You're an admin... now what? Well, it's time to make your database "just right." There are many things that go into making your database your own but, your first step should be taking care of your organization settings. This way, when you invite your team members into the database, it's all set and ready to go.
So, what are the organization settings anyways? This is the place where you'll set the rules that are organization-wide as well as store your basic company information. One really important thing to remember about these settings: this is ONLY accessible by Admin users. This affects the entire organization so we keep it as an admin-only permission. Let's dive into it...
Navigating to your organization settings:
The easiest way to navigate to these settings is by going to your navigation menu, then selecting settings--> Organization settings. If you wanted to go a slightly longer route, you could go to settings-->All Settings-->Organization settings.
What's under the hood?
Organization name- This lets you know the name of the database. If your org were to go through a name change, you can update it here. It's also worthwhile to note that you will have access to your sandbox for a while after your final database is complete so, be careful not to remove sandbox from your org name or you might get a bit confused!
Time Zone- Virtuous identifies two timezones, the global timezone the organization instance is set in and the timezone set on the user's account. The global timezone is set in this setting which affects automation workflows. However, the timestamps for create dates, last modified dates, imports, etc will display in the user's timezone. Additionally, any activity or triggers done by a user will be based on the user's timezone, such as scheduling emails or reports for delivery.
Default Cash Accounting Code- If you're using Quickbooks Desktop and plan to export an IIF file this is for you. It should be the unreconciled cash accounting code in your books.
Contact Proximity- This affects the relational giving widget. This is proximity from the contact, not proximity from your organization.
Fiscal year start- there are giving statistics based on your fiscal year and this date will affect those statistics.
Allowed SSO provider- in this setting you have 4 options:
- Any - Your users can sign in with an email address and password, with Microsoft, or with Google
- Microsoft - Users can only sign in with a Microsoft account
- Google - Users can only sign in with a Google account
- SSO - Users can log in with Microsoft or Google but not email/password
Default Contact Email List- This is the list Individuals will automatically be added to when they are created or an email address is added for them. It's best to keep this list a general list and not one used for sending out updates. This way, if someone chooses to no longer see updates or newsletters, you could still send them email receipts.
Receipt and Mailing Configuration- This section is what will populate your return address for Receipting and Letters on Demand.
Add Passthrough Givers to Organization Group - For this to be effective, users will need to project ownership. This allows users who are restricted by organization group to see passthrough givers to their projects. You can see examples of this in action in our Virtuous Academy Admin course, under "Users and Permissions."
Auto Create Recurring Gifts on Import - This setting is generally applicable for most giving integrations. This setting allows you to have recurring gifts automatically created in Virtuous if it is created in an integration.
Enable Create New Contacts with No Match on Import - Enabling this feature will allow you to bulk create Contact records in the Import Tool when there are no possible matches found. While this feature has the potential to create many Contacts at once, there are additional considerations to keep in mind. If there is any matching piece of data, then a Contact will not be made and it will be placed in the Match Needed or Update Needed buckets for review.
Enable Outgoing Grants - This enables the ability to track grants as incoming or outgoing in the grant management tool.
Require Full Gift Amount to be Designated to a Project - If you're going to have an accounting integration, this is probably a good idea, as most integrations work through projects. This requires all incoming gifts to be designated to a project before you can import.
Require Gift to Have a Segment- If you want to make sure you're really utilizing the tools of Virtuous, you may want to consider having all gifts have a segment. This way, you can track where the money is coming from, not just where it's going.
Track Pledges as Receivable - This will change your dashboard widgets and reports to recognize pledges as income on the pledge date. You can learn more about tracking receivable Pledges here.
Include Pledges in Contact Giving Statistics - This will change the contact giving statistics to include pledges as well as gifts.
Auto Decrement Premium Inventory - This will allow your premium inventory to automatically be reduced as Premiums are assigned to Gifts.
TNT Connect - This is a software platform that some missionary organizations use. These are boxes to configure the information for that integration.
Quickbooks Desktop Configuration - This is to further customize the IIF output for your Quickbooks Desktop reports.
Social Information- A great place to store your social media data. These will show as links on event pages when using Ticketed Events.
Moving forward
You're probably at the beginning of your journey in setting up your database. So, your next step will be to head over to this article on User Permissions to start setting up permissions for your users.