Social Good Software

Creating amazing guest experiences through innovative software solutions for the social good community

Rick Hernandez

FAQ Digital membership cards

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FAQDownload

To ensure that the implementation process will go smoother with your organization, we compiled a series of frequently asked questions (FAQ) we have received from our clients about Digital Membership Cards to guide you.

Learn more about setting up your Digital  Membership Card with these Frequently Ask Questions (FAQ):

FAQ for digital membership cards:

Why do we need to set the transaction date as “on or after yesterday?” 

  • If the transaction date is set as “on or after yesterday”, it will accommodate queries that are purchased late at night, such as those at 11:30 PM. Altru time might differ from your organization, so we need to account for everyone possible.

What do I do with the query if the constituent email is blank?

  • The query accounts for constituents with a primary email and those whose email is blank. If you have any issues with grabbing the correct constituents, make sure you put the two email records in the “include” box in parentheses. Using “or” instead of “and” will ensure that any one of those records will pop up rather than nothing (since records generally have one or the other, not both).

Why is the Membership Level displayed twice?

  • Use one of the “Membership Levels” for displaying the level visually in the email, and the second is to enforce the membership level upon clicking on the link. If a constituent has multiple memberships connected to the name, this query will force the displayed membership to be this particular level you are writing the query for. 
  • (Ex. Tom has two active memberships under his name; if the query is for Tier 1 and NOT Tier 2, Tom will click on the link and see his Tier 1 benefits.)

I cannot find a note type that says “Digital Membership Card – Individual Membership.” How can I add this note type?

  • In Altru, go to Administration > Code Tables > Ticketing (found on “Category” drop menu) > Sales Order Note Type > Add
  • After clicking on Add, name the new note “Digital Membership Card – Individual Membership” for use in your query. You cannot set the note type field as this without creating the note type as shown.

What were the names and descriptions of the query shown in the video?

  • Video Query Name: Automated Email – Digital Membership Card – Individual Membership
  • Video Query Description: Please do not remove this query; it is used to send real-time emails for SGS to welcome new members using digital membership cards.

Where can a membership originate from?

  • Online sales orders – Webforms through Altru via the web
  • Daily sales orders
  • Advance sales orders
  • Auto recurring charge on credit card
  • Manual sending of emails for constituent information update
  • Back office manual entry
  • Back office batch entry

What do you need to do when a membership originates?

  • Verify the entered name, email, and level if it is correct.

What emails does the sales order method send?

  • Online sales orders
    • Acknowledgment email – Via Altru
    • Digital membership card email – Via Social Good Software
  • Daily sales orders
    • Digital membership card email – Via Social Good Software
  • Auto recurring charge on credit card
    • Your credit card is about to get charged – Via Social Good Software
    • Your credit card has been charged – Via Social Good Software
  • Advance sales orders
    • Digital membership card email – Via Social Good Software
  • Back office manual entry
    • Digital membership card email – Via Social Good Software
  • Back office batch entry
    • Digital membership card email – Via Social Good Software

Do I need to email the primary and secondary members separately?

  • No, we recommend you combine the emails into one

I’ve updated the information on a constituent record and I want to let them know, how do I do it?

  • You can manually tag them and this will trigger a new email to go out.

What happens when we merge records?

  • If the System Record ID changes, the link previously received will no longer work but will trigger a new email.

Is there a way to display the total number of members?

  • With the membership card designer, you can display a number like 10, 15, or 25.

Is there a way to display the number of child members?

  • You can display the number of children – Fields you can display

If a child has the same email address as his/her parent, will that parent receive multiple emails?

  • We typically just email the primary member not each member

If there’s an update made to a membership (member name, expiration date, etc.), do the digital membership cards automatically update?

  • Yes, it will send it out to ios and android automatically

Can we incorporate decals for reciprocal members via the membership card designer?

  • No, we need to do it at the design level for the image.

How to enable price types with Altru

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Enable your price types with Altru to help encourage your members and guests to avail of your tickets online. Ticket price is one of the information they want to know before they decide to buy, so see to it that you enable the setting for particular ticket types to make the price available online. 

Steps to enable price types with Altru:

1. Go to your Altru account, then proceed to Tickets.

2. Under Configuration, click Sales methods.

3. Select Online Sales.

Enable price types with Altru

4. Proceed to the Price Types tab.

Enable price types with Altru

5. Select the price type you want to enable, then click Allow price type.

Enable price types with Altru

Your ticket price is now available on your Online Sales. Try this if you have trouble with your web forms to be able to show your price type online.

Please reach us through support@socialgoodsoftware.com if you have questions or need clarification on this topic. We are always happy to help!

How to add additional programs to the calendar

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Calendar Builder of Social Good Software is a tool designed to create calendars from Altru data. It is useful in creating calendars for time ticketing, school programs, and special events. Learn how to add additional programs to your calendar and make necessary adjustments using the Altru query and enjoy the benefit it can bring to you and to your organization. 

Adding Additional Programs to the Calendar

1: Go to your Social Good Software account.

2: Proceed to Calendar Builder and click on the existing calendar where you want to add events.

Adding a program to the query of Timed Ticketing Calendar

1:  Go to Settings and click the query for Timed Ticketing under Events to start and make necessary adjustments.

2: It will redirect you to Altru’s Ad-hoc Query wherein you need to click Edit Definition.

3: You can now enter the program that you want to add to your query:

  • Go to Program Events then under Fields click Name and drag to Includes records where section.
add additional programs to the calendar
  • A dialog box will pop out where you can put the name and criteria of the event you want to add. Click OK. See the sample below.
  • You can now make adjustments to your Event query. For illustration, we made the following adjustments:
    • The newly added event is moved up just after the old one.
    • OR was used instead of AND
    • Added open and close parenthesis () from the beginning of the old event to the newly added event.
add additional programs to the calendar
Note: this is just a sample added event and an illustration of how to properly adjust the said program in a query.
  • Click Preview Results to check if the query with the newly added event is working. Click Save and Close if it is to your preference.

Adding a program to the query of Reserved Events

1: Go back to Calendar Builder. Click on the other query under Reserved Events. This query will show you if the event tickets were sold out or not.

2: Same with the first query, just click the link which will prompt you to Altru’s Ad-hoc Query where you need to click the Edit Definition.

  • Go to Sales Order Item and select Sales Order Item Ticket then Program Events. On the Fields section select Name and add to ‘Include records where’ which will redirect you to a dialog box. Set up the criteria to Contain and put the name of the event you wanted to add. Click OK.
add additional programs to the calendar
  • Back to “Sales Order Item Ticket”. Select “Tickets” and on the “Fields” section drag Status to “Include records where” in which a dialog box will appear. Just set it up as “Equal to Value” and “Active”. You also need to add the Status under the “Results field to display” and add COUNT
add additional programs to the calendar
add additional programs to the calendar
  • We will make the following adjustments to the query on this example:

Under Include records where:

  • From AND to OR
  • Put open parentheses before the Sales Order Item of the existing event and close parentheses at the end of the added event.
  • Remove Refund status is equal to 0

Under Results fields to display

  • Remove the Quantity
  • Click on Save and Close once all is done and good.

Syncing of Data

1: Back to Calendar Builder. Go to Sync Activity and click on Request Data then another Request Data on the dialog box. This will sync over all the information based on the recently made query into our calendar.

add additional programs to the calendar
add additional programs to the calendar

2: Once it’s done syncing, proceed to Settings then click on the gear icon and select COUNT(Sales Order Item Ticket\Tickets\Status) before you click Save.

add additional programs to the calendar
add additional programs to the calendar

3: Click Preview to check your output. From here, your calendar will automatically update on your website if you have it embedded. We ask for your patience when doing this because it takes a minute or two before it reflects on your site.

If you have more questions please reach out to us through our support channel.

How to create a membership note type

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It is very useful to create a membership Note Type for your queries. You can utilize it for any queries like manual tagging, sending emails for batch orders, and sending emails for advance, daily, and online sales.

Steps to create a membership Note Type

1: Go to your Altru account and click on Administration.

2: Proceed to Code Tables

3: Under Code Tables, click on Filters. On the drop-down menu, select Membership and click on Apply. It will then bring you to the list of Membership categories for the Code Tables.

4: Click on the Membership Note Type.

membership note type

5: On the Membership Note Type Table Entries, you need to click the Add button.

membership note type

6: After clicking the Add button, a dialog box will appear where you can write down the kind of Note Type you are creating. Click OK.

membership note type

7: Well done! You now have your Note Type. Add more by clicking the Add button and doing the same process.

membership note type

You can also check the guide on how to create a SYNC Operations note type to learn more about creating a note type.

Please reach us through our support channel if you have questions or clarifications. We are always happy to help!

How to create a query for mail provider using Altru

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Introduction

Below is a detailed process of creating a list that can sync over to either Constant Contact or Mailchimp. Take note that you will undergo the same process of creating a list of individuals whether you are using Constant Contact or Mailchimp and whether it is the main list or a sub-list. Make sure to include all the recommended information whenever you create a query for a mail provider.

The process starts by creating an attribute needed for the query and then going through the process of creating the query itself. Refer below to fully understand the process and to know what are  the needed information:

Process of creating an Attribute

1: Go to Altru and click on Administration then proceed to Attribute Categories.

2: Click Add which will prompt you to a dialog box.

3: Make sure to create a category for a specific segment and if you have a sub-list then you need to tag it differently. Supply the needed information in the Dialog Box based on the details below before you click Save.

Name: Base it on the particular segment you are working on
Record type: Constituent
Data Type: Yes/No
Make sure to ✅ Allow only one per record.

Note: You can add sub-lists as you want which is based on the main list but it still needs to undergo the same process above.

Steps on how to create a query for mail provider in Altru

1: After creating the Attribute, you can now proceed to Analysis and click on the Information Library.

query for mail provider

2: Click on Add an ad-hoc query which will redirect you to another Dialog Box.

query for mail provider

3: Select Constituents then click OK.

query for mail provider

4: You can now add fields to your query. Below are the recommended fields needed to make the syncing of information with Mailchimp or Constant Contact work. Just note that if you have a segment that you want to create, all you have to do is to follow the same process but make sure to include the specific segment you are working with. 

query for mail provider
query for mail provider

Note: You can rearrange the fields based on your preference.

5: Click on the Set save option to name your query, write a description, select its category and designate a folder then Save and close.

query for mail provider

6: Great! You have officially created a query. You can now use the OData Link with the Data Bridge. 

query for mail provider

Adding Sub-list to the current query for a mail provider

To add a specific segment to your query, you need to go through the same process and add the particular segment you want to include. You can also go to Edit Definition if you already have an existing query and add the specific segment.

1: Go to Edit Definition and proceed to Attributes. 

query for mail provider

2: Double click the sublist that you want to include.

3: Select Value before dragging it to the Results field to display.

4: Lastly, add the logic applicable for your sublist.

query for mail provider

You now have your attribute and a query for your mail provider. If you have more questions please reach out to us through our support channel.

How to set up the continuous scanning option

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It is a great relief and assistance to have a portable scanner that can do continuous scanning during events where guests are coming non-stop. A stand-alone app that can help validate tickets and membership cards without using wifi or any extra tool or hardware.

Our SGS Barcode Scanner is a downloadable app designed to function in any mobile phone and tablet brand. It can scan tickets and membership cards even in remote places with limited power supply or areas without podiums effortlessly and trouble-free. SGS Barcode Scanner can get you an attendance count without effort and check for a guest through the visitor’s name, email, or phone number. It can track history and provide analytics of visitors too.

Just install the SGS Barcode Scanner on your phone or tablet and use the camera to start scanning. You can also enable the continuous scanning option on your SGS account and connect your gadget to a portable scanner to scan tickets and membership cards. 

This app can communicate with Altru so rest assured that all the information from the SGS Barcode Scanner will sync over to Altru.

Below is a detailed guide to set up the app on a mobile phone and tablet and directions on how to use it continuously using a portable scanner. Follow the steps to ensure that no problem will arise in using the Barcode Scanner. 

Setting up Barcode Scanner on android phone for Continuous Scanning

Step 1: Go to Settings and proceed to the following:

a. Battery – turn off the Battery Saver to make the phone stay on.

continuous scanning

b. Display – proceed to Advance and go to Sleep then set it to Never or 30 minutes

c. Security – click on Screen Lock Settings and set the Automatically Lock to Never or 50 minutes

Step 2: Make sure that you have the latest version of the SGS Barcode Scanner by checking the app in the Google Play Store if there’s an update button.

Step 3: You can open the app once it is updated and start using it to validate tickets and membership cards. You can also enable continuous scanning on your SGS Barcode Scanner Account dashboard and use a hardware scanner to scan continuously.

continuous scanning

Setting up Barcode Scanner to a Tablet

Step 1: Same with the android Phone, you need to go to Settings of your tablet and set the following:

a. Go to Display and set the Screen Timeout to 30 minutes.

b. Proceed to Screen Saver and set to nothing.

c. Next, turn off the Battery optimization.

d. Finally, go to Biometrics and Security then click Other Security Settings and check if everything was set.

Step 2: Proceed to Google Play Store and check if the app is on its latest version. Click on update if needed.

Step 3: Open the app once it’s done updating. It will then ask permission to take pictures and record videos, just click on ‘While using the app’.

Step 4: Enter your app ID then Login.  

Step 5: After you enter the app ID, the Barcode Scanner is now ready to use. You can choose to scan tickets and membership cards using the camera of your tablet or connect the device to a portable scanner for continuous scanning.

continuous scanning

Note: Tablets are sometimes set up internationally which will not be able to recognize a portable scanner, so it is important to go to Keyboard Settings first and set it to US Standard Keyboard to avoid trouble scanning.