Summer is in full swing and this weekend we will be celebrating both the summer solstice and father's day which are sure signs that the warmer days and lazy evenings are upon us.  With summer often comes a more relaxed pace with less distractions and the ability to take time out to catch up on some of those projects that there just never seems to be enough time to finish.  To get the most out of your software data, now is a great time to dive into some of those setup and cleanup projects that you've been putting off.  We will be posting a series of blog posts over the next few months that highlight some of these projects that summer is the perfect time to tackle.  This first post in the series covers maximizing usage of the Optional Designation fields in your vendor records.

I am always surprised to speak with long-time Abila MIP Fund Accounting™ users that are not utilizing the Optional Designation fields on the Vendor Maintenance Vendor tab. These optional fields may be used as a filter or as a column in various vendor related reports.

Entertain the below real-life scenarios of how the use of these fields are making other MIP users lives just a little bit easier.

• The Director of Development is planning on asking for in-kind contributions for a special event. The targeted list includes office and paper good supplies, potential complimentary printing, food stuffs and gift cards from retailers. The best prospects for this type of ask are vendors with whom you already have a relationship. In this instance your organization would benefit from a Class or Type by the type of product or service provided by the vendor. Consider how powerful a donation request would be if your Director of Development could actually reference the on-going purchases your organization has made with the prospect.
• Many types of Individuals already exist in MIP as vendors. Easily categorize them with a Class or Type of Employee, ABC Client, XYZ Client, etc. Use these fields to filter when producing lists or reports.
• If you use Mircoix for Requisitions, easily restrict a Workflow to have access to only specific vendor Classes or Types.

I suspect with a small amount of consideration, you will come up with ways to categorize your vendors that in the long term will enhance your efficiency and your organization mission.

Soft Trac is  a woman-owned business and accomplished team of nonprofit software consultants.  We believe in making nonprofits "do good" better.  Copyright © 2015 Abila, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Abila MIP™, Abila MIP Fund Accounting™, and True Fund Accounting™ (Any other products they represent) are trademarks and registered trademarks of Abila, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other product names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.