THE SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL

for the
QUANTITY SURVEYING PROFESSION
Established in terms of the Quantity Surveying Profession Act 2000 (Act 49 of 2000)

CANDIDATE

QUANTITY SURVEYOR

DIARY SYSTEM

USER TUTORIAL

Revised 4th March 2014

Serving the Quantity Surveying Profession with Pride

Contents

Section one - Introduction

Section two - Candidate

Getting started
Add a Mentor/supervisor
Add a project
Input data

Section three - Mentor / Supervisor

Getting started
Checking input
Signing off submissions
Extracting reports

Section four - Registration Assessor

Getting Started
Viewing inputs
Mentor details
Extracting reports

Section five - Application for Backdating

Eligibility for backdating
Getting started
Inputting Historical data
Assessment of experience

Section six - Reports

Section one - Introduction
The Candidate Diary System will allow candidates to enter their daily diary records,
logbooks all on-line. Entries on the electronic diary will automatically be converted
and filed in the correct section of the Workplace Skills Logbook and produce the
General Report as prescribed for interim and final report submissions to the
Registration Assessors, leading up to the Assessment of Professional Competency
(APC)

If you are already registered as a Candidate and have already commenced

completing your Daily Diary and Logbook in the paper format, don’t worry – the time
and experience accumulated is not lost and you won’t have to re-input all that
information again. You merely draw a line at the end of the current week or month
and commence using the on-line diary software hereafter. You will have to submit
your old daily diary sheets and the “old format” log-book with both your interim and
final APC submissions.

If you are a recently registered Candidate and you wish to apply for back-dating of
workplace experience, you will require applying using this new online QS Diary
software. The assessors will check and verify the validity of your application, and
would grant specific task time credits based on their approval.

This new software can be accessed via your PC, tablet or smart phone anywhere in
the world via the world wide web.

Browser requirements;
The system has been tested on the following browsers
MS Internet Explorer 7+
Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox

Section two - Candidate

Getting Started

To access the QS Diary website, add www.qsdiary.co.za to your favourites in your browser.

First time user – On the top-right of the page click LOGIN and you will be prompted to
enter your USERNAME and PASSWORD. To enter for the first time,
type in your username which is <your 4 digit registration number with a
prefix “ IT “>.

The default password is “password”. Using this temporary password,

go to “PROFILE” and change the password to one convenient for you.
Enter it twice and then select “SAVE CANDIDATE INFO”

Regular user On the top-right of the page click LOGIN and input your USERNAME
and PASSWORD.
The data reflected on your profile page has been transferred over from the SACQSP
registration website. If any field requires to be changed, you need to log-in to the
www.sacqsp.org.za website and correct it there. It takes 24-hours for changes in the
registration website to be updated on the QS Diary software.

Your mentor/supervisors details are inputted by the Registration Department of the

SACQSP, from information provided in the 2014 Letter of Undertaking. In your Letter of
Undertaking, your employer and supervisor/mentor has agreed to provide you with on-going
workplace skills training in line with the Schedule of Workplace Training. Your employer
may be your supervisor/mentor, or it may be a different person or partner within the QS
Practice, and in other cases, the Mentor may be externally appointed. The
mentor/supervisor in the Letter of Undertaking is the responsible person who the Council will
hold accountable for your workplace education. It is possible within a larger practice that
you may be working with more than one mentor on different projects. To add more than one
mentor to your profile, submitting a new page 3 of the Letter of Undertaking to the
Registration Department.

As each new mentor is added to your list, an email will be sent to them to confirm that they
are indeed mentoring you, plus how to log-on detailed instructions are provided with their
password.

Add a project

From you PROFILE page, click on the PROJECTS tab on the top of the page. Here is a list
of all current and past projects that you have worked on. Select ADD A PROJECT, and
add all that project details. Select from the pull-down menu the mentor who is principal
PrQS on that project.

Projects are listed in date commencement order.

Input data

This is the area that you will work in most of the time. From your LOGIN page, select
DIARY

The first screen you can select a period under review. Ideally we suggest that you select
using the calendar a 2-week period. All tasks (if any) that have been inputted are listed
thereunder. You can sort by project name or date by clicking on the header. If you want to
add a new diary items, click on the “NEW ENTRY” button.
1. Select the project from the pull down list.
2. Input the start date and time
3. Input the end date and time – the system automatically calculated the duration.
4. Select the responsibility level from the pull down list per the summary below;

Table 1: RESPONSIBILITY PROGRESSION

Degree of Nature of work: the Responsibility of Extent of
Responsibility candidate Candidate to Supervisor/
Supervisor Mentor Support
1: Being Exposed … undergoes No responsibility Mentor explains
induction, observes challenges and forms
processes, work of of solution
competent
practitioners
2: Assisting … performs specific Limited responsibility Supervisor/Mentor
processes under close for work output coaches, offers feed
supervision back
3: Participating … performs specific Full responsibility for Supervisor
processes as directed supervised work progressively reduces
with limited support, but monitors
supervision outputs
4: Contributing … performs specific Full responsibility to Candidates articulates
work with detailed supervisor for own reasoning and
approval of work immediate quality of compares it with
outputs work those of supervisor
5: Performing … works in team Level of responsibility Candidate takes on
without supervision, to supervisor is problem solving
recommends work appropriate to a without support, at
outputs, responsible registered person, most limited
but not accountable supervisor is
accountable for
candidates decisions

5. In the “Description of Work” field you can write anything. However, you should give
a more detailed description of what specifically that you are doing so that your
mentor/supervisor can monitor your progress with full knowledge of what you have
done, e.g. Compiled the steel window schedule to the East Block from drawing GW 67b
Rev 1 and 67c Rev3. This is an excellent tool to record what you have done for fee
costing purposes and tracking work completed.
6. You then have an option to HOLD or SUBMIT. If you are still working on that task,
place the entry on HOLD. If you have completed the task and moving onto another
task select SUBMIT.
7. You then need to save your recording by selecting SAVE or SAVE AND NEXT if you
want to add another diary entry. CANCEL will delete the entire entry.

The task entry has now been complete and is awaiting approval of your
mentor/supervisor. The STATUS field indicates the status with your mentor/supervisor;
S - Submitted and pending mentor approval
R - Rejected by mentor
C - Complete and approved by mentor
At any time before your mentor/supervisor has seen the entry you can go back into the
task and edit it by selecting the right hand icon on the task list.

The QS DIARY software will allow you to backdate your diary inputs for up to 24-months
provided that your data inputted are accurate and you have not changed employer and
mentor/supervisor. The backdated inputs may not be prior to the commencement date
that ppears on your certificate of Candidate registration. If you have changed employer
or mentor/supervisor, you will require to complete page 2 and 3 of the Letter of
Undertaking document and submit it directly to the Registration Manager for approval.
[email protected] On receipt of the additional employer/mentor/supervisor, the
registration manager will upload their details on the QS DIARY software enabling you to
continue capturing your daily diaries.

If your mentor/supervisor is not a PrQS or is not in good standing in respect to fees and
CPD, the QS DIARY software will not recognise the mentor and you will not be able to
load the daily dairy until it is resolved.

Section three - Mentor / Supervisor

Getting started

To access the QS Diary software, add http://qsdiary.co.za/diary to your favourites in your

browser.

First time user – On the top-right of the page click LOGIN and you will be prompted to
enter your USERNAME and PASSWORD. To enter for the first time,
type in your username which is <your 4 digit registration number >.

The default password is “password”. Using this temporary password,

go to “PROFILE” and change the password to one convenient for you.
Enter it twice and then select “SAVE MENTOR INFO”

Regular user On the top-right of the home page click LOGIN and input your
USERNAME and PASSWORD.

The data reflected on your profile page has been transferred over from the SACQSP
registration website. If any field requires to be changed, you need to log-in to the
www.SACQSP.org.za website and correct it there. It takes 24-hours for changes in the
registration website to be updated on the QS Diary software.

Once an email notification has been received from the SACQSP Registration Department
notifying you that you have been added as a Mentor/Supervisor to a Candidate’s profile, the
mentor will note the name of the candidate on their profile. Provided the Candidate inputs a
minimum of 1,200 workplace skills into the system per year, you as a Mentor will be
rewarded with 5-hours of CPD hours Category 1 per year.

Checking input

This is the area that you will work in most of the time. From your LOGIN page select DIARY
SIGNOFF. The mentor can access the entries by all his/her assigned candidates by clicking
on the SIGNOFF ENTRIES button. The mentor will have an option to select which
candidate to review by clicking on their name.

The first screen you can select a period under review. Ideally we suggest that you select
using the calendar a 4-week period. All tasks (if any) that have been inputted are listed
thereunder. You can sort by project name or date by clicking on the header.
1. Select the task listed with a status “ S “ indicating that it has been submitted, but
not approved, by clicking on the icon on the right hand side.
2. The task screen will open for the candidate indicating date, start time and end
time that the candidate is recording for that task.
3. The Responsibility is the category that this task falls within on the candidacy
logbook per the table below;

Table 1: RESPONSIBILITY PROGRESSION

Degree of Nature of work: the Responsibility of Extent of
Responsibility candidate Candidate to Supervisor/
Supervisor Mentor Support
1: Being Exposed … undergoes No responsibility Mentor explains
induction, observes challenges and forms
processes, work of of solution
competent
practitioners
2: Assisting … performs specific Limited responsibility Supervisor/Mentor
processes under close for work output coaches, offers feed
supervision back
3: Participating … performs specific Full responsibility for Supervisor
processes as directed supervised work progressively reduces
with limited support, but monitors
supervision outputs
4: Contributing … performs specific Full responsibility to Candidates articulates
work with detailed supervisor for own reasoning and
approval of work immediate quality of compares it with
outputs work those of supervisor
5: Performing … works in team Level of responsibility Candidate takes on
without supervision, to supervisor is problem solving
recommends work appropriate to a without support, at
outputs, responsible registered person, most limited
but not accountable supervisor is
accountable for
candidates decisions

4. The Candidate should give details of what specific work was done so that you
can accurately agree and assess their progress. It would be beneficial to insist
on accurate details so that you have an record for your own purposes for
historical assessment, e.g. Compiled the steel window schedule to the East Block
from drawing GW 67b Rev 1 and 67c Rev3. This is also an excellent tool to record
what they have done for fee costing purposes and tracking work completed.
5. You can add your own notes here and to include some constructive comment if
necessary.
6. You need to change the status to sign-off of your find the task to be acceptable.
Do not accept false task records – you have the right to reject an entry which is
sent back to the candidate with your notes.
7. In terms of the Letter of Undertaking, you must acknowledge all Candidate diary
submission, and may not purposefully ignore any entries. The Candidate has the
right to lodge a complaint with the Registrar if a mentor/supervisor fails in their
duty in this regard.
8. Finally, click on the SAVE button to close the entry, and then select the next task
entry.

The all the submitted task entries with the “ S “ status need to be approved.
The status “ R “ indicates Rejected by mentor, giving the Candidate the opportunity to
correct the task entry for re-submission.
The status “ C “ indicates Complete and approved by mentor

The Candidate may elect to re-capture their diary and logbook using this new QS DIARY
application. The Registration Committee will allow registered Candidate to use this software
to record workplace experience from 1st January 2012 onwards. If you were not the
mentor/supervisor at the time of the activity, do not sign-off that work – but formally reject the
submissions.

Section four - Registration Assessor

FOR SACQSP OFFICE USE ONLY
Getting Started
Viewing inputs
Mentor details
Extracting reports

Section five - Application for Backdating

Backdating is the assessment and approval of prior workplace experience (PWE) achieved
under the supervision of a registered PrQS post qualification up to the date of formal
Candidate registration with the SACQSP. Backdating of workplace skills training is not a
right but a concession of the Registration Committee. The application for consideration is
spelt out in detail in the Registration Policy.

Backdating Eligibility

1. Application for backdating by the registration committee will only be considered after
completion of the registration as a candidate.
2. Any decision by the registration committee in respect to the granting of backdating is
totally discretionary and not subject to any appeal.
3. Registered candidate QS may only apply for backdating of their professional, practical
experience gained prior to the date of registration stated in the letter from the registrar,
confirming the candidate’s registration.
4. Only the applicant’s workplace experience under the direct supervision of a PrQS in
good standing or a MRICS/FRICS will be considered.
5. Experience attained prior to the Candidate attaining either a BTech QS or a BSc QS
degree will not be considered.
6. Backdating applications will only be considered within 12-month of initial registration
with the SACQSP.

Getting Started

As you should already be a regular user, click LOGIN and input your USERNAME and
PASSWORD.

Input historical data

From your LOGIN page, select the PWE icon. This page is very similar to the regular “Diary”
page, the difference being that you have the option of inputting hours for the activity instead
of start and end times.

You create projects from your profile page as necessary, and you can add a mentor if
different from your current mentor.

It is important that you provide as much historical data as possible to enable the
mentor/supervisor to sign-off your submission, as well enable the Registration Assessors to
feel satisfied that you had indeed undertaken the workplace training.

Assessment of Backdating

The assessment of previous workplace experience can be done only once per Candidate.

Once you have completed the capture of the [PWE], and the mentor/s have signed-off as
acceptable the diaries, you must notify the Registration Manager in writing to submit your
data to the Registration Assessor for consideration. Incomplete submissions and
submissions that have not be signed-off as COMPLETE by your mentor/supervisor will not
be considered.

The Registration Assessor will decide which activities and the amount of hours that is to be
credited from your overall workplace training period. The Registration Manager with then
input this information into your detailed logbook profile.
Section six - Reports

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The following standard reports are available for Candidates;

Monthly Analysis by Activity

This indicates all tasks undertaken by the Candidate between 2 dates. Useful to
analyse what type of work is being undertaken.

Diary by Date
This is a day-by day reporting of tasks done by the candidate detailing the specific
work within the activity.

Project Summary
This reports summaries all the activities that the Candidate has been involved in on a
project by project basis.

Activity by Project
This report provides detail breakdown all activities undertaken by the Candidate per
project.

Activity Summary
This report summarises all activities in accordance to the logbook requirements
detailing the compliance of experience as compared to the benchmark requirements
as set by the SACQSP.

Copyright Notice
The Candidate Diary System is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as
well as other intellectual property laws and treaties. This software is licensed, not sold. Except as
expressly provided in any written license agreement from Rodney Eales, the furnishing of this
software does not give you any license to any of Rodney Eales' patents, trademarks, copyrights, or
other intellectual property.

© 2013 Rodney Eales. All rights reserved.