Omatic & Address Updates

Lena Payne

We are just starting out with Omatic. Something we do often is address updates. We have had some training done and it seems that you can import the new address and have it ticked ‘preferred’ and ‘send mail to this address’ but the old address stays ticked ‘send mail to this address’ and it doesn't add the ‘valid date to'. How do you go about it to keep your records consistent? We don't want to have two addresses ticked ‘send mail to this address’ and ideally would want to have 'valid date to' on the old address. Thank you

Alex Wong

@Lena Payne
RE doesn't automatically make a non-preferred address not sendable as “additional” address can mean many things and different org use it differently (i.e. Business address or seasonal home that is not preferred address, but still mailable).

If you want to introduce this as your org's “business rule” you will need to do this manually, or create an automation to handle it. SKY API allows for address info to be updated programmatically and there is a webhook trigger that can be used to signify whenever an address record is added/updated/removed for you to perform the automation to make non preferred address “not sendable” and having a “to date”. This can be done by yourselves if you want to enter the no/low code of power automate, by using a Blackbaud partner that can do this for you, or independent consultant.

Lena Payne

@Alex Wong thank you Alex for the insight. Is SKY API a paid for add-on? We don't currently use it.

Dariel Dixon

@Lena Payne If you're using ImportOmatic Classic, there are options to have these boxes unchecked automatically. Check and see if these options are unchecked for you.

Lena Payne

@Dariel Dixon:

@Lena Payne If you're using ImportOmatic Classic, there are options to have these boxes unchecked automatically. Check and see if these options are unchecked for you.

Thank you Dariel, we are trying to learn to use Omatic, but yes this is exactly what I would like it to be able to do. Seems strange that the ‘older’ system can do it when the new cloud based Omatic can't.

Karen Diener

@Lena Payne:

@Dariel Dixon:

@Lena Payne If you're using ImportOmatic Classic, there are options to have these boxes unchecked automatically. Check and see if these options are unchecked for you.

Thank you Dariel, we are trying to learn to use Omatic, but yes this is exactly what I would like it to be able to do. Seems strange that the ‘older’ system can do it when the new cloud based Omatic can't.

Have you verified that ImportOmatic+ is not able to do this?

I am actually not surprised at functionality differences between “old” and “new” systems. The API endpoints for webview - which are leverages by IOM+ - are under constant change. Although address information has been fairly standardized by this point, I also know that there are differences in how the webview behaves compared to database view when it comes to the back end data. Each field in database view does not have an exact corresponding field in the API.

Dariel Dixon

@Lena Payne Have you reached out to Omatic support? They are pretty helpful when it comes to these types of issues. TBH, they should have helped you with this issue when they were first bringing you along and helping you set up the formulas. We don't use Omatic Cloud for address information, and maybe this is where the older version is better. My org still uses IOM for some things like this for these exact reasons, and we were advised to do so by Omatic themselves.

Alex Wong

@Lena Payne:

@Alex Wong thank you Alex for the insight. Is SKY API a paid for add-on? We don't currently use it.

SKY API is free. However, to utilize SKY API, you can create web application or script that “do things” for you, or you can use Power Automate that is a low/no code platform that's “easier” to learn. Power Automate will cost $3/month/user (only need one user) if you want to use built-in connector that Blackbaud published (these conector basically make using SKY API easier)

Lena Payne

@Alex Wong the issue we have is that there seems to be so many different add ons and no where to see what they all offer. Thank you for your reply though, I will see if I can find out more about Power Automate and what it does compared to Omatic

Rachel Bailey

@Karen Diener, ditto. Omatic Software has been struggling to work with Blackbaud to get the SKY API tables to replicate all the “classic” ImportOmatic (IOM) address processing features in their Omatic Cloud (OC) product. They are at Blackbaud's mercy on that front and have been working to develop workarounds since at least 2022 when we moved to OC. Long story short: Do not assume that OC can do everything IOM can and be on the lookout for new product feature announcements from Omatic as they continue working on this known issue.

Miki Martin

@Lena Payne we recently began using Omatic as well, thanks to switching from LO to Classy. We do not have a workaround for the address issue other than a query I run to review all the new gifts and then review the constituent records. If the addresses are not an exact match Omatic adds a new address and at times these have slipped past me so we basically have two of the same address listed as Home and the “new” one marked preferred. I am finding many cumbersome processes compared to when I could use RELO. Our rep with Omatic suggested cleanup queries to run daily but I prefer to review things with my eyes since we are still new to the platforms.

Christine Robertson

@Lena Payne Tagging @Stu Manewith to see if he can help.

Stu Manewith

@Christine Robertson – thanks, as always.

@Lena Payne – please feel free to reach out to me at stu.manewith@omaticsoftware.com, and I'll connect you to the right internal resource(s) within Omatic.