Dashboards are an essential part of your Beacon journey. Through these, you'll not only be able to visualise the data and metrics regarding your charity's work, but you'll also be able to monitor how exactly that data is being input into the system itself!
This can be done through the use of a data cleansing dashboard, where let's have a closer look at what this means, and how this could work for your organisation.
What exactly do we mean by data cleansing dashboard?
A data cleansing dashboard would be a centralised hub to monitor records, where your goal is to keep the number of records on this dashboard as low as possible.
For example, we could have a card set up to filter for duplicate Organisation records - by having a list of records card on our dashboard, with this card filtering for Organisation "Name" is not unique.
From there, the card will let us know how many records match this filter. Easy peasy!
Having this card will not only give us a visual of how records fit this criteria currently, but also give us quick visibility over whether there have been new records added, where live data will appear through these cards as records are added to Beacon.
Having a visual over the current state of your records is fantastic, but another added perk is that having these set up makes the record amendment process even simpler, where clicking on the top right hand side of the card will allow us to see this list of records that might need editing and perform the necessary changes as required.
Your goal with any card on your dashboard to make sure you keep the number of records low, and keep updating the records that may appear accordingly to keep your database in tip top shape ✨
How would we set this up?
You'll be able to find our guide on how the set up dashboards here, which runs through how to find your dashboard area, customise your dashboards and subsequently share them 🙌
We are hoping to get a data cleansing dashboard template available in the future, where if you would be interested in seeing this as default within Beacon - please do let us know!
What could this look like for us?
Covering what your dashboard could look like becomes a little bit tricky, where what you would want monitor within your dashboard would be singular to your internal processes.
With that being said, we'll have a look through a couple of recommendations from Beacon around what you could set up by delving into an area all Beacon users will have, the People record!
Card ideas for the People record type:
People records without Name
People records without Name
Try setting up a "List of Records" card, with a filter on your People records for "Name is empty"
People records without Type
People records without Type
Try setting up a "List of Records" card, with a filter on your People records for "Type is empty"
You could even have a chart set up to mark the different types, and add this chart to a dashboard card to keep this front and centre!
More on this here
People that have Contact Consent, but are marked as Deceased
People that have Contact Consent, but are marked as Deceased
Try setting up a "List of Records" card, with a filter on your People records for "Deceased is checked" AND "Contact Consent is not blank"
People with duplicate Names
People with duplicate Names
Try setting up a "List of Records" card, with a filter on your People records for "Name is not unique"
You could also use the suggested duplicates view for this one, more on this here!
This structure can then be adjusted to accommodate for your separate record types and needs, where you might not need to be as detailed as the above for each record type - that's absolutely normal!
With that being said, it's worth considering how this structure can apply internally - to make sure you're getting the visibility you need from there 🙌
Other suggestions
Cards tied to your Beacon alerts
Cards tied to your Beacon alerts
It's a great idea to build cards around your alerts, where although Beacon has set alerts by default - you might have other areas you need to monitor in more detail set up there.
More on alerts can be found here, where verifying what you would want to see within your dashboards can be done following this guide.
Monitoring Gift Aid
Monitoring Gift Aid
If the Fundraising element active, and you have Gift Aid enabled on your account, these are for you!
People records with a Valid Gift Aid declaration but no address
HMRC require the address of the person making a donation, where this would be great to check who you need to get some more information from
For this, you could have a "List of Records" dashboard card, looking for People records where their Address field is blank AND their "Related Gift Aid declaration is greater than 0"
People that have donations, but no Gift Aid declarations
Create a "List of Records" card for your People record type, adding an additional filter for:
"Related Payments is greater than 0" where the "payment type" is Donation, and "Gift Aid allowed?" is checked
AND
"Related Gift Aid declarations is 0"