Trying to Report on Multiple Batches at Once

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Nicole Welsh
Nicole Welsh
Eighth Anniversary Photogenic First Comment Blackbaud Certified
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Hello everyone! I'm hoping someone has some ideas for how to do what I'm attempting. To start, our system is a self-hosted RE7 that is migrating to RENxt within the year.


Currently there is a specific set of funds that, when contributed to, I need to make individual batches and associated reports. The individual batch per fund doesn't bother me so much, since it helps me keep the database a bit more tidy. What does bother me is the individual reports - I normally wind up having to print 20+ of them for our accounting department, and it seems like a waste of paper and a glaring inefficiency [to answer the "go digital?" questions before they come in, I'm trying to push that but regulations say we need hard copies for now].


We're using the default Gift Detail and Summary Report setups, as shown below. I redacted information to protect donor privacy and such:

2bed9005e725a4859bca0e6707e1c7f2-huge-sc   69aae48dc08413935d585c259ffa60ce-huge-sc


What I want to do is something like this, please forgive the rush copy/pasting:

49b67fa56ceb1345c556e6801464b9b1-huge-sc   01a9ea67855727ead1129a5132c39cf9-huge-sc


I would like to either find a way in RE, or to use Crystal Reports, to make a report that lists all gifts from a selection of batches, and then reports on them in a breakdown per batch entered. I could also feasibly do this broken down by fund.


Has anyone had any experience with something like this, or knows of a way to create a report like what I'm talking about? Thanks in Advance!
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  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen Community All-Star
    Ancient Membership 2,500 Likes 2500 Comments Photogenic
    Are all batches on same day or different? If different days, can you include records for a date range, filter by fund and set Format > Sort by date, then constituent. Might be closer to what your looking for.
  • James Andrews
    James Andrews
    Ancient Membership 100 Likes 100 Comments Photogenic

    Nicole Welsh:


    Has anyone had any experience with something like this, or knows of a way to create a report like what I'm talking about? Thanks in Advance!



    Have you ever thought about learning crystal reports? Because if so, this would be an easy-peasy one to start with.


    You could also recreate this in Access pretty easily, if you have that.

  • Nicole Welsh
    Nicole Welsh
    Eighth Anniversary Photogenic First Comment Blackbaud Certified

    JoAnn Strommen:

    Are all batches on same day or different? If different days, can you include records for a date range, filter by fund and set Format > Sort by date, then constituent. Might be closer to what your looking for.

    They are all on the same day, so this may be a possibility. I'd have to check with my Accounting-side person to make sure that a separation by fund would be a sufficient replacement to separation by batch.


    If not, though, it's still a different way that I could store the information for the Fundraising side of things, and they may find it more useful. Thanks for the tip!

  • Nicole Welsh
    Nicole Welsh
    Eighth Anniversary Photogenic First Comment Blackbaud Certified

    James Andrews:

    Nicole Welsh:


    Has anyone had any experience with something like this, or knows of a way to create a report like what I'm talking about? Thanks in Advance!



    Have you ever thought about learning crystal reports? Because if so, this would be an easy-peasy one to start with.


    You could also recreate this in Access pretty easily, if you have that.

     

    I did actually do the Crystal Reports training with Blackbaud, I didn't think of that! You're right, that would be good report to generate (and probably a great report to use as a refresher to how Crystal Reports operates). 


    Access I would be wary to use simply due to the volume of donations I have for these reports, but it may be a good idea to start implementing for our smaller pools of specific donors. Thanks for the reminder and the new idea! 

  • Christine Cooke 2
    Christine Cooke 2
    Ancient Membership 1000 Comments 500 Likes Name Dropper

    JoAnn Strommen:

    Are all batches on same day or different? If different days, can you include records for a date range, filter by fund and set Format > Sort by date, then constituent. Might be closer to what your looking for.

    I use this report all the time for the finance department -- but I export the gift detail and summary to excel and sort it by Fund and Batch -- that doesn't really help if you have to print and not manipulate for sorting purposes at all...
  • Heather MacKenzie
    Heather MacKenzie
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Likes 1000 Comments Photogenic
    Try creating a query that pulls all gifts by batch number (gift query that uses batch number one of as your criteria), then run your gift report on that query.


    So, your gifts would be entered, then you know you need to report on batch numbers 9000, 9001, etc.  You update the query's batch numbers, and save.  Then go run your report.


    Hope this all helps you out!
  • Mark McConnell
    Mark McConnell
    Eighth Anniversary 10 Comments Photogenic 5 Likes
    Hi Nicole,

    I tried to attach the crystal report but it wont let me. So I have uploaded it.


    Download Link: https://files.fm/u/afr9f8h8 

    What the export should look like. Also make sure you create a query with the selected criteria that you would like.

    de328c79db8ce97f8b60d3d5e1a31db8-huge-ba

     
  • Nicole Welsh
    Nicole Welsh
    Eighth Anniversary Photogenic First Comment Blackbaud Certified

    Mark McConnell:

    Hi Nicole,

    I tried to attach the crystal report but it wont let me. So I have uploaded it.


    Download Link: https://files.fm/u/afr9f8h8 

    What the export should look like. Also make sure you create a query with the selected criteria that you would like.

    de328c79db8ce97f8b60d3d5e1a31db8-huge-ba

     

    Hi Mark,


    This kind of report is exactly what I need for reporting! Thank you so much for uploading your copy, I've been using it to make sure that I'm building mine correctly, that way I learn how to do it instead of just copying smiley. Thank you so much for this!

  • Mark McConnell
    Mark McConnell
    Eighth Anniversary 10 Comments Photogenic 5 Likes

    Nicole Welsh:

    Mark McConnell:

    Hi Nicole,

    I tried to attach the crystal report but it wont let me. So I have uploaded it.


    Download Link: https://files.fm/u/afr9f8h8 

    What the export should look like. Also make sure you create a query with the selected criteria that you would like.

    de328c79db8ce97f8b60d3d5e1a31db8-huge-ba

     

    Hi Mark,


    This kind of report is exactly what I need for reporting! Thank you so much for uploading your copy, I've been using it to make sure that I'm building mine correctly, that way I learn how to do it instead of just copying smiley. Thank you so much for this!

     

    Hi Nicole, happy to help. In fact I created that report based of your question. I don't actually use a report for this purpose but glad it has helped.


    Regards

    Mark

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