Entering couples as a single record

Alice Robinson

I'm trying to clean up our eTapestry database (I'm new to my current organisation). Most couples who have made gifts have been entered as a single record eg "Mr and Mrs Joe Bloggs". At my last organisation (using Raisers Edge) we would have entered one record for each individual, then link them via the Relationship function, and nominate a head of household. And then use the soft credit function to ensure donations are reflected on both records.


I believe there's real benefit in creating individual records even for couples, particularly where one of them may pass away, and their record needs to be updated to reflect this, without knocking their surviving partner out of the database.


Can I ask, how do you manage this?  Suggestions/advice/musings all welcome!

Mary Kern 2

I found the same thing in my organization. I have been splitting them as necessary (e.g. when one attends and event but the other doesn't). I didn't think about soft credit when I first split them. Now I am looking for a way to find all the primary records so I can apply soft credit for their gifts because I don't want them to show up as non donors. 


If anyone has thoughts on how to find them and fix them, I would greatly appreciate it. 

Betsy Unger

Hi Alice, Mary-
When to use a single account vs two accounts for couples is addressed here in the eTapestry help file. This topic also includes a link for information about separating one account with a Family name format into multiple individual accounts. In RE, there is a setting for entering a gift on one account to automatically create a soft credit on another designated account. However, this setting is not available eTapestry. When adding a gift, you should remember to fill in soft credit information fields for the spouse. Sticky notes can be set up on spouse accounts as reminders.

If you need to query on primary records so that you can apply soft credits for their gifts, you can do so by querying on the Household Relationship field found in the Account category under the Criteria Options on a query.

Hopefully this helps answer all of your questions- have a great day!


Betsy Unger

eTapestry User Education Team  

 

Bailey Gould 2

Hi,


I know you posted this a while ago and I'm sure you figured out a system that works for your organization.

I'm also new to my position and during the process of completing the name sorting exports I was able to set up a specific guideline of what works best for our organization which I will include here. We do have a lot of couples as we work with families and don't need accounts for each parent in the family but do need to be able to generate the appropriate names when called upon.

I also wanted to be explicitly clear in how names should be formatted going forwards as we have an import of these names at least once per year.


Here are my guidelines:

 

• When inputting a new account that has more than one name (a couple) use the following formats:
  • Same last name: Jane and John Smith, First name field: Jane and John, Last name field: Smith
  • Different last names; Account name: Jane Doe and John Smith, First name field: Jane and John, Last name field: Doe and Smith
  • Hyphenated last name; Account name: Jane Doe-Smith and John Smith, First name field: Jane and John, Last name field: Doe-Smith and Smith
  • Always use and -  NO &, NO COMMAS, NO /,
  • Keep order of names consistent through all fields