The database is divided into two halves: People (individual person records) and Organizations (businesses, clubs, schools, churches, etc).
The database screens display all contact information and notes for the patron, as well as their past transaction history and lists they are on. You can input new patrons from a blank database screen, or make changes to existing patron records.
The people side of the database is intended to have one person record for each individual you have a relationship with. So if you have a relationship with husband and wife, or mother and son, each should have their own record. If the different members live at the same address you then can relate them together via the merge screen as members of the same household. This structure provides helps to keep your database correctly organized while allowing you to save money on postage and printing, etc.
Button controls:
- Lookup Existing Patron - used when searching for a patron in your database
- Save New Patron - used to add a new patron record to your database
- Clear Screen - clear your current patron on screen to either lookup or enter a different patron
- Refresh - use to refresh the screen. Useful if you've made unsaved changes and want to return to the current record state.
- Update Patron Record - used to save changes made to an existing patron record
- Delete - used to delete a patron record (not allowed if the patron has any order history, is linked to other household members or has an existing login associated to their email address)
- Exit Record - used to exit the current patron in order to lookup or enter a different patron.
The person page includes the following fields:
- Prefix
- First Name
- Nickname (this field only appears if the Nickname option is activated on your Global Settings screen, and is used instead of first name when generating informal marketing output)
- Middle Name
- Last Name
- Suffix
- Inactivate
- Phone (home)
- Work (work phone)
- Cell (cell phone)
- Email - the patron can have multiple email addresses. When you save the person record the system will add an additional field to input another address. One email will be marked "primary". The Primary email will automatically receive confirmation emails for orders, and will be used for any marketing email. By clicking the radio button next to a different email will change which email is primary. Any emails that are a patron login will be indicated.
- No email - checkbox to mark the email as opted out of marketing email. Note that the patron will still receive transaction confirmation emails.
- Address - should include all primary information including number, street, apartment, suite, floor, etc. Only use Line 2 if using 'care of'. In that case the 'care of' goes in Address, and all other information goes in Line 2.
- City
- State
- Zip (postal code)
- Billing Address - (used for credit card billing address, if different than home address above)
- Mail at (home, work, both). Home is the default which then will prepare mailing labels to that address. A work selection would create labels at a related organization on the person record. Use the "work" setting ONLY if there is a related work address. Both will prepare labels to both addresses, thereby increasing your label output by one. If a patron has a relationship to more than one organization and Work is selected, then label output for marketing will include one for that patron at each work address.
- No Mail - checkbox to mark the patron as opted out of marketing postal mail.
- No Calls - checkbox to mark the patron as opted out of any phone calls.
- Birth Date - for patrons date of birth.
- Notes to House Manager - note field that will appear on door list reports and box office screen as a reminder of details relevant to this patron.
- Name for Publication - this field is used to input an alternate name for donation recognition. It is only needed if the patron wishes to be recognized some way other than their standard name. Note that this field is NOT intended for purposes of mail addressing.
- Informal Household Name & Formal Household Name - these fields appear on the right in the case of a household relationship. You can input a household name to be used for label addressing if multiple household members are on the same mailing list or if you specifically mark a mailing list on the patron record as "entire household". The system combines multiple household members on the same mailing list into a single mailing label.
- Notes / Tasks / Activities (CRM features). Any number of these can be added to person or organization records with reminders and alerts. See Also appears on the box office view. See Notes / Tasks / Activities - CRM Features for Persons or Organizations.
Information on this screen:
- Imported ID - patron ID that was imported from an external system. Viewable and Searchable.
- Membership/Donation information - below the name for publication field, this info will appear displaying membership or donation info.
- Entered - date the record was entered into your database
- Changed - date the record was most recently changed, such as an update to address or phone, and by whom
- Patron ID - our system id number unique to this patron
- Transaction History - this is the patrons complete transaction history including ticket and retail purchases, donations and exchange income
- Lists - these are any lists this patron is on. Lists are used for mailing, emailing and grouping/coding purposes.
You can add the person to a mailing list manually by selecting it in the dropdown in the bottom right. This won't be recorded until you press the Save button.
Organization association: to relate a person to an organization, press Select org. Find the organization and press Select.
Household Relationship
When patrons are part of the same household, you join them on the Merge Records screen, which gives you an option to have the two become members of the same household if it detects a duplication in address or phone. This generally happens automatically because household members have the same address (note that the system automatically pre-processes all addresses which are entered to standardize them, doing things like removing punctuation, changing Fifth to 5th, and so forth -- all according to the rules laid down by the USPS).
If, for some reason, household members end up disconnected, click Recheck for Duplicates, then go to the Merge page to put them in the same household. You also can separate household members by clicking remove from household button. This will unlink the 2 persons and separate their transaction history and mailing lists to the appropriate account.
When you look at any household member, you see the purchases and mailing list memberships for the entire household with the specific household member name referenced.
You can enter a formal or informal household name for the household, in which case, all mailings addressed to the entire household will be addressed to that name ("The Parkers"). If you don't do this, the system will automatically aggregates the names ("Mary Jane Watson-Parker and Mae and Peter Parker") in labels and mail merge output.