By: Aaren Ballinger, Principal Consultant
Exporting data from Blackbaud CRM™ is a critical task for many nonprofits, enabling them to analyze information, generate reports, and maintain data integrity across various platforms. Building efficient export definitions ensures you get the data you need in the required format without unnecessary complexity. Here are our top tips for creating effective export definitions in Blackbaud CRM™:
Keep Your Output Fields Organized
One aspect of building an export definition that often goes unnoticed is that what you select in the “Selected Fields” screen matters when adding new output fields!
To demonstrate, let’s say you are building an export definition and are including data points on spouses. You add the “Name” field under the spouse node and then add fields under a different node (like Email Addresses). Then, you decide that you’d like to go back to the Spouse node and add the field for “Deceased.”
If you do this without paying attention to what field or node you have selected in the “Selected Fields” window, you can end up with a second Spouse node (“Spouse 1”). This leaves your export definition looking messy and can be confusing - especially when you are building a more complex export definition with a lot of fields.
Instead, if you need to add an additional field under a node that you have already used in the export definition, first click to select that node in the “Selected Fields” window. Then, add your additional fields under that node, and they will be neatly organized.
Adding the Same Field Twice with Different Filters
Continuing with the theme of “it matters where you click,” - what if you want to add the same field twice to your export definition but with different filters? A common example is adding phone numbers. Often, you want to have one phone number column that is filtered to the phone type of “Mobile” and one phone number column that is filtered to the type of “Home”.
After you add your first phone number field (filtered to phone type of Mobile), click to select the top “Constituents” node in the “Selected Fields” window of your export definition. Once you select and add the phone number field a second time, it will create a second “Phones” node and allow you to apply a new set of filters to this node.
Utilize the “Change Column Header” Feature
You may have noticed that export definitions tend to produce some pretty long and convoluted column headers by default. Utilizing the change column header button can alleviate this issue and also prevent confusion when multiple filtered fields are part of your export definition.
Our previous “phone number” example is a great demonstration of why this feature is important. If we used the export definition as-is, it wouldn’t be clear from our column headers which phone type was being displayed in each column. To rename our columns, simply click on the “Phones” node and then click the pencil icon. Type in your desired column name and then hit the Enter button.
The Trick to Quickly Reorder Columns
Have you ever been building a large export definition with many fields and then realized that you need your first field to move all the way to the bottom of your column order? The Column order tab only offers up and down arrows to reorder columns, and repeatedly clicking can get pretty annoying.
Here’s a handy trick to make reordering columns a breeze:
Click on the column that you would like to move.
Click the arrow button once (either down or up, depending on where you want to move it).
Keep your mouse pointer hovering over the arrow button, then hold down the Enter key on your keyboard.
Using this trick allows you to “zoom” columns up or down with far fewer clicks!
Build Your Export Definition in the Right Functional Area
Did you know that there are two (very separate!) areas where you can build export definitions in Blackbaud CRM™? It’s important to understand where to build your export definition based on what type of export process you need to run. There’s nothing worse than painstakingly building the perfect export definition and then realizing it’s in the wrong place!
The main area that most people are familiar with is the Administration functional area. Here, you can build export definitions for standard export processes attached to queries or selections.
However, if you need an export definition to use as part of an export process for an appeal mailing, marketing effort, or acknowledgment process - make sure you build it in the Marketing and Communications functional area. Only export definitions built in this area can be used for those essential marketing tasks!
Building effective export definitions in Blackbaud CRM™ is a crucial skill for managing your nonprofit's data efficiently. By following these tips, you can ensure that your exports are well-organized, relevant, and easy to use, ultimately enhancing your data management capabilities.
Need help with your Blackbaud CRM™ setup or export definitions? Contact BrightVine Solutions today, and our expert team will be happy to assist you in maximizing your CRM's potential!
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