The Batch Control item under the Tools World heading provides access to the Gift Batch Numbers and the Dues Batch Numbers lookup tables for the purpose of creating or editing lookup table entries. This is done to allow an operator to close a batch number or to create a new batch number, without the necessity of navigating through the standard lookup table maintenance process.
The Dues and Giving Batch Numbers lookup tables are not accessed for viewing or editing via the standard Lookup Table Maintenance techniques. Batch Control provides the exclusive access to these functions.
When the Batch Control item is expanded in the Explorer, you will see the items Dues Batch Numbers and Gift Batch Numbers. Because they have the potential for being quite large, the entire lookup table does not automatically display when you click of these table names. Instead, the display frame will show the Options form for the corresponding table. This form contains several elements.
Form Header/Insert Button
The header for the form shows the name of the lookup table followed by an Insert button. This allows the operator to immediately begin the process of creating a new Gift or Dues Batch Number, without first searching the table to verify that the entry does not already exist. When you click the Insert button, you will be given a form showing text boxes for the data fields in the lookup table.
Report
When you click this button, you will be given a form to specify an individual Batch Number for which the report will be generated. If you search for a Batch Number and the system finds an exact match, the report will be generated and displayed in a new window.
The report provides a listing of all transactions in a specified batch to determine if the batch is in balance. If the batch is not in balance, you may use the hyperlink on the transaction to transfer to the respective transaction in Abila Millennium. The necessary corrections can be made to the transaction and the report re-executed. Once the batch is in balance, you may close the batch from the report.
Search Value
Below the form header, you will see the Find, Value text box. When you type a lookup table value into that text box, the system will return a display of all of the entries that match the data you entered. Therefore, if you type in '10' and there are entries with values of '10', '101', and '10001', they will all be displayed.
Sort Order
When you type in data to be used as search criteria for the display of table entries, you specify whether you want to have the display of the matching entries sorted based on the Value field or the Group field from the matching entries. The radio buttons for your preference are shown below the Search Value text box.
When you have successfully identified one or more lookup table entries for display, those rows are shown in the display frame. When you point to either the Section Header edit button or the edit button located to the left of any existing row, you will be given a context menu containing the following items.
Insert - Accesses a blank form, used to create a new batch number.
Update/Delete - Accesses an update/delete form, with text boxes containing the data that is available for editing. This item is not present in the context menu that is available from the Section Header.
Display - This leads to a cascading menu with the following items:
Short - Controls the amount of information that is shown for each lookup row. The standard short display consists of the Batch (number), Group, and Active? flag.
Long - Controls the amount of information that is shown for each lookup row. The standard long display consists of the Batch (number), Group, Active? flag, the Access and Maintenance User Group letters (signifying which user Groups may use or maintain this entry), the Number of Pieces (in the Batch), Total $.
Options - Accesses the form used to search for a new entry or set of entries to be displayed.
Help - Accesses the display of this Help document.
On the Insert form, enter data for the following columns.
Batch - Enter the desired batch number.
Group - This field will default to Open on the Insert form.
Active - This field will default to checked on the Insert form.
# of Pieces - If desired, enter a count of the number of transactions, gift tickets, or other means of counting entries that make up this batch.
Total - If desired, enter a count of the Total amount of this batch. This Total may be used in standard reports to determine whether the batch is or is not in balance.
Access - If desired, edit the list of Abila Millennium User Group letters so it shows only those user groups who may view this information.
Maintenance - If desired, edit the list of Abila Millennium User Group letters so it shows only those user groups who may edit this information.
When new Giving are inserted into Abila Millennium, the Insert form Batch Number field is populated with the default gift batch number. If inserting Giving via a Default Insert form, the Default Insert form's Batch Number field will be pre-filled with this default batch number unless you had specified a different batch number when defining the Default Insert form.
When new dues are inserted into Abila Millennium, the Insert form's Batch Number field will be pre-filled with the default dues batch number. If inserting dues via a Default Insert form, the Default Insert form's Batch Number field will be pre-filled with this default batch number unless you had specified a different batch number when defining the Default Insert form.