Introduction

The Rainforest Alliance has introduced a tool – FieldEntry - to help farm groups meet the indicator data reporting requirement. The tool has two components: KOBO and FieldEntry web App. The components are designed to work together, making it easier for farm groups to collect data at group members level, aggregate and report indicator data in the Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform (RACP).

What is this document for?

This document serves as a guide to offer practical tips and instructions for understanding key features and effectively use the FieldEntry tool.

Components of FieldEntry

• KoboToolbox is a free, open-source tool for collecting and managing data. It will be used for gathering farm-level data.

• FieldEntry: A platform to aggregate and report data collected via KOBO.

Who Should Use FieldEntry?

FieldEntry has been specially designed for farm groups without their own data collection and aggregation systems.

Group personnel who can use the tool are:

• Farm Group Administrator: Use KOBO to collect data and FieldEntry to aggregate and report it.

• Internal Inspectors/Data Collectors: Collect and submit data via KOBO so their group management can aggregate it using FieldEntry.

What Can You Do?

As a Farm Group Administrator:

• Register your organization

• Create profiles in KOBO Toolkit and FieldEntry

• Assign projects to Internal Inspectors/data collectors

• Approve surveys

• Aggregate data

• Export aggregated data in Excel format

As an Internal Inspector/Data Collector:

• Collect farm-level data using KOBO Toolkit

• Submit surveys

• Receive feedback on submissions

Step-by-Step Guide for Farm Group Administrators

1. Create Your KOBO Account

• Go to: fieldentry@ra.org

• On your dashboard, you can use the drop-down menu on the top right corner to select a language of your choice from the available languages.

• If you are using KOBO with Rainforest Alliance for the first time, click on the “Create Kobo Account” button. If you already have an account, skip to step 2.

Note that you need internet connection to create an account.

• You will be redirected to the Kobo “Create an Account” page. Fill in your username, email, and password.

• Once you confirm your password your will click on “Create your Account”

• You will receive an email requesting you to confirm your account. Kindly follow the instructions in the email to complete your account setup and log in.

2. Register Your Organization in KOBO

Login with your credentials in FieldEntry

You will be required to Register your organization:

You will be redirected to a registration form where you need to provide:

• Organization Details:

  • Organization Name

  • Certificate Holder RA_ID or MyRA ID (With format RA_00000000000)

• Contact Details:

  • First and Last Name

  • E-mail Address

  • Phone Number

  • Country

  • RA Kobo Toolbox Username (Same username of the account you create in step 1)

• Small Farm Related Data

  • Total number of small farms

  • Number of small farms that joined this year

  • Certified crops

Please, do not fill in the last field. That field will be filled in by Rainforest Alliance Customer Success team. See image below. That field is to be used by Rainforest Alliance Customer Success team only:

Pending Registration Request

Please allow up to 24 working hours for your registration to be processed. After this period, you will be able to log in using your username and password.

If you experience any issues or are still unable to register after 24 working hours, please contact Customer Success at customersuccess@ra.org.

During this waiting period, you will see a banner above the login screen indicating that your registration request is pending.

3. Administrate your surveys in KOBO

Log into KOBO using this link: https://kobo.kobotoolbox.cs.ra.org and click on the name of the project.

• In this overview, you can edit the survey and assign it to other staff members responsible for data collection.

• Go to the form and click on the “More actions” icon on the left side of the screen.

4. Share your surveys with Farm Group data collectors

As a Farm Group administrator, you will want to share the survey with the staff visiting farms in the field. To do so, follow these instructions.

• In your dashboard, click the name of the project.

• In the window that opens, go to the form tab and click the “More actions” icon on the top left side of the screen.

• Click “Share this Project” to provide access to Internal inspectors or data collectors.

• Set Permissions for Each Data Collector: Choose the appropriate permissions based on their role:

  • Edit the Form: Allows the user to fill out and submit survey responses.

  • View Submissions / View Submissions from Specific Users: Grants access to view submitted data.

  • Edit Submissions / Edit Submissions from Specific Users: Enables editing or deleting submissions made by others.

  • Validate Submissions: Allows the user to approve submitted data.

  • Delete Submissions: Permits deletion of survey entries.

  • Manage the Project: Grants full administrative rights, including managing users and project settings.

5. See Survey Results

• In your dashboard, click the name of the project.

• Click the “Data” tab. You will see a list where each row represents a form submitted by a farm.

6. Validating Collected Data

• Validate data collected in each form by changing its status to “Approved.”

🔔 Note: This step is required before the data can be sent to FieldEntry for aggregation.

Using KOBO for Data Collection

For Internal Inspectors/Data Collectors:

1. Logging In and Accessing the Form

• Log in to: https://kobo.kobotoolbox.cs.ra.org

• Create a KOBO account

• Fill in your username, email, and password.

• Once you confirm your password your will click on “Create Account”

• Confirm via email the creation of your account and log in.

2. Request Access

Ask your Farm Group Administrator to add you to the project in KOBO. You will need to provide your username.

3. Access the form

•  Once you have been added to the project, you will see the project listed on your dashboard upon logging into KOBO.

• Click the pencil icon next to the project to open it for editing.

• In the ‘Form’ section, click the ‘Open’ button.

• You will be redirected to the form.

4. Fill out farm data

This overview shows you how to navigate the survey

• Click Next to continue

• Complete the form by entering the required information for each small farm in the designated sections.

• Once you have finished, click “Submit.”

• After submission, you will be redirected to the start of the form, allowing you to begin filling it out for the next farm.

Using FieldEntry for Aggregation

Log into FieldEntry after your registration request has been approved, you can log in to the FieldEntry platform by entering your username and password, then click “Log in.”

2. FieldEntry Dashboard

Once logged in, you will gain access to your dashboard:

3. Indicator Processing

Click on the “Indicator processing” tile on the dashboard

4. Load Your Data

Click the “load your data” button. Repeat this step each time a survey is approved to ensure the latest data is included

🔔 Note: you must collect survey data from at least 35% of your farms for the indicator results to be generated.

5. View Indicator Results

Once data has been collected from at least 35% of your farms, the aggregated indicator data will appear at the bottom of the dashboard.

6. Export the Indicator Data

After completing data collection for all farms, click the “Export” button.

An excel (.xls) file containing the aggregated data will be generated and available for download.

Support & resources

Access guides and learning materials directly from the FieldEntry dashboard

Use the KOBO registration page for help documents