New to Scanning Barcodes for Gift Entry

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Victoria Gare
Victoria Gare ✭
Fifth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
We are a bit behind the times here and we are just starting to work on implementing barcode scanning gifts into RE.  I have a barcode that scans perfectly fine into excel but when I attempt to scan it into RE it doesn't tab and I get the invalid barcode error. I have read all of the Kb articles on the subject and am still a bit confused.  We have a third party designing our barcodes so its not simple for me to get new test data.  I'm wondering does a barcode need to be very specifically set up to function properly in RE? Thanks.


This is the article I was referencing. https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/37889
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  • Michelle Tribe
    Michelle Tribe ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    Hi Victoria: I do this all the time. In the link you provided, follow the directions in the "In Mail" part. Basically, the barcodes need to be exported from Raiser's Edge via Mail > Appeal Cards. In the 9. Format tab, you choose "Output Options", and add the appeal ID and package code you want, and any comment to include. You can also add the date. Choose all of your output data (including Gifts.Gift barcode). I export as an Excel file and change the font in the gift barcode column to 3 of 9 Barcode font as explained in that article. It works like a charm!


    Good luck!

     
  • Victoria Gare
    Victoria Gare ✭
    Fifth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
    Hi Michelle,


    That was a fantastic explanation of the article.  I was able to create a test and have it generate correctly in a batch.


    What I'm wondering is - our mailing house creates barcodes on our appeals based on the information we provide for them (constituent id, appeal and package numbers).  In order to have a barcode that can scan directly into RE does it always have to be in this format?  Do we need to use this process to create the barcodes ourselves and send them with our data to the mailing house?


    Thanks again!
  • Anna Zimmerman
    Anna Zimmerman ✭
    Fifth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    I didn't even know there was a barcode scanning option! Tell me more! 
  • Victoria Gare
    Victoria Gare ✭
    Fifth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
    Quick Update -


    Because our mailing house creates the barcodes for our appeal cards the information found on Kb for this is useless at best and misleading at worst.


    The only thing we needed to do to be able to scan data from a barcode into a batch was to make sure the fields in the batch lined up with the data encoded in the barcode.  The barcode also needed to be set up using the barcode scanner Code 128 and be coded with tabs instead of dashes or spaces.


    Thanks for jumping in to help.

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