How to extract Wealth Screening data from Planning Center

This will guide users of the Planning Center software platform in compiling data required to complete a wealth screen.

A Wealth Screening evaluates the capacity and likelihood of people in your organization to give to give to your organization. You can screen both those who have given to your organization in the past and those who have not yet given. To generate the Wealth Screening report, we will need certain data about your existing givers and potential givers.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites

Extracting Data from Planning Center

• • Step 1 - Build a List and Export People

• • Step 2 - Export Donations

Converting Planning Center files into Wealth Screening Format

Uploading Data to Generis

Prerequisites

1. We can only screen records of natural persons (i.e., no businesses, groups, and other entities that are not individuals/families). Make sure you have classified people records that represent organizations (i.e., businesses and other entities that are not families or individuals) in such a way that you can filter them out. This may require you to edit existing records in order to standardize your record-keeping practices.
   
   Use the person Membership Type property in Planning Center People to classify profiles for businesses and other non-personal entities into a distinct type like "Business". For instructions on configuring the Member Type property, please see this support document provided by Planning Center.
2. Planning Center allows multiple addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of a particular type to be assigned to an individual. E.g., one individual may be assigned an unlimited number of "Home" addresses in Planning Center. The wealth screening template compiler will use the first "Home" address from the first adult in each household, the first "Home" email address for each adult in a household, and the first "Mobile" phone number for the first adult in each household.
3. We can only screen individuals who have a first and last name AND who have a complete, valid U.S. home address. We recommend that before exporting data for your screen that you review any records with incomplete First/Last name properties or with incomplete addresses (street, city, state, and zip code). Finally, mark all non-U.S. addresses with the proper country so that these can be filtered out in the export process.
4. A Wealth Screening is run on a household basis regardless of how a particular family or individual gives to your organization. In order to compile the people profile data and giving data properly into household records, we will rely on the Household associations within your portal and the Child/Adult selector on each household member's profile. Make sure you have properly associated non-single persons into households and properly classified adults and children using the Child/Adult selector.

Extracting Data from Planning Center

The export process requires two basic steps: (1) exporting People and (2) exporting the Donations report. Please follow these steps very carefully.

Step 1 - Build a List and Export People Records

The people export file you create in this step will become the basis for the wealth screening.

1. Log in to Planning Center.
2. Open the People module (a) then go to the Lists tab (b) .
   
   
   
   
3. Click New List.
4. Give your list a meaningful name (a) and then add your first list rule (b).
   
   
5. Configure your list rule. Use the + Add Condition button to add additional conditions for your rule. 
   1. Exclude businesses and other non-personal entities (see prerequisite 1 above). If you're using another method to tag businesses, create a rule that will exclude businesses using your church's tracking method.
      
      
   2. Exclude children. (see prerequisite 4 above)
      
      
      
      
   3. Include records where Home Address exists (see prerequisite 3 above)
      
      
      
      
   4. While we recommend screening all members and people active in your church community, you may add additional filters at this stage that further narrow your export list. 
      
      Tip: by default Planning Center will exclude inactive profiles (e.g., deceased individuals and others you have deactivated because they've moved away or left the church for some other reason). If you want to include inactive profiles, you may select the "Include Inactive Profiles" checkbox on this screen. If you do include inactive profiles, you should add additional rules in the steps below that exclude deceased individuals and others who should not be screened .
6. Click Submit to save the list.
   
   
7. Review the number of matches to confirm that this seems reasonable given the size of your church and the filters you applied. Once you're satisfied with the list, click the Download CSV button.
   
   
8. Choose All available data and then click Generate CSV. A file will be downloaded to your computer. Note where the file is saved. You will need to access in a future step.
   
   

Step 2 - Export Donations

This procedure will generate an export of all giving transactions over a period of time you select. Note that because you will be exporting several years worth of giving transactions, the export will include transactions for individuals who are no longer associated with your church. We will use the People file you created in Step 1 as the basis for the wealth screening. Transactions for anyone not included in the People file will be ignored when compiling the wealth screening template.

The following screenshot can be used as a reference for steps 1-6.

1. Log in to Planning Center and go to the Giving module.
2. Go to the Donations tab
3. Select the Reports menu
4. Go to the Dashboard report
5. Set Date Range to Custom. For a Wealth Screening we suggest you include as much data as you have in the Planning Center system by setting the Start date January 1, 1901. The End date should be today's date. After configuring your date filter, click Apply.
6.  Click Export and Export CSV...
   
7. Configure your export file to include at least the fields checked in the screenshot below. Then, click Download to save the export to your computer. Make a note of the location where you save the CSV file.
   
   
   
   
8. Open the CSV file in Microsoft Excel. (Note, you can also perform the following procedure in Google Sheets, Numbers, and other spreadsheet applications. Procedures for those applications are outside the scope of this guide.)
9. (a) Select any cell in the data table; (b) click Sort & Filter on the Home ribbon menu. (c) Click Filter. 
   
   
   
   
10. REMOVE the checkmarks beside any fund that you WANT to count in the giving history for the wealth screening. Click OK. (While this may seem counterintuitive, the purpose of this step is to hide the funds you want to include. Then, in step 11 we're going to delete all the visible transactions [all the transactions for funds you don't want to include] and in step 12 we're going to unhide the hidden rows, leaving behind only the transactions for funds you want to include.)
    
    
    
    Tip: For a Wealth Screening, we recommend that you include the fund or funds that support your general ministry operations (e.g., your "operating fund" or "general fund") PLUS any special directed giving funds that support ministry in/within your church, including building funds. Do not include funds that you use to track non charitable giving, such as reservations for fellowship meals, retreat registrations, etc. Please discuss this with your consultant if you are uncertain which funds to include.
    
    
11. Click the row selector for the first row of visible data (e.g. 268 in the screenshot below). Do not select the header row (row 1) or the cell beside the row selector (i.e., the donor_id for that row). Only click the row selector for the first data row.
    
    
    
    
12. In this step you will use a keyboard shortcut to select all the visible rows below and including the row you selected in step 11. Note that the + character in these instructions means that you are pressing these keys at the same time. Do not press the + key on your keyboard.
        Excel for Windows: Press Ctrl+Shift+DownArrow on your keyboard
        Excel for Mac: Press Command+Shift+DownArrow on your keyboard
13. From the Edit menu, click Delete.
    
    
    
    
14. Turn off the row filter by clicking Sort & Filter on the Home ribbon menu and selecting Filter. You should now have a list of transactions only for the funds you WANT to include in the wealth screening.
    
    
     
15. Save and close the file.

Converting Data from Planning Center Format to Wealth Screening Format

In this process, you will download a special automated Microsoft Excel application built by Generis that will compile the data you exported in previous steps into the required Wealth Screening data format. 

1. Download the Template Converter using the link below. Save the file to a location you can access in the next step.
    
   Note: This will download a Microsoft Excel file to your computer. The Excel file has special automations built in to convert the Planning Center export files into a format that Generis can use to complete the wealth screening. You will need a copy of Microsoft Excel installed locally on your computer to continue. The online version of Excel will not allow you to run the automatic conversions. If you do not have Microsoft Excel installed on your computer, please contact the Generis support team for assistance.
   
    Download Template Converter
   
   
2. Locate and open the Template Converter file you downloaded in the previous step. It will be named "PCO_WealthScreening.xlsm" unless you renamed it during the download process.
3. Unless you have configured Microsoft Excel to open all files in edit mode, the Template Converter file may open in "Protected View." Files that are downloaded from the Internet are usually opened in Protected View because these files can contain malware or viruses. The Template Converter file you downloaded above is safe to open and edit. Find the yellow banner at the top of the Excel window and click Enable Editing.
   
   
   
   
4. Unless you have already configured Microsoft Excel to enable macros for all files (uncommon), you will notice a yellow banner at the top of the Excel window notifying you that macros have been disabled. Click the Enable Content button.
   
   About Macros: Macros are short sections of computer code that instruct Microsoft Excel to perform certain automated processes. Generis has built macros to automatically convert the Planning Center exports into a format that we can use to complete a Wealth Screening. Excel disables macros by default because they can be used to perform malicious actions on your computer. The macros created by Generis will not harm your computer. Please contact the Generis support team if you have any questions.
   
    
5. If you are using a recent version of Windows, you will notice a red banner at the top of the Excel window notifying you that macros have been disabled at the system level. If you are using a Mac or if you do not see this warning, then you can go on to the next step.
   
   
   
   To clear this notice, first close Microsoft Excel. Open the windows file browser and locate the file you downloaded in Step 1. Do not open the file; instead, right click on the file to open the context menu. Then, click Properties.
   
   
   
   Click the checkmark beside Unblock button. Then, click OK.
   
   
   After completing this step, go back to Step 2 above. The red box should be cleared and you can proceed to the next step.
    
6. Follow the instructions on the file's dashboard. Note that if you have followed the steps above in the Extracting Data from Planning Center section, you have already completed the first step on the dashboard.
   1. Click the Import People File button.  You will be prompted to select the report you generated from Planning Center in the Step 1: Export People Records section above. 
   2. Click the Import Transactions File button.  You will be prompted to select the transactions report you generated from Planning Center in the Step 2: Export Donations section above.
   3. Click the Export Template button. Excel will convert your data into the template format. Then, you will be prompted to select a location for storing the converted Wealth Screening template. Choose a location you can access in the next step

Uploading Data to Generis

1. Click the link below to visit the Wealth Screening Order Form.
   
   Wealth Screening Order Form
   
   
2. Complete the form and, when prompted to choose a file, upload the file generated by the Template Converter in the section Converting Data from Planning Center Format to Wealth Screening Format.