Security Configuration
With the electronic submission of environmental reports comes the issue of who has the right to create or edit reports and who has the right to configure the entire report submission process.

In the E2 System, users are grouped as "Administrators" and "Users". Administrators have the right to set up users, user groups, and their relevant access rights to each module of the E2 System, depending on their role in the workflow of environmental report submission. For example, a manager at a wastewater treatment facility may see what Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs) have been submitted by his employees, but may not be able to submit reports. It may make sense to create a role called wwtp_manager that bundles the E2 Reporting System screens and functions that give read only access to the View Reports screen. The administrator can check off those functional areas of the system that would allow such viewing capabilities.

The E2 System is designed to significantly improve data quality and save resources, which would normally be required in a paper-based reporting environment. Moreover, the E2 System is suitable for federal government, state agencies, and local municipalities to streamline the efforts of collecting environmental monitoring data from facilities. The technology used for the E2 System has a broad application to environmental programs such as wastewater discharge permitting and reporting under the NPDES, drinking water monitoring under the SDWA, air permitting and reporting under Title V, groundwater management, and storm water management programs.

Roles are created to manage the E2 Reporting System functions. Each role has Read, Update, Add, Delete rights set up according to each specific module or function in the E2 System that will determine the nature of the individual's workflow and access rights. For example, a dmr_viewer role will have read-only rights to DMR reports. A dmr_staff role will have no rights to reporting in general, but rights to Read, Update, Add, Delete for facility information.

Groups are created to manage the E2 Reporting System roles. Instead of associating each user at the function level time and time again, previously created roles can be chosen to create a group. Users that have multiple roles may be associated with a group. For example, a user of DMR manager carries the roles of dmr_viewer and dmr_staff. A group named dmr_manager may be created that clusters those roles. In this way a DMR manager may be associated to the dmr_manager group rather than to each role, simplifying the security setup process. The group setup is particularly useful when users belong to multiple security groups.

Users are created and assigned to those groups defined by the E2 Reporting System Administrator. Users are then associated with facilities, and given Viewer or Certifier privileges.

Facility Management
The administrator may determine and configure the facility settings to one of the below categories. This enables the addition of facilities that are not necessarily used for report submissions, especially since the trial period is crucial to DMR/DWR submission due to security issues.

System Management
Administrators can configure all structural aspects of the electronic environmental reporting from the System Management Module. DMR and DWR schema locations may be selected, and new schemas may be added to the system in the Schema screen. The database from which the schemas draw data is specified in the Database screen of this module.

In order to run certain tasks in the E2 System, the administrator needs to set up tasks in the Task screen of the System Management module. Here, the administrator assigns date and time for certain tasks (such as Upload DMR result, indicated below) to be performed by the system. For tasks to be performed in a timely manner, Atomic time configuration becomes crucial. The Atomic time setup is conveniently located in the same module, where IP address of the website from which atomic time data will be taken can be specified, sequenced in priority. Tracking accurate time is detrimental to environmental reporting, and managing time accuracy in the E2 System is made easy.

The administrator may also set up default email addresses from which password and other E2-related information that will be sent out to each user. Flexibility exists to set email addresses to each reporting system, DMR and DWR.

Reporting Requirements & Form Management

Facilities have varying reporting requirements, and the E2 System allows the administrators to specify the requirements for each facility, as well as set the facility status. The user viewing and submitting the reports will only be able to see report types that are set in this section and for the month they are configured to.

Submission and Report Management
In Report Management, the administrator may view the status of report submission for each facility.