Nonprofit Success - Custom Objects and Tabs
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Custom Objects and Tabs
Custom objects are custom-defined Salesforce entities that allow you to store information unique to your organization. Custom objects are often likened to a custom database table, though one should really think of a custom object as an entire framework of functionality that is built around a custom table. In the case of the nonprofit template, custom objects are used to track information and relationships that are more common to nonprofit organizations.
Creating custom objects in Salesforce is quite simple. Just go to "Setup > Build > Custom Objects" and click the ’New’ button to walk through the creation wizard. For more information on custom objects refer to the online help by clicking the "Help & Training" link at the top of the screen when logged into Salesforce.
Contact Connection Custom Object
Overview
The Contact Connector object allows a user to establish any number of relationships between different contacts as well as between contacts and organizations. The object allows a user to capture the dynamic relationships between constituents and share the captured relationships with other Salesforce users.
Creation
A Contact Connection record can be created by any user. The connection will be created by the following method:
- Manual –The user can click the ’Create Connection’ button on the Contact Layout or Organization Layout, fill out the connection information form that appears, and click "Save".
Naming Conventions
The ID field will uniquely identify each record.
| Naming Standard |
| Auto-Number: CC-{0000} |
Fields
The following are the fields represented in the Contact Connector custom object:
| Field Name | Type |
| Contact | Master-Detail (Contact) |
| Related Organization | Lookup (Organization) |
| Related Contact | Lookup (Contact) |
| Description | Long Text Area (32000) |
| End Date | Date |
| Start Date | Date |
| Name | Auto-generated Number |
| Role/Title | Text (255) |
| Status | Picklist |
Recurring Donation Custom Object
Overview
Recurring Donations are used to group individual donations together under a single entity. When an individual or Organization agrees to make a donation that is given in installments over a period of time, typically from an online billing system, a Recurring Donation record should be setup to track each installment for the overall donation. As the regular individual donation payments are received, these are logged (as new Donation records) under the parent Recurring Donation record.
Creation
A Recurring Donation can be created by any user. The record will be created by the following method:
- Manual –The user will click on the ’Contact Recurring Donation’ or ’Organization Recurring Donation’ button on the Donations related list of the Contact Layout and Organization Layout respectively. After clicking the button, the user is taken to the semi-pre-populated Recurring Donation form to complete the rest of the Recurring Donation information.
Naming Conventions
The following convention should be used when creating new Recurring Donation records.
| Naming Standard |
| {! Name on Contact or Organization} Recurring Donation – {! Today} |
Pledges Custom Object
Overview
Pledges are used to group individual donations together under a single entity. Pledges are commitments made by contacts to make a donation/payment over a period of time or a series of installments. As individual pledge payments are received they are logged (as new Donation records) under the parent Pledge record.
Creation
A Pledge record can be created by any user. The record will be created by the following method:
- Manual –The user will click ’Setup Pledge’ on the ’Organization Layout’ or ’Contact Layout’ to create the Pledge record.
Naming Conventions
The following convention should be used when creating new Pledge records.
| Naming Standard |
| {! Name on Contact or Organization} Pledge Started – {! Today} |
Households Custom Object
Overview
The Household represents the primary physical residence of all Contacts that live there. The nonprofit template provides functionality that creates new Contacts within Households, allows a user to share or copy addresses from contact to household or from household to contact. The nonprofit template also provides functionality to simplify communication to the groups of contacts within a household.
Creation
A Household record can be created by any user. The record will be created by the following method:
- Manual –The user will click ’New’ on the Household tab and fill out and save the form presented.
- Auto – The "New Contact" tab s-control will automatically create a Household record when a user uses the New Contact tab to create a new contact record (or two). The Household record created by the S-Control will follow the naming convention outlined in the following section.
Naming Conventions
The following conventions should be used when creating new Household records.
| Naming Standard Singular Contact |
| {! Title} {! Contact First Name} {! Contact Last Name} Household |
| Naming Standard Multiple Contacts |
| Mr & Mrs {! Contact First Name} {! Contact Last Name} Household |
New Contact Custom Tab
Overview
The New Contact custom tab is a web tab that launches an S-Control by the name of Households_Create_Contact_and_Household_from_Tab. The S-Control presents an HTML form for the user to fill out. When the user has filled the form out and clicks the "Save" button the S-Control will then create a Contact (or two if user filled out info for a second contact) as well as a Household record. The user is then navigated to the primary Contact record so the user can view the new Contact record in Edit mode. The record is displayed in Edit mode so the user can easily populate any additional Contact custom fields that they have added to the Contact object that do not appear on the S-Control form.
Remember, adding any *required* custom fields to the Contact or Household object will also require updating the S-Control used by the New Contact tab. If the custom fields are required on the Page Layout only, not at the database level using the "required" checkbox during field creation, then it is not necessary to update the S-Control.
Lead Conversion Custom Tab
Overview
The Lead Conversion custom tab is a web tab that launches an S-Control by the name of LeadConversion. The S-Control is free software created by Steve Andersen of ONE/Northwest; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
The S-Control handles lead conversion and can also be a part of a process for importing online payments generated at an outside service. The steps in the overall process are as follows:
1. Importing Online Payments to Lead Objects
2. Comma Separated Values (CSV) file of payments is downloaded from online donation service (PayPal, DonateNow, AuctionPay, etc.)
3. CSV is imported to Leads via Lead Import process at salesforce.com
4. Converting Leads to Contacts, Organizations, and Donations
5. Leads Conversion tab (this S-Control) lists all open Leads, showing payment info if exists
6. User attempts to match each Lead to an existing Contact with same email address or same last name
7. If match is found, Lead is merged with Contact, and a closed Donation is created if necessary
8. If user found no match, Lead is converted to new Contact and a closed Donation is created for that converted Contact.
9. User is presented with links to Contact and Donation
Because of the manual import of online donations as Leads, the S-Control can work with online donations from any service that allows export to CSV.
About Lead Conversion Custom Tab
Overview
The About Lead Conversion custom tab is a web tab that launches an S-Control named LeadConversionAbout that displays information about the purpose and usage of the Lead Conversion custom tab. The tab is for informational purposes only and no processes rely on the About Lead Conversion custom tab.