Adding and Managing Records and Contacts GroundWork group 1880 Mackenzie Drive, Suite 111, Columbus, OH Phone:

Transcription

1 Information Management System Adding and Managing Records and Contacts GroundWork group 1880 Mackenzie Drive, Suite 111, Columbus, OH Phone:

2 Contents Introduction... 4 Data Entry Best Practices... 5 General Guidelines... 5 Field Descriptions... 5 New Record Instructions... 8 Add an Individual Record - 1 Contact Name... 9 Gold Bar... 9 Navigating the Data Screens Cancel Adding a Record (Reset Button) Cancel Changing an Existing Record (Reset Button) Add an Individual Record 2 Contacts with the Same Last Name Add Additional Contacts Viewing /Updating Additional Contacts Expand All Contacts Collapse All Contacts Add an Individual Record 2 Contacts with Different Last Names Add Additional Contacts Add an Organization Record Example: Business Record Deleting Contacts Delete an Additional Contact Delete a Primary Contact When it is the ONLY Contact Delete a Primary Contact When There are Additional Contacts Zip Code and County Look Up/Address Verification County Look Up Duplicates and the Merge/Purge Code Duplicate Warning When ADDING Records View Potential Duplicates Force Add a Record Cancel Duplicate Warning When Saving an Existing Record Deleting Records - Guidelines Delete a Record Consolidating Records

3 Record Consolidation Lookup ID Number for Record to be Deleted Contact Consolidation Lookup Members of Congress Lookup Address via Mapquest Create an Envelope for Selected Record Send an to a Contact in Selected Record via IMS Mail Program Send an to a Contact in Selected Record via Your Local Mail Program Help

4 Introduction 1. The first section of this handbook describes Data Entry Best Practices: guidelines for entering and maintaining data, and the description of key fields. 2. The second section provides information about: Entering new records and managing contacts. Examples are included to illustrate the differences between Individual style records and Organization style records. Managing duplicates Deleting records Consolidating records Screen navigation tips Sending to 1 contact via IMS mail program Sending to 1 contact via your local mail program Links to helpful websites o Look up people, places, businesses, and phone numbers with anywho.org o Get directions with mapquest.com o Look up members of Congress at congress.org o Verify addresses, look up zip codes, counties, etc. using the US Postal Service website In this section: Text displayed in this style provides descriptions and explanations. Text displayed in this style provides specific instructions. 4

5 Data Entry Best Practices It can take a great deal of time and effort to build a database. It is important to enter names and addresses in a consistent, proper, and readable manner. If you follow the guidelines we suggest for creating and editing records, we think you will be pleased with the way your data looks, and the ease with which you can prepare mailings. One idea to keep in mind is WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get. In other words, take time now to enter data so that it appears exactly as you would want it to on letters, labels, reports, etc. General Guidelines Perform a Record Search: Do a Record Search to see if the record is already in the database before you add a new one. Case: Always use normal title-case (mixed-case) with upper and lower case letters to make your correspondence look most professional. Abbreviations: Decide if you wish to use abbreviations or not and then be consistent. If you decide to use abbreviations be sure to include the punctuation of a period. Avoid using an ampersand unless it is part of a proper name. Punctuation: Include periods and commas where needed. Middle initials need to be followed by a period. Field Descriptions Record Type: Individual vs. Organization/Business Individual Assign an Individual Record Type to store information about an individual s relationship with your organization: donations, memberships, ticket/subscription purchases, volunteer jobs and more. An individual record may contain data about one household that could consist of one person, couples with the same last name, couples with different last names, and even children. Organization/Business: Includes: Organization, Business, Club, Church, School, Media, Government, etc. Assign an Org./Bus. Record Type to store information about your organization s relationship with another Organization/Business. Track an organization s donations, event sponsorships, membership purchases and more. What does this mean if Betty Smith is a donor to your organization and is also the contact person for the XYZ Company that also donates to your organization? Betty Smith will appear in 2 records. This does not mean that you have duplicate records. 5

6 Her Individual type record will still be intact so you can store her personal gifts, volunteer activities, ticket purchases, memberships, etc. The XYZ Company has a Business type record where the company s activities and gifts are stored. Betty Smith s name will be included in the XYZ Company as the contact person. She may leave the XYZ Company in the future and her name should be replaced with the new contact. She will still have an individual record intact. Formal Salutation: Choose a prefix from the drop-down box which includes salutations such as: Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, Dr., Rabbi, Mr. and Mrs., Professor, Judge, etc. You may also leave this field blank. First Name: Enter the first name of the individual or business contact. If someone uses an initial followed by a middle name, enter the initial followed by a period, space and the middle name. Leave the Middle Name blank in those instances. Example: C. Gary Middle Name: Enter the entire middle name if you like or enter just the middle initial followed by a period. Last Name: Enter the entire last name. Omit suffixes like Jr. and Sr. Suffix: Choose a suffix from a drop-down box which includes Jr., Sr., II, III, Ph.D., M.D., Esq., etc. Full Contact Name (Display Name): This is a name for a record that appears on all reports, labels, letters, etc. On the EDIT DETAIL DATA screen you will see that the Full Contact Name is created automatically by joining the primary contact s First and Last Names you entered in the ADD RECORD (KEY DATA) screen. o o Individuals: Edit the Full Contact Name to include all the contacts in the record, any Formal Salutations like Mr., Dr., Mrs., etc., and Suffixes like PH.D., Jr., Sr., etc. Examples: Mr. and Mrs. Mark H. Young, Jr. Harry and Renee Bowman Mike Davis and Karla Blue Organizations/Businesses: The Full Contact Name is the name of the organization s Primary Contact. Edit it to include any Formal Salutations like Mr., Dr., Mrs., etc, and Suffixes like PH.D., Jr., Sr., etc. Note: the Display Name could be set by GroundWork group to be Last Name, First Name if desired. Business Name: This is to be used with organization/business type records only. Enter the name of the business or organization here. Note: If you want to store each contact s employer name in Individual type records contact GroundWork group to customize your IMS. Do not put the employer name in the Business Name field. 6

7 Dear Name: (Informal Salutation): Enter what you want to appear after the word Dear in your letters. How formal it is depends on your organization. Examples: Mr. and Mrs. Jones, Sr. Phil and Mary Mr. Morgan and Mr. Blue Doctors Hennessey Alpha Sort: On the EDIT DETAIL DATA screen you will see that the Alpha Sort field is created automatically from data you entered in the ADD RECORD (KEY DATA) screen. Although it is generated automatically, it is fully editable. By default: o Individuals Alpha Sort = Last Name, First Name o Organizations/Businesses Alpha Sort = Business Name. Address1: Enter the mailing address here. It is a large field and can usually accommodate Suite and Apartment Numbers. If this field is not large enough for the mailing address, enter remaining data in Address2. For example, Address1 might contain c/o Mr. Ted Smith and Address2 would contain the street or Post Office Box. (If the address is blank, update the Contact Restriction field to indicate the record has a Bad Address. Address2: This is an extra field to use if Address1 is not large enough. City: Enter the complete city name. This field is large enough to contain a long city name like Washington Court House. It is acceptable to use a Vanity City name like Bexley, or Upper Arlington instead of Columbus if your constituent prefers it. State: Choose from a dropdown box which includes all the United States, Canadian Provinces/Territories, Armed Forces, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Zip Code: This field may contain numbers and text. Enter the 5 digit zip code: When you know the zip+4 code, enter the first 5 digits, followed by a hyphen and the remaining 4 digits. Ex: Canadian Zip Codes contain numbers and alphabetical letters and are entered in this fashion: Alpha Number Alpha Space Number Alpha Number. Ex: H3Q 2A4 Country: Enter the country name in upper case when someone lives outside the United States. Contact Restriction: This field may contain several choices for you to indicate special contact restrictions. Example: No Mail, No Calls, Bad Address, No Trade, Deceased, Out of Business, etc. Recognition Name: Enter the name the way a constituent wishes to be recognized in newsletters, donor lists, member lists, etc. A donor may wish to remain anonymous and you can enter that in this field. Also a family might like to receive mail addressed to Connie and Dominic DeRose but listed in a program book as The DeRose Family. 7

8 New Record Instructions You will enter a few key pieces of data in Text fields and Drop-Down fields at the ADD RECORD (KEY DATA) screen to get a record started. These include Record Type, Name, and Address. Entering Data - Drop-down Fields: Click anywhere in the dropdown white rectangle (including the drop-down arrow) to view drop-down choices. Click on one choice and press TAB to go on to the next field or place cursor in another desired field. The Drop-Down option highlighted in blue indicates that that Drop-Down is currently selected for that field. Some Drop-Down fields are allowed to be blank. The Blank option is usually listed as the first option. Entering Data - Text Style Fields: Enter data by typing information directly in text box. Place cursor directly in text box or press TAB to move down the record one field at a time. Hint: Refer to Navigating the Data Screens for more information. 8

9 Add an Individual Record - 1 Contact Name Click to add a new record. Enter all the contact information and click or press ENTER in any field that is NOT a dropdown to save the record. Note that the default Record type is equal to Individual. Gold Bar Once the record is added an EDIT DETAIL DATA screen appears. A Gold Bar at the top of the screen lists Business Name, Display name (Full Contact Name), Address, Record ID # and the first Phone Number. This Gold Bar appears when other subsystems are accessed (Contribution, Event, Volunteer, etc.) so you can always know whose record is selected. 9

10 The EDIT DETAIL DATA screen appears after adding fundamental data at the ADD RECORD (KEY DATA) screen. Enter more contact information here details such as: Dear Name, Recognition Name, Address, Phone Numbers, etc. 10

11 Click to save your changes or press ENTER in any field that is NOT a dropdown. 11

12 Navigating the Data Screens Move to different parts of the screen: Press Tab to move cursor down one field. Press Shift-Tab to move cursor up one field.slide the elevator on the right side of the screen up or down to shift screen view. Click on a Jump To option at top of the screen. Click on a Jump To option like or to display that portion of the record at the top of the screen. You could have different Jump To options depending on how your IMS is customized. 12

13 Cancel Adding a Record (Reset Button) The Reset button appears on many screens in many subsystems. In this example it appears on the Add Record (Key Data) screen next to the add button. If you realize as you are adding a record that you really don t want to save, you can cancel the process by clicking. Click button to discontinue the add process. The screen is refreshed with blank fields, or with the original data when you are changing an existing record. 13

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15 Cancel Changing an Existing Record (Reset Button) The Reset button appears on many screens in many subsystems. There may a time that you made changes to a record thinking you were working in another record. Saving the record saves the data you didn t really intend to save. Click instead of. The screen will be refreshed with the original data. 15

16 Add an Individual Record 2 Contacts with the Same Last Name Click to add a new record. Enter all the contact information for the first contact and click is NOT a dropdown to save the record. or press ENTER in any field that 16

17 The EDIT DETAIL DATA screen appears after adding fundamental data at the ADD RECORD (KEY DATA) screen. Update the Full Contact Name, Dear Name, and Recognition Name. Then add the additional contact. 17

18 Add Additional Contacts Click to add another contact. Click to save your additions or press ENTER in any field that is NOT a dropdown. 18

19 Viewing /Updating Additional Contacts The additional contacts follow the Primary Contact. The first name of additional contacts is displayed when the Record Type is Individual. Both first and last names are displayed for Business Type records. Click on 1st Name of Additional Contact. Update and Add necessary details and click NOT a dropdown. to save changes or press ENTER in any field that is 19

20 Expand All Contacts Click to view all the contacts contact information and expand the New Additional Contacts Screen. (When a record is an Organization/Business the Contact s First and Last Names are displayed.) Record Continued 20

21 Collapse All Contacts Click to view contacts in original view. 21

22 Add an Individual Record 2 Contacts with Different Last Names Click to add a new record. Enter all the contact information for the first contact and click is NOT a dropdown to save the record. or press ENTER in any field that 22

23 The EDIT DETAIL DATA screen appears after adding fundamental data at the ADD RECORD (KEY DATA) screen. Update the Full Contact Name, Dear Name, and Recognition Name. Then add the additional contact. 23

24 Add Additional Contacts Click to add another contact. Click to save your additions or press ENTER in any field that is NOT a dropdown. 24

25 Add an Organization Record Click to add a new record. It is important to choose a Record type equal to Organization in the Record type Drop-down. (The default Record type is usually equal to Individual.) Enter the Organization name in the Business name field. Enter all the contact information for the first contact and click is NOT a dropdown to save the record. or press ENTER in any field that 25

26 The EDIT DETAIL DATA screen appears and you may enter more contact information details such as: Dear Name, Recognition Name, Address, Phone Numbers, etc. Record Continued 26

27 Click to save your changes or press ENTER in any field that is NOT a dropdown. 27

28 Example: Business Record Record Continued 28

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30 Deleting Contacts There are times when you need to remove contacts from constituents records. When your contact at ABC Corporation leaves the company, it is important to remove that contact from the corporate record. You may also have one contact move out of the household. You may remove a contact and create a new record for that individual. Delete an Additional Contact Click Name of contact to be deleted. In this case, Anne will be deleted. 30

31 Click Click to delete contact. 31

32 Delete a Primary Contact When it is the ONLY Contact There may be a time when you have to remove a contact from an organization record and you don t have the name of a replacement contact. Key Data Before You will need to change a few fields. Full Contact Name: This can be blank. Consider changing it to a title like Director or President. Dear Name: This could be Friend, Director, President, etc. Key Data After 32

33 Primary Contact Before Formal Salutation: Change to blank. First Name: Change to blank. Middle Name: Change to blank. Last Name: Change to blank. Title: Change to blank. Keep an that is not addressed to a specific individual so you can continue to the organization. Primary Contact After Note: Additional Contacts have to include at least a first or last name. 33

34 Delete a Primary Contact When There are Additional Contacts In order to remove a Primary Contact, you will have to promote a different contact to be the new Primary Contact. The original Primary Contact will be listed as the last contact and can be easily deleted. Choose 1 contact to promote. In this case Caroline Chimes will be saved as the new Primary Contact. Click to begin. 34

35 Click button. 35

36 Click to select former Primary Contact. 36

37 Click to remove Contact. 37

38 Zip Code and County Look Up/Address Verification The Zip Code Look Up button is a link to the USPS website. The Zip Code Look Up feature is more than a zip code verification it also verifies the address. The USPS returns the address provided from the IMS in a standardized format providing designations such as East, West, Street, Court, Lane, etc. You will be notified if the address you have entered is a valid address. In addition, the Zip +4 code is provided. This can be very helpful to verify an address if what you have received is incomplete or you are unable to read someone s handwriting. A link on the USPS Zip Code Look up screen provides additional mailing information like county, carrier route, and more. The Zip Code Look Up button appears in the ADD RECORD (KEY DATA) and EDIT DETAIL DATA screens. Click to verify address. 38

39 Text from the USPS site can also be copied and pasted into the IMS. Close the USPS window when you are finished. County Look Up Click to view more information about the mailing address. 39

40 Click to hide the information about the mailing address. Close the USPS window when you are finished. 40

41 Duplicates and the Merge/Purge Code In order to help prevent the addition of duplicates, the IMS creates an identification code called a Merge/Purge Code for every record. A Merge/Purge Code contains portions of the record s Record Type, Name, and Address. It is created from portions of data entered on the KEY DATA screen and is displayed on the EDIT DETAIL DATA screen at the top of the data elements. There are times when records are not duplicates yet they have the same Merge/Purge code. Individuals may have last names, addresses and zip codes that begin the same way. Adult family may reside in the same household, yet need separate records. Organizations and Businesses with names that are similar may all reside in the same building. Etc. Each time a record is added or updated, the system compares that record s Merge/Purge Code to all other records. A warning is displayed when other records have the same Merge/Purge Code. 41

42 Duplicate Warning When ADDING Records There are 3 options: Force Add the Record, Cancel, and view the potential Duplicates. View Potential Duplicates Click to view potential duplicate records. Click on the ID number link to examine a record. When you are finished viewing the record, click. When you are finished viewing potential duplicates, click on the DUPLICATE MERGE/PURGE RECORDS screen. 42

43 Force Add a Record Click displayed. to add the record. The record is added and the EDIT DETAIL DATA screen will be Cancel Click to not save the new record. The ADD RECORD (KEY DATA) screen will be displayed. Duplicate Warning When Saving an Existing Record The process of exploring the potential duplicates is the same as when adding new records. This time instead of a Force Add option, it now reads Force Save. 43

44 Deleting Records - Guidelines Records to Keep It is recommended that you keep records when there are gifts and other activity records attached, in order to keep your historical participation and financial data complete. Instead of deleting a record, update the Contact Restriction field to in indicate when: A person is deceased An up-to-date mailing address cannot be found (Bad Address) A company is Out of Business Records to Delete It is appropriate to delete a record when: You have maintained a record for someone for several years and that person has never donated to your organization, never attended an event, never volunteered, etc. You are unable to obtain a current mailing address or address, and there are no gifts, attendance, participation or volunteer records attached. You have maintained a record for testing purposes and no longer need it. Note: Only users with Administrative Security Level access have Delete privileges. Contact GWg to change Security Level access. 44

45 Delete a Record Search for the record to be deleted. (A portion of the screen has been left out to save space.) Note that a button is located at the top and bottom of the screen. 45

46 Click to start the delete process. Click to continue, otherwise click to save the record. 46

47 In this 2nd part of the delete confirmation process, notice that the screen turns a bright green. All the data in the record is displayed letting you review the record to be deleted. Since the entire record is going to be deleted permanently, you are asked twice to confirm that you really want to delete the record. Record Continued 47

48 Record Continued 48

49 Pay attention to the warning. Once the record is deleted it cannot be recovered. It is suggested that you print information on this screen before continuing. Click to print the screen before deleting the record. It will be helpful if you need to re-enter the information. Or Click to permanently delete the record. Or Click to save the record. 49

50 Consolidating Records The Consolidating Records feature helps to combine records without losing any other details like contributions, ticket purchases, event registrations, memberships, contacts, etc. Circumstances possibly leading to the need for consolidating duplicate records: Perhaps John Doe once lived on East Avenue. Your Staff didn t know that he moved to Central Street and added another record for him. You could also have organizations/businesses that are duplicates simply because the company names were entered a little differently. The IMS would not have identified them as potential duplicates. Etc. Note: Only users with Administrative Security Level access have Consolidation privileges. Contact GWg to change Security Level access. Record Consolidation In the next example you can see that there are 2 records for an Outer Beaches Resort company. Each record was entered with similar name and similar address. The address was not similar enough for the Merge/Purge code to be the same. Therefore they were not identified as potential duplicates. Record #44 will be saved because it has the most current, or correct address information. First identify the record that should remain. You might call this the Master record or even the Survivor. Choose the one that has the most current address information. In this example record #44 will be the remaining record. Click to select record. 50

51 Record Continued 51

52 Enter the ID number of the record to be merged in the box next to the and press ENTER or click. button Lookup ID Number for Record to be Deleted If you do not know the ID number of the record to be merged click. next to A RECORD SEARCH screen is displayed where you can search for the record to be merged. Click on the ID Number link of desired record on the RECORD SEARCH results screen. All data will be listed on the CONSOLIDATE DETAIL DATA screen. When you are finished reviewing the data click. The ID number will appear in the text box. Click to continue. 52

53 This RECORD CONSOLIDATION screen contains information in the gold bar about the record to be saved. Below is Key Data for both of the records to be consolidated, with the information for the record to be saved on the left-hand side. By default all data in the survivor record is selected to be saved, indicated by the blue highlighted option, or radio, buttons. Clicking will discontinue the consolidation and the EDIT DETAIL DATA screen will be displayed. Click in any option button in the record to be merged column to save that data instead of the data already highlighted. In this case the correct Business Name and Alpha Sort Name will be saved which is stored in Record #43. Click to continue the consolidation. 53

54 Contact Consolidation The contact consolidation process takes place at the CONTACT CONSOLIDATION screen. Contacts from both records are listed side-by-side. You need to indicate if records match. The contact names in the record to be saved are listed in a Drop-Down box along with the option of No Contact. When contacts match: A new contact will not be added to the surviving record. Any Contact-Specific data (like Volunteer or Relationships) in a matched record will be added to the matching contact in the surviving record. Contact data such as title, , and phone numbers will NOT be overwritten. When contacts do not match: A new contact record for each contact will be added to the surviving record along with any related Contact-Specific data. In this example, Robert Caudill in Record #44 and Bob Caudill in Record #43 are the same, so they need to be matched. Randy Sykes is in both records and already identified as a match. The other records from Record #43 are not a match so they will be added. 54

55 Click contacts. next to Bob Caudill and choose the Robert Caudill option to match the 55

56 Contact Match Up Results Note: The WARNING message states that the consolidation process is irreversible. Before proceeding with the consolidation, it is a good idea to print a summary screen that lists all data associated with the record to be deleted. You cannot any Contact titles, phone numbers or addresses that need to be added to the surviving record. Also, because the Consolidation process cannot be reversed it would be helpful to have this print out if the consolidation was completed in error. Click. 56

57 Record Continued 57

58 (A portion of the screen has been left out to save space.) 58

59 Click to print screen. Click when finished. The CONTACT CONSOLIDATION screen will be displayed. Click to continue Contact Consolidation. The EDIT DETAIL DATA screen will be displayed for the updated record. 59

60 Lookup Members of Congress The Members of Congress Look up button is a link to Congress.org which describes itself as a nonpartisan news and information website dedicated to encouraging civic participation. Congress.org makes it easy for citizens to write their elected officials and assures that their letters will be delivered directly to the decision-makers. The site has a zip code look up button that is used to locate elected officials in that zip code area. The Member of Congress Look up button appears at the bottom of the EDIT DETAIL DATA screen. (A portion of the screen has been left out to save space.) Click to access Congress.org and look up elected officials. 60

61 (A portion of the screen has been left out to save space.) 61

62 Lookup Address via Mapquest The Map button is a link to Mapquest.com. Mapquest will display a map of the address in the selected record. This can be very helpful when you a planning to visit a donor and need driving directions. The Map button appears at the bottom of the EDIT DETAIL DATA screen. (A portion of the screen has been left out to save space.) Click to access Mapquest.com. 62

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64 Create an Envelope for Selected Record Pressing the Envelope button displays all the data one needs in a pop-up window, to create a mailing label or envelope. Copy and paste this data into letters, labels, envelopes, etc. The Envelope button appears to the right of the State field on the EDIT DETAIL DATA screen. (A portion of the screen has been left out to save space.) Click to create text for an envelope. 64

65 Copy the returned address information and paste it into your desired program. 65

66 Send an to a Contact in Selected Record via IMS Mail Program A Send button is located next to each contact s address. This allows you to quickly send an to one contact. Click to create an and send it via the IMS mail program. 66

67 Enter desired Subject, Message and other important details and click when finished. 67

68 Send an to a Contact in Selected Record via Your Local Mail Program A Mail to link is located below each contact s address. Clicking on this link opens a new message in your local mail program with the contact s address in the Send To box. This allows you to quickly send an to one contact. Click to create and send an via your local mail program. 68

69 Enter desired Subject, Message and other important details and send when finished. 69

70 Help Need Assistance? Contac:t: Carolyn I. Green at GroundWork group / cgreen@groundworkgroup.org / , x support@groundworkgroup.org 70