GDPR functionality has been in place for some time now within Access Charity CRM, however, one of the requirements is for CRM’s and organisations to only hold relevant and up-to-date data of their supporters.
Why Data Cleaning is required
Access Charity CRM allows records to be added quickly and Access clients that use Access Charity CRM could easily have records in excess of 100,000 contacts.
This means old records or records not required anymore should be allowed to be deleted on Access Charity CRM.
Access has listened to feedback around the general need for this in terms of its clients administering Access Charity CRM and holding relevant information, as such a new Data Cleaning module has been built. The module will allow for data to be deleted.
Setup
Before using the module, we encourage you to think about the following points.
Questions | Explanation |
What’s the first thing you will delete? | Is it GDPR compliance or do you have data that has issues that you are removing? |
How will you identify what needs deleting? | Can you use a search or a group or another way to identify? |
Is this a recurring task? | Is this a process you will run periodically? If so a Saved Search may be a good starting point. |
Do you report on historic data from Access Charity CRM? | If so, it may be better to anonymise data rather than delete it. |
Who do you need to consult with? | Do you need to check how people are using the data? |
Who will need to sign off the process? | Do you need to follow a sign-off process? If so map out the timeline that you will need to follow to complete the process. |
How the Data Cleaning functionality works
Access Charity CRM allows you to delete contacts, groups, favourites and saved searches amongst other features in this development. The option of Data Cleaning is available within Data Tools.
Below is a quick overview giving the deletion of three contacts as an example.
Loading Contacts
The process of loading contacts follows the methods used in the Mailing module.
Click Data Tools, then Data Cleaning.
Select New and New data cleaning.
Name this and click Save.
You will now be entered into the Load Contacts workflow.
Click the Load button in the ribbon and select whichever option you want from the list.
Select the serial number or ID form the list and this will load into the data cleansing workflow.
From a given set of contacts Access Charity CRM allows you to exclude contacts by clicking Exclude, then the Contact.
Contacts within a Group (or Saved Searches, if saved searches, selected for deletion) can also be excluded from deletion.
Favourites can be used within the data cleaning module, note this is not the same as assigning favourites in other modules. If you want to mark a Group or a Saved Search as a Favourite, then this can be done under the More button in the ribbon.
Retaining Contacts
There is an option to Keep Retained items, simply click on the 3 dots next to a contact record in the Data Cleaning Contacts table and select Retain. Then click on the Keep Retained button in the ribbon at the top. Say yes to the following message if you wish to remove them from the data clean workflow.
Deleting Contacts
By moving from the Load Contacts to the ‘Clean Data’ you are moving to the next step and can now delete or update the appropriate records.
A Delete Contacts button appears in the top right. Click on that and confirm whether you want to retain payments and whether or not you confirm that you want to delete these contacts.
Anonymisation
As well as deletions the Data Cleaning module allows the Anonymisation of contacts. Where certain data can be removed, but the contact still is held as an anonymous contact on Access Charity CRM - maintaining the serial number.
Load your contacts, then proceed to the Clean Data workflow.
Click on the Remove Info button in the ribbon at the top.
The options Delete Communications and Set Do Not Contact have had dependencies added. Selecting Address Line will also select Delete Communications and Set do Not Contact. These can be unselected if you wish.
Afterwards, when viewing one of the contacts that have had information removed shows the serial name is held, yet the information selected for removal is now removed.
📌 Note: The retained contact would be unaffected by the removal of information. The above process of Anonymising data applies to Groups and Saved Searches within the Data Cleaning module.
Merge of Data Cleaning Items
This module allows you to merge Data Cleaning items to a newly created one, or other contacts. The option to merge contacts offers merging to a new or existing individual.
Click Data Tools, then Data Cleaning.
Click Load your contacts, then the Merge button in the ribbon.
This can be useful in merging Anonymised contacts to a newly created merged contact as part of tasks data cleaning tasks done throughout the year.