Attachment 8 - POC E-Diary User Guide

POC Video Tutorial Scripts

Video 1. How do I get started?

1. Thank you for agreeing to participate in the Consumer Expenditure Diary Survey. In this video, I’m going to show you how to get started by navigating to the CE Diary website and logging in.

2. To access the CE Diary, type in the web address: https://respond.census.gov/poc into your web browser. You can do this on your desktop computer or on a mobile device. Be sure to enter the web address exactly as it appears as it is case sensitive.

3. After you enter the web address, you will see the login screen. Enter the username and password provided by your Field Representative.

4. After the first time that you login in you will see a screen that asks you to select your start date. Your start date is listed on the front of the User Guide that your FR provided. Please select your start date from the drop-down list.

5. Once you have selected your start date you will see your home screen. This is the screen you will always see when you login in the future.

   1. From this screen you can add an expense or view, edit, and delete any expenses you’ve already entered. We’ll go over how to do all of that in another video.

   2. You can learn more about the Survey and obtain helpful information by selecting the Info or Information link

   3. If you are logged in on your desktop computer, you can view the User Guide.

   4. You can change your username or password by selecting the User Settings link.

   5. And at any time, you can logout of the diary.

6. If by chance you had no expenses during your diary week, you can login on or after the last day of your diary week. You will see a checkbox to confirm that you had no expenses during the week.

Video 2: What should I enter into the CE Diary?

1. Before we cover how to enter information into the diary, let’s talk about what information we’d like you to enter. To put it simply, we want you to record EVERYTHING you buy during the diary period no matter how little or how much it cost. We want you to include products that you buy and services that you use. We want you to include things that you’ve purchased for yourself and things you’ve purchased for others.

2. For each item you record in the diary we need to know a few pieces of information.

1. The date that the purchase was made,

2. A description of what you bought,

3. And how much you paid for it

4. We would also like you to categorize what you purchased into one of these four categories:

   1. Food and Drink Away from Home – which include meals eaten at restaurants, drinks purchased at coffee shops, sodas purchased from vending machines, things like that.

   2. Food and Drink for Home Consumption – which include grocery items that you would eat or prepare at home

   3. Clothing, Shoes, Jewelry, and Accessories –

   4. And All other Products and Services – which is everything that doesn’t fit into one of the other categories.

5. The reason we divide the world of purchases up into these categories is because we are interested in slightly different information depending on the category.

3. For Food and Drink Away From Home we are interested in:

   1. A description of the overall meal

   2. The cost of the whole meal, including tax and tip

   3. The type of meal…whether it was for breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc.

   4. The type of vendor…whether it was purchased from a full-service restaurant that has wait staff, a fast food restaurant, a vending machine, or a cafeteria

   5. And if alcohol was purchased for the meal, we would like to know the types of alcohol and the total cost for the drinks.

   6. Here are some examples of purchases that would be considered Food and Drink Away From Home.

4. For Food and Drink for Home Consumption we need

   1. Each item entered separately. That is, if you spent $20 at the grocery store, we don’t want you to enter $20 for groceries, we would like you to record that you spent $4 on milk, $2 on eggs, and so on.

   2. For this category we would like you to enter a description of each item that was purchased

   3. The cost of that item without tax

   4. The type of packaging the item came in

   5. And whether it was purchased for someone outside of your household as a gift or donation. If you purchased the item for yourself or for someone in your household, you can leave this box unchecked.

   6. After entering that information for one item on your receipt, you would then tap the “Save” button and enter the next item.

   7. Here are some examples of purchases that would be considered Food and Drink for Home Consumption.

5. For Clothing, Shoes, Jewelry, and Accessories

   1. We also need items to be entered separately.

   2. Here too, we would like a description of each item you purchased

   3. And the cost of each item without tax

   4. We also need the gender and age of the person that the item was purchased for

   5. And whether it was purchased for someone outside of your household

   6. Here are some examples of purchases that would be considered Clothing, Shoes, Jewelry, and Accessories.

6. And finally, we would like All Other Products and Services

   1. To be entered separately

   2. For items that belong to this category all we need is

      1. A description of the item

      2. The cost of the item without tax

      3. And whether it was purchased for someone outside your household

   3. Here are some examples of purchases that would be considered All Other Products and Services. Once again, this is a catchall category for anything that doesn’t fit into one of the other three categories.

Video 3: How do I enter and edit my expenses?

7. In this video, I’m going to show you how to enter your expenses into the diary using your desktop computer or your mobile device. Once you start entering expenses, you’ll also want to know how to make changes. I’ll show you how to do that as well.

8. Let’s say I want to enter information about a pair of shoes I bought yesterday for my nephew.

   1. Starting at the Home Screen, I would simply begin entering the information at the top of the desktop version.

      1. Here, I would select the date of the purchase, which was May 9^th.

      2. I would describe the item…I bought him a pair of running shoes

      3. They cost $70.00

      4. And they would fall into the Clothing, Shoes, Jewelry, & Accessories category. Notice that when I select the category, the diary then asks me to record the category-specific information.

      5. I bought the shoes for my nephew and he is 14.

      6. Finally, I’ll check this box noting that the shoes were purchased for someone outside my household and tap save.

      7. Notice that the item will appear on the bottom of the screen under Summary of Expenses.

   2. To enter the same purchase on the mobile version, I would first tap on the Add an Expense button and that would get me to the general entry screen.

      1. Here, I would again select the date of the purchase, which was May 9^th.

      2. I would describe the item… a pair of running shoes

      3. They cost $70.00

      4. And select the Clothing, Shoes, Jewelry, & Accessories category.

      5. I bought the shoes for my nephew and he is 14.

      6. And lastly, I’ll check this box noting that the shoes were purchased for someone outside my household and tap save.

      7. On the mobile version, if I want to see what I just typed in, I can tap the Home button and go back to the Home Screen.

9. Now, let’s say I entered the wrong cost for the shoes. I realized that I should’ve entered the cost without tax for this category.

   1. Here’s what I’d do on the desktop:

      1. I simply tap on the edit button

      2. Change the cost information to $64.95

      3. And tap Save

      4. I’ll end up back at the Home Screen where I can see the change has been made.

   2. And on the mobile version:

      1. Again, tap the edit button

      2. change the cost information to $64.95

      3. And tap Save

      4. After going back to the home screen, I can see the change has been made

10. When I show my nephew the shoes, he says that he already has a pair of running shoes and that I can take these back. So I take them back and get a refund. Since it is no longer money that I’ve spent, I can delete the shoes from the diary.

    1. To do this in the desktop version, I can simply tap on the Delete button next to the item. A pop-up box to confirm whether I want to delete the item will appear.

    2. A pop-up box will pop up to confirm that I want to delete the item.

    3. On the mobile version, I once again tap on the Edit button next to the shoes.

    4. Scroll to the bottom of the screen where I tap the Delete button

    5. I then tap the Delete Item button the pop-up box to confirm and I am brought back to the Home Screen, where the item is now gone.

11. Now that we’ve covered the basic functions of the diary, I’ll walk you through a couple of examples that will show you how you might use the diary in the real world.

12. Let’s say I went out to dinner with a friend and I picked up the tab for the both of us. I decide to enter the meal into the mobile diary during the cab ride home.

1. I’ll tap on Add an Expense

2. This dinner was on May 10^th

3. This was a Food and Drink Away From Home Expense so I will enter a description of the overall meal

4. I’ll also enter the full cost of the meal including tax and tip

5. I’ll then select the category and answer the category-specific questions

6. This was dinner and it was purchased at a full-service restaurant

7. We also had some drinks so I will enter that information into the Alcohol Included box.

   1. There was a beer and a liquor drink so I will select Beer and Other

   2. I’ll total up the cost of the alcohol and enter that

8. I’ll then tap save and then go to the home screen to see what I’ve entered.

13. In the next example, I stopped by J-Mart and picked up some household goods and grocery items. Notice that this receipt covers several different diary categories. Since none of these items is a Food and Drink Away from Home Purchase, I will enter each individually. Let me show you how to add these expenditures on a mobile device.

    1. I’ll start at the top, these items were purchased on the May 10^th

    2. I purchased window spray for $3.99, so I’ll enter “Window spray” in the description field.

       1. In the cost field, I’ll enter $3.99, the cost without any tax.

       2. It doesn’t fit into any of the food or clothing categories, so I will select All Other Products and Services from the drop down box.

       3. Since I purchased it for myself, I don’t have to select the box. I can tap save.

    3. Next, I purchased some Tupperware.

       1. The date’s the same, so I can go to the description field and enter my description of “Tupperware”.

       2. In the cost field, I’ll type 4.50, the cost without tax

       3. This also doesn’t fall into the food or clothing category, so I’ll select All Other Products and Services again.

       4. This was also purchased for myself, so I won’t check the box and will hit save.

    4. Lastly, I purchased a gallon of milk.

       1. The date’s the same, so I’ll just type “Milk” into the description field.

       2. I’ll enter 3.99 in the cost field

       3. This is Food and Drink for Home Consumption, so I’ll select that.

       4. It’s fresh, so I’ll select that and it was purchased for myself, so I will just select save.

    5. To see all of my new entries, I can select the home screen.

14. In the next example, I went to the Val-U-Mart superstore and bought several things for my house. Again this receipt covers several different diary categories. Since none of these items is a Food and Drink Away from Home Purchase, I will enter each individually. This time, I’ll add the items using my desktop computer.

    1. I’ll start at the top.

    2. These items were purchased on May 11^th

    3. I’ll enter the shampoo and the cost without tax

       1. It doesn’t fit into any of the food or clothing categories, so I will select All Other Products and Services

       2. Since I purchased it for myself, I don’t have to select the box. I can tap save.

    4. It will add the shampoo to my summary at the bottom of the screen and clear out the fields at the top of the screen where I can enter the milk.

       1. I’ll enter the milk and cost without tax

       2. Categorize it as Food and Drink for Home Consumption

       3. Select that it is “fresh”

       4. And tap save

    5. Since these cans of vegetable soup are both the same item, I can enter them together or separately. I’ll enter them together.

       1. I’ll note in the description that I bought two of them

       2. I’ll type in the total cost, again without tax

       3. I’ll tap select that they are “canned”

       4. And tap save

    6. Finally, I’ll enter the dress shirt.

       1. Notice that when I’m describing the item I don’t include the name-brand, just a description of the item.

       2. I’ll enter the cost without tax and categorize this as clothing.

       3. Since I purchased it for myself, I’ll select Male and 16& Over.

       4. Tap save

       5. And then go back to the home screen to see what I’ve entered

15. Thank you for watching this video. If you have any questions about the Consumer Expenditure Diary Survey, you can contact your Field Representative who’s contact information is on the front of the user guide.