YTD total of a field

[dayspring]

Re: YTD total of a field

Tom,

That took care of it. That is exactly what I wanted. Perhaps I did not explain myself well but I did not want the total to appear in the browse but on the browse_ form. Thanks for all the advice The last time I did this database was in Lotus Approach so I have a lot of catching up to do.

Roger

[Mike Wilson]

Re: YTD total of a field

Roger,
Having developed 2 applications for faith-based organizations, I can offer several recommendations to your project. First, I would have a unique family identifier and a unique identifier for each person. I found it best and most functional that the personal unique identifier (pqid) be a combination of the family identifier and a family position identifier. The family position identifier has three elements/characters. Character 1 identifies parent/son/daughter. Character 2&3 are family member identifier with 01=father, 02=mother, 03=first child.... 07=seventh child, etc. This would play out as follows:

Johnson family: Family identifier - 00001
Bill Johnson: Father - pqid= 00001.001
Amy Johnson: Mother - pqid=00001.002
Jimmy Johnson: child one boy - pqid=00001.101
Sally Johnson: child two girl - pqid=00001.202
.....
Anna Johnson: child thirteen girl - pqid=00001.213

This allows important groupings and questions answered about the congregation, like who are the members of the XXX family, how many children are there in the congregation, how many girls, how many boys, how many siblings, how many families have one-two-three children, etc, etc.

And there are other considerations that might prove useful for you in the structure of your application.

[dayspring]

Re: YTD total of a field

Mike,

Thanks for the great suggestions. It is a great idea that I had not considered. We do track that information so it will help my work. We are a missionary organization and use our current application, which I wrote in Lotus Approach, to track our mailing list, donors, partners, and perspective partners and donors. We also do mission trips and track trip members and the trips that they have done with us, their trip type interests, talents and abilities, and other considerations. We handle the donations for our missionaries and native churches and pastors and track a lot of information for those as well. So it is kind of a monster that I am trying to create, especially since I am learning Alpha as I go and don't have any programming experience in my background. The real trick will be importing all my information into the Alpha program once I am ready. I do appreciate the forum and all you guys being so ready to help. Thanks for your help.

Roger Tomlinson
Dayspring Outreach Ministries

[Mike Wilson]

Re: YTD total of a field

Yup,
Been there and done all that. In the church app, the "members" were referred to as Friends. The activity and serving components was referred to as Next Step. Band members, service tech booth operaters, greeters, kitchen staff, group leaders, support staff and group attendees all tracked. The children in Sunday school and school grade levels all tracked. Relationship links (relatives and friends) all tracked. Friends businesses and business connections, all tracked. Donations all tracked and reported. Communication preferences and mass emails. And with some families who were lucky enough to have a summer and a winter home who wanted to be kept up to date, even when not in town, communication address preferences. And then people get married, leave one family and begin another. Or divorced and parts of the family leave, etc, etc. It all gets very intricate when dealing with a congregation of families. It was certainly a challenge for sure. So have fun and feel free to contact me if you need some help.

[dayspring]

Re: YTD total of a field

Thanks Mike, I may be calling on you.