Contribution Form modifications

[Truman]

Based on a request from Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church, I've modified the contribution entry form. Previously Ascribe would search for people or households for every keystroke (i.e., for every character entered) into the search fields. Now Ascribe will wait a moment until it thinks you're done entering a search term and then it will perform the search.

Some other ideas that I have to improve this form is to also allow for the editing of phone numbers and emails from this form. Also, I could add a link to the person or household's edit form. Sometimes bookkeepers may be entering in contributions that have other pertinant information that could be added to a person's profile at the same time.

Does anyone else have any other ideas to improve this form?

thanks,
Truman

[Bridgecity]

I think your idea is a good one.  It's often the case that the bookkeeper gets accurate contact info that the rest of the staff hasn't gotten.  Making it very easy for them to add that info is a win.

[melinda]

ok, so i know i'm way behind in my replies- so i'm sorry if this is too late, but it would be disastrous if the people who do our counting were able to modify info!  perhaps this can be something that gets added  by permission when an id is set up...? 

[Truman]

Hi Melinda,

Thanks so much for your valuable input! Can you explain why it would be disastrous for people with the "bookkeeping" privilege to be able to edit addresses, phone numbers, and emails?

But this is good thinking. The user should also have the "dataentry" permission to also change the contact info.

thanks,
Truman

[melinda]

Sure, I can explain!!  We have volunteers count our offering each week.  Granted, they count because they are devoted to the church and trustworthy, but they see info that may not be correct.  For example, we have a young woman new to the church who just moved out of her parents home and into a condo.  Her check reflects the old address, and the counters thought she had just moved to that address.  However, myself and the secretary (office staff) were more up to date on her situation.  If they had the ability to change her address, I would be doing twice the work.  And we would be getting returned mail.  And the woman would not be getting her mail from us.  I am VERY protective of who can actually change data!  Basically, no one can! hahaha.... I feel like for many things, the database is only as good as my data- if that becomes "unguarded", I may be leaving myself open for LOTS of headaches!  Well, that's how I see it.      Thanks Truman!

[Bridgecity]

I think your comment, Truman, is right.  Each church just needs to decide whether the money-counter should have the permission to edit data.  In our case it's the best option.

One thing, Melinda, about guarding your data...  you can look in the admin log to see what changes people have made.  it's pretty easy to do.  If you saw that they made a change to the "smith" record, you could click through to the smith record and see if it's right.  If not, Truman has already put that handy little clock icon after the data to show when something in the record has been changed.  If it's wrong, you can just revert to the old info.

That way you can have volunteers enter data, but you can browse the admin log to see what they've been up to.  Sounds like you'd like to do that anyway!  ;-)  I browse through it every couple of weeks just to see what my staff have been up to.  It's given me opportunities to help them sort out problems they're having.