With Scheduled Reports, you can automate your work by delivering reports to any inbox on a regular basis. Scheduling automatic delivery of reports saves time and effort that can be spent accomplishing your goals. Let's take a look at the types of reports you may want to automate and how you can get the most of this feature.
In this article:
Use Cases
Think about how you use your database to accomplish your goals. Are there any reports that you have to run often, but do not require updates to the filters each time you run them? Do you share these reports with others?
Here are some common use cases for scheduled reports:
Donor Identification and Cultivation
Major Gifts - regular reporting on individual gifts of a certain size
Giving Milestones - tracking donors as they pass thresholds of cumulative giving
Solicitor Scorecard - tracking interactions with prospects
Donor Recognition and Communication
Daily Donations - daily reporting on donors and their donations for acknowledgment
Lapsing Donors - customize from click-through report in Donor Retention Wheel and contact lapsing donors to encourage continued support
Pledge Reminder - customize report template and contact constituents to remind them to continue making pledge payments
Administration and Management
Task Report - view notifications for Tasks that have upcoming due dates, so that you can act on those Tasks
Campaign Progress - keep track of campaigns at regular intervals
Deposits and Reconciliation - automate accounting tasks and reports for administration teams
Note: If you need help building your reports, email or chat our Support team. Scheduling reports will help with these use cases and many more. So what should your process look like when you use this feature?
Goal Setting
First, you should set a goal. Goal setting is a brief process that ensures your scheduled report will include all of the information your recipients need in order to accomplish a specific action. What action should be carried out as a result of a report? Does the report include all of the information your recipients need to act whenever they receive it, or should you include additional filters and columns for clarity? Answer these questions before saving your schedule.
Recipients, Frequency, and Content
Once you have set a goal for your report and added all of the information necessary to act on it, you should decide who will receive your report and how often they need to receive it. Then use the Subject and Content fields to clearly identify the report and explain the action you expect to see.
Recipients
Who is receiving the scheduled report? Do they need access to Bloomerang to act on the report, or can they take action steps without logging in to Bloomerang? It is a good idea to do a quick check and make sure you’re sending everything your recipient needs to accomplish the intended action.
Frequency
How often should the report be delivered? The frequency you choose is closely connected to the action you wish to see taken with the report. For example, if the goal of the report is to prompt a daily action, send it daily.
Content
Use the Subject field and Content field of the schedule to explain exactly what the report is and what should be done with it. Example:
Subject
Daily Donations Report
Content
This report contains all of the donations we received yesterday, as well as the contact information for each donor. Please give them a call and thank them today!
Putting It All Together
Let’s put everything together with a complete example:
A member of your organization is in charge of sending pledge reminders to constituents on a monthly basis. This project has two goals: maintain donor communications and keep funds coming in for the organization. You are in charge of administering your Bloomerang database, while they do not normally need access to the database. You can facilitate your co-worker’s efforts by customizing a report template in Bloomerang and scheduling it to be delivered at a regular time each month.
Click Reports.
Click New Report.
Click the Pledge Reminders template.
Click the Details tab to name and describe your report, then click the Report tab to continue working with the report.
The Pledge Reminders report shows all of your organization’s pledges that have an installment due in the next month. It also contains useful information like the status of the pledge, who started the pledge, the amount of the next installment, etc. Since your co-worker is going to be sending personal emails to these constituents, you will want to add an email column to the report.
Click Add Column.
Click Constituent.
Search for and select @ Email Address.
Click the checkbox next to Email Address and then Add 1 column.
Now it is time to save and schedule your report. Click Save And, then Schedule Report.
Under Frequency, click Select and choose Monthly.
Choose a date of the month and a time of day.
Do not check the box next to Require Bloomerang Login to view report, because this co-worker does not have access to your database.
Enter your co-workers email address in the Recipients field.
Enter “Pledge Reminders” in the Subject field.
Enter “Use this monthly pledge reminders report to email donors with upcoming pledge payments. If the pledge is in good standing, remember to thank them for keeping up with their pledge! If the pledge is in arrears, remind them how much it means to us to receive their pledge.” in the Content field.
Click Save and Schedule.
The report will be delivered to your co-worker on a monthly basis. Your work will have been automated while you enable your co-worker to accomplish their goal.