You’re keying in a stack of mailed-in renewals, and each one carries a detail you want to keep: the campaign that prompted it, a “gift membership” flag, a volunteer who referred the member, a preferred card name. In your organization that information lives in attributes. The membership dues batch, though, is built to record a membership and its payment quickly, and it may not give you anywhere to enter an attribute while you work.
Below is how to find out what your batch can actually hold, and what to do if the answer is “not attributes.”
Start by checking the batch template
Batches in Altru run off templates, and templates can usually be adjusted to show or hide fields and set defaults. Before you build a workaround, open the membership dues batch template your team uses and look at every field that’s available to add, not just the ones currently showing.
- If you see an attribute field (or a way to add one), add it, set a default if most rows share the same value, and save the template under a clear name so staff pick the right one.
- If nothing attribute-related is offered, your version of the dues batch probably doesn’t support attributes directly. Don’t assume it’s a permissions problem until you’ve confirmed with someone who has full rights to edit batch templates.
Because what’s offered can vary by setup and version, the safest way to confirm is to try it in a sandbox or ask Blackbaud support directly: “Can the membership dues batch template include constituent or membership attributes?” A one-line answer from support saves hours of guessing.
Decide which record the attribute belongs on
This question matters more than it seems, because it determines which workaround you can use.
- Constituent attributes describe the person or household: interests, referral source, a VIP flag. These don’t have to be entered at the same moment as the dues payment.
- Attributes tied to the payment or the membership, such as the appeal or mailing that produced this specific renewal, are about the transaction. If one person renews twice, each renewal should keep its own value.
Check the record type on the attribute category you want to use. If the category is set up for constituents, you have more options. If it’s meant to describe revenue or a membership, confirm where Altru will let you attach it before you design a process around it.
Workaround: enter dues first, attributes second
When the dues batch can’t take the attribute, the most dependable approach is to split the job into two passes.
- Capture the value while you key the batch. Keep a simple worksheet beside the batch, or write the value on the reply card, so nothing depends on memory. A lookup ID or constituent name next to the attribute value is enough.
- Commit the dues batch as usual. Let the membership and payment post normally.
- Build a query of what you just entered. Filter memberships or revenue by batch number or transaction date range and the user who entered them, and output the constituent lookup ID. Save it so you can reuse it with the next batch.
- Add the attributes in bulk. For constituent attributes, a constituent update batch or an import is usually the cleanest route. Match on lookup ID, not name. If you’re not sure which import or batch type in your database handles attributes, test it with two or three records in a sandbox first.
- Spot-check. Open a few constituent records and confirm the attribute landed with the right value and date.
It’s an extra step, but it keeps the dues batch fast and gives you one clean bulk update instead of a dozen record-by-record edits.
When a transaction-level value can’t go anywhere else
If the detail truly describes the payment, such as the source mailing, look for a field that already exists on the dues batch and does the same job. Appeal or source-type fields, where your template offers them, are often a better fit than an attribute because they stay with the transaction and show up in revenue reporting.
Resist the urge to dump the value into a free-text comment field “for now.” Comments are hard to query reliably, and “for now” tends to last for years. If you do use a comment as a temporary bridge, agree on an exact format (for example, a fixed code at the start) so you can find and clean those rows later.
Make the two-pass process stick
- Write it into your batch checklist. “Commit dues batch, run attribute query, run attribute update” belongs in the same procedure, ideally done by the same person on the same day.
- Use defaults where you can. If an entire mailing shares one attribute value, the second pass becomes a single update against the query with no worksheet needed.
- Audit monthly. A query for members who renewed in the last month but have no value in the attribute category will show you where the second pass was skipped.
- Retire old categories. If staff improvised with near-duplicate attribute categories while working around the batch, consolidate them so reports aren’t split across three versions of the same thing.
Quick answers
Can I add attributes after a dues batch is committed?
Yes. Committing the batch doesn’t stop you from adding attributes to the constituent records later, either one at a time or in bulk through a constituent update batch or import.
Should I switch to a different batch type just to get attributes?
Only if that batch type records the membership correctly. Getting the membership term, level, and payment right matters more than saving the second pass, so test any alternative in a sandbox before changing your process.
