A Credit model element carries information about earning points towards a particular certification scheme, typically within a Category of the certification scheme.

GreenDesk employs two kinds of credit elements:

• An activity credit is addressed via a set of Activity (task) items that can be allocated to Actors (human resource roles). Each activity is usually subject to an Expert System Test based on project model values and answers to questions supplied by users. Such tests are designed to ensure that the Credit Criteria specified by the certification scheme authority are fully met.
• A composite credit is completed by progressively completing its sub-credits (a.k.a. "child credits"), which may be activity credits or themselves composite credits.

In GreenDesk, the information and model data required for completing activities that help earn points towards credits is usually entered using convenient rich interactive web worksheets. GreenDesk constantly prompts users for any missing information and indicates to users where project design choices may earn or lose credit points.

About points targeting

Only 'targeted' credits are counted by the GreenDesk Expert System when counting predicted points. The targeting of credits is indicated by the following icons:

• At least some of the maximum available points are targeted.
• Not targeted.

The main credit view offers a simple Target! button for automatically targeting maximum points. Users can also Edit a credit and set it as 'targeted' and enter a value for the explicitly targeted points, or use the inplace editor (illustrated in this tutorial video). For composite credits (ones with sub-credits) auto-targeting is only supported for ALL or ANY Points Logic (not for OR or CUSTOM Points Logic where users must first make a choice of targeted sub-credits). There is also an UnTarget! button for targeted credits; for composite credits this recursively un-targets all child credits. CAUTION: Un-targeting also removes any choices of explicitly targeted points.

About credit points completion tracking

GreenDesk employs a simple "empty star, half-star, full-star" coloured icon system to help users easily see how they are making progress towards earning credit points by completing activities or sub-credits:

• No activities for the credit have been 'accepted' yet (according to the expert system) so no points have been counted towards the credit.
• At least some activities for the credit have been 'accepted', but not all available points have been counted towards the credit. Such a credit is considered "partially accepted".
• All available points have been counted towards the credit.

In addition, there is a special indicator for cases when the applicability of a credit can't be determined yet:

• Some information is missing, please visit the credit's view page (and/or any related worksheets) to find out what information must be provided before applicability can be determined.

About submission credit indicators

There is also an icon for indicating whether a credit is a submission credit, which are those credits that correspond to the Credit Submission Templates required by some certification scheme authorities. Submission credits in GreenDesk may be supported by interactive GreenDesk Credit Submissions Forms, which in turn embed rich interactive web Worksheets, and help collate all information required for final submission to claim a credit:

• Indicates a submission credit. Visit the credit's page to access its Credit Submission Form (where available).
• Not a submission credit; this usually means that either the parent credit of the credit or one of its child credits (sub-credits) acts as the submission credit instead.

About compliance documentation tracking for credits

Each credit is typically also subject to documentation compliance requirements. The particular compliance documentation required may depend on project model data and design choices. GreenDesk helps users track the collation of compliance documentation for targeted credits. Users can upload the indicated compliance documentation directly to GreenDesk credit tracking pages as file attachments.

GreenDesk uses the following coloured icons to indicate the document compliance status of credits:

•   There are no compliance documents under Expert System control defined for the credit (yet).
•   There are candidate compliance documents, but it it not known yet whether every compliance document is required or not. Some model data values required for calculating the applicability of the credit or the document compliance conditions is still missing. Visit the credit's main view page or any related worksheets to provide the missing information.
•  There are some required compliance documents - OR some Optional-But-Recommended Documents that have been selected by the user as Relevant Documents - but file attachments have been made yet for all of them (so document compliance is deemed to be NOT met yet). Use the ATTACH! button from the Compliance Documents table of the credit's view page to visit the document's edit page where you may browse your file system and make a file attachment, then Save.
•   File attachments have been made for all strictly required compliance documents (if there are any) AND for any Optional-But-Recommended Documents that have been selected by the user as Relevant Documents.
•   File attachments have been made for all strictly required documents (if there are any) but there are also some Optional-But-Recommended Documents and none have been selected as Relevant Documents yet (so no file attachment checks have been performed for them). This special status icon version is intended to prompt you to consider selecting at least one Optional-But-Recommended Document as a Relevant Document and make a file attachment for it.

Apart from the document compliance indicator icons, GreenDesk also offers various document compliance overviews, including:

•  The general Documents Overview Table, which includes all compliance documents and the credits they support, as well as any documents uploaded to model element view pages for general project tracking.
•  The dedicated Document Compliance Overview.

About credit grouping and credit options

Many certification schemes organise two or more closely related credits within what GreenDesk calls a CreditGroup, in many cases offering a choice of which credits to target. In GreenDesk, every Credit item is always (either directly or indirectly) grouped under exactly one CreditGroup item, even if it is the only credit in that group. In turn, CreditGroup items are grouped within a Category