Giving analysis report totals for month not accurate

[jgroening]

A giving analysis report with filter of having given in last 12 months with a trailing 12 months timeline often has at least one record of the current month missing from the totals. This past month I noted that it was exactly $500 off, went to the specific donor record that gave $500 and noted that it was on that record as having been given for the month of May 2009 but the "latest gift" was an earlier month and the "total gifts" were one less than actual so though it was listed as a gift for May of 2009, the totals were not included in the data used to create the giving analysis report.

[jmuehleisen]

Thanks for reporting this.

I'll look into it and see if I can figure out where the problem might be.

[jgroening]

Hi Again,
I'm very dismayed at the faulty reports when doing a giving analysis of donors that have given in the past 12 months with trailing 12 month analysis. I just ran a report and then painstakingly went through each partner record where it shows their entire giving history over the past years and months and took note of each one that was missing from the analysis report. 36 donors were reported on the report and 12 were missed in the past 12 months of history. They were from a variety of different months, but not each month, some months more than others and no donor was missed more than once and all the missed donors are not regular monthly donors. Interesting that their gifts are logged in, but the filter is not finding them all when it makes the report. This is terribly frustrating. I hope you can find whatever bug is causing this and solve it. Thanks

[jmuehleisen]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention again. I'll dig in again and see if i can find the problem.

The fact that there seems to be no pattern that can be identified is the mystery, of course. Generally, when there is a bug in the programming, there is some consistent pattern for data that is missed, and that gives a clue as to where to look.

But, I'll re-look at it and see if I have any fresh insights.

And, if you happen to spot a pattern, be sure to let me know.

[jgroening]

Just a bit more information on this continuing problem. When I choose reports/giving analysis and trailing 12 months giving analysis and then the filter that says "all giving patterns", the totals are accurate. When I choose "has given in past 12 months", it gives an error message that reads "no late donor records found". When I choose the filter "has given in past 24 months", the totals are very inaccurate. The only way to get an accurate 12 month analysis without a zillion other partners who have never given also having to be listed is to use the option of "monthly giving reports" and choose the month you want with 12 month trailing analysis but this is NOT adequate since any donor that is regular but happens to miss that particular month is excluded from the report. I'm beginning to wonder if my particular system has somehow introduced some bug that cannot be fixed on your end. Is it possible that my data files are corrupt and if so, is there any hope of starting over without having to do all the data entry again? Especially if DM will not recognize all previously recognized donor records for each import, that would be huge work. Thanks and sorry if my frustration is showing.