Build a Portfolio

A portfolio acts as a container to aggregate plans and calculate the total costs for the trials the plans represent.

Possible uses for a portfolio include adding the final version plan for each study related to the same product (compound or medical device) to a portfolio to estimate the costs to bring the product to market. Other uses include adding the optimal plan for each study potentially executed over a certain time frame to do longer range planning for operating budgets.

Portfolios provide aggregate forecasts, such as monthly budget, monthly resource demand, and time lines across multiple plans. You can also see the effect of adjusting start and end dates.

After you have created a portfolio, you can:

• Develop a forecast for a full set of studies within a given budget cycle (1-year, 3-years, 5-years, and so on).
• Assess the impact on your budget of including, excluding, or delaying a particular plan or study.
• View the resulting monthly budgets, resource requirements, cycle times, and milestones across a group of studies.
• Account for the likelihood that a plan will come to fruition by discounting the costs associated with the plan.
• Make on-the-fly adjustments and see the immediate impacts on budgets and resource requirements.

You can exclude plans from a portfolio to see how the exclusion affects the overall fees, costs, and hours of a portfolio. When you exclude a plan from the portfolio, it remains listed in the portfolio with a line through it and you can include it again.

The portfolio costs include any inflation and bottom -ine discounts that exist in a plan within the portfolio.

• Create a Portfolio
  Building a portfolio is a way to store multiple versions and forecasts for a study in one place and easily explore changes to the plan and outcomes from adjusting assumptions.

Create a Portfolio

Building a portfolio is a way to store multiple versions and forecasts for a study in one place and easily explore changes to the plan and outcomes from adjusting assumptions.

1. From the Edit menu, select Portfolios.
2. On the Portfolios screen, click New.
3. On the Create Portfolio screen, on the Overview tab, enter a name for the portfolio in the Portfolio Overview section, short and long descriptions in the Description section, and the currency to use for portfolio reports in the Currency Options section.

   Portfolio reports show all values for all plans in the portfolio rolled up into the single default reporting currency. Each plan in the portfolio uses its own exchange rate rules to convert from the plan values to the reporting currency. When you generate a report, you can select a different currency.

4. Click Save, and then Next.
5. Click Add Plans.
6. On the Choose Plans screen, select the check boxes of the plans to add to the portfolio, and then click Ok.

   The selected plans appear on the Plans tab of the Create Portfolio screen with information regarding their start date, the start offset specified, and the probability that the plan will come to fruition.

   • You can add up to 200 plans to a portfolio.
   • After a plan has been added to a portfolio, it is automatically included, which means that the costs and milestones associated with the plan are added into the portfolio.
   • You can see the effect of postponing one or more plans by selecting the plan's check box and specifying a Start Offset.
     • To adjust the start date forward (earlier), enter a negative number.
     • To postpone a plan, enter a positive number.
     • This feature does not make adjustments for inflation. This is because the billing rate year associated with a plan does not change when you use Start Offset.
   • In the Probability field, you can specify the probability of a plan being implemented. ClearTrial reduces the costs associated with the plan according to the percentage. For example, if you set the probability to 50%, ClearTrial adds half of the plan's costs to the portfolio. The plan itself is not affected.
7. Click Save, and then Next to generate the portfolio and display a portfolio dashboard on the Summary tab.
8. On the Summary tab, review the portfolio dashboard.
   • You can adjust the time frame by constraining the start and end dates, and you can include or exclude particular plans. The Summary tab reflects only costs and hours from included plans. Costs and hours from excluded plans are not added to the costs and hours of the portfolio.
   • If any of the included plans has a probability of less than 100%, the costs and hours are reduced accordingly. For example, if you set probability to 50%, the costs and hours shown reflect only half of the costs and hours.
   • If any of the included plans have an offset start date, the costs and hours associated with the plan begin on the offset date, not on the original start date of the plan.
   • The Cost Distribution graph provides a view of when costs occur over the time range specified. The shaded blue area represents the time frame you selected.
   • In the Portfolio Fees, Hours, and Pass-Through Costs section, if inflation and/or bottom line discounts exist in the plans included in the portfolio, inflation and bottom line discounts appear as separate line items.
9. Click Next to generate reports about the portfolio.
10. On the Reports tab, view the available reports as thumbnails or a list.
    • You can view each report in a separate window.
    • The reports reflect only costs and hours from included plans. Costs and hours from excluded plans are not added to the costs and hours of the portfolio and, therefore, do not appear in reports.
    • If any of the included plans have a probability of less than 100%, the costs and hours are reduced accordingly. For example, if you set probability to 50%, the costs and hours reflect only half of the plan's costs and hours. If any of the included plans has an offset start date, the costs and hours associated with the plan begin on the offset date, not on the original start date.
11. Select a report, specify any reporting parameters and generate the report.
12. When you are finished with the report, click Close.
13. Click Close to return to the Portfolios screen.