Arena Administrator: Data Audit (Course# A212)

Transcription

1 Arena Administrator: Data Audit (Course# A212) Presented by: Dr. Josh Creason Pastor of Family and Community Life Germantown Baptist Church 2018 Shelby Systems, Inc. Other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective holders.

2 Objective Now that you have your team on Arena, you want to make sure they are using it and using it as it is meant to be used. Completing a basic audit of the system once a quarter or every other month allows you, as the system administrator, and your executive team to know where you have some real power users and where you may have some opportunities for improvement. This session covers the characteristics of a basic audit process. The Following Topics are Covered This Session: Why audit Who audits What to audit When to audit Ways to audit 2

3 Why Audit? In most areas of our lives, the word audit conjures up all kinds of unpleasant feelings. Unfortunately, this can also carry over into the context of an invaluable ministry tool like Arena. Why do you need to audit data? It goes back to the purpose of that data. The database is there to paint a picture of what God is doing in the lives of individuals and the families and the church body those individuals make up. That picture aids in shepherding those people to greater faithfulness and Christ-likeness. When you have incomplete, inaccurate, inconsistent, unclear, or invalid data, the painting becomes less helpful and can even cause damage to relationships that hinder our goal. Complete Missing information can lead to gaps in the picture. If you are not careful, you can add the wrong interpretation to those gaps. Accurate Wrong information can lead to wrong conclusions and send you the wrong directions. Commented [JC1]: Show image of four artists painting one tree Commented [JC2]: Be ready with examples for each. Commented [JC3]: Photo of person with missing face. Commented [JC4]: Picture of hand shadow and then full picture showing the rabbit doing a shadow puppet. Consistent If you are hit and miss with any elements, none of it can be trusted. You cannot tell when to trust it and when not to trust it. Clear The more data you have, the more clear your picture is of what is really going on. Commented [JC5]: Image of resolution comparisons Valid Is the data you are collecting actually painting a picture of your intended subject? 3

4 Who Audits? Ultimately, anyone with any level of viewing access to the data can be a part of the audit process. At the same time, there are some very key roles and sets of eyes that need to be viewing the data through the lens of looking for potential issues. It takes people who are specialists in their data area up through people who see how the big picture all comes together. Basic User Depending on how you have access set up, any registered user can have access to view and adjust his/her information in the system. These users are the ultimate specialists for their specific sets of data. Ministry/Administrative Assistants and Ministers/Ministry Directors Assistants often know how the details of specific ministry areas work together. They have a grasp of information needed and processes required. They are best at auditing groups and tags, including members as well as information about them. Database Administrator Someone who has the overall big picture in mind and helps to see how all the pieces fit together is necessary so that the end product does not look like several different pictures, but one unified story of what God is doing in a person s life. 4

5 What to Audit Your church s vision and mission help prioritize what needs to be audited. These are the colors with which you are painting a picture of God s work in an individual s life. Person Confirm you have good information for important person details. Hide areas that are not used in order to keep the picture clear and without distractions. Usage Are there people with access to something that they should not be able to access? Security As much as possible, leverage security groups instead of managing security at a user-by-user level. Make sure to check security for pages, modules, person attributes, and tags. Groups Review which groups are active and inactive. Who should be in each group? Is the group information up to date? Are group roles accurate? Does the group tree structure fit what makes sense for your church? Tags Does the tag structure make sense? Are Ministry, Event, Serving, and Personal tags being used - appropriately? Are active/inactive settings up to date? Is the tag information correct? Is tag security appropriately set? Lists Do they work? Are they labeled appropriately? Do they have a category set? Are they needed? Reports Do they work? Are they useful? Attendance Are there occurrences with zero attendance that should have attendance marked? Are all needed occurrences present? Are the time and location accurate? Are there notes entered that need attention? 5

6 Events Are the registration settings correct? Is the information about the event accurate? Is it public? Is there an occurrence created to allow for public registration? Serving Is contact information correct? Are areas intended to be seen by the public marked as such? Contributions Are online gifts processed and balanced? Do contribution entries balance with the General Ledger? Have you verified demographic information in preparation to send out statements? Check-in Kiosks Do you have enough kiosks for the number of families checking in? Is the printed label s format and number still satisfactory? What settings need to change to prepare for promotion? Commented [JC6]: I don t know much about these. 6

7 When to Audit Different aspects of your data need to be audited at different times throughout the year. Some elements need daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly audits. Other audits are as needed when something new is added. Your usage and the importance of that specific data influence how often and how high of a priority auditing it is. Daily Some aspects of your data may be so mission critical that you need to have eyes on them almost daily. Open/Closed Check-in Hospital Lists Bereavements Prayer Requests Queue New Records from the Web Weekly Items that are likely to change on a weekly basis and are important for ongoing ministries may need to be looked at weekly. Membership Changes New Records New User Access Attendance Workflows Monthly Employment Data Portal Usage Tags Quarterly Security Metrics settings Groups Files 7

8 Yearly Many yearly audits can be worked into the natural ebb and flow of ministry. For instance, at the beginning of a committee year, Sunday School year, or Bible study, ask folks who are signing up to confirm their person information. Other yearly audits you just need to put on the calendar. Basic Person Information Spiritual Gifts/Personality Lists Reports What ministry processes have changed? What ministry processes are new? What ministry processes have gone away? As Needed Some types of data only need to be reviewed when something new is created, and that could be at any time. Event or group registration settings 8

9 Ways to Audit Different types of data lend themselves to different methods of auditing. Sometimes it takes being able to look and confirm specific information. Other times it takes an eye for odd patterns. Still at other times it just takes clicking through something to check to see if it works. Dashboards Dashboards can provide a quick, at-a-glance view about a specific slice of information bound by a specific time. Lists Create lists that isolate specific types of data so that gaps stand out or changes from a pattern are noticeable. Sometimes, your list criteria can pull specifically what need to be updated. At other times, the list pulls together a spectrum of data where you visually inspect for oddities. Reports Reports can be helpful to isolate and put specific information into a person s hands or to create more complex charts or graphs to review the data. Metrics Visual representations of data can aid in finding gaps or outliers in your data. Manual Inspection Sometimes there is just no substitute for going in and looking around manually and clicking through everything. 9

10 Q&A Class Discussion 10

11 Josh Creason, Ph.D. Pastor of Family & Community Life Germantown Baptist Church Josh has served as the Pastor of Family and Community Life at Germantown Baptist Church in Germantown, Tennessee since 2006 and shepherds the Family, Children and Preschool, Discipling, Pastoral Counseling, and Connections ministries. While his formal education centered on theology, marriage and family, counseling, and research methods, he is a techie at heart and has done a wide variety of development, programming, and tech support every step of the way.