Lesson 2.5 – User Preferences and Personal Settings

As you spend more time in FastFund Online, customizing the system to fit your personal workflow can greatly increase your efficiency. FastFund allows every individual user to configure their own Preferences. Because these settings are tied directly to your unique User ID, any adjustments you make will only affect your view and will not alter the experience for other users in your organization.

In this lesson, we will explore how to access your personal settings and configure global and fundraising-specific preferences to optimize your daily tasks.

1. Accessing Your Preferences

Your personal settings are managed directly from the top Status Bar. To access them, simply click your User Name in the top right corner of the screen and select Preferences from the drop-down menu.

[INSERT SCREENSHOT: Display the top right Status Bar with the User Name drop-down menu open, highlighting the ‘Preferences’ link.]

2. Global Preferences

The first section of your settings controls system-wide behaviors across all FastFund modules (Accounting, Fund Raising, and Payroll). Key settings you can adjust include:

• Items Per Page: This determines how many records (e.g., Constituents, Accounts) are displayed in a list before carrying over to a new page. You can set this anywhere from 20 to 100 items per page.
• Report Font Size: You can select a default font size for all reports you generate. Note: Some complex reports may not print properly with a very large font size, so it is best to test the optimal size for your needs.
• Transaction Reference Checking: When this box is checked, FastFund will automatically search for duplicate reference numbers (such as check numbers) for a specific donor. If you attempt to enter a duplicate reference, the system will issue a warning, preventing accidental double-entry.
• Detailed Pie Chart Legend: By default, dashboard pie charts display both the names and the calculated amounts/percentages. If you prefer a cleaner look, you can uncheck this box to display only the names in the legend.

[INSERT SCREENSHOT: Show the ‘Misc. Preferences’ section of the user profile, emphasizing the ‘Items Per Page’ drop-down and the ‘Transaction Reference Checking’ checkbox.]

3. Fund Raising Dashboard Preferences

As discussed in earlier lessons, the Fund Raising Dashboard provides a visual snapshot of your progress. You can tailor how this data is calculated and displayed:

• Fund Raising Basis (YTD): You can instruct your dashboard metrics to calculate totals based either on your organization’s Fiscal Year or the standard Calendar Year.
• Fund Raising As of Date: By default, your dashboard calculates data up to the current system date. However, if you want to analyze past performance, you can enter a specific date here (e.g., the last day of the previous fiscal year). The dashboard will lock and display data only up to that fixed date. To return to real-time tracking, simply clear this field.
• Appeal/Gift Order: The dashboard pie charts can be sorted to display the slices either alphabetically by Name or descending by dollar Value (largest slices first).

[INSERT SCREENSHOT: Display the ‘Dashboard Preferences’ area, highlighting the ‘Fund Raising YTD’ drop-down and the ‘Fund Raising As of Date’ field.]

4. Transaction Entry Preferences (Use Previous)

One of the most powerful time-saving features for data entry is the Use Previous Appeal & Gift setting.

When you are entering a high volume of donations from a single campaign (like a stack of checks from a recent mailing), you do not want to select the same Appeal and Gift codes over and over. When this preference is checked, clicking the Save & New button during transaction entry will automatically populate the Appeal and Gift fields on the brand-new transaction screen using the exact data you just saved.