ProDon:Categories vs Customized Fields vs Characteristics

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Introduction

When designing ProDon, general information that is necessary for the majority of organizations has been integrated, Also, the software developed to allow the users to configure and customize the options according to their specific needs.

There are three ways to customize the different management of the software ("Client Management", "Transaction Management", "Donation Occasion Management", etc.). Depending on the future use and where the customization is necessary, one of the three methods could be more adequat. To know the situations where customizations can be used, see this section.

The 3 different methods to customize the system are the following:

• Client categories
• Customized fields
• Characteristics

The first questions to ask yourself in order to find the most appropriate customization method are the following:

• For which type of information this customization is necessary? (Is it for clients, transactions, donation occasion activities, etc.)?
• Is a start date and/or end date necessary?
• Is it possible that I need to use this customization more than once for an element? (For instance, a volunteer can have the "professional competence" in accounting, and the "professional competence" in reading.)

It is also possible to conduct a serach or apply a filter from the customizations and to use them in custom reports.

NOTE: It is important to know that the customization methods can be complementary amongst themselves. More than one customization can therefore be used at the same time in a single filter and it is possible to match them to fields of the database. For example, I could search all the clients in the Toronto area (Field in the database), who are volunteers (client category) and who are available on Saturday night (Characteristic).

Summary of Previous Explanations

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Document name: ProDon:Categories vs Customized Fields vs Characteristics

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