Does anyone use a scanner for gift entry - where the printed bar code is the ID, appeal and package?  If so, could you please email me, I'd like to know where to start searching to purchase one.

Thanks,

Chris

Chris,

We use a Canon check scanner (for larger quantities of mail) that our bank set us up with .  I believe they gave us the scanner.  It scans both the response device and the check and creates an image of both that is archived and is available for future retrieval.  It also creates a .txt file that we use to import these gifts into RE.  It also does EDeposit to the bank(which is why they gave us the unit).  The bank staff came out and installed the unit and programmed the output file to our specs.  Also, we use a OCR font for the "read line", but i beleive it will read a barcode font also.

I have developed the use of a scanner for entering our gifts into a batch this year with huge success. There are a couple of tricks to know about before you do it though (little bugs in the system that hopefully Blackbaud are ironing out as we speak).

You need to purchase a Barcode Scanner first, I pruchased this from our local computer/electronics store for about NZD100 here in NZ. (You may also need and adapter to the USB port as the only scanners I could purchase were in the oldfashioned round port). I then had to ensure that I purchased a keyboard that was the same brand as the barcode scanner so that they were compatible together (the scanner is set up in parallel with your keyboard - the store you purchase the scanner from will be able to show you how to set it up, its pretty straight foward).

To get the barcode on your appeal cards you use the mail function - appeal cards to export the information that you need into excel, it is essential to export gift bbarcode at this stage. It will export as a series of numbers and *, to convert these to a barcl=ode for the scanner to read you simply highlight the series of numbers and* and change the font to "Barcode 3 of 9" - make sure the size of your font is at least 12pt.

When you set up your gift batch to you need to have the first column as "gift barcode", ensure that the batch is "not included for bank depositing" in the batch set up ie unticked, and then place the curser in the gift barcode column, scan the barcode and hit tab - the ID, Fund, Appeal and Package columns will autofill from the barcode information.

Thats about it it rsally is simple once you get set up and going.

Cheers, Madeleine

Hi Chris

We at the University Of Wollongongong bought a scanner last year. I think I just googled to find some suppliers. I know that Blackbaud in Australia sent me some information about what features I needed (it could have been in Knowledgebase). The scanner certainly wasn't expensive, well under $200 and whilst the instruction manual looked complicated, the scanner just seemed to install itself and work without much effort. Our model is a Metrologic Voyager if that is any help. Our scanner plugs into the USB port on the PC itself and can easily be moved from machine to machine.

You do have to use Mail to create the output files and it can be a little extra work if you have a lot of packages but our data entry staff love the speed of scanning and it makes gift processing a lot more accurate. It also then a lot easier to analyse the success of a fundraising appeal based on the packages.

Ros Perry

University of Wollongong

Australia

I have used the metrologic voyager with great success in the past for seriously large direct mail gift batches.  It is plug and go, no software required.  I've found that a single line scanner is more efficient than multi-line, multi directional scanners.  Happy to reply to emails if you have any questions on using scanners and barcodes with RE.