We are having some challenges with the gift constituency code? Does anyone use these for reports? If so, how? We are thinking about deleting all of the gift constituency codes so as to eliminate the confusion of the default setting. It defaults to the first elligible constituency code on the bio2 or org2 tab and when we update those, the gift constituency code remains the same based on the gift date.

 Any suggestions?

I'm not sure what the problem is with the functionality of the constituency code as you described - that's what it is supposed to do. Are you maybe using Gift Constituency Code in situations where it might be better to use the actual Constituency Code or the Primary Constituency code field?

Example of why the functionality works the way it does on the gift

In 2000 John Smith was a Student and his primary constituency code was 'Student'- the donations he gave in 2000 are coded with 'Student' as the default when gifts were entered.

In 2004 John Smith became an Alumni and his constituency primary code was changed to Alumni (and the end date on his Student Constituency Code is put in as 12/31/03 or whenever the change occured) - the donations he gave in 2004 are coded with Alumni when gifts are entered.

If running any reports by constituency you would be able to see for moves management reasons the relationship the donor had to you at the time of the gift. (Also important when researching donors when you see that perhaps a donor gave $5,000 one year - but now only gives $200 per year - if you look at the gift record, the donor may have been a Board Member that year or something)

 hope this helps

Laurel's example covers how/why the gift constituency code is used. 

We also use the gift type field for a report on our annual fund at the request of our Exec as constit codes did get the breakout we needed.  We didn't want to change/add constit codes that he wanted the gifts listed by and next year they could be different.  If you're looking for a work around for something like that, this works well for us.