Best practice on uploading attachments?

Scotland Lamb

Where does your organization upload attachments such as proposals and grants? If there is an opportunity, do you attach it to the opportunity (where it then won't show on the main screen), or do you only upload it to "attachments"?


Thanks!

Elizabeth Perron

Hi,


I have moved this forum post from the Organizational Best Practices Forum to the Raiser's Edge Community in hopes of getting more product specific eyes & replies...


In harmony and inclusion,

Elizabeth

Blackbaud Community Team

Aldera Chisholm 2

Hi Scotland Preston

We were attaching them to proposals, but currently re-evaluating that as it's not intuitive when searching for a document. 


We will be moving to just putting them as regular attachments, but will continue to ensure that our naming of the documents follows the naming convention we use for Opportunities to make them easy to find. 


I have realized that in NXT it's important to make sure the original document has an appropriate name - in RE7/database view- where the description you gave the media was front and centre, and the original document file name was buried, in NXT the actual file name is the highest priority.  It's just one more step we have to do, as often those docs come to us with the grantor or sponsor with their own naming.


Cheers

JoAnn Strommen

Interesting Aldera Chisholm‍, we've been considering switching from attachments to the opportunities/proposals thinking that is where one would look for info on the proposal.  Will have to give it more thought.


Good info about naming!!

Daniel R. Snyder

I agree with Aldera Chisholm‍ that it can be confusing that if you attach a proposal (PDF) to a proposal/opportunity it does not show up in the attachments tile in NXT. As as far as the naming goes, I believe the Title field in database view has the highest priority and in NXT you should be able to adjust the Attachment name so the link/file name doesn't show up as the first thing.


Whatever direction you go, you may want to upload in RE7/database view first so it will exist in both locations and as I understand it if you ever had to restore NXT you would lose those attachments that are only in NXT. Search the community on for other discussions on those topics.

Aldera Chisholm 2

YES! I forgot to add the part about always uploading in database view ... we have made that a policy at our org. Actually, I just told my fundraisers that they couldn't upload them in NXT. Haha

Dan Snyder:

I agree with Aldera Chisholm‍ that it can be confusing that if you attach a proposal (PDF) to a proposal/opportunity it does not show up in the attachments tile in NXT. As as far as the naming goes, I believe the Title field in database view has the highest priority and in NXT you should be able to adjust the Attachment name so the link/file name doesn't show up as the first thing.


Whatever direction you go, you may want to upload in RE7/database view first so it will exist in both locations and as I understand it if you ever had to restore NXT you would lose those attachments that are only in NXT. Search the community on for other discussions on those topics.

 

Tonya Higgins

JoAnn Strommen:

Interesting Aldera Chisholm‍, we've been considering switching from attachments to the opportunities/proposals thinking that is where one would look for info on the proposal.  Will have to give it more thought.


Good info about naming!!

Interesting topic.

I am actively working with my staff to get used to the fact that attachments correspond to particular places. Gift attachments to the specific gift, action attachments to the action, and opportunities and proposals to opportunities.  The feedback I have received is this can be a pain for those who don't want to think about where to look, or those who work primarily in database view. (Personal wish is that all NXT attachments downloaded to the database view media tab..) It seems like after people get used to it, and after awhile they start to see why it makes life more convenient (ie, when I make a opportunities list I want to know if there are any attachments. Same for actions and gifts lists.) And, knowing BB, there will be more improvements on how everything works together, and I want to be able to take advantage if we like a new feature, and not have to again change a process.Thats my thought process so far, and I think others are starting to see benefits.

Scotland Lamb

Thank you everyone for your input! You've given me some good things to think about and bring back to my organization!