Mystery custom fields

Last week I helped a client get her event registration forms sorted out.

She had a required field on the form, but it seemed like people were registering for the event without filling in that field at all.

How could that happen?

Turns out there were actually three different custom fields with the same label in her system.

Online registrants actually were filling in that required field, but her report was referencing a different field.

Once we figured that out, the short term solution was pretty simple:

We just made sure that the report and the registration form were using the same fields.

But the bigger question is:

How did this organization wind up with three custom fields that all ask the same question?

She wasn't quite sure herself.

Nobody seems to remember who created those fields, or when, or why.

Here's the thing:

When you don’t have one dedicated person in your organization who is responsible for your CRM system, things like this can happen — a lot.

And you can lose a lot of time trying to figure out what's going on.

I'm working with her to clean up those fields, decide which to keep and which to delete, and merge the data into the remaining field appropriately.

But more importantly:

We're working now towards identifying one responsible person — one in-house systems expert — who can help ensure things like this don't happen again.

This person doesn't have to become the best in the world at managing CiviCRM.

And they don't have to do every bit of configuration themselves, either.

But by being the designated in-house expert, they will both gain valuable expertise over time, and be a position to help everyone keep the system running smoothly.

Who’s your in-house expert?

All the best,
A.