STEPS Tutorial
Science Tracking and Evaluation Planning System
Accessing STEPS
The STEPS tool is accessible from the InsideCIRES homepage.
Click the green “Open STEPS” button to access the tool.
If you do not see this line on your homepage with a green button, please contact ciresithelp@colorado.edu for assistance.
STEPS Dashboard
The STEPS Dashboard will look bare if this is the first time accessing the tool and you do not have any projects created yet.
Once projects are entered, you’ll see links and details about the projects on this page.
Adding a Project
To get started, click the blue “Add New Project” button in the top right of the STEPS dashboard. This will take you to the “Add New Project” page.
Everything with a red asterisk (*) is required to submit a new project.
There are a few fields on this page that are grayed out, and you will not be able to edit them. These grayed-out fields will auto-populate as you enter information about the project.
- CI Lead Name
- CI Lead Email
- Fed Lead Email
- Unit Name
- CIRES Finance Manager Name
- CIRES Finance Manager Email
CI Lead Name and CI Lead Email will populate with your name when entering the project details.
Fed Lead Name: If the project has a fed lead, select the name from the drop-down list. If there is no fed lead, choose the first option, “No Fed Lead”. Once you select the Fed Lead Name, the Fed Lead Email will auto-populate with their email address.
Project Status: There are three project statuses to choose from (In progress, Completed, and On hold). You may enter a project in any status, however, if you enter one as “On hold” or “Completed”, you will be prompted to enter the Reason for the status change. If you select “Completed”, you will also be asked to enter When projected ended.
Unit Name will populate with your unit name, and you will not be able to edit it. If the incorrect unit name is displaying, please contact ciresithelp@colorado.edu for assistance.
Project Title needs to be a descriptive title that does not use acronyms.
Project Nickname as linked in ARS is the project nickname you are familiar using with the finance department. This is how we are linking the project to financials to support it. Please contact your CIRES Finance Manager if you are unsure of what to select.
You will only be able to select one Project Nickname, and once selected, you will not be able to use that Project Nickname for any other projects you create. You will also not be able to edit this after you create the project. If this needs to be changed, please reach out to your CIRES Finance Manager to get that process started.
CIRES Finance Manager Name and CIRES Finance Manager Email will auto-populate once you select the Project Nickname. You will not be able to edit these fields.
NOAA Theme and CIESRDS Theme are predefined options to select from. Only one theme can be selected for each entity.
Projected Start Date and Projected End Date will bring up a calendar to select a date when you click inside the box.
These dates are only projected dates and can be updated at any time. If this is a multi-year project, please provide the anticipated end date. If it is not a multi-year project and the end date is uncertain, please enter the last day of the science plan year (August 31st). If the project is expected to conclude before the end of the science plan year, please indicate that specific end date.
Project Description should not include any acronyms or abbreviations other than “NOAA”. If you’d like to use an acronym, please define it on its first use, and then you may use the acronym later in the project description section.
This is a rich-text editor, so you can format the text, if you’d like. The Communications Department has provided some text for this box to help explain what they are looking for here. This information is used in the annual report we provide to NOAA.
Funding Source is an optional field. You can find this information from your unit’s science plan spreadsheet. This is typically indicated by the federal science lead when filling out the spreadsheet.
Examples of funding sources might include base funds, funds from interagency agreements, and other funding from line offices/programs such as CPO, JTTI, WPO, etc. If you do not have this information, you can leave it blank.
Once you’ve filled everything out, click the blue “Submit” button at the bottom of the page.
This will generate an email to the CI Lead and Fed Leading letting them know the project has been created.
Adding a Budget
Once the project has been submitted, you’ll be taken to the “Project Overview” page, and it will auto-scroll the page down to the budget section and prompt you to enter a budget.
In this example, we are in the 5th year of the cooperative agreement, so it’s prompting to enter a budget for year 5. You can see in the “Budget Y5” tab, the dates for year 5 are Sep 1, 2026 through Aug 31, 2027. Next to the years, you’ll see a yellow “Unsubmitted” badge indicating the budget has not yet been submitted.
Once the budget has been submitted, you cannot edit it. Use the “Save Draft” button to save your work and continue modifying the budget until you’re ready to submit it.
Enter Personnel
You’ll first enter personnel for the budget year. You will also enter yourself as personnel if you are expected to work on the project over the budget year.
The first section will show any personnel that have been identified as having been paid on this project in the last year. They will have an “Add” button next to their name. To include them in the budget, you must click “Add”, then fill out the form and click “Submit”.
The next section will allow you to add additional personnel. If you need to add CIRES personnel who weren’t previously paid on the project, click the green “+ Add Anticipated Personnel” button, then fill out the form and click “Submit”.
Enter Personnel Details
Either way you decide to add personnel to the project, a box will pop up to enter their details. If you are adding someone who was previously paid on this project, their name will auto-populate, and you will not be able to change the name. If you are adding new CIRES personnel, you’ll select their name from the drop-down box. Everything else in this box will be the same no matter how you added them.
Estimate the number of months this person will work on this project at 100% of their current FTE. (Example: 75% time * 6 months = 4.5 months of effort in the year). If you have questions about what to enter here, please reach out to your CIRES Finance Manager.
If you select “No” for Travel involved, there is nothing else for you to do. However, if you select yes, the box will expand, and you’ll need to add additional travel details for this person.
There are three primary travel types: conference, project meeting, or field work. If the travel does not fall into one of those three categories, there is an “other” option. If you select other, an additional field will display to enter details about what type of travel this is.
Next you’ll enter the location and estimated number of business travel days.
If you need to add additional travel for this person, click the blue “Add Additional Travel” and repeat the process of filling in the travel details for each trip. If you need to remove a trip, click the red, “Remove Trip” and this will remove that single trip from this person’s info.
The last field for personnel is for Additional Information. Put anything else that is relevant to the budget that has not already been asked in this field. The more information you enter, the easier it will be for your CIRES Finance Manager to create a budget for the project.
Once you’ve entered all the employee details and their travel details, click the blue “Submit” button in the bottom right to add them to the project.
You’ll now see the personnel listed in the budget. You can click the down arrow next to “Travel Details” or “Additional Info” to expand these sections to see more details. You can then click the same arrow (will be an up arrow now), to collapse it back down. You can also use the black “Expand Travel Details” and “Expand Additional Info” buttons at the top of the personnel section to expand all travel or all additional info sections at once for everyone you’ve entered. Clicking it again will collapse all the sections back down.
You’ll repeat this process for as many CIRES personnel you need to add.
Editing Personnel
You can edit the personnel you have added to the project as long as you have not submitted the budget. To edit a single person, click the blue “Edit” button next to their name. The Personnel Details box will appear, and you’ll be able to edit the information you’ve already entered, including travel.
If you need to remove a person from a project, click the red “Remove” button next to their name.
Enter Hiring Needs
The next section will allow you to enter hiring needs. There is nothing else to do if you select, “No.” If you select, “Yes”, an additional field will display to enter information.
The Finance Department has provided some text to help guide you on what information they are looking for. You’ll want to enter all the same type of information you entered for CIRES personnel you added to the project, and any other details that will assist them in create a budget for you.
Submitting the Budget
At any point, you can “Save Draft” to save what you’ve entered so far. You can come back as many times as you need and continue editing the budget until you’re ready to submit it.
While you’re editing the budget, your CIRES Finance Manager will not be able to see this information. Once you submit the budget, your CIRES Finance Manager will get an email. They will then be able to see the information you entered and will start building the budget.
When you’re ready to submit the budget, click the blue “Save and Submit Budget” button. Once the budget has been submitted, you cannot edit it. If you need to make changes after you’ve submitted the budget, contact your CIRES Finance Manager to work with them directly.
Once the budget is submitted, you’ll see a green “Submitted” badge next to the budget year dates. Everything in this box will also be grayed out so you can no longer edit it, but you’ll still be able to see all the details.
This will generate an email to the CIRES Finance Manager letting them know the project has been added.
STEPS Dashboard
To get back to the STEPS Dashboard, you can click the “Dashboard” link in the left navigation menu.
Once on the dashboard, you’ll now see the new project and some high-level project details.
From the Dashboard, you can see a listing of your projects, their Nickname, Project Status, Budget Status, Unit Name, CIRES Lead name and email, Fed Lead name and email (if entered), CIRES Finance Manager name and email, Last Milestone (more on this later), and Last Edit date.
If the budget is in draft mode and has not been saved, you’ll see a blue “In progress” badge in the Budget Status column. Once the budget is summitted, it will be green and say “Submitted”.
You can click on the CIRES Lead, Fed Lead, or CIRES Finance Manager name to email each person individually.
You can sort these columns by clicking the up or down arrows next to the column name. There is also a search bar at the top right of the project listing where you can search for specific projects to filter the results.
To view more about the project, you can click the project title, or the eye icon on the far right to get back to the “Project Overview” page.
Project Overview Page
The project overview page displays all the details about a single project.
At the top, you have the Project Title, project status, Nickname, Themes, and Projected dates. Below this area lists the CI Lead, Fed Lead (if entered), CIRES Finance Manager, and Unit Name. There are also email addresses for these people to quickly email them directly.
The next section displays the Project Description, History, Annual Updates Details (more about this later), and Budget info.
Edit Project Info
You can edit the project information from either the “Project Overview” page, or the Dashboard. From the “Project Overview” page, you can click the blue “Edit Project Info” button that is above the project lead information on the left. From the Dashboard, you can click the pencil and paper icon to the right of the project.
From this page you can edit any of the fields that are not grayed out.
If you need to change the CI Lead and the person is not listed in the drop-down field, please contact your CIRES Finance Manager. They must be assigned as a CI Lead in the Advanced Reporting System first. Please be sure to provide the specific Sub-Project that they should be lead on. Once your CIRES Finance Manager has updated this, you’ll be able to change the CI Lead, and the CI Lead email will also update.
If you need to change the Project Nickname, please reach out to your CIRES Finance Manager to get that process started.
Once you’re done editing the information, you can click the blue “Submit” button at the bottom of the page. If you click the “Cancel” button, it will take you back to the “Project Overview” page.
History
In the history section, you will be able to see the high-level details of changes made or actions taken on the project. You can click the arrow on the right side to expand this out more and see further details. This arrow will change to a down arrow, and you can click it again to make it collapse back up.
In this example, you can see that a budget was submitted, and it tells you what time and who submitted it. You can also see that the projected start date was changed from Sep 1, 2026 to Sept 1, 2025.
Adding an Annual Update
To add an annual update or annual milestone, you’ll first navigate to the “Project Overview” page, and then click the blue “Add Annual Update” button on the right side that is above the project lead information. This will take you to the “Edit Annual Update” page.
You’ll see a lot of the same information you see on the “Project Overview” page at the top. To leave and go back to the “Project Overview” page, you can click the blue “Back to Project Overview” button on the right.
To begin an Annual Update, you’ll first select the Annual Update Period from the drop-down box. Once you select you Annual Update Period, additional fields will display below to fill in.
Once the annual update has been submitted, you cannot edit it. Use the “Save Draft” button to save your work and continue modifying the annual update until you’re ready to submit it.
All fields are required, except the images at the very end. Other than the “Project Status” and “Technology” questions, all fields are a rich-text editor so you can format the text, if you’d like. The Communications Department has provided text for each section to help guide you on what they are looking for.
This information is used in the annual report we provide to NOAA. As such, it should not include any acronyms or abbreviations other than “NOAA”. If you’d like to use an acronym, please define it on its first use in each section, and then you may use the acronym later in the same section.
If the project status is changed, a new field will appear to ask you the reason for this change. If you select “Completed”, it will also ask you for when the project ended.
The Technology section is the only other section that will have an additional field if you enter “Yes”.
Images
The images section is the only section on the “Edit Annual Update” page that is optional. You may upload up to 3 images. You’ll select the image from your computer, add a caption, and enter the caption credit.
To add additional images, click the blue “Add Image” button. If you want to remove any images, you can use the red “Delete” button to remove a single image.
Saving and Editing an Annual Update
There is a lot of information to enter. At any point, you can click the gray “Save Draft” button at the very bottom to save what you’ve entered so far. You can come back as many times as you need and continue editing the annual update until you’re ready to submit it.
On the “Project Overview” page, you’ll be able to see you have a pending annual update.
In the top section, above the blue buttons, you will see “Pending Annual Updates:” with a gray button and year. You will also see an annual update listed below the project description with a yellow badge that says “Pending” with a blue “Edit” button on the right. You’ll also notice the blue button on the right that once said, “Add Annual Update” now says “Edit Annual Update.”
There are three ways to get back to the annual update to continue editing it. You can click the gray badge with a year in the top section, the blue “Edit” button on the right side in the Annual Update section, or the blue “Edit Annual Update” bottom on the right side of the page. All three ways takes you back to the “Edit Annual Update” page.
The “Edit Annual Update” page will default to the most recent pending annual update. If you have more than one pending annual update, you can change between them by selecting a different “Annual Update Period” from the drop-down near the top.
Submitting an Annual Update
When you are ready to submit the annual update, click the blue “Save and Submit Annual Update” button. Once the annual update has been submitted, you cannot edit it. If you need to make changes after you’ve submitted the annual update, contact the Communications Department to work with them directly.
Once the annual update is submitted, you’ll see a summary of the Finalized Annual Update. To get back to the “Project Overview” page, click the blue “View Project Info” button on the right.
You’ll now see the submitted annual update in two places on the “Project Overview” page.
In the top section, above the blue buttons, you will see “Submitted Annual Updates:” with a green button and year. You will also see an annual update listed below the project description with a green badge that says “Submitted”. To view the annual update, you can click the green button with the year in the top section, or click the “View” button to the right of the annual update in the Annual Update section.
On the dashboard, you’ll also see a year listed in the “Last Milestones” column. You can also click on this year to view the finalized annual update.
A Note about Annual Update Year Naming
Annual updates will have a year assigned to them that represents the year they are due. For example, for the Annual Update Period that runs from Sep 1, 2026 through Aug 31, 2027, this annual update will be the 2027 annual update.