Data Entry "Style Guide"

Are you just looking for constiuents, or for more. I have a bunch that deal with adding a new constiuent (parent, student, faculty), adding gifts (cash, stock, in batch, one-by-one) and creating events.

Hi Anne,


Unfortuantely I do not have a full written reference, but if you are planning on using any data services from Blackbaud such as the address updater, one of the standard procedures that should be reviewed is with address entry and audit. The data that gets scanned through to USPS for the National Change of Address will keep with their formats. A more common issue with duplicates and relying on user-entry (especially with incoming online donations if you use online express) is to correct the street suffix and abbreviation to meet these standards. That means no punctuation, and proper abbreviation. You can look at the website here to see what I mean: https://pe.usps.com/text/pub28/28apc_002.htm . Otherwise, if your agency has specific requirements for Addressees (such as Mr. first always) its often small details like titles, emails, and phone numbers are missing.


Your agency should also lay out what specific tables are used for emails and phone numbers. There is a table clean up tool that may be able to help you replace and narrow down duplicate tables (Such as "Home" being used more often over "Phone1"). You are right, consistency is key! I find it best to keep it as simple as possible with clean table formatting when it comes to these important demographics. 


I hope this helps build a good "starter guide" for new users!