Clearing a patron's login (reset password on login)
There is no way for you to reset a patron's login or password. But you can clear the login from their account so they can simply create a new one. To do this, look up their record on the person database screen, make a note of their email address, and then delete it. This will clear the login associated to that email address. Then you can reenter their email on their account and save (it is a good idea to confirm the email is correct with the patron). Then instruct the patron to use the "Create Patron Account" button when the next login online in order to register a new login password using that same email. The system will recognize their acct based on the login and bring up their acct information on the next screen and tie the two together.
Deleting a Person or Organization
From the DATABASE screen, after looking up the patron, use the delete button to delete the 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). If the record is attached to history, you can instead use the inactive button in order to remove the patron record from receiving mailings or other output from the Marketing screen.
How will names appear on my labels?
Names will appear on labels from list or merge output in different ways in different circumstances:
- If a person is a solo individual (not a member of a household) then the first name and last name are used by default
- If the individual is a member of a household, and if multiple members of the household are on the same list, then the system will combine their names together for a label by default (Ie: Bob Smith and Mary Smith become - Bob and Mary Smith), or with more formal options.
- If the formal/informal household name fields are filled in then this will override the above scenario.
- If only one member of the household is on a list, then the label will be addressed to the individual by default. Or you can choose "entire household" options and then it will address to the entire household instead.
- Note that the "publication name" field is used for donor acknowledgement and is listed on donor reports and batches so you can acknowledge them differently than first and last name. This comes from the "name for publication field on the person or organization record. It is NOT intended for mailing addressing purposes.
Importing patron records into the system?
Typically, all imports of patron, donation, membership or ticketing records is done as part of your setup process before going live in the system. This is because at that time the database is empty and is not being actively used. Importing into a live system is much more complex since so many data tables are affected and any issues with your data discovered after the fact are much more difficult to correct, since we cannot simply wipe the data clean and start over. All data imports are done by our technical staff due to the complexity involved. Clients cannot import their own data into the system. If you wish to input data yourself, you will need to do so by standard means such as entering database records on the Person or Organization screens, selling tickets on the box office screen, inputting donations in the Database Donation screen, etc. If you would like pricing information for us to import data files for you, please contact your CS Rep via the help desk.
SPECIAL NOTE: We can import a patron list into the your live system including patron name, address, email, phones, notes for you. This is estimated at a 1 hour work time, which equates to $150 ($150 per hour fee). If you have a patron list to import, please contact your CS Rep via the help desk in your system and we can arrange this with you. Note that your patron record data MUST be formatted to our database specifications or additional costs will apply.
Merging Records - Duplicates not being detected?
Note that the system will not match duplicate records on same address or same phone IF the 2 records are members of the same household.
Also it will not match if they are both members of the same organization in the database, or if they have associated household members. It assumes the matching address might be a work address entered on the person page for the 2 patrons by mistake or during import. If you remove the org from one of the accounts it should then let you merge them, then you can put the org back on that acct.
Lastly, if a set of patrons was previously identified as a duplicate set and you told the system "don't merge" they will now be ignored UNTIL something changes in the merge detection fields, such as phone or address. So to make the system look at them again as potential dupe, make a small change in one of those fields and save.
Patron Login - registering, changing, etc
Patron logins to the system use their email address as the login, along with some password they establish. Email addresses must be unique in the system, partly for this reason.
- If a patron has not created a login before, they simply register by inputting their email address and password (twice).
- If the email address is already on an acct in the system it will bring up that acct to match the new login to that acct.
- If they are not already in the system, then they will complete the customer information screen with their contact info - this saves all the info to your Person database.
- If the email is already used for a login in the system, they will get a message telling them so and they can then use the "Forgot password" link to have their password emailed to them.
- Patrons cannot change their own login. If they wish to change it you can simply delete the email from their patron acct. This deletes the login as well as their email. Then you can re-enter and save their email address on their acct so when they re-register online it will bring up their current acct.
- Patrons can change their phone and address info, but not their email address. You can change the email for them in their person database record.