Have you gone paperless?

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Kari Bird
Kari Bird ✭
Seventh Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Hello,


My organization would like to start scanning our paper files to attach as media and/or actions in Raiser's Edge.  Multiple cabinets of hard-copy files date back decades.  We also want to streamline the process of scanning and attaching current gift back-up.


Help!  Has anyone implemented a systematic and successful scanning project for historical data?  How do you currently attach media to keep paper at a minimum?  I have seen a bit of information about PaperSave, but it looks like a third-party solution rather than something built into RE.  I'm open to any and all advice.


Thank you!
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  • Tom Klimchak
    Tom Klimchak ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 2 Name Dropper Photogenic
    We are far from "paperless" but we do generally operate a "paperless archive"....


    We use Hyland Onbase and yeeeeah, it took us about a year or two to archive all our paper records (we had about 30 filing cabinets).  We archived everything by Constituent ID and then under that we attached a date (or approximate) date of the document and categorized each document under 6 general categories:
    • Contact/Call Report
    • Correspondence
    • General Info (Misc)
    • Giving Records
    • Media/Clippings
    • Scholarship
    Once we got our archives under control the daily stuff was (relatively) easy.  After we process gifts for the day we take each packet of paperwork from the gift (usually a designation email/letter/giving form, copy of the check, proof of payment) and paperclip everything together and throw it into a "scan" folder.  Once every day or two our Gift Processors scan each packet in and then index them by Constituent ID and Category and Date.


    It's simple but it works well enough for us.

     
  • Jim Arnott
    Jim Arnott ✭
    Eighth Anniversary First Reply
    We do have several partners that have solutions that may help you with this.  You have already mentioned PaperSave, however, EZScan from Outback Imaging is another partner who does scanning.  You may want to take a look at the partner finder on blackbaud.com to review some of our partner products that could help you.  it can be found here: https://www.blackbaud.com/partners/find-partners/ezescan-(outback-imaging-ltd)


     
  • Sunshine Reinken Watson
    Sunshine Reinken Watson ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Name Dropper Photogenic
    We scan all gift backup and save it by deposit date on our shared drive. I only attach media in RE if it is significant or a special gift.
  • Susan Nelson 2
    Susan Nelson 2 ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
    We currently make bank deposits electronically and save the deposit reports to a shared drive for reconciliation and tracking entry. The gift documentation, check, any backup as well as acknowledgement, are scanned to the gift record in Papersave. Fund documents are scanned to the fund record, also in Papersave. We reserve the media tab for documentation related to due diligence of grantees. Frequently, we attach media clippings, correspondence and contact info to RE Actions allowing team to detail or summarize contact and attach relevant documentation. 
  • Rigo Vargas
    Rigo Vargas ✭
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Reply September 2024 Monthly Challenge

    @Tom Klimchak
    How do you link onbase documents to REXNT?

  • Tom Klimchak
    Tom Klimchak ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 2 Name Dropper Photogenic

    @Rigo Vargas Since that response we've left Onbase and moved to Softdocs' eTrieve. With both systems (Hyland Onbase & Softdocs eTrieve) we did NOT have a direct link between the two systems. We simply use Constituent ID to file documents under. So we find a gift in RE, get the hard credit donor constituent ID and then use that ID to look up the documentation in eTrieve (which sorts by date). It's relatively easy and straightforward. We haven't had any complaints, even from our more “tech challenged” members…

  • Rigo Vargas
    Rigo Vargas ✭
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Reply September 2024 Monthly Challenge

    @Tom Klimchak

    Thank you, Tom. Is there a way to have a link in RE and add the donor constituent ID as a formula? Once clicked, it will redirect to OnBase or any other web-based document management.


    Example. https://docmanagement.com/doc.asp?=1234567
    where 1234567 is the constituent ID

  • Tom Klimchak
    Tom Klimchak ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 2 Name Dropper Photogenic

    @Rigo Vargas Hmm, I think that depends on your scanning software. With Onbase I don't think we had the ability to do that easily. Our interface with Softdoc eTrieve is entirely web/browser based, so we CAN do that. We have experimented with putting something in the “links” field of database view which CAN link right into eTrieve to a specific record. It's neat, but we don't add it in regular because it's an extra step to put that in for every record. We've only done it manually and not tried to work out any sort of exact pattern or formula. It's pretty easy to just look up file based on constituent IDs….

  • Devan Caton
    Devan Caton ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 1 Name Dropper Photogenic

    @Kari Bird
    Our organization went paperless somewhere around 2000. At the time, we were using a proprietary software that did not integrate with RE. However, in 2015, we converted to PaperSave (with over 1 million documents at that time), and we love it. When you open a record in RE, you can see the documents that are directly attached to it. We attach all gift documents to the gift records themselves, plus millions of documents attached to constituents, ranging from correspondence we've had with them, wills/trust/estate documents where we are named the beneficiary, you name it! We also use the PaperSave Workflow tool to route all new, incoming documents. Everything that comes in the mail is immediately scanned and routed to staff to be worked on and attached to RE records when appropriate. We even use the workflow tool for things unrelated to RE.

  • Elizabeth Johnson
    Elizabeth Johnson ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic

    @Rigo Vargas:

    @Tom Klimchak

    Thank you, Tom. Is there a way to have a link in RE and add the donor constituent ID as a formula? Once clicked, it will redirect to OnBase or any other web-based document management.


    Example. https://docmanagement.com/doc.asp?=1234567
    where 1234567 is the constituent ID

    @Rigo Vargas We store these types of links in our Links/Online Presence. It is really easy to import and I've been building flows to automate this. We store links for their RE Webview link, - easy and helpful in exports. If they are a student/family and are in our academic software we store their Veracross link. We also have a Google Drive folder for each constituent that I use Google Apps Script to create and capture the URL and a few Power Automate flows to get it on the record when new records are added. This coming Thursday at bbcon as part of a session this is one of my tools I'm presenting on. So yes, possible and not that difficult.

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