Does your Andar database contain giving history for a campaign year that is more than 15 years ago – i.e., 2002 and earlier? Have you ever wondered how you can pull that ancient data into an Andar Report or a Data Mining Operation? After all, the oldest option available in a “Campaign Year” drop-down list is “*15 Years Ago (2003)” (assuming your system preference says your current campaign year is 2018).
Plus, have you wondered why your Community Building data gets stored as 2018 data instead of 2017 – or 2017 instead of 2018?
When you are running a campaign or finance report, and it asks for a Campaign Year, you are prompted to pick a Campaign Year from a drop-down list. That drop-down list typically contains options that start with asterisks (*) – such as “*Current Year (2018),” and “*Previous Year (2017),” and “*Next Year (2019),” and “*15 Years Ago (2003).” The years in this drop-down list are relative to the Current Campaign Year that is defined inside your System Preferences (Campaign – General). If your system preference Current Campaign Year is 2018, then the Previous Year is 2017, and the Next Year is 2019, and 15 Years Ago was 2003.
However, when your organization performs the Campaign Rollover process (typically sometime between January and May), the Current Campaign Year in system preferences gets changed – from 2018 to 2019, for example. From that point on, the relative years in the Campaign Year drop-down list have different meanings. The Current Year is then 2019, and the Previous Year is then 2018, and the Next Year is then 2020, and 15 Years Ago is then 2004.
If you Save a Report or a Data Mining Operation that selects a Campaign Year using one of the relative years, then after the rollover, that report or data mining operation will reference a different year’s data. The columns that formerly showed you 2018 data will then show you 2019 data. The columns that formerly showed you 2017 data will then show you 2018 data. Etcetera.
The answer (to retrieving data that is more than 15 years old) is to NOT use the relative years from the Campaign Year drop-down list. Instead, replace the value from the drop-down list by typing the desired 4-digit year right on top of the relative year. For example, highlight the “*Current Year (2018)” that is seen in the Campaign Year field (without actually clicking the drop-down), and manually type “2002” (if you want to see data from campaign year 2002).
That also means that if you want to Save a report or DMO that will always show you the data from campaign year 2018 (regardless of whether the current campaign year is 2018 or 2019 or 2020), simply type the 4-digit year 2018 into the Campaign Year field (before you save the report or DMO).
The same feature is used inside Community Building. The CB Package details contain prime examples.
In Andar’s system preferences (Community Building – General), there is a separate field for the Current CB Year. (It is different from the Current Campaign Year). When you place items into a CB Package, there is a drop-down field for the CB Year. You may either choose a relative CB Year from that drop-down list, knowing that it will mean something different after you perform the CB Rollover, or you may manually type a 4-digit year into the CB Year field on the package detail item.
As long as you are aware of when your Rollovers are performed, and aware of the impact of your Year selections, you can successfully use either method – the relative years, or the manually-entered 4-digit years.
Sign in to Customer Support to read more about this in a customer project.
Take Me There