We are new to Raisers' Edge and I have been tasked with making recommendations for user/staff access and rights. We need to establish controls on who can enter & modify data, who has access to what data, etc. Can anyone point me to an appropriate knowledgebase article or have templates, defined groups, or written policy on the subject?

Any help would be much appreciated

I would also be interested in any information on the same topic.  We are at a cross-roads to determine if all fundraising staff (and mail room!) should have rights to modify, change or update constituent records.  There have been many instances where a donor has been coded "no valid address" for returned mail - even though the donor is active or a Trustee - instances where the donor information is not entered correctly - no title is entered, "contact type" not entered, no salutation, etc.

One thought is to have all users trained on basic data entry to manage their "groups"; i.e. foundation manager manages foundation records, membership manages member records, etc. 

 The other thought is to hire a Database Manager or restrict staff access and rights to only Senior staff with thorough knowledge.  I would be very interested to hear what works for your organization as I have been asked to draft a procedure policy/manual.

 Thanks in advance,

Tracy Terry, Director of Individual Giving, The Newark Museum

Tracy, it sounds like many issues you mention can be addressed by "control" queries - queries you run every so and so that flag typical errors.  Most of my users have been using RE for ten years, and mistakes still happens.  I have control queries for empty language fields, "no valid" but the address type is not "return mail", queries that flag records with prefferred address "send mail" not checked, Spouse name is blank but the salutation is still a joint one, etc,  You could have one for trustee showing "no valid address" to confirm it is a valid choice.  I have made the Primary Addressee and Salutations mandatory, so no one forget them.