Author Topic: Necessary Features (Read 3070 times)

whit · March 06, 2009, 02:04:28 pm

Our organization is currently using a program called PledgeMaker to handle our donor management, but I'm very interested in switching over to CiviCRM. There are a few features that we've got with our current system that I haven't found any reference to in the CiviCRM forum.

1. Batch Data Entry - Our data entry people have a screen where they can enter the total number of donations and the amount donated for all of the mail we've received that day. The donations are only posted in the system after they've entered all of the individual donations and everything balances. Does something like this exist for CiviCRM?

2. NCOA - How does CiviCRM handle mass address updates from Postal Service Change of Address files?

3. Pledges - In CiviPledge, is there a way to modify the amount of an individual pledge donation. For instance, if a person makes a $600 pledge payable at $50 a month, what happens if the person donates $25 or $75 one month?

Also, people don't always indicate that the donation they are sending in is for a pledge. Can CiviCRM notify the data entry person that a donor has a pledge that the donation could be applied to?

Dave Greenberg · March 06, 2009, 03:00:29 pm

Regarding:

1. No - there's not daily balancing functionality currently, and batch entry of offline checks is a bit cumbersome currently (depending on input from our user base - this might be addressed in a future release).

2. Depending on how the updates are formatted - the Import feature might handle these ok (using the "Update on match" feature). If others are using this data - please jump in.

3. Currently CiviPledge only allows you to record the expected pledge amount. As this component gains traction I suspect we'll need to change that - and add logic to recalculate remaining payments etc.

4. No automatic "notification" - however they can use Find Pledges to check.

whit · March 06, 2009, 03:09:31 pm

Thanks for the super fast reply. Enjoy the weekend!

FatherShawn · March 25, 2009, 09:29:53 am

Quote from: Dave Greenberg on March 06, 2009, 03:00:29 pm

3. Currently CiviPledge only allows you to record the expected pledge amount. As this component gains traction I suspect we'll need to change that - and add logic to recalculate remaining payments etc.

I think that we need to revisit this sooner rather than later. This architecture is keeping us doing most of our pledge accounting out of civi. Since most of our users will happily accept donations that don't match an expected amount, wouldn't a better data model be to record payments as an open-ended stack and show the balance remaining on the pledge object?

I'm not sure what the value of having a "schedule" is.

Dave Greenberg · March 25, 2009, 10:02:51 am

Shawn - We modeled the "payment schedule" functionality after reviewing several other mature pledge packages. I'm not a domain expert here - but I think it is useful as a driver for payment reminders and a way to track expected revenue by period. That said, having the flexibility to respond to changes in the "expected schedule" seems like a good thing :-)

Our sense is that the pledge functionality is still used by a very small subset of the community - so a "phase 2" release is not currently a high priority. We'll revisit the usage stats and see if that's changing (now that we are collecting more granular info on which sites are using what objects). Of course may be a chicken and egg thing.

I've created a page on the wiki where a phase 2 set of requirements can be hashed out. Since this is an important area for you - would be good if you could take the lead in this - combining your experience and integrating feedback on the other pages in that section that have come in from others. Then perhaps do a blog post to solicit interested folks review and feedback on proposed improvements. Finally, you could potentially organize a group of folks for whom this is a priority to sponsor the work.

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviPledge+Phase+2+-+Requirements

FatherShawn · March 25, 2009, 05:15:16 pm

David-

A very community building suggestion. I'm happy to take the lead on that! I'm very booked the next couple of days overseeing the launch of the process to elect our next bishop, but I should have space after that.

There may very well be chicken and egg going on. We're using it, but are about to export them and turn it off because we need the flexibility. Thanks for the invitation to work on the solution!

- Shawn

madronemedia · June 10, 2009, 05:29:27 pm

What would it take to set up ability to notify the data entry person when entering a contribution that an outstanding pledge exists?

Dave Greenberg · June 10, 2009, 08:46:40 pm

Hi Mark -
This has come up before, and I think would make a great community contribution if someone on your team could put together a patch for 2.3. A good approach would be:

* Add logic to contribution form preProcess method to check for any scheduled pledge payments (there's an existing function which does this for the Pledge tab).
* If found, add a status message to the top of the contribution form letting the user know that there is a scheduled pledge payment for this contact (showing amount and data due), and giving them a link to click if they'd like to record this contribution as a pledge payment. Clicking this link would take them to the "Record Pledge Payment" form for that payment.

madronemedia · June 10, 2009, 09:13:17 pm

David,

Thanks a bunch for the 'road map'. I'm going to discuss/lobby our team.

Mark

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Author Topic: Necessary Features (Read 3070 times)

whit

Necessary Features

Dave Greenberg

Re: Necessary Features

whit

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FatherShawn

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Dave Greenberg

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FatherShawn

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madronemedia

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Dave Greenberg

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madronemedia

Re: Necessary Features