exception, the procedure for adding a contracting party to the summary data is the same as that used for adding an agency. If the contracting party for the new contract is already present in the dropdown, the procedures are exactly the same. However, if the contracting party is not present in the dropdown, the agency user must add the name to the dropdown list by clicking on the “Add New Party” button located below the contracting party dropdown, as shown in figure 14:

Clicking on this button will produce the new page shown in figure 15:

Figure 15. Adding New Contracting Party Page

The agency user should enter the name of the new Contracting Party in the textbox, and click the “Save” button. This action will return the user to the summary data page, with the new contracting party name already present in the collection box. Once this information is saved, the new contracting party will appear in the dropdown box. Clicking on the “Cancel” button will return the user to the summary data page with no changes made to the contracting party entry. Additional contracting parties may be added to the collection box using the dropdown or “Add New Party” procedure. Contracting parties may be removed from the collection box by highlighting and clicking on the left arrow.

3.1.5 Redacted Document Statement

The checkbox and redaction statement located below the contracting party section and shown in figure 16 is to be selected if all of the documents to be uploaded are fully redacted and ready for the public to view. Checking this box will allow all external website users to instantly view any document that has been uploaded in association with this contract.

Figure 16. Redacted Document Statement

If the box is left unchecked, the external website user will be given the option to request access to the document. If a request is made to view a non-redacted document, e-mail will be generated to the appropriate agency containing the specific document(s) numbers requested. The agency has two business days after the request to upload a fully redacted version of the document. If a fully redacted version is not uploaded within the given time, the system will automatically make the non-redacted version available for public viewing.

3.1.6 Redaction Screening

If the checkbox associated with the statement “The following document(s) is/are redacted and ready for public inspection” is checked by the agency user, the document upload procedure will include a cursory screening for text patterns that may indicate a need for further document redaction. This screening cannot determine if further redaction is required, only that some programmed text patterns have been detected during the upload. These text patterns may or may not require redaction.

For example, if during the document upload and screening a number pattern that may indicate the presence of a social security number is detected, the agency user receive the message shown in figure 17:

Figure 17. Further redaction may be required message

The number pattern detected may not actually be a social security number; it is up to the agency user to determine if all necessary redaction has been accomplished prior to upload. If the agency user clicks on “Yes”, the process will continue, and the uploaded documents will be available immediately for public viewing. If the agency user clicks “No”, no documents are uploaded, and the user is returned to the contract summary page.

The process used to attach contract document files to the summary data is covered in the next section.

3.2 Contract File Upload

The system is designed to accept the following four file types:

o Microsoft Word

o Microsoft Excel

o PDF

o TIFF

Contract documents are uploaded using the “Select” button adjacent to the contract file box, as shown in figure 18 below:

Clicking on the “Select” button will bring up a “Choose File” pop up window as one would see with any file upload procedure. From this window, double-clicking on a file, or a single click followed by a click on the “Open” button associated with the pop up window, will load the file into the “Upload File” window.

The “Remove” button will delete the file selected in that window. If all required summary data is present, clicking on the “Save” button will load the data to the system.

To add additional contract files, click on the “Add” button located below the upload file window, as shown in figure 19:

Figure 19: Contract Add button

Clicking on “Add” will create a new “Upload File” box; this box has the same functionality as the original box. Each time the “Add” key is clicked, a new “Upload File” box is created, as shown in figure 20 below.

There is no limit to the number of files you may upload for a contract. Clicking on the “Save” button will initiate the process to upload the contract summary data and contract files.

If the upload is successful, the agency user will be shown the following message:

Figure 21. Successful upload message

If there was an error during the upload process, the agency user will be shown the following message (fig. 22):

Figure 22. Upload error message

The agency user must use the “Back” button to return to the contract summary page and reattempt to load the contract data. This error may occur if the agency user attempts to load something other than a Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, PDF, or TIFF file.

4 Search for a Contract

The agency contract search functionality is provided to facilitate adding amendments or POs to contracts existing within the Treasury Right to Know document file system. This process will also be used by agencies who have chosen to upload contract summary data via an FTP upload process, the contract summary data may be retrieved with the search functionality; a contract file would then be attached.

4.1 Accessing the Search Page

The process begins by clicking the “Search for a Contract (to attach and amendment or PO)” link on the control panel page (fig. 23):

This will bring up the “Contract Search” page. The agency user has the same search functionality as the external user:

4.2 Contract Search Functionality

The contract search page is shown below (fig 24):

Figure 24. Contract Search Page

There are essentially two separate searches: a keyword search, and a “Search Using Other Terms.” The two search types are not integrated in this version of the system. We will divide the use of this page into three sections for our discussion.

4.2.1 Keyword Search

The agency user can enter one or more words into the keyword textbox for search (fig.25). The radio buttons associated with step two of the process may further refine the search functionality. The “Search on any word” will retrieve all documents that contain at least one of the entered words. The “Search on all words” will retrieve only those documents that contain all of the entered words, and the “Search by Exact Phrase” will retrieve only those documents that contain the phrase entered. Reset will delete all entries. Clicking on the “Search” button will initiate the search function.

4.2.2 Advanced Search

The advanced search feature gives the agency user much more search capability. The summary and date elements listed within the advanced search section may be used individually or in combination to further narrow the search results. The date ranges or “search within last x days” are available for all three contract date types.

4.2.2.1 Search by Contracting Party and/or Agency

These two search functionalities are dropdowns of all agencies and contracting parties listed in the database. You may only search on only one agency and/or one contracting party at a time. If you begin to type a known agency or contracting party in the textbox, the system will auto-fill the textbox with any matches it finds within the lists.

4.2.2.2 Search by Amount of Contract

The “Amount of Contract” search is a dropdown of contract dollar value ranges. You may only select one at a time for a search. A search with a contract amount of exactly $100,000 will work with either the $50,000 to $100,000 range, or the $100,000 to $500,000 range. The available ranges are shown below (fig. 26):

Figure 26. Amount of Contract

4.3 Search Results

An example of a search results page is shown below (fig. 27):

Figure 27. Search Results Page

The results include contract number, subject matter, agency, type of document, modify, and the “Upload” button. Both the contract number and the modify “pencil” symbol are links to the original document summary page. The “Upload” button will bring up a page which will facilitate the linking of an amendment or PO to the original contract. The results will paginate after ten returns.

4.4 Amendment or PO Upload Procedures

4.4.1 Accessing the Upload page

The upload process for both amendments and POs is essentially the same. By clicking on the “Upload” button on the search results page, the following summary page is shown (fig. 28):

Figure 28. Upload Page

Notice that this summary page is very similar to a contract summary page; however, there are a few important differences (fig. 29).

Figure 29. Upload Detail

There are now radio buttons to select either an amendment or PO document type. The Parent Contract number and subject matter are displayed. The contract number is blank: the agency user must input a unique number for amendments and POs in this text box. All other summary data elements returned automatically contain the parent contract values. These are all modifiable by the agency user depending on any changes that an amendment of PO may make to the parent contract.

4.4.2 Amendment or PO document Upload

The procedures for amendment of PO document upload are the same as contract upload procedures. Once amendments or purchase orders are tied to a contract, the document relationship will be shown at the bottom of the document summary page as a “tree structure”, shown here (fig. 30):

Figure 30. Document tree detail

The document numbers within this hierarchy are links to their respective summary data pages.

4.5 Contract Upload for Previously FTP’d Summary Data

If the agency utilizes an FTP process to upload summary data, the contract file(s) must subsequently be manually uploaded. This may be accomplished by clicking on the “Search for a Contract” link on the Control Panel page, searching for the summary date using the contract number or other means, clicking on either the contract number or modify link on the search results line for that contract, and uploading the contract files using the “Select”, “Add”, and “Save” button functionality as described in section 5.2.

4.6 Upload of Redacted Document Version

If an agency receives a request to upload a redacted version of a document currently maintained with the system in a non-redacted form, the agency user may perform a search on the contract, click the modify link on the specific contract within the search results table, and upload the redacted version of the document per the description in section 5.2 of this document. This will not entail any reloading of summary data. Once a redacted version of a requested document is uploaded, a link to a PDF version of that document will be immediately available for public view.