We currently have few inactive accounts and I'm looking to clean up the database, but want to make sure I understand any and all consequences of inactivating a given account. I know inactive accounts are read-only, show up in a constituent search, are automatically excluded in List Manager and automatically included in Extractions unlessed manually suppressed. To save me having to check every standard Tess report individually, can anyone confirm for me whether inactive accounts are handled the same in all reports, or if some include and some exclude them? I have not been able to find that answer anywhere. Thanks! Kathi
Kathi,
I don't think you'll be able to find a comprehensive list of this but there are a few rules I've used in the past that seem to have worked out:
- Any report that uses a list to filter the results will inherently exclude inactives (unless you've included them in your list).
- Reports that summarize dollars will include all of the dollars regardless of the status of the patron record (i.e. a report like Campaign Giving Comparison).
- Reports that list information for specific customer numbers generally exclude inactive records. A solicitation tracking report for instance.
Like I said, these are just guidelines I've built up from experience. If there is a specific report you have questions about, I'd check the documentation for that report and read through the Selection Logic section to see if there is a mention of how the report handles inactive patrons.
Hope this helps!
Thanks Levi, that is helpful and somewhat frustrating to know :)
Most of those accounts that I would inactivate would not be an issue; however, the v.11 migration default is to inactivate deceased patron accounts, and I am still trying to decide whether to keep that default or not. We have never deactivated deceased accounts in the past, but I was considering it moving forward. I wondered if the network default is to do so, can I safely assume that standard reports that pull historical data like ticket purchases and contributions will not automatically exclude inactives? I could not imagine the network defaulting to a setting that would terribly skew historical numbers, but I'm not so sure I am confident enough to inactivate my deceased accounts before further, and tedious, investigation.
Thanks!