ParishSOFT Conversion Step #2b: Prepare your data for conversion from other Software - PDS and Logos II

Preparing your data for conversion to ParishSOFT Family Suite

Sections in this article

Preparing your PDS Census data for conversion to ParishSOFT Family Suite
Preparing your Logos II Census data for conversion to ParishSOFT Family Suite

Preparing your PDS data for conversion to ParishSOFT Family Suite

In preparation for the data conversion of your PDS data into ParishSOFT Family Suite, please review the following to help you prepare your data for conversion as well as understand how certain data will be converted.

Families and Members | Sacraments | Offering | Religious Ed | Ministry Scheduler

PDS Items that cannot be converted

Families and Members

Phone Numbers: PDS allows for any number of phone numbers at the family and member level with any given descriptor. ParishSOFT Family Suite provides fields for two family phone numbers and up to five member phone numbers with pre-defined field labels. All phone numbers in ParishSOFT Family Suite may only contain 10 numeric digits. Any letters or special characters (except dashes) in PDS phone numbers cannot be converted. The conversion process will remove the letters or special characters and only convert the numeric portion.

Family Phone Numbers:
- If the family phone descriptor in PDS is Home or Blank (not both) and one more phone numbers for the family is present - we will convert both, the Primary/Home will go in the Primary field and the second phone to emergency phone field with a description.
  Example: Home Phone and Alternate Phone descriptors in PDS - both will convert. PDS Home Phone will convert to ParishSOFT Primary/Home and the Alternate Phone will convert to ParishSOFT Emergency phone with a description of Alternate Phone.
- If the family phone descriptors are generic descriptions, the ParishSOFT Conversion Team will attempt to convert to the member level phone when possible.
  Example: “His Work” descriptor, ParishSOFT will pick the Male Head and place the phone number in that record’s Work Phone field.
  Example: “Her Cell” descriptor, ParishSOFT will pick the Female Head and place the phone number in that record’s Cell Phone field.
  
  NOTE: If your PDS Family records have more than two family phone numbers, you may want to create a report or copy them to the remarks/notes field for future reference.

Up to two phone numbers, Primary/Home and Emergency, can be converted from the PDS family record.
When PDS has a single family phone number with no descriptor, ParishSOFT will convert that phone number into the ParishSOFT Family Suite Primary/Home field. When there are two or more phone numbers with no descriptor, ParishSOFT will only be able to convert one to the Primary/Home field.
If the only family phone numbers listed in PDS have descriptors specific to family members ParishSOFT will convert one of them into the Primary/Home field for the family.
Example: Descriptors of Robert's Cell or Linda's Cell, one will be converted to the Primary/Home field.

Member Phone Numbers:
1. Home Phone (Converted from the Family Primary/Home Phone number.)
2. Cell Phone
3. Work Phone
4. Pager Phone
5. Fax Phone
  
  NOTE: If your PDS Member records have more than four member phone numbers, you may want to create a report or move them to the remarks/notes field.

Up to four member phone numbers from PDS will be converted into ParishSOFT Family Suite. Below is a list of the Member Level Phone Number fields in Family Suite. Applicable member phone numbers that match will be converted into these fields.

Emails:
PDS allows for multiple email addresses for family and members. ParishSOFT has one family and one member email field.

Family Emails: Only one Family Email will be converted.
Member Emails: Only one Member Email will be converted.

NOTE: If your PDS Family and Member records have more one email address, you may want to create a report for future reference. After going live in ParishSOFT Family Suite you may add up to five email addresses per email field.

Relationship/Type:
PDS has two fields for identifying the member role within a family. ParishSOFT Family Suite uses a single field of Member Role for this. See Tips for a Successful Conversion document for a complete list of member roles in ParishSOFT Family Suite. In our experience, PDS Member Relationship tends to be more specific and PDS Member Type is a second identifier, therefore Relationship is used for the initial member role assignment during the conversion. Where possible PDS Member Type, Gender and Marital Status will be used to further clarify the role used in ParishSOFT.
1. Relationship is used for the initial member role assignment during the conversion. Where possible PDS Member Type, Gender and Marital Status will be used to further clarify the role used in ParishSOFT.
  - Example: A PDS Member Relationship of Grandchild will be converted to roles of Grandson or Granddaughter based on Gender listed in PDS.
    - Grandchild + Male = Grandson
    - Grandchild + Female = Granddaughter.
2. PDS Member Relationships/Type must fit ParishSOFT standard table of roles.
  - Example: A PDS Member Relationship of Nephew, Uncle, Godson, Friend – will be converted to role of "Other."
  - Example: A PDS Relationship of Single or Deceased – will be converted to a member role of “Unknown” initially. Where possible PDS Member Type and Gender will be used to further clarify the role.
  - Example: If PDS Member Type is Head of House (0 in the backend), the initially converted Role of Unknown would be changed to Head.
3. PDS Member Types of Head = Head (when not Married in PDS), Husband (When Married, Head & Male in PDS) and Wife (when Married, Head & Female)
4. Member Roles changed to Head when initially converted Member Role is Not Head or Husband or Wife and Member Type in PDS is Head of House or Spouse (in the backend showing 0 or 1).
  - Example: Member is initially converted as Unknown Member Role and Member Type in PDS shows Head of House (0 in backend), then role is changed Head. Additionally, if Marital status of Married, role is changed to Husband or Wife based on gender.
  - Example: PDS: Spouse, Head 2, Head Female converts as Head however if Married Male exists in the same family, Married Male converts to Husband and Married Female converts to Wife.

Envelope Numbers:
Note: PDS FamilyID is not the same as the Envelope Number. FamilyID does not convert to ParishSOFT FamilyID, as the ParishSOFT Family ID field will be auto-generated during conversion.

PDS allows for duplicate envelope numbers if the family is inactive; ParishSOFT requires that all envelope numbers be unique.
NOTE: You may wish to resolve duplicate envelope numbers prior to conversion. If duplicates do exist in PDS, ParishSOFT will convert as follows:
Example: In PDS an active family can have env #40 and an inactive family can also have env #40. The conversion process will remove the duplicate envelope number from the inactive family.
Example: In PDS two families are Active and have the same envelope number. The conversion process will remove both envelope numbers and ParishSOFT will provide a list of records where the envelope numbers were removed so the parish can enter unique envelope numbers after they are live in ParishSOFT Family Suite.
Example: Both families are Inactive with the same envelope number, the conversion process will remove the envelope number from both inactive families.
The Envelope Number field in PDS is a text field meaning it accepts numbers, letters and special characters. In ParishSOFT, Envelope Number is a numeric field.
NOTE: You may wish to resolve envelope numbers containing letters or special characters prior to conversion. If envelope numbers contain letters or special characters ParishSOFT will convert them as follows:
Example: Envelope Number 50.1 would convert as 501.
Example: 60IN would convert as 60.

Note: If the above-listed conversion creates duplicate numbers the conversion team will attempt to resolve the duplicates as indicated in number one above or remove all envelope numbers using special characters and provide you a list of removed numbers, so the parish may adda unique envelope numbers after they are live in ParishSOFT.

Background Screening:
PDS tracks background screening information, typically with notes and date ranges.

PDS Background Screening information can only convert into ParishSOFT Ministry Scheduler.
Important: If ParishSOFT Ministry Scheduler has not been purchased, PDS Background information will not be converted.

Mailing Names & Salutations:
PDS has a Mailing Name, Informal Sal, Formal Salutation on the family record and these will be converted to the same in ParishSOFT Family Suite. Additionally, ParishSOFT Family Suite has fields for Informal Mailing Name and Family First Names and will be generated during the conversion as follows:

Informal Mailing Name will be created by combining Informal Salutation and Family Last Name
Informal Salutation will also be converted to Family First names

Zip Code/City:
ParishSOFT uses a Postal Code Table to populate the City Field. Therefore, the conversion process will populate the City based on the Zip Code. When a zip code is associated with multiple cities the conversion process will attempt to match based on the City field in PDS. If the city name in PDS does not follow the recommend USPS spellings the conversion process will not be able to match on City. In those cases, the USPS primary city will be used, and the parish may update these after they are live in ParishSOFT.

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Sacraments

PDS allows you to create Marriage Records for any member in the database, we can only convert:

Marriage records for the Head, Husband and/or Wife
If non-Head, Husband or Wife has a marriage record you may want to create a new family for that member in PDS prior to conversion so marriage record is retained.

PDS allows you to create any marriage descriptor you want. ParishSOFT uses the following for Marital Status: Annulled, Divorced, Married, Separated, Single & Widowed

If Marriage Status is anything other than Married, Divorced, Annulled, Widowed or Separated it will be converted as Single in the member record
Example: Engaged, Cohabitating, Priest, or Deceased would convert as Single.
Example: Catholic Marriage would convert as Married and the Canonical flag is check marked.

PDS allows the creation of any Sponsor Type descriptors, ParishSOFT Family Suite has pre-defined fields for Sponsors. (2 Sponsor fields for Baptism and 1 Sponsor field for Confirmation)
- If you have godmother, godfather, sponsor, witness, proxy all being used, only godmother and godfather will convert.

Baptism Sponsors uniquely identified in PDS can be converted to ParishSOFT Family Suite
Example: godmother and godfather
If Sponsors are generically identified in PDS, they will be converted as follows:
Example: All have no "label" or all are labeled Sponsors.
- For Baptism the first and last sponsor record for that sacrament is converted.
- For Confirmation, only 1 sponsor will convert
- For Communion, no sponsor will convert

PDS allows you to type in the name of persons Mother and Father. these are not linked by an ID to an actual member in PDS.

Mother and Father names are not converted from PDS.
If a Son or Daughter role in ParishSOFT, will add the Female, Head or Wife as Mother, and Male, Head or Husband as Father. no other roles are filled in.

PDS Sacramental Registry programs that are not a part of the PDS Census program will not convert.

Note: When PDS Church and PDS Formation use the same database, duplicates usually occur at family and/or member level due to records not being properly linked in the program.

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Offering

Batches do not convert (not to be confused with contributions)
Not all Tuition for Religious Ed will convert
Example: If Credits and Previous Year payments or Refunds are in the Activities the whole Fund is removed from conversion as these items cannot be converted.
PDS Activities can indicate Down Payments or Payment to reduce Rate
Example: If Down Payment, the payment is converted as a contribution but does not show as a down payment in the contribution screen or on the pledge screen.
ISF or Refunds or Credits are not contributions and therefore do not get converted.
PDS has "Fund Years"

Not to be confused with when the family gave to the fund (when validating amounts post-conversion)
Fund Years do not convert well as Pledges when the family gives to the same "Fund"
Example: Family #2, pledges $150 to Fund 5 on 3/1/2018 and another pledge by family #2 to Fund 5 for $200 on 6/1/2018. The issue is if the family gave $100 on 5/1/2018, is it for the 3/1/2018 pledge or the 6/1/2018 pledge, PDS doesn't indicate a payment is for which pledge.
Example: Family makes two pledges 6 months apart for the same Fund in the same year and both “fund Years” are the same. No way to know what if any postings are to be applied to which pledge record.

PDS Activities are converted instead of PDS Funds.

Fund 1 can be "Contributions", yet the Activities associated with Fund 1 are Christmas, Weekly, Easter and such, those descriptions are used in the conversion.
To help track which Fund the Activities were associated with, the PDS fund number is placed in front of each Activity Description. Christmas becomes 1 Christmas

PDS Fund Activity for Pledge payment must match the Fund Activity Payment in order for the payment to deduct from Due
Example: 1 Offertory Due is Pledge Activity, corresponding to 1 Offertory Payment will have those payments applied to the Pledge. 1 Christmas would not be applied to the pledge, it does not have the same "Activity Name"
Example: 1 Payment to Reduce Rate, Initial Payment, Down Payment, in order to be applied to the 1 Offertory Due Pledge, the Activity must be changed to "1 Offertory Payment"
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Religious Ed
As the structure of PDS Religious Education is greatly different than the structure of ParishSOFT Religious Education, there are items that will not convert.

Attendance tracking does not convert
Teachers for a class do not convert
Rooms if separate field do not convert
Tuition does not convert to the Tuition module in Family Suite however some Tuition funds will be converted as non-deductible contribution funds. (See Offering #2 above)
Religious Ed Registration date does not convert
ParishSOFT Family Suite Requires Start and End Dates for classes

When only year is present, ParishSOFT will use 9/1 thru 5/1
Start and End Dates must fall in two different calendar years to show up together in ParishSOFT.
Example: VBS dates 6/7/2018-6/12/2018 will show up only under 2018, when you might want it showing with the 2017-2018 religious’ education data, the date must start with a 2017 year.
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Ministry Scheduler

NOTE: Due to structural differences we are not able to convert from PDS Ministry Scheduler into ParishSOFT Ministry Scheduler.

PDS Ministries/Talents can be converted into ParishSOFT Ministry Scheduler if that module has been purchased. If ParishSOFT Ministry Scheduler is not purchased, PDS Ministries/Talents can be converted into ParishSOFT Member Workgroups.

The ParishSOFT Ministry Scheduler structure has a Group for which ministries fall under – during the conversion process ParishSOFT will provide a list of ministries used in PDS and will ask you to identify the Group to be used.
Example: Lector - Group could be Liturgy
PDS has no Mass Time field, so:

The Ministry might have Mass times but not in a separate field, therefore it stays with the ministry description. After the parish is live in ParishSOFT they can add the Mass Times in Ministry Scheduler.
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PDS Items That Cannot Be Converted

Family and Member Pictures
Family ID
Family Status Field
Tuition
PDS Contact Section
PDS Ministry Scheduler
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Preparing your Logos data for conversion to ParishSOFT Family Suite

In preparation for conversion from Logos II to ParishSOFT Family Suite, there are a few things to consider. The completeness of your existing data will affect the accuracy of your converted data, therefore ParishSOFT recommends that you follow these steps.

STEP #1. Make sure that all members have a Gender recorded. To find a list of individuals without a Gender, run a Selected List report with the Search Criteria of Gender Is Blank. This will give you a list of the individuals without genders that you should review to make the appropriate changes.

STEP #2-A Check that all married couples have the same marital status. Sometimes as changes are made due to marriage, divorce or death of a spouse, couples end up with different statuses. Searching for this is complex, so the best way to fix this is to do a Quick Update using search criteria. To read an article on using the Quick Update option, click here.

The following Search Criteria will give you all families listed as Joint donors. In most cases, these individuals should have a Marital Status of “M.”
After you enter the search criteria and click the Next button two (2) times, you will be at the screen where you select the fields that you would like to change.
Go down to Marital Status and check the box to the left and select the value “M” or the value that equates to “Married” in your data.
Click Next five (5) more times until you see the option to select “Process”.
When you press Process the software will change the Marital Status of all the selected couples to “Married.”

STEP #2-B If there are adult children within their parent’s records and they have marriage information, they will be married to their parent of the opposite gender due to “couples” marriage records. To avoid this incorrect mapping of marriage records, remove the marriage record from the child or move the adult children to their own family in your current software before the conversion. If this is not an option, please note on the checklist to remove marriage information for children. We will not do this automatically. ParishSOFT Family Suite uses the following for Marital Status:

Annulled
Divorced
Married
Separated
Single
Widowed

STEP #3. Member Status –– If your current data has more status categories than ParishSOFT Family Suite, they can be converted as Member Work Groups, however, we will still need to know how to categorize your members into one of the ParishSOFT Family Suite statuses.

Active
Inactive
Deceased
Active
Other
Unknown

STEP #4. Envelopes - If your current data uses a secondary field to indicate who receives envelopes. please be sure that this information is up-to-date and identify the field on your Conversion Checklist. If no such field is used in your current software, please be aware that all active families/members with an envelope number, will be marked to send contribution envelopes in ParishSOFT Family Suite and those not active will be marked to not send envelopes.

STEP #5. The next step is to find the answers to the questions on the Data Conversion Checklist. The questions that most people have the hardest time answering are the following:

How many Registered Families?
How do you get this number?
How many Un-Registered Families?
How do you get this number?

The easiest way to answer these questions is to run the Family Statistics report under Other Reports on the People ribbon.

Run the Family Statistic report without selecting any options which will give you a total of all your families. If you have Flagged Records you can easily exclude them by marking the Exclude Flagged Persons checkbox.
Next, run the same report but this time click the “Use Search Criteria” checkbox. This will allow you to enter criteria to identify the Status Codes that you associate with “Registered Members,” those members who are within your parish boundaries. For instance, in this case, the search criteria would be Status Code equal to “M” for Member.
If you have more than one status for “Registered Members then you will repeat the following Search Criteria for all the applicable status codes. If you need to include more than one Status Code you will need to add the “Or” option between the different Status Codes to successfully use the Search Criteria. Below is a screenshot of what the Search Criteria tab would look like when you are finished.
To add the “OR,” click on the first item in the list and then click the “Or” button at the bottom of the screen. The report below shows you that you have 75 families that are “Registered”. You can subtract this total from the total of all families to determine your “Un-Registered families.
The Status Codes you selected to determine your “Registered Members” is the answer to the question of how do you get this number? So in the example above the answer would be those families with a status code of “M” for Members and the number of families would be 75.

The answer to how do you get this number for Un-Registered Families is all other Status Codes except “M” for Member in this example. So by taking the total from the Family Statistic Report without any search criteria that shows the total number of all families, less those identified as Members. So in this example, the answer would be all families that do not have a status code of “M” and the number would be (120 – 75) or 45 families.