2019/20
Household Expenditure Survey
Usage Guide for
Filling in Online Questionnaire
Census and Statistics Department
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
2
Table of Contents
Page
1. Welcome to Online Questionnaire System ........................................................... 4
2. Activate New Questionnaire .................................................................................. 5
2.1 Online Questionnaire activation procedures ........................................................................... 5
2.1.1 Enter information of Questionnaire activation .............................................................. 5
2.1.2 Read Terms and Conditions ........................................................................................... 6
2.2 New account registration / account re-registration ................................................................. 7
2.2.1 Provide account information .......................................................................................... 7
2.2.2 Complete activation and registration ............................................................................. 9
2.3 Existing account login (Applicable to the accounts activated earlier) .................................. 9
2.4 Fill in OQ .............................................................................................................................. 10
2.4.1 Confirm address and Provide Quarters Information .................................................... 10
2.4.2 Preview and submit OQ ............................................................................................... 12
2.4.3 Provide Household Member Information .................................................................... 13
2.4.4 Fill in HES 1: Household Schedule ............................................................................. 14
2.4.5 Select a household member to start filling in OQ ........................................................ 15
2.4.6 Fill in the Particulars of Household Members ............................................................. 16
2.4.7 Continue filling in Questionnaires for other household members ............................... 18
2.4.8 Fill in HES 2: Household Expenditure ........................................................................ 19
2.4.9 Fill in HES 2: Household Expenditure — Expenditure Diary ..................................... 21
2.4.10 Add expenditure items ................................................................................................. 22
2.5 Submit OQ ............................................................................................................................. 23
2.6 Session Timeout .................................................................................................................... 24
3. Continue SAVED Questionnaire ......................................................................... 25
3.1 Login procedures for registered account ............................................................................... 25
3
3.2 Fill in OQ .............................................................................................................................. 26
3.3 Submit OQ ............................................................................................................................. 26
3.4 Change account settings ........................................................................................................ 26
3.5 Change password ................................................................................................................... 28
3.6 Forgot password .................................................................................................................... 29
3.6.1 Provide a contact phone number that can receive SMS and answer the security
question ...................................................................................................................... 30
3.6.2 Correctly enter the One-time Passcode ........................................................................ 30
3.6.3 Fail to answer the security question multiple times ..................................................... 31
3.6.4 Provide a contact phone number that cannot receive SMS .......................................... 32
3.7 Forgot account name ............................................................................................................. 32
3.8 Questionnaire re-activation ................................................................................................... 33
4. Separate Account .................................................................................................. 35
4.1 Activate Separate Account .................................................................................................... 35
4.2 Fill in OQ .............................................................................................................................. 36
5. Others .................................................................................................................... 37
5.1 Features of the system webpage ............................................................................................ 37
5.2 Validation messages .............................................................................................................. 38
5.3 Code search tool for Industry and Occupation Classification ............................................... 39
5.4 Contact us .............................................................................................................................. 39
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1. Welcome to Online Questionnaire System
1.1 Households sampled for participation in 2019/20 Household Expenditure
Survey (HES) may enter the Online Questionnaire System to complete and
submit Online Questionnaire (OQ) to the Census and Statistics Department
(C&SD) on or before deadline as specified on the household notification letter.
1.2 Enter the website: https://oqs.censtatd.gov.hk/HES.
5
2. Activate New Questionnaire
2.1 Online Questionnaire activation procedures
a) Click “Activate NEW Questionnaire”.
2.1.1 Enter information of Questionnaire activation
a) Enter “OQ No.” and “Activation Key” printed on the household notification
letter issued by C&SD, as well as the “Verification Code” shown in the picture
on the screen to activate your questionnaire. If you find the verification code
unclear to read, you may generate a new verification code by clicking “ ” or
generate an audio verification code by clicking “ ”.
b) Click “Activate” to continue.
a
b
a
6
2.1.2 Read Terms and Conditions
a) If the user agrees to the above Terms and Conditions, click the checkbox of
“I have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions above”.
b) Click “Next” to proceed to the next step.
a
b
7
2.2 New account registration / account re-registration
a) If the user has not registered an OQ account before or has forgotten the account
name registered before, click “Register new account (For first time users)”. If
the user has registered an OQ account before, please refer to Section 2.3
“Existing account login”.
b) Click “Next” to proceed to the next step.
2.2.1 Provide account information
The user can follow the system instructions to register an OQ account step by
step. According to the information provided by the user, the system will
instantly display questions that the user is required to answer.
a) Fill in information of the “Contact Person”.
b) Click to read the supplementary notes.
b
a
c
a
b
8
c) Set up “Account Name” and “Password”. The Password must be at least 8
characters in length and must contain upper case letters (A-Z), lower case letters
(a-z) and number (0-9).
d) If the user provides a contact phone number that can receive SMS, the user has
to set up a security question and the corresponding answer.
Note: If the user provides a contact phone number that can receive SMS, the user has
to answer the security question he/she has previously set up for user
authentication when he/she has forgotten the password. After that, the user
will receive a “One-time Passcode” SMS. The user has to enter the passcode
on the screen and reset the account password.
e) If the user provides a contact phone number that cannot receive SMS, the user
has to provide his/her email address and create a password hint.
Note: The system will send the password hint to the user via email in case the user has
forgotten the password. However, the hint is not the password and it cannot
help the user reset the password.
f) Click “Register” to proceed to the next step.
e
d
f
f
9
2.2.2 Complete activation and registration
a) The activation of questionnaire and the registration of account have been
completed. Click “Next” to start filling in OQ.
2.3 Existing account login (Applicable to the accounts activated earlier)
a) If the user have registered an OQ account earlier, click “Log in existing
account”.
b) Enter the “Existing account name” and “Password” registered earlier.
Note 1: If the user has forgotten the account name registered before, click
“Register new account (For first time users)” to re-register an account. Please
refer to Section 2.2 for details.
Note 2: If the user has forgotten the password registered before, click
“Forgot Password”. Please refer to Section 3.6 for details.
a
b
a
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2.4 Fill in OQ
2.4.1 Confirm address and Provide Quarters Information
a) If the listed address is correct, please select “Yes”;
Users can follow the system instructions to fill in OQ step by step. According
to the information provided by the user, the system will automatically display
questions that the user is required to answer.
b) If the unit of quarters is not a student dormitory, elderly home or staff quarters
with provision of food and accommodation, please select “No”. Then click
“Save and Continue”.
b
a
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c) Click “Save and Continue” to proceed to the next page after completing the
current page. The information entered on each page will be transmitted to the
server for storage.
After completing the questionnaire of Quarters Information, the system will turn
to preview page.
c
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2.4.2 Preview and submit OQ
a) Please check the information provided. Click “Back to Edit” to amend the
answers if necessary. After amending the concerned information, the user may
need to fill in some of the questions again according to the system instruction.
After amending and saving the answers, user needs to return to main page and
clicks “Save and Continue” again.
b) Click “Submit” to submit the completed questionnaires to C&SD after
confirming the answers. For data security reason, user cannot have access to
the OQ again after submission. If user wishes to amend the information
provided, please contact us at 3188 2107. Service hours Monday to Friday
8:45 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (except public holidays).
c) Personal computer users may click “Print” to print this page for records.
a
b c
`
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2.4.3 Provide Household Member Information
a) Fill in the basic information of all members living in the household.
b) Please click “Add Member” or “Remove Member” to edit the number of
household member.
Note: Information of all household members can be filled in and viewed by the
account holder(s). If a household member wants to provide information
separately, the user may apply for a “Separate account” for this member.
Please refer to Section 4.1 for details.
a
b
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2.4.4 Fill in HES 1: Household Schedule
a) Click “Complete Questionnaire” to start HES 1: Household Schedule.
b) Click “Complete Questionnaire” to start filling in Part 1 of the Questionnaire:
Quarters Profile. User can follow the system instructions to fill in OQ step by
step. According to the information provided by the user, the system will
automatically display questions that the user is required to answer.
c) Click “Save and Continue” to proceed to the next page after completing the
current page. The information entered on each page will be transmitted to the
server for storage.
d) After completing Part 1 of the questionnaire, the system will return to main page
and “Completed” will be shown accordingly.
a
b
c
d
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2.4.5 Select a household member to start filling in OQ
a) When the questionnaire for a household member has not been completed, “In
Progress” or “Not Yet Started” will be shown in the “Fill in questionnaire”
column for that member.
b) Click “Complete Questionnaire” to start/continue filling in the questionnaires
for each household member.
a
b
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2.4.6 Fill in the Particulars of Household Members
The user can follow the system instructions to fill in OQ step by step.
According to the information provided by the user, the system will
automatically display questions that the user is required to answer.
a) The questionnaire related to particulars of household member comprises four
sections, namely “Particulars of Household Members”, “Personal Income”,
“Personal Expenditure of Live-in Domestic Helper” and “Online Purchase
Habits”.
a
a
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b) Click “Save and Continue” to proceed to the next page.
Note: The information entered on each page will be transmitted to the server for
storage only after the user has clicked “Save and Continue”, “Back” or the
section header. If the user exits (e.g. clicks “Log off” or close the webpage)
without clicking any of the these buttons, the information provided on the
current page will not be saved in the system. User will have to fill in the
relevant information again during his/her next login.
c) If necessary, click “Back” to edit the information provided on the previous page;
or click the section header to navigate to relevant pages to amend the
information provided.
d) If necessary, click “Return to Main Page” to save the information provided on
the current page and continue filling in questionnaires later.
b
c
c d
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2.4.7 Continue filling in Questionnaires for other household members
a) After completing the questionnaire for a household member, “Completed” will
be shown accordingly in the “Fill in questionnaire” column. User can still
click “Complete Questionnaire” to amend the answers provided before if
necessary. To fill in questionnaires for other household members, click
“Complete Questionnaire” in the row of the household member.
b) After completing the questionnaires for all household members, please click
“Preview and Submit”. Please refer to Section 2.4.2 for details.
a
b
b
b
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2.4.8 Fill in HES 2: Household Expenditure
a) The questionnaire related to household expenditure comprises:
Regular Payments & Expenditure on Infrequent Purchases during
Period (1);
Expenditure Diary in Period (2) (Week 1 and Week 2 respectively); and
Expenditure on Infrequent Purchases during Period (3).
b) When a questionnaire for a household member has not been completed, “In
Progress” or “Not Yet Started” will be shown in the “Fill in questionnaire”
column for that member.
c) Click “Complete Questionnaire” to start/continue filling in the questionnaires
for each household member.
a
c b
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d) To save reporting time, please report expenditure items of all members
together in the form of first member. Please click the checkbox of “Confirm
that the expenditure items of the above member have been reported together in
the form of the first member” when confirm the information in the form of each
member. Please click “Save and Continue” to return back to the page of
selecting a household member to start filling in OQ.
e) After completing the information of all household members, please click
“Preview and Submit”. Please refer to Section 2.4.2 for details.
d
e
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2.4.9 Fill in HES 2: Household Expenditure — Expenditure Diary
The questionnaire related to expenditure diary comprises two sections, namely “Daily
expenditure” and “Transport expenditure and other expenditure information”.
a) User can click “Answer” to start filling the “Daily expenditure” and “Transport
expenditure and other expenditure information” questionnaires for household
members on the corresponding date.
a
b
a
b
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b) To save reporting time, user may also click “Upload Images” to upload the
images of receipts and invoices.
c) Click “Choose Files” and select the image to upload. Then click “Import”.
2.4.10 Add expenditure items
a) If the user needs to add expenditure items, please select “Yes”. Then click “Save
and continue”.
b) According to the information provided by the user, the system will
automatically add a new page for the user.
c
a
b
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2.5 Submit OQ
a) After completing the expenditure information of all the household members,
please click “Preview and Submit”. Please refer to Section 2.4.2 for details.
b) If OQ is submitted successfully, the system will display a confirmation notice.
a
b
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2.6 Session Timeout
If the account has remained inactive for a period of time, the system will remind the
user that the account has been logged off automatically (session timeout) by the
system for data security reason. If user wishes to continue filling in OQ, user has to
login the account again:
users who have not completed the account registration before session timeout
occurs are required to register account by clicking “Activate NEW
Questionnaire” (please refer to Section 2.1)
users who have finished the account registration before session timeout occurs
are required to login the account by clicking “Continue SAVED Questionnaire”
(please refer to Section 3.1).
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3. Continue SAVED Questionnaire
3.1 Login procedures for registered account
a) Click “Continue SAVED Questionnaire”
b) Enter registered “Account Name” and “Password”.
c) Click “Login” to enter the system.
a
b
c
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3.2 Fill in OQ
Please refer to Section 2.4 for details.
3.3 Submit OQ
Please refer to Section 2.5 for details.
3.4 Change account settings
a) Click “Account Setting” on the menu.
a
27
b) The steps of editing “Contact Person” information, “Password Reset Settings”
and “Password Hint Settings” are similar to those of filling in “Account
Settings” information by “Activate New Questionnaire”. Please refer to
Section 2.2.1 for details.
c) Click “Confirm” to confirm the changes.
b
b
c
c
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3.5 Change password
a) Click “Change Password” on the menu.
b) Enter “Current Password”, “New Password” and “Confirm New Password” in
“Change Password”. Password must be at least 8 characters in length and must
contain upper case letters (A-Z), lower case letters (a-z) and number (0-9).
a
b
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3.6 Forgot password
The user may apply for password reset if he/she has forgotten the account password.
a) Click “Continue SAVED Questionnaire” on the menu.
b) Click “Forgot Password”
c) Enter “Account Name”, which should be the same as that provided during
account registration.
d) Click “Next” to proceed to the next step.
b
a
c
d
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3.6.1 Provide a contact phone number that can receive SMS and answer the security
question
If the user provides a contact phone number in “Account Settings” can receive
SMS, the following screen will be displayed.
a) Enter “Contact Phone No” which was provided in “Account Setting”, and
answer the “Security Question” which was set up by the user.
b) Click “Next” to proceed to the next step.
3.6.2 Correctly enter the One-time Passcode
a) The system will send a “One-time Passcode” SMS to the registered contact
phone number of the user.
a
b
a
c
b
d
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b) Enter “One-time Passcode” displayed in the SMS.
c) Reset “New Password” and “Confirm New Password”. Password must be at
least 8 characters in length and must contain upper case letters (A-Z), lower case
letters (a-z) and number (0-9).
d) Click “Confirm” to reset the password.
e) Click “Next” to login the system again.
3.6.3 Fail to answer the security question multiple times
a) The account will be frozen if the user consecutively enters the wrong answer to
the security question multiple times.
Note: The account has been frozen. The user cannot login the system again, please
contact us.
e
a
32
3.6.4 Provide a contact phone number that cannot receive SMS
If the user provides a contact phone number in “Account Settings” which cannot
receive SMS, the following screen will be displayed.
a) Enter “Email Address” which provided in “Account Setting”.
b) Click “Next” to return to the login page.
c) The system will send a “Password Hint” email to the user. The user can try to
recall the password by referring to the “Password Hint” and login the system
again.
3.7 Forgot account name
If the user has forgotten the Account Name, the user may contact us
(Tel.: 3188 2107), and quote the “OQ No”. Service hours: Monday to Friday
8:45 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (except public holidays).
a
b
c
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3.8 Questionnaire re-activation
The user can proceed to “Questionnaire Reactivation”, if he/she experienced
multiple consecutive login failures.
a) If the user provides a contact phone number in “Account Settings” can receive
SMS, please enter the “Registered contact phone no.” and click “Submit”.
b) If the user provides a contact phone number in “Account Settings” which cannot
receive SMS, please enter the “Registered email address” and click “Submit”.
c) Click “Next” to proceed to the next step.
a
a
b
b
c
34
d) The system will send a “Questionnaire Reactivation” SMS or email to the user.
SMS
Note: After reactivating the questionnaire, all information provided (including all
information provided in the main account and all relevant separate accounts)
will be erased. On the other hand, if questionnaire reactivation is performed
under a separate account (i.e. Account No. 02 or above), all information
provided in that separate account will be erased.
e) The user may enter the new “OQ No.” and “Activation Key” sent by the system
via SMS or email to reactivate questionnaire. The procedures are the same as
those of “Activate NEW Questionnaire”. Please refer to Section 2.1 for
details.
Note: If the user has forgotten the contact phone number or email address registered
before, please contact us.
e
d d
35
4. Separate Account
4.1 Activate Separate Account
a) If a household member wants to provide information separately, the user may
check the box besides “If split account is required for any household members
to fill in the information separately, please check the box”.
b) Provide the contact telephone number that can receive SMS or email address of
the household member requiring separate account. Check the corresponding
box in the “Separate account” column.
a
b
36
c) After clicking “Confirm”, the system will deliver the “OQ No.” and “Activation
Key” of the separate account to the member concerned via SMS or email. The
separate account holder should enter the “OQ No.” and “Activation Key” of the
separate account to register account. The procedures are similar to those of
“Activate NEW Questionnaire”. Please refer to Section 2.1 for details.
Note: Separate accounts will have their own different person serial no., which are all
“02” or above. Household head with a person serial no. of “01” cannot edit or
read the data saved in separate accounts. Household head must use the main
account to provide information. No separate account option will be provided.
4.2 Fill in OQ
Please refer to Section 2.4 for details.
c
37
5. Others
5.1 Features of the system webpage
a) The user may access the assigned functions in “Menu”:
1. Click “Household Expenditure Survey” to back to the Main Page.
2. Click “Account Setting” or “Change Password” to change account settings.
b) The message of last login attempt will be shown under the menu.
c) Three font sizes will be provided for the user to adjust. The user may adjust
the font size to their preferred size.
d) Trilingual languages are provided in OQS (i.e. Traditional Chinese, Simplified
Chinese and English language). User could switch between different
languages at any particular page, and the answers inputted can be retained.
e) The user may click “Log off” to log off the system. If the user exits before
clicking “Save and Continue”, the information provided on the current page just
now will not be saved in the system. The user will have to enter the concerned
information again during his/her next login.
f) Click to read the supplementary notes.
a
c
b
d
e
f
38
5.2 Validation messages
a) Red error messages will be displayed under the title and erroneous answers. The
corresponding section header will turn red. The user cannot proceed to the
next page if he/she answers an invalid answer or does not answer all questions
on the current page.
a
a
a
39
5.3 Code search tool for Industry and Occupation Classification
a) Enter the name of the industry or establishment / name of occupation to look for
the suitable code when filling in industry or occupation information.
b) Select the corresponding code when the user can look for a suitable industry /
occupation code.
c) If the user cannot look for a suitable industry / occupation code, please simplify
the key word. If the user still cannot look for a suitable code, keep the key
word in the answer box and click “Save and Continue”.
5.4 Contact us
In case of any enquiry, please feel free to contact us (Tel.: 3188 2107), and
quote the “OQ No.”. Service hours: Monday to Friday 8:45 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
(except public holidays).
a
b
c
c