Importing all Data from Other Programs

It is possible to import Organization Info, Donors, Donations, Donation Categories, and Receipt information from other programs, for one or more years of historical data. This is done with the option Database à Import Data. If all you need to import is Donors, you can use the much easier and more user-friendly Importing only Donors from other Programs routine.

At the moment I am not aware of any other programs that have built-in routines to export the data in exactly the format the I require it to be in for this feature.

Given my statement that no programs (other than my own on my computer) know how to create the required files for importing with this routine, you may be wondering why I have included it in the program. The reason is that some enterprising users may be able to create the required files themselves and use this routine. Several users have already done so. If you need assistance converting from another program, feel free to contact me for advice. This is one area where if it looks like I may have to spend significant time to do the conversion, and only one organization is asking for a specific type of conversion, I may charge a fee for my time working on it.

This routine completely replaces all existing data in your database, throwing out anything you have entered so far. Thus, it must be used right at the start of your use of the DONATION program.

To use these routines, you need to create the following files, in your DONATION program directory, which is usually C:\Program Files\Donation. I'll give example filenames for if you were importing data for 2007, and optionally also importing the prior year's data (for 2006).

If you were going back as far as 1999 or earlier, you would create files called donor99.txt etc.

Each file is a tab-separated text file. A tab-separated text file is a plain-text file where each donor (or other type of record, depending on the file) is on its own line, and each field (even missing optional fields) on the line is separated by one tab character. Fields may optionally be enclosed in quotation marks, but that is not necessary. The files may not have any rows of column headers at the top – the first line must be real data.

What follows is a description of the tab-separated columns of data to be imported from each of these files.

constant.txt:
Field	Max Length	Required	Description
Organization Name	70	Y	The name of your organization or church
Addr1	40	Y	The first line of your organization's address
Addr2	40	Y	The second line of your organization's address
Addr3	40	N	The third line of your organization's address
Phone	18	N	Your organization's phone number
Receipting Person	60	Y	The name and title of the person who signs the charitable receipts
Charitable Number	20	N	Your organization's charitable number that goes on the receipts
Year	4	Y	The year that you will be importing data for (e.g. 2007)
Allow January	1	Y	Should always be set to 0
DB Schema Version	20	N	This can be anything - it is automatically replaced by a correct value by the program

donor05.txt:
Field	Max Length	Required	Description
Donor Number	10	Y	This is a numbering of the donors. Each donor must have a different number. If you use the previous year file as well (e.g. donor04.txt), when the same donor occurs in both files it must have the same Donor Number in both files. This number is never displayed in the program, and is different from a member or envelope number for the donor.
Year	4	Y	The year that you will be importing data for (e.g. 2007)
Business Name	60	N	If the donor is a business or organization, its name goes here
Last Name	30	N	The last name of the donor, or of a contact person at an organization if the Business Name is filled in.
First Name	30	N	The first name of the donor, or of a contact person at an organization if the Business Name is filled in.
Addr1	40	Y	The first line of the donor's address
Addr2	40	N	The second line of the donor's address
Addr3	40	N	The third line of the donor's address (may contain the postal code if the Postal Code field is not used)
Postal Code	10	N	The Postal Code or Zip Code of the donor
Phone	18	N	The donor's phone number
Member / Env. Num.	10	N	A member or envelope number for the donor
Pledge Amount	Dollar amount	N	An annual pledge amount that the donor has pledged to donate
Other Info 1	50	N	For your own use for additional fields such as work phone, email address, etc.
Other Info 2	50	N	Same
Other Info 3	50	N	Same

			Note: Either a Business Name or both the Last Name and the First Name (or all three) must be filled in.

recep05.txt:
Field	Max Length	Required	Description
Receipt Number	10	Y	This is a numbering of the receipts. Each receipt must have a different number. This number is displayed in the program, and printed on the receipt following the year. (E.g. if the year is 2007 and this is receipt number 23, it prints on the receipt as receipt number 2007-0023.)
Year	4	Y	The year that you will be importing data for (e.g. 2007)
Donor Number	10	Y	This must match the donor number imported from donor05.txt for the donor who received this receipt.
Date Issued	?	Y	The date this receipt was issued (which is printed on the receipt) in a format that will be accepted by the program, such as MM/DD/YYYY.
Total Amount	?	Y	The total dollar amount of the receipt, which is the total amount of all of the individual donations included in the receipt.
Eligible Amount	?	Y	The total eligible amount of the receipt, which is usually the same as the Total Amount.
Type	1	Y	"O" for Original, "D" for Duplicate, or "C" for Corrected

categ05.txt:
Field	Max Length	Required	Description
Category Number	10	Y	This is a numbering of the donation categories. Each donation category must have a different number. This number is never displayed in the program.
Year	4	Y	The year that you will be importing data for (e.g. 2007)
Description	20	Y	Your description of this donation category.

donat05.txt:
Field	Max Length	Required	Description
Donation Number	10	Y	This is a numbering of the donations. Each donation must have a different number. This number is never displayed in the program.
Year	4	Y	The year that you will be importing data for (e.g. 2007)
Donor Number	10	Y	This must match the donor number imported from donor05.txt for the donor that made this donation.
Receipt Number	4	N	If this donation has already received a charitable receipt, this is the receipt number for it, and must match a receipt number in the file recep05.txt. If this donation hasn't yet received a receipt, leave this blank.
Date Received	?	Y	A date in a format that will be accepted by the program, such as MM/DD/YYYY.
Total Amount	?	Y	The total amount of the donation, with no dollar signs. Decimal places and cents are optional.
Eligible Amount	?	N	The eligible amount of the donation. This should be omitted if it is the same as the Total Amount. If it is included, it must be less than or equal to the Total Amount.
Category Number	10	Y	A category number matching a category number in categ05.txt.
Cheque Number	20	N	The cheque number that this donation was paid with, or any text describing how the donation was paid. Standard options are "Cash", "VISA", "MasterCard", "Money Order", "Credit Card", "Debit Card", "Direct Debit", "PAC", "PAR", "Non-Receiptable" and "Pre-Receipted".

To use this import routine, first select Database à Import Data. A few questions will first come up, confirming that you want to use this routine, and offering to show you this help page. A window will then come up on which you need to enter the First Year to Import and Last Year to Import. If you are just importing one year's data, say 2007, enter that year in both of these fields. To enter a range of years' data, enter the first year you have data files for in the First Year to Import, and the last year in the Last Year to Import.

Then, click Start. If all goes well, you will see the files being imported listed one by one in the list area on the left. If it all works, it will tell you that it is done, and then you can just click Close to close this window, and start working with your imported data. More likely, however, you will need to try this a few times to get it right. You will get error messages telling you what is wrong with the files. Unfortunately these messages may not be very detailed. Re-read the detailed description of each file's format and contents above, and pay close attention to the maximum length of each field. Contact me if you need further assistance to get it working. (You may want to email me the files you are trying to import so I can examine them and try them here, and tell you what is wrong.)