Two people step up to the admissions desk and ask for a dual membership. Neither of them is in your database. In theory this is one sale. In practice the cashier has to create two constituent records, connect them, put both on the membership, and take payment, all while the line behind them grows. Done in a hurry, it often leaves a duplicate record, a “household” that only holds one person, or a second cardholder who never gets added.
Below is how I’d set up the desk process so two new members get created correctly in Daily Sales with as few steps and as little retyping as possible, plus the cleanup that catches whatever slips through.
Know what “done” looks like
Before you tune the steps, agree on the end state. After a dual membership sale to two new people, you want:
- Two constituent records, one per adult, with no duplicates of either.
- A household or relationship linking them, so mailings, renewals, and reports treat them as one unit.
- One membership with both people listed as members, at a level that allows two named members.
- Contact details that live in the right place: a shared address, and each person’s own email if you plan to email them separately.
Write that down for desk staff. Most of the errors I see come from cashiers who think the sale is finished once payment goes through.
A faster order of operations at the desk
- Search for both people first. Check last name, email, and phone for each adult before creating anything. New-to-you guests are often already in Altru from an old ticket purchase or a donation. Thirty seconds of searching saves a merge later.
- Start the membership sale with the primary member. Pick the person who will get renewal notices and create (or select) their record during the membership transaction. Enter the shared address here, once.
- Add the second person from inside the membership, not as a separate step. Adding the second adult as an additional member on the same membership keeps the cashier in one flow instead of backing out to create a constituent and coming back.
- Confirm the household link before taking payment. Whether adding a second member automatically creates a household or spouse/partner relationship depends on your configuration and version, and I wouldn’t assume it does. Test it in a sandbox or your training environment with two fake people and look at both constituent records afterward. If the link isn’t created automatically, decide whether the desk adds it or the back office does.
- Take payment and print or issue cards. Check that both names appear on the membership before the guests walk away; that’s the cheapest moment to fix a missed member.
Setup that makes the desk faster
Most of the time savings come from configuration done once, not from cashier speed.
Membership levels
Make sure your dual or household levels are set to allow the right number of named members. If the level only allows one, staff will either create a second membership or skip the second person entirely. Name levels so it’s obvious at the register how many adults they include.
Required fields
Decide the minimum fields for a new constituent at the desk (often name, address, email, phone) and keep everything else for later. Every optional field a cashier feels obligated to fill slows the line. If your organization has made extra fields required on the add form, revisit whether the desk really needs them.
Relationship defaults
If you link household members with a relationship type, agree on one standard choice (for example, a generic partner or household member type) so cashiers aren’t guessing between options. Inconsistent relationship types make household reporting messy later.
A short script for staff
A laminated card at each register with the five steps above does more than a training session in March that seasonal staff never attended. Include the search step in bold.
When the line is too long
Some sites split the work. The cashier creates the primary member, sells the dual membership, and takes payment, while the second adult writes their name and email on a short form. Someone in the back office adds the second member and the household link later that day.
This keeps the line moving, but it only works if the follow-up actually happens. If you go this route, make the paper form go into a specific tray and make it someone’s named job to clear it daily.
Catch what slipped through
Even with good habits, some sales will end up incomplete. A couple of saved queries make the misses easy to find:
- Dual memberships with only one member. Query memberships sold in the last week at your two-adult levels where the member count is one.
- New constituents created at the desk with no household or relationship. Filter on records created recently through daily sales where a membership exists but no relationship does.
- Likely duplicates. New records that share a last name and address, or an email, with an existing constituent.
Run these weekly and fix records while the guests’ visit is still fresh. The second query also tells you whether the household step in your desk process is working or being skipped.
Quick answers
Is there a single button in Daily Sales that creates two people and a household at once?
Not one I’d promise exists for every Altru setup. Test the additional-member flow in a sandbox and check what it creates, or ask Blackbaud support how your version handles it.
Should both adults get their own email address on their records?
If you plan to send member communications or digital cards to each person, yes. If not, one email on the primary member is enough, and it’s faster at the desk.
Is it better to create the household first, then sell the membership?
It works, but it usually means leaving the sale screen and coming back. Building the records from within the membership sale is typically fewer steps for the cashier.
