Conversion Evaluation Checklist
This evaluation step is critical to the data conversion process
Your login information should have been provided to you via email
We recommend you run the Top (10) Donor Report, print that list out, and look these Accounts up to do your review [go to: Report/Export, Special Reports, Account Reports, Top Donor Report, select Donors (10), by Received Amounts]
Check each of the items listed below as you examine your data to make sure that things appear as they should.
It might be beneficial to read through this list first, in order to gain a better idea of what you might want to look for before starting.
Accounts (Donors/Prospects)
Find Account - look up various Accounts such as:
- People you know
- Your own account
- Random
- Businesses
- Foundations
- Smith
Name
- Is the formatting correct (Are there extra spaces, missing spaces, etc...)?
- Are names formatted correctly considering the type of account (individuals, businesses, joint)?
- Are titles appropriately affixed?
Addresses
- Do addresses have all the appropriate fields, formatted properly (City, State, Zip)?
- Are addresses assigned to proper persona types?
- Do you see multiple addresses where applicable?
Phone Numbers
- Do all phone numbers appear?
- Are they allocated properly to the various types? (voice, fax, mobile, etc...)
Email Addresses
Short Salutation
Long Salutation
- Are these formatted in the way that you would use them for your accounts?
Notes
Persona Types (optional): applied correctly?
- Personal
- Business
- Joint
- Contact
- Seasonal
- Vacation
Common Persona Defined Fields:
- Envelope Salutation
- Contact Person (or Company)
- Job Title
- Spouse Name
Recognition Name (includes "Anonymous")
Relationships
Defined Fields (Codes)
Common Defined Fields:
- Mailing Status
- Account Type, Constituent Type
- Affiliations
- Giving Levels
- Memberships
- Volunteers
- Solicitors
- Other fields
Do the fields that appear match the intent of the information in your database?
Do they appear associated with the correct entities (Donor, Gift, Journal, Persona, etc...)?
Journal
Notes & Contacts
Common Journal Note Defined Fields:
- Birthdays
- Date Entered
- Memberships
- Giving Levels
Gifts
In general, does the giving history match the records from your old system?
- Approaches
- Campaigns
- Funds
- Do these items have appropriate values?
- Do the totals for these items match the records from your old system?
- Payment Types (e.g., Cash, Check, Credit Card, In Kind)
- Pledges
- Pledge Payments
- Pledge Schedule (installment amounts, frequencies—monthly, quarterly, annually)
- Pledge Write offs
- Tributes (e.g., Memorials, Honorariums)
- Do the totals add up correctly?
- Matching gifts
- Soft Credits
- Gifts with Non-deductible portions
- Split Gifts
Reports, Queries, Exports to Run
Try running each of the following reports, queries, or exports. Check to see that the information each gives makes sense. Check the numbers returned by various
queries when possible.
- All Donors Query
- Top Donor Report
- Donor Address Export
- Special Reports
- Fund Activity Summary
- Approach Activity Summary
- Campaign Activity Summary
- Queries for:
- All soft credits
- All pledge write offs
- Various Mailing Status defined field values (e.g., Deceased)
- All Donors (do NOT click on Display All)
- Any additional reports your accounting department might need
Mailings
You might consider doing some sample mailings:
- Using Joint Personas
- Including both organization and business accounts
A sample export can be generated by going to Report/Export under the Reporting tab, selecting System, and then clicking on the stoplight located next to Donor Address.
Additional Things To Review
Below are several examples of questions to ask yourself to facilitate the testing process:
- Did you do a sample mailing? Make sure you have Names, Addresses, appropriate Salutations for Individuals, "Couples", and Organizations
- Did you do a sample mailing using Joint Personas?
- Did your mailing include both organization and individual accounts?
- Does the giving history match your old system? [see #16!]
- Did you run the reports that your accounting department needs?
- Did the funds, campaigns & approach totals match your old system?
- Did you run a query for all your soft credits?
- Did you create queries and get the total count for the major segments in your database?
- Did you run a query for all pledge write offs?
- Did you check the totals on your Tributes?
- Were you able to find the important notes you'd made on your VIP accounts?
- Did you run queries for various Mailing Status defined field values (e.g., Deceased)?
- If you have General Ledger #s that go to your accounting department or fund accounting software, did you check these?
- Did you run a test export of transactions for your accounting software to import?
- Did you create some 'Single criteria' based Defined Field queries to see if the #s are reasonable?
- Did you run the following reports?
Special Reports
- Fund Activity Summary
- Approach Activity Summary
- Campaign Activity Summary
Running any of these reports will give you a grand total of your donations. Compare that number to the total donations in your old system
Run this Query
- All Donors
This will give you a total count of all the records in your database