Going paperless - I don't think any office can really fulfill that dream, but certainly it benefits all to cut down on paper. We had to start by thinking about what we really needed to keep. We do use offsite storage to keep documents that are required for a certain time. We are slowly working toward eliminating that large pile of paper in favor of scanned documents.
We've been scanning our daily mail related to donations for over a year now. Our receptionist is responsible for the daily openning and scanning of mail. Everything to do with a donation - check, credit card donation form, accompanying documentation gets scanned into one file and saved in a network directory using the date for the file name. We have a cover sheet for each day's mail that is a form for future annotation.
Prior to the scanning, our receptionist runs a calculator tape totaling all of the donations received. This tape goes to our database specialist so she is aware that the day's mail has been scanned. Our DB specialist uses the pdf to enter any event registrations in RE. This assures that the registration pops up for the gift entry person when entering the gift into batch. The pdf is annotated that event registrations were accomplished.
The DB specialist moves the tape to the 'hooter line' at our gift entry area - a little clothesline of daily mail tapes. One of gift entry processors will take a tape and work on entrying that day's mail into batch in RE. We record the fund, appeal and any other notes on each page of the pdf that has a check, cc form, etc. Our gift entry personnel have dual monitors so they can have the pdf on one screen and the RE batch on the other. This person also 'blacks out' any private information on each page of the pdf. We currently use eCopy Paperworks for pdf annotation.
After the mail is entered into batch, the scanned document remains in the archive area on the network. Only certain people have access to this directory. It is organized by year, month and then each pdf is dated in the name. We also save all acknowledgements in the same structure.
This has really been working well for us. We may take it one step further - we just previewed a demo of Papersave. There was a lot we liked about it: it's built around workflow; it may shorten our batch entry process; there is a scan later function; and of course, the documentation is linked to the appropriate record in FE or RE. More to come on that later.
Happy Thanksgiving to all - Nora
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Back in the swing of things - the BB conference
Well, I've been away for awhile, but I'm back. Not sure if anyone reads this blog, but I hope in the long run it will help someone.
I attended the Blackbaud conference this year and was privileged to give a client presentation in the RE/FE Integration session and the F9 session. I have to say, I really enjoyed sharing my experiences with a group of people who use the products or want to use them. It was fun. Thanks to my Phillies front row in the first session for making me not feel nervous.
The conference was interesting this year - some good, some not so good. I thought the session offerings were fantastic. I do wish they were spread over three days instead of two. You had to miss a good one to go to a good one. The hotel was nice - but big. Everything is too expensive at National Harbor, but the Atrium was lovely and the water fountain show was beautiful.
The biggest no-no for me was the networking events. They were pretty bad: dark, loud music, strange entertainment - odd. I want to see the people at the conference, make new friends - really network. Also, I think having a VIP event is a contradictory idea for not for profits. We shouldn't be elitist. An event for a group that has something in common set up to share info is one thing - a private party is quite another.
So nice seeing my Blackbaud friends - hugs to you all. OK - enough of my opinions.
This blog is about sharing. We are thinking strongly about implementing Papersave next year. In preparation for this, I want to flowchart our gift entry proceedures. We have them written in text; however, we've noted that there are a lot of little sidebars that happen throughout the process. I'll include some general procedures for in some posts and then update as I move the process. I think documenting your workflow is really important when it comes to integrating FE and RE. Lots of good reasons: begins the process of communicating among departments; formalizes who is responsible for which task; helps plan for balancing; helps assure that best practices are followed.
Here is our basic mail process - this outlines how we handle the mail when it is received at our front desk.
Basic Mail Process
The Receptionist will sort through the tags and separated them by credit cards and by cash and checks. The sorted piles will then be sub totaled for balancing the data entry later on.
One of the A/R Gifts Processors will begin data entry into Raiser’s Edge at this point. After the gifts are all entered, the running total of the tape is matched to the Daily Gifts (in house) Pivot Table. If the two figures do not match, the Accounts Receivable Clerk who entered the gifts will research the reason. If both figures do match, the day is fully entered. At this time any sale items that are waiting credit card approval will be mailed by the Receptionist.
Online credit cards are downloaded from the our websites. The Accounts Receivable Gift Processor downloads them daily. They are downloaded into a grid where the donors can be matched up to a record in the database. If not in the database the donor is added at this point. When transactions are linked to a record they are brought into a batch by a click of the process transaction button. In the batch is where all the information for the donation is verified. To make sure it is going to the correct fund, receiving the correct thank you letter and if it is an honor/memorial donation all the necessary information is linked. After everything is verified the batch is committed like all other batches. For detailed instructions please see the Net Community and the Sphere Download Procedures (coming in a later post).
Following the entry of gifts the Accounts Receivable Gift Processors will print out the Tribute acknowledgements to family and friends of honor/memorial contributions. They will be put in the mail that day. The tag copy will be noted with the date it went out.
Thank you letters will then be printed out and matched to the tag copy. $50 and over donations will receive a letter and under $50 donations will receive a postcard which is put in the mail the same day and the date will be noted on the tag copy. At this point the letters and tag copies will stay with the folders to be handed off for circulation to management. This is so management can review the donations and sign the letters.
When circulation of the tag copies is finished they are handed to the Accounts Payable Coordinator. The Accounts Payable Coordinator will hand any corrections to Accounts Receivable Gift Processors, thank you letters to be mailed will go to the Receptionist to fold, stuff, and put in the mail, and the remaining tags will be put into a bin to be filled away by the Receptionist. When thank you letters are mailed, the date is noted on the tag copy.
The Accounts Payable Coordinator makes a bank deposit every Wednesday & Friday and the last day of each month. The deposit slip is verified to match the appropriate day of donations in the mail (minus the credit cards) .
We have since introduced a scanning to pdf process in our mail process. I will talk more about that in my next post.
Good day to all!
Nora
I attended the Blackbaud conference this year and was privileged to give a client presentation in the RE/FE Integration session and the F9 session. I have to say, I really enjoyed sharing my experiences with a group of people who use the products or want to use them. It was fun. Thanks to my Phillies front row in the first session for making me not feel nervous.
The conference was interesting this year - some good, some not so good. I thought the session offerings were fantastic. I do wish they were spread over three days instead of two. You had to miss a good one to go to a good one. The hotel was nice - but big. Everything is too expensive at National Harbor, but the Atrium was lovely and the water fountain show was beautiful.
The biggest no-no for me was the networking events. They were pretty bad: dark, loud music, strange entertainment - odd. I want to see the people at the conference, make new friends - really network. Also, I think having a VIP event is a contradictory idea for not for profits. We shouldn't be elitist. An event for a group that has something in common set up to share info is one thing - a private party is quite another.
So nice seeing my Blackbaud friends - hugs to you all. OK - enough of my opinions.
This blog is about sharing. We are thinking strongly about implementing Papersave next year. In preparation for this, I want to flowchart our gift entry proceedures. We have them written in text; however, we've noted that there are a lot of little sidebars that happen throughout the process. I'll include some general procedures for in some posts and then update as I move the process. I think documenting your workflow is really important when it comes to integrating FE and RE. Lots of good reasons: begins the process of communicating among departments; formalizes who is responsible for which task; helps plan for balancing; helps assure that best practices are followed.
Here is our basic mail process - this outlines how we handle the mail when it is received at our front desk.
Basic Mail Process
The Receptionist will sort through the tags and separated them by credit cards and by cash and checks. The sorted piles will then be sub totaled for balancing the data entry later on.
One of the A/R Gifts Processors will begin data entry into Raiser’s Edge at this point. After the gifts are all entered, the running total of the tape is matched to the Daily Gifts (in house) Pivot Table. If the two figures do not match, the Accounts Receivable Clerk who entered the gifts will research the reason. If both figures do match, the day is fully entered. At this time any sale items that are waiting credit card approval will be mailed by the Receptionist.
Online credit cards are downloaded from the our websites. The Accounts Receivable Gift Processor downloads them daily. They are downloaded into a grid where the donors can be matched up to a record in the database. If not in the database the donor is added at this point. When transactions are linked to a record they are brought into a batch by a click of the process transaction button. In the batch is where all the information for the donation is verified. To make sure it is going to the correct fund, receiving the correct thank you letter and if it is an honor/memorial donation all the necessary information is linked. After everything is verified the batch is committed like all other batches. For detailed instructions please see the Net Community and the Sphere Download Procedures (coming in a later post).
Following the entry of gifts the Accounts Receivable Gift Processors will print out the Tribute acknowledgements to family and friends of honor/memorial contributions. They will be put in the mail that day. The tag copy will be noted with the date it went out.
Thank you letters will then be printed out and matched to the tag copy. $50 and over donations will receive a letter and under $50 donations will receive a postcard which is put in the mail the same day and the date will be noted on the tag copy. At this point the letters and tag copies will stay with the folders to be handed off for circulation to management. This is so management can review the donations and sign the letters.
When circulation of the tag copies is finished they are handed to the Accounts Payable Coordinator. The Accounts Payable Coordinator will hand any corrections to Accounts Receivable Gift Processors, thank you letters to be mailed will go to the Receptionist to fold, stuff, and put in the mail, and the remaining tags will be put into a bin to be filled away by the Receptionist. When thank you letters are mailed, the date is noted on the tag copy.
The Accounts Payable Coordinator makes a bank deposit every Wednesday & Friday and the last day of each month. The deposit slip is verified to match the appropriate day of donations in the mail (minus the credit cards) .
We have since introduced a scanning to pdf process in our mail process. I will talk more about that in my next post.
Good day to all!
Nora
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
FE User Group Meeting and Other fun things
Sorry for being away so long from this blog. Life has presented me with lots of challenges but things are finally settling down.
Yesterday I was honored to host an FE User group for Blackbaud. It was held at our Horsham Library - thanks so much to the library for this wonderful service - a great space for no cost!
I'm not sure how many people were there but the turnout was good - I'd estimate 30-35 people. We saw a couple of quick presentations from Ben Cade and James Bradley from Blackbaud. We learned more about FE dashboards and the VCO.
We ate lots of food - no event is really good without lots of food. We also broke up into focus groups. I took part in the database management/content group. Most of our talk was about integrating RE and FE. I was somewhat surprised to see how many people have not integrated their systems. Some reasons for this include:
Yesterday I was honored to host an FE User group for Blackbaud. It was held at our Horsham Library - thanks so much to the library for this wonderful service - a great space for no cost!
I'm not sure how many people were there but the turnout was good - I'd estimate 30-35 people. We saw a couple of quick presentations from Ben Cade and James Bradley from Blackbaud. We learned more about FE dashboards and the VCO.
We ate lots of food - no event is really good without lots of food. We also broke up into focus groups. I took part in the database management/content group. Most of our talk was about integrating RE and FE. I was somewhat surprised to see how many people have not integrated their systems. Some reasons for this include:
- Difficulty with communication between Development, Finance and IT. This is undertandable - we all have different requirements for the software. It's hard to come to an understanding to be able to formulate a plan. I think a third party helps here.
- Lack of support/training. Don't we all feel this. I feel fortunate to be able to provide the IT support our organization requires. Many organizations just don't have the budget for this. I've found it helpful to assure to include in the budget consulting service from the vendor for any purchase of software. I know this is hard - we can't even afford the product. However, we don't want to buy the product, spend the money and not use it.
- Lack of information on how to set up FE to integrate with RE and vice versa before you purchase the other product. Most of us bought one product first - FE or RE. By the time we get the other product, we are entrenched in our current procedure and fight changing anything. Wouldn't it be great if we had a road map from Blackbaud on how to set up the product so it would integrate well. There are basics that will fit in with every organization. We can't decipher this from user guides and we can't pay for consulting services whenever we make a change. Give us a roadmap to help us understand how things should work.
- Lack of user groups - nothing beats sitting in a room with other users talking about how you do things. I'd love to have a small budget for snacks at the user group meetings we hold every three months. Thanks to Taylor Moore from BB for sending us goodies for our last meeting. Blackbaud needs to foster these independent user groups. They know we sell product at these meetings by showcasing our use of their products.
- Finance doesn't know RE and Development doen't know FE. This is normal but someone has to know both systems in order to integrate them. Blackbaud is now doing better at supporting integration. Bring in consulting support, if possible. I don't want to always sound like I think Blackbaud consulting is the only provider out there - it's not. I just don't have personal experience with other companies and I've good experience with Blackbaud.
I'll stop there but it really disappoints me to see systems that are not integrated. I hope I can help in some way. Email me with questions if I can.
Quick update on our move to a vmware environment. It is going well. Taking longer than I thought but that is because our consulting help is so thorough and great at doing due diligence. Anyone in the Philly suburb area, you can do no wrong going with Lantium for consulting services. Excellent! Special thanks to Ed Keiper.
Off to work now. We are working through our Major Gift campaign policies and procedures - talk about different requirements for Finance, Development and Operations. I'll share the outcome in the next post (which will be sooner than later).
Best to all - Nora
Monday, January 18, 2010
Really Cool Tool - F9 for Financial Edge/Excel
We've been looking at F9 - a great reporting tool used with Excel and Financial Edge. We've had a couple of demos and we're pretty much sold. As usual, it costs - what doesn't?
The application is basically an add-on to Excel. The cool thing - you don't use an FE license when you access reports from Excel. The uncool thing - it's licensed per desktop user.
Here's how it works. You basically set up your financial reports in Excel. You reference data in FE. You can easily set up a report using the Wizard. Changing the report is as easy as changing a date in a field or filtering on a set of date - say fund, account, etc.
Another really cool thing- F9 understand certain terminology. If you have a worksheet set up with all the months of the year except December including rows of data, you can just type December in the column heading and copy the data to that column from your November column. All fields are updated with December data when you press F9. You can use terminoly like month name, period name, budget, etc. Really helpful.
How do I plan to use this tool (hoping I get it that is) - all my financial statements for the year will be set up once and my exec director and finance director will just push F9 to see any changes. Yes, that means if I post in a journal entry in FE and they hit f9 in their Excel report, they will instantly get the latest figures. That is just a start - we plan to do a lot more analysis using F9.
I'm really excited about this product and wanted to share the excitement with you. If we get it, I'll post how it goes. I'm attempting the install and training myself using the User Guide. Gotta cut costs if we can.
The application is basically an add-on to Excel. The cool thing - you don't use an FE license when you access reports from Excel. The uncool thing - it's licensed per desktop user.
Here's how it works. You basically set up your financial reports in Excel. You reference data in FE. You can easily set up a report using the Wizard. Changing the report is as easy as changing a date in a field or filtering on a set of date - say fund, account, etc.
Another really cool thing- F9 understand certain terminology. If you have a worksheet set up with all the months of the year except December including rows of data, you can just type December in the column heading and copy the data to that column from your November column. All fields are updated with December data when you press F9. You can use terminoly like month name, period name, budget, etc. Really helpful.
How do I plan to use this tool (hoping I get it that is) - all my financial statements for the year will be set up once and my exec director and finance director will just push F9 to see any changes. Yes, that means if I post in a journal entry in FE and they hit f9 in their Excel report, they will instantly get the latest figures. That is just a start - we plan to do a lot more analysis using F9.
I'm really excited about this product and wanted to share the excitement with you. If we get it, I'll post how it goes. I'm attempting the install and training myself using the User Guide. Gotta cut costs if we can.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Shift in Focus - We're going Virtual
Sorry for the long delay in posting. No excuse other than lots to do and lots of fun after work hours.
A couple of things happening that I hope to share in the future. We're going virtual - Lord help me. I am not schooled in anything vmware. We've contracted with some great consultants - Lantium - and we're upgrading our network to an a vmware environment. Along with that, of course, we will be moving all of our Blackbaud applications to this environment.
Fortunately, I'm replacing the majority of my servers so we'll be live until we do database move. That gives me some feeling of calm. I wish I had more time to learn more about the environment, but then again who has more time.
We're also examining our Community of Hope site. Currently, we use BBNC and team fundraiser to set up an area on our website where a constituent can build an honor/memorial page or event page for fundraising. http://www.alsphiladelphia.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=503. We had a custom part built to allow for searching across the "teams" by honoree or the page owner.
Team fundraiser links to one fund in RE. We want to be able to allow our constituents to choose one of three funds when they set up a page and still be able to search across all the pages. As I've mentioned before, we are linked to Financial Edge. We want the fund in RE to be the correct fund when it is posted to FE. Yet, if we change the fund in RE on the gift to a fund other than the one linked to the team fundraiser, the gift won't show up on the page. That's the problem - I'll post more as we work toward our solution.
We're also working with e-receipting for our online donations. We have different options in BBNC and in Sphere. In BBNC, we can easily produce a pdf acknowledgement/receipt for any donation. The gift is marked receipted when it comes in through the plugin. However, that functionality isn't there for an event. We have to use the thank you as the receipt. The problem here is that we can't do this for every event - especially those that have consideration/benefits involved. So how does the person who downloads the registration into RE using the plugin know if that person has been thanked/receipted?
In Sphere, we use the online thank you as the receipt. This works, but we then have to globally update the gifts to show that they are receipted and acknowledged or we have to do that in batch. We get thousands of gifts so we don't want to do that in batch.
Well, I'm off to figure out some solutions. This is what makes it fun!
A couple of things happening that I hope to share in the future. We're going virtual - Lord help me. I am not schooled in anything vmware. We've contracted with some great consultants - Lantium - and we're upgrading our network to an a vmware environment. Along with that, of course, we will be moving all of our Blackbaud applications to this environment.
Fortunately, I'm replacing the majority of my servers so we'll be live until we do database move. That gives me some feeling of calm. I wish I had more time to learn more about the environment, but then again who has more time.
We're also examining our Community of Hope site. Currently, we use BBNC and team fundraiser to set up an area on our website where a constituent can build an honor/memorial page or event page for fundraising. http://www.alsphiladelphia.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=503. We had a custom part built to allow for searching across the "teams" by honoree or the page owner.
Team fundraiser links to one fund in RE. We want to be able to allow our constituents to choose one of three funds when they set up a page and still be able to search across all the pages. As I've mentioned before, we are linked to Financial Edge. We want the fund in RE to be the correct fund when it is posted to FE. Yet, if we change the fund in RE on the gift to a fund other than the one linked to the team fundraiser, the gift won't show up on the page. That's the problem - I'll post more as we work toward our solution.
We're also working with e-receipting for our online donations. We have different options in BBNC and in Sphere. In BBNC, we can easily produce a pdf acknowledgement/receipt for any donation. The gift is marked receipted when it comes in through the plugin. However, that functionality isn't there for an event. We have to use the thank you as the receipt. The problem here is that we can't do this for every event - especially those that have consideration/benefits involved. So how does the person who downloads the registration into RE using the plugin know if that person has been thanked/receipted?
In Sphere, we use the online thank you as the receipt. This works, but we then have to globally update the gifts to show that they are receipted and acknowledged or we have to do that in batch. We get thousands of gifts so we don't want to do that in batch.
Well, I'm off to figure out some solutions. This is what makes it fun!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)