The Raiser’s Edge 7.94 – Questions & Answers: Week One

We’ve had an overwhelming influx of questions regarding The Raiser’s Edge 7.94, so we’ve tried to centralize answers for you with this blog post on the most common questions that have come in through our support and social media channels.

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• Why were the phones ever changed? This idea has been brought up to our Product Management team for The Raiser’s Edge for years, and had over 1000 votes on our User Voice page. When phones were originally coded, most donors used landlines, so phones were attached to their specific addresses. Now, we know most of our donors use cell phones and emails and this information is commonly shared from address to address. So, based on your feedback, we’ve moved phones to their own section of the Bio 1 or Org 1 tabs of Constituent records.
  

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• For an overview of the new Phone features, check out this YouTube video! It's also embedded at the bottom of this post.
  

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• Was this ever tested? Please be assured that with any major version change to software as robust as The Raiser's Edge, there can be issues that were not anticipated. Although this version was thoroughly tested before it was released, there is no way to test every feature and enhancement within every environment.  There have been some challenges for some clients, but we are quickly identifying those issues and forwarding them to our programmers to develop solutions. We’re confident the new features and flexibility within RE 7.94 will be a real improvement to The Raiser's Edge.
  

Where did these extra phones on my records come from?

We’ve received a lot of questions from clients on where phones came from – new phones appear on the Bio 1 tab, and they’re not sure why. There are a couple of reasons this can occur.

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• First, since Addresses no longer store phones, contact information from Alternate Addresses has been moved to the Phone Grid and marked as Inactive.
  
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  • The “Show inactive phones and emails” checkbox must be marked to view these inactive numbers and emails. This checkbox is NOT marked by default, and must be marked on each record that is opened. If users are not marking this checkbox on each record, it may appear that there are no inactive phones in the database.
    
  
  
  

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• Additionally, contact information from Relationship records was moved to the Phones Grid. In 7.94, constituents relationships can no longer have Relationship specific contact information. This means that phones listed on constituent-to-constituent relationships in 7.93 would be moved to Bio 1 tab of the main constituent.
  
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  • This is only true of Individual-to-Individual relationships, and Organization-to-Organization relationships. Individual-to-Organization relationships still allow for relationship specific contact information (you will notice you can edit the contact information on these relationships).
    
  • Let’s say we have a record for Bob Hernandez. He has a daughter, Camilla, who is also a constituent in our database. They are linked together with a Relationship record. When we look at Bob’s record in version 7.93, he has one Home phone: (800) 468-8996. When we then go to Camilla’s record, and open Bob’s Relationship from Camilla’s Relationship tab, we have a different Home phone listed here: (555) 111-2222. Bob’s name is appearing on this relationship record, and it is properly linked to his constituent record. When we upgrade our database to 7.94, that Home phone from Bob’s relationship on Camilla’s record will be transferred to Bob’s Bio 1 and will be an active phone.
    
  • Again, this is because constituent Relationships can no longer have Relationship specific contact information. Since this Relationship was for Bob, the phone was moved to his Bio 1 tab.
    
  
  
  

Why isn’t the Primary checkbox marked for any of my phones/emails?

Users have also had questions on the Primary checkbox. This checkbox is available next to each phone number or email on the record, and should be used to indicate which phone or email should be given preference in things like queries, reports, and exports, and in contacting your constituents.

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• We chose not to mark this check box for you in the database upgrade for 7.94. Marking this check box involves making a choice that depends on what is best for your organization, depending on varying business practices.
  

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• For more information on how to globally mark phones as Primary, check out this Knowledgebase on How to run the Mark Phones Primary Plug in (BB754690)
  

Why can’t I edit my Relationship phone numbers anymore?

You can only edit phone information from the constituent record, and not the relationship record. Changes will persist to the relationship record, but will appear in yellow to indicate they cannot be changed.

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• You can, however, edit phone information from the relationship record for non-constituents. If you promote the non-constituent to a full constituent, the phone information on the relationship then becomes locked on the relationship record.
  

Where did the Print Setup options go in my Report Previews?

With the upgrade to The Raiser’s Edge 7.94, we included a much needed update to Crystal Reports which runs on the back end of your Report Previews (including Canned Reports, Custom Reports, and Control Reports). With this improvement, we have a change to the Print Setup. It is now only going to be available in the Parameters instead of the Preview. This information can also be found in the Knowledgebase solution, Print Setup window does not appear when printing reports or mailings in RE 7.94.

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• If you are hosted with Blackbaud Hosting Services, please take a look at this recent Know How Blog post on printing in Hosting.
  

Help! I’m having issues with my Reports in The Raiser’s Edge!

Several clients have reported problems with carrying reports in The Raiser’s Edge, in particular Crystal Reports and Batch Control Reports. If you are experiencing any of these issues, please be certain to subscribe to the Knowledgebase solutions for the issues below.

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• Information is missing from Batch Commit Control Report or Batch Validation Report after updating to The Raiser’s Edge 7.94: http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=content&id=BB755026
  
• Unable to change Custom Crystal Report layout to landscape in The Raiser’s Edge 7.94: http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=content&id=BB754990
  
• Unable to change Custom Crystal Report font type and font size in The Raiser’s Edge 7.94: http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=content&id=BB755087
  
• Error: This report was created with a version of Crystal Reports which is later than the version you are running. Some features used in the report may not be supported - when opening a report in Crystal Reports: http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=content&id=BB755059
  

Errors with Import-O-Matic and The Raiser’s Edge 7.94

Some clients have reported issues with Import-o-Matic since the update. They report the following Error: An exception occurred while creating a new gift batch: 'Class does not support Automation or does not support expected interface' when importing gifts to a Gift Batch via ImportOmatic

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• To resolve this, users can instead use the option to import the gifts to The Raiser’s Edge and bypass the Gift batch. This can be done in: Edit IOM Profile > Gifts section > Uncheck option to Import gifts to a batch.
  

To be updated when this issue is resolved, please subscribe to the following Knowledgebase solution: http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=content&id=BB755033