Everyone could use a little time savings in their day. Here are 5 overlooked features in Blackbaud CRM™ which solve problems and make life a little easier.

Query - Summary

Have you ever run a query in Blackbaud CRM™, exported it to Excel, and added a formula in a column just to get a total? The query tool offers basic summarization features for Count, Min, Max, Sum, and Avg for an Output Field. Use the Sigma icon in the Results section to use these functions. Tip: Less is more! Remove as many non-mathematical fields from the output. The query will group by output fields in order.

Query Criteria - Output Field

Ever have a need in a query to compare two fields and use as criteria? For example, run a query for all pledges where the balance is less than the amount? When adding a field as criteria, click on the Output field option. The pick list displays appropriate fields from the query output for comparison. Any of the query operators can be used in comparison, i.e. equal to, greater than, less than, etc.

Import Selections

Have a list of constituent IDs in Excel but you need some additional fields from Blackbaud CRM™? A list of constituent IDs (or revenue IDs) can be imported into Blackbaud CRM™ and used in queries or global changes. In the Analysis Functional Area, Import Selections is a feature. Here you can import a csv file of lookup IDs or System IDs (constituent or revenue). Tip: When importing, remember to activate the Show this selection in the Query Designer option. Once imported, the list will appear in the Selection node in the query tool and can be used in other queries.

Smart Field - Exists in

Have a query selection of constituents that you would like to flag for some reason? Or have multiple sets of constituents you need to compare? Blackbaud CRM™ offers a constituent Smart Field definition, Constituent Exists In Selection. This Smart Field can be run for any constituent selection and provides a Yes/No indicator stored on the Constituent’s record.

Remove Members - Marketing Effort

Have you received a list of constituents from the mail house who were not mailed for some reason? Or, did you include some constituents in a mailing accidentally and you want to remove them from the marketing effort and delete the communication record? On an activated marketing effort, there is a feature to Remove Members. This process allows for the importing of a list of finder numbers to be removed from the mailing. Once the list is imported and the process run, it removes the constituents from the activated marketing effort and removes the constituent communication records.

These are just a few of the time saving features in Blackbaud CRM™. We hope you find these features useful. Stay tuned to the BrightVine Solutions blog for more tips.