Tips for Creating a Good Coding System
Contents
1. a code the matching codes would also be modified or removed from the second field Furthermore the sharing can be set up to be reciprocal so that changes made in the codes for either of the fields will appear in the code set for the other December 2009 Page 6 DonorPerfect Online Managing Codes in Your System For example suppose the local public radio station wanted to run a College Challenge in which donors could vote for their favorite college when they made a gift or pledge The station would first add a College Challenge field to both the Gift and Pledge screens Then they would establish a set of codes for the various colleges for which the donors can vote Code sharing would allow them to enter those codes for the College Challenge Gifts Screen field in Code Maintenance and automatically cause the same set of codes to be available for the College Challenge Pledge Screen field By sharing the codes between the College Challenge Gifts Screen and College Challenge Pledges Screen the station can insure the consistency that would be needed to easily tally the results of the challenge gt To set up code sharing between fields 1 Open the Code Maintenance screen as discussed above and select the field that will receive the shared codes in the Show only pull down menu In our example the College Challenge Pledges Screen will receive the shared codes from the College Challenge Gifts Screen Click Go The system will list any co2. created and modified click Export to Excel The system will create the dpexport xls file which can be opened in Excel An example of dpexport xls is shown in Figure 3 below Note Dpexport xls contains columns for all of the fields that could be present in any code definition Thus you may see columns for fields such as mcat_hi mcat_lo and mailed shown in Figure 3 that do not pertain to the particular field whose codes you have exported December 2009 Page 3 DonorPerfect Online Managing Codes in Your System Code Maintenance Show oniy GL Code Gifts Screen Qo _ _Exportto Excel 7 Shere code with a a I Reciprocal Relationship Save gt Add Zz Field Name Code Description Inactive Edt GL_CODE BF Building Fund N Delete Edit GL_CODE CF Campaign Finance Reform N Delete Edt GL_CODE CR Campaign Reform N Delete Edt GL_CODE DR Disaster Relief N Delete Edi GL_CODE ED Education N Delete Edi GL_CODE IK In Kind Donation N Delete Edt GL_CODE m2 Membership Auxilary N Delete Edt GL_CODE ME Membership N Delete Edt GL_CODE OR Outreach N Delete ERY POPPA LPP SELL LL PPV A PL PLD DLL LAP LSS L VED ped UPD Figure 2 Code Maintenance Screen for the GL Field te loutiungrnd _ocooe ow __ cF Campaign Finance Reform a cooe of o f o CR Campaign Reform en cooe oj on J ol DR Disasterrelief fe cooe of oN f J of E0 Education fGtcooe ot on J J o ak in
3. towards having somewhat longer codes even when a shorter code length would work initially For example if you choose a single numeric character as your code you will be restricted to only ten codes i e 0 1 9 If subsequently you needed to define more than ten codes you would have to expand the code length However if you initially choose a two digit numeric you would have 100 codes to use before needing to expand An additional value to having longer codes especially those that are alphabetic is that longer codes can be made a bit more intelligible to the humans that interface with the system Finally it is helpful if all the codes for a given field use the same number of characters Thus by anticipating the number of codes you will need and the information they will have to represent you can plan for a code length that will satisfy those needs Regularly Maintain Codes It is natural that the number of codes in your system will expand with time This can happen for example if the codes you define for solicitations that are repeated annually include characters that identify the year of the particular solicitation such as BQ04 BQ05 etc for the annual fund raising banquets in 2004 2005 etc After a while the number of the entries in the Solicitation pull down menu can increase to the point where unnecessary delays and possible mistakes are introduced into the data entry process Thus if you are no longer using a code an
4. KindDonation en cooe of ow J Jf ol M2 Membership auxilary fe cooe of ov J J ol ME Membership Gt cove of oy J J J ol e ao Sou T Ce E gq 9 tt Noo J f ol ma kaldi 3 C a e T T E E E T AIALA VA A sah AAAI LL AnA ot agt Figure 3 Dpexport xls Example Adding Codes You can easily add codes to your system For example if you will be sending out a new mailing or have started a new committee you may need to add a new code gt To add codes 1 Click Add on the Code Maintenance screen Fig 2 to display the screen for adding or editing a code as shown below for a new Solicitation Code in Figure 4 December 2009 Page 4 DonorPerfect Online Managing Codes in Your System Field Name Solicitation Code Code aang Description Banquet 2009 Banquet is on 12 5 09 It s Comments black tie this year Inactive J Begin Date End Dates 12 31 2010 Total Mailed Goal 0 00 Printing Costs 0 00 Date Other Costs s0 00 Campaign Capital Campaign i Save Figure 4 Add Code Screen for Solicitation Codes Complete the fields as needed If you entered a field name in the Show only field on the Code Maintenance screen prior to clicking Add that field will be displayed in the Field Name field Otherwise select the appropriate field name Enter the new Code in a format that is consistent with that of the existing codes for this field Such consistency will facilitate more effective
5. Tips for Creating a Good Coding System DonorPerfect Online SofterWare Inc DonotrPerfect Online December 2009 DonorPerfect Online Introduction Introduction User defined codes are extremely important in DonorPerfect Online because they help ensure consistency in the way information is stored in the database Moreover this consistency facilitates the effective use of filters and sorts which are critical to the operation of DonorPerfect Online Indeed it would be very difficult to make any sense of the information in your database if it lacked a high degree of consistency Imagine for example what would happen if the description that is entered into the Solicitation field in the gift record were left up to the whim of each data entry person It is very likely that a wide variety of terms would be used to describe the same fund raising event Then imagine how confusing the resulting Solicitation Analysis report would be It is to avoid exactly this type of confusion that DonorPerfect Online uses codes A code is a pre defined systematic and concise way for representing information that is repetitively used An example of a code we all use frequently is the two digit state code that the post office insists that we put in mailing addresses By default DonorPerfect Online uses the exact same set of codes in the State field found on the Main screen DonorPerfect Online employs user defined codes in a wide variety of fields For example th
6. d don t want it to get in the way of data entry make it wactive as discussed below It is a good idea to regularly review the frequently used codes e g solicit_code gl _code flag etc in your system to determine which ones can be made inactive Indeed the code definition itself which is also discussed below enables you to set up a date after which the code will be automatically set to snactive Thus when you are creating a new code if you can reasonably anticipate when that code will no longer be needed set the inactive date appropriately Note that a code that has been tagged as znactive will still appear in the donor records and in reports but not in the pull down menus and other selection screens Managing Codes in Your System Because the user defined codes in your system are critical to ensuring the consistency of your data you ll need to manage them over time to make sure they are up to date and accurate Managing your codes involves adding new codes and editing inactivating or deleting existing codes in the Code Maintenance screen as shown below in Figure 1 The Code Maintenance screen is accessed by clicking the Settings button in the Navigation Bar and Code Maintenance in the Settings menu December 2009 Page 2 DonorPerfect Online Managing Codes in Your System Show only Show all fields Code Maintenance Go Export to Excel Share code with NO FIELD SHARED gt a Laaa I Reciprocal Relatio
7. des in Your System For example the codes for the Address Type Donor Screen field will always be the same as those for the Address Type Addresses Screen field Similarly the codes for the Country Donor Screen field will be the same as those for the Country Addresses Screen er Note Certain fields are forced by the system to use the same set of codes For more information on coding refer to the Code Maintenance and Appendix B Sample Coding sections of the DonorPerfect Online User Manual December 2009 Page 8
8. des that already exist for the field selected in the Show only pull down 2 Select the field that will be the source of the shared codes in the Share code with pull down In our example the College Challenge Gifts Screen is the source of the shared codes as shown below in Figure 5 This field will receive the shared codes Code Maintenance Show only College Challenge Pledges Screen Go Export to Excel Share code with College Challenge Gits Screen I Reciprocal Relationship Save This field is the source of the shared codes g Field Name Code Description Inactive Edt COLL CHALLENGE DREX Drexel University N Delete M Edt COLL_CHALLENGE PENN Univeristy of Pennsylvania N Delete Edt COLL CHALLENGE PENNST Penn State University N Delete M Edt COLL_CHALLENGE STIOE Saint Josephs Unisversity N Delete M Edt COLL_CHALLENGE TEMP Temple University N Delete F Delete Figure 5 Code Sharing Setup 3 Ifyou want the sharing arrangement to be reciprocal select Reciprocal Relationship 4 Click Save Henceforth any changes made in the code list for the field selected in the Share code with pull down College Challenge Gifts Screen will automatically appear in the code list for the field selected in the Show only pull down College Challenge Pledge Screen If we had selected Reciprocal Relationship the codes would be shared in both directions December 2009 Page 7 DonorPerfect Online Managing Co
9. ere are codes to represent e Each of your fund raising solicitations e g Annual Appeal Banquet Golf Outing Phonathon etc These codes are used in the Solicitation field field name solicit_code e Each of the accounts toward which donations are directed e g Building Fund Education Unrestricted etc These codes are used in the General Ledger field gl_code in the Gift and Pledge entry screens e Each of the types of acknowledgment receipt letter that need to be produced e g Standard Acknowledgement Pledge Payment Thank You New Member Thank You etc These codes are used in the Thank You and Thank You Letter fields ty_letter_no in the Gift and Pledge entry screens respectively e Each of the many descriptors used to explain the relationship of a donor to your organization e g Board Member Volunteer Alumnus etc These codes are used in the Flags field flag in the Main screen e Each of the types of gift that must be recorded e g Cash Check In Kind Gift etc These codes are used in the Type of Gift field gift_type in the Gift Screen e And many many more items of information December 2009 Page 1 DonorPerfect Online General Considerations General Considerations There are several issues that you should consider as you define codes for your system Plan Ahead When establishing your system of codes it is a good idea to try to anticipate what your future needs may be That would lean
10. intenance and in the existing records You can edit the other fields e g Description Comments etc in the definition of a code but no warning will be given Inactivating Codes You can cause a code to be Inactive by simply editing the definition for the code and setting the Inactive check box As stated above codes that are marked as inactive will not be available for selection However you can override the inactive setting for a codes by selecting the Allow inactive codes in data entry filters contact manager membership and global updates parameter on the General Parameters screen accessed by clicking Settings in the Navigation Bar and Parameters in the Settings menu Deleting Codes Occasionally you may need to delete unused codes from your system er Note You cannot delete a code that has been used in an existing constituent record If you attempt to do so you will receive an error message gt To delete a code 1 Click Delete next to the code in the Code Maintenance screen Fig 1 that you want to remove 2 The system will display a warning message Click OK to confirm the deletion The system will delete the code from the Code Maintenance screen Sharing Codes The DPO code sharing function enables you to establish a set of codes that will be used by two fields If a new code is added to one field a corresponding code is automatically added to the second as well Similarly if you edit or delete
11. nship Save EPOSA pr cescription Inactive Edt ACCT_NUM 14 4000 Unrestricted N Delete F Edt ACCT_NUM 14 4030 Education N Delete F Edt ACCT_NUM 14 4050 Membership N Delte F Edt ACCT_NUM 14 4060 In Kind Donation N Delete F Edt ACCT_NUM 14 4100 Outreach N Delte F Edt ACCT_NUM 14 4200 Scholarship N Delete F Edt ACCT_NUM 14 4500 Building Fund N Delte F Edt ACTIVITY_CODE cD Call DonorPerfect N Delete F Edt ACTIVITY_CODE cs Sales 800 220 8111 N Delete M Edt ACTIVITY_CODE EI Email In N Deletdy ABD DEIN GL DES DLO L IVS nt pr PPro LL PGP LIN SOPRA A adhag e prt DP pter Ty Figure 1 Code Maintenance Screen Searching for Codes for Specific Fields You can search for the codes used in specific fields e g GL Activity in your system gt To search for codes for specific fields 1 2 3 Select the field screen whose codes you want to display from the Show only pull down menu of the Code Maintenance screen Fig 1 and click Go To see a list of all fields screens leave the default Show all fields in the Show only field The system will display all the codes for the selected field as shown below in Figure 2 for the GL field You can sort by any of the columns by clicking on the column heading To return to displaying all the codes select Show all fields in the Show only field and click Go To export a list of the displayed codes including the detailed definition of each code and information on when it was
12. sorts and reports Set the new code as Inactive if you don t want it to appear in selection menus until some later time At that point you can reset Inactive and the code will appear Alternatively you can specify the Begin Date and End Date of the date range during which the code will be active If don t enter a Begin Date the new code will be active as soon as it is saved If you enter an End Date while you are creating the code you will not have to remember to go back at a later time to set it as Inactive Some codes including those for the Solicitation field shown in Figure 4 may have additional information that can be completed The Total Mailed Goal and other additional fields in the definition of the Solicitation code are used to hold information that is used in the Solicitation Analysis report 2 Click Save When you return to the Code Maintenance screen the newly defined code will be listed Editing Codes The steps for editing a code are very similar to those for Adding Codes discussed above and will not be repeated here All you need to do is click Edit next to the code you want to modify in Step 1 above to open the code definition screen shown in Figure 4 above December 2009 Page 5 DonorPerfect Online Managing Codes in Your System Note If you attempt to edit a code that has already been used in a constituent record the system will respond with a warning If you continue the code will be changed in Code Ma
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