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Howard Marmorstein
Howard Marmorstein
Ancient Membership 10 Comments 5 Likes
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Being as we are hosted we don't have regular sets of data to refer back to (when we self-hosted we took database backups weekly and stored them).


Thus, we're thinking of exporting out all the constituents and gifts each week (overnight via Queue) as a snapshot in time.


What fields to you export out?  I was looking at gifts and then started thinking about appeals, funds, and packages and the amounts for all.  Then any gift attributes, etc.


What do you do?  Any suggestions.


Case in point, someone came back to me with a report from a year ago - it was summary - and wanted the details that made it up.  When I tried to recreate I got completely different numbers so something(s) must have changed.  But since I didn't have the details from a year ago, I couldn't answer the question.  Thought snapshots of gifts and constituents could help out in the future.

 
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  • Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE
    Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Likes 500 Comments Name Dropper
    I believe Blackbaud can send you a backup of your RE database once a week, although I don't see the point when it comes to your example.  In that scenario, assuming you had the backup files, you would need to keep and restore a backup from a year ago.


    Why do they want to see the details of a year-old report?



     
  • Howard Marmorstein
    Howard Marmorstein
    Ancient Membership 10 Comments 5 Likes
    RIght.  I don't really want backups because I can't control it.  When we self-hosted it was much easier.


    So I really do want exports.
  • Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE
    Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Likes 500 Comments Name Dropper
    What do you need to control?  Exports and the work involved to piece them back together when you need them seems like a lot of work.  Why do they need to see the details of a year old report?
  • Howard Marmorstein
    Howard Marmorstein
    Ancient Membership 10 Comments 5 Likes
    It would just be so much easier that we could lookup gifts and constituents as it was a certain time.  I know the fields we tend to use so I guess that would be sufficient.  It's with gifts that one can not export out the split amounts by fund, campaign, appeal, AND package but only split amounts per one of those.


     
  • Lily Barger
    Lily Barger
    Eighth Anniversary 10 Comments Photogenic Name Dropper
    FYI - they have quoted the cost of that backup (weekly) as $3500 per year with a minimum 3 yr contract. 
  • Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE
    Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Likes 500 Comments Name Dropper
    Thanks Lily, is there a free option?  Maybe monthly?
  • Jen Claudy
    Jen Claudy
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    Howard Marmorstein:

    It would just be so much easier that we could lookup gifts and constituents as it was a certain time.  I know the fields we tend to use so I guess that would be sufficient.  It's with gifts that one can not export out the split amounts by fund, campaign, appeal, AND package but only split amounts per one of those.

    I'm not sure why there is a need for this, because if something has changed since that report a year ago, it should have been documented at that time, or the report itself should have a detail piece to it that contains any relevant information.  And I would assume that that change was legitimate and necessary...although you could set a policy that changes to Gifts must be documented with Gift Adjustments and/or Gift Notes to ensure that documentation is made (within RE).


    However, if you export from Query, and select the Split Gift Amount for Campaign, Fund, or Appeal, you'll get essentially all of them.  Here's a post that explains better.  


     

  • Lily Barger
    Lily Barger
    Eighth Anniversary 10 Comments Photogenic Name Dropper
    Annually you can get a backup without additional cost. We are actually getting the daily backup file for $15k annually until the report generator is released.
  • Debra Holcomb
    Debra Holcomb
    Tenth Anniversary 100 Likes 100 Comments Photogenic

    Case in point, someone came back to me with a report from a year ago - it was summary - and wanted the details that made it up.  When I tried to recreate I got completely different numbers so something(s) must have changed.  But since I didn't have the details from a year ago, I couldn't answer the question.  Thought snapshots of gifts and constituents could help out in the future.


    For that exact reason, I have two practices I use to help me find output I've created in the past so I can recreate it when asked.


    First, if it is an RE report, in the report footer, I put the full path to find the report.  I wish RE just gave us this option, but since it doesn't, I enter the following  RE Report | REPORT CATEGORY |  REPORT TYPE | REPORT NAME.  As an example, it looks like this:  RE Report | Analytic Reports | LYBUNT Report | $1000 Lybunts Individuals.


    Second, if I'm sending an excel file, I always create a sheet named "Hello" that contains the instructions and details about the report.  I will save the excel doc in a file for me and also distribute it as necessary.  When I'm asked to recreate the excel output I can find my original report and review the Hello page to get the query and export used to create it.  


    I wish RE made it easier to organize pieces of projects together, but since it doesn't these are the work arounds I've been using to make it easier to find past reports and exports.

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