Milestones are one of the key components of Financial Management in Velos eResearch. Whereas budgets create a framework to estimate study costs based on calendars and custom items, Milestones can be thought of as “payment triggers”. When the condition for a milestone rule is met, an achieve milestone is triggered as an item that can be invoiced.
For example, a sponsor agrees to pay $50 for every patient screened. A patient status milestone rule will be created with $50 USD as the milestone rule amount. If 10 patients were screened and the “screening” status was added to the patient’s study record then there would be 10 “screening” achieved (patient status) milestones and available for invoicing each with for the achieved amount of $50 USD.
Milestones can be triggered based on changes in study status, patient status, visits or events that are marked as complete, or as an additional miscellaneous fee. The type of milestone determines how it is triggered. See the table below for a detailed description of each milestone type and their configuration options:
Milestone Section
Column Name
Description
Example
Patient Status
Patient Count
Specify the number of the patients that should be tracked. This column does not apply to the “Study Status” milestone type.
If a sponsor pays for every fifth patient screened, enter “5”. When every fifth patient on the study has the screen status added, a milestone will be achieved.
Patient Status
Specify the desired patient status that should be tracked.
N/A
Milestone Status
Specify the “Active” status when the milestone should be turned on or select “Inactive” if a Milestone no longer applies.
N/A
Visit
Calendar
Select the study calendar from which you want to derive the visit milestones.
N/A
Visit
Specify the visit name for the milestone
N/A
Milestone Rule
Select the logic that determines when the visit is considered complete
Options include:
“All events within the visit are marked as-”, “At least one event is marked as-“, and “On Scheduled Date”.
Event Status
Dependent on Milestone Rule field. This completes the logic selected in the previous field. This field is left blank if “On Scheduled Date” is selected in previous field.
Options include:
“Not Done“, “NotRequired“, “Done”, “To be rescheduled”, and “Suspended”.
Milestone Status
Specify the “Active” status when the milestone should be turned on or select “Inactive” if a Milestone no longer applies.
N/A
Event
Calendar
Select the study calendar from which you want to derive the event milestones.
N/A
Visit
Specify the visit name for the milestone.
N/A
Event
Specify the specific event associated with the calendar visit for this milestone.
N/A
Milestone Rule
Select the logic that determines when the event is considered complete.
Options include:
“All events within the visit are marked as-“, “At least one event is marked as-“, and “On Scheduled Date”.
Event Status
Dependent on Milestone Rule field. This completes the logic selected in the previous field. This field is left blank if “On Scheduled Date” is selected in previous field.
Options include:
“Not Done“, “NotRequired“, “Done”, “To be rescheduled”, and “Suspended”.
Milestone Status
Specify the “Active” status when the milestone should be turned on or select “Inactive” if a Milestone no longer applies.
N/A
Study Status
Study Status
Specify the study status that must be achieved for the milestone to be considered complete.
e.g. – “Active/Enrolling”, “IRB: Approved”, etc.
Milestone Status
Specify the “Active” status when the milestone should be turned on or select “Inactive” if a Milestone no longer applies.
N/A
Additional
Milestone Description
Enter a description of the milestone.
e.g. – “Contract Renewal”, “Custom Recruitment/Retention Milestone”, etc.
Milestone Status
Specify the “Active” status when the milestone should be turned on or select “Inactive” if a Milestone no longer applies.
N/A
Note: All required fields are indicated by a red asterisk in the system.
Note: An Additional milestone is considered “achieved” when the additional milestone rule status is “Active” and available to be invoiced.
To manage a milestone:
1. From the study management page, or default homepage, click the Financial Summary icon (calculator icon), and select the Milestones tab.
-OR-
From the Study page, navigate to the Milestone tab.
Here, users will have accessibility to various functionalities:
Icon
Name
Description
Accordion Dropdown Menus
Use the arrow icon to expand or close a section of the Milestones tab. (not applicable to the budget milestones page)
Addfield
Use the Add field to specify the number of rows to be added for a milestone type.
Plus Icon
Use the Plus icon to add the rows from the Add field.
Preview and Save
Use the Preview and Save button to confirm any changes made to milestones. If you do not click the Preview and Save button, you will lose your changes.
