2. Administrative User
First, please read Our General Approach and the Basic User Guide above. Encourage all of your members to do so.
Most chapters currently operate with a great deal of autonomy relative to their parent organization. You know the members of your chapter and are far more in touch with day-to-day happenings than any supervisor who checks in from time to time. ChapterTracker is built to maintain that autonomy…while giving your parent organization a way to view your progress. In most instances, your Organization must contact you in order to request any changes within your chapter's account.
You, the Admin, are the authority/gatekeeper for the integrity of your chapter's data. If you allow trash in, then the program will show you trash in return. If you allow the chapter to skate by without entering data, then your results will be anemic. But if you consistently encourage your members to report, and talk frequently about the results you see, your chapter will become more energetic.
We hope you have fun analyzing your chapter's progress. What you see online is just the beginning. We envision tremendous growth and enhancement for ChapterTracker.com! Please grow with us.
Approval Screen
This screen is your chance to make sure the data looks reasonable before entry into the database. Most entries will be approved, since only the member making the entry knows what revenue has been generated or if they’ve had a meeting with another member.
If two members report the same meeting, the meeting is not double-counted. ChapterTracker notes the most recent meeting.
If you question an entry, ask the member who submitted it. You can then modify or delete the entry. Common reasons for changes include duplicate entries, typos, and reporting revenue incorrectly. Any errors that slip by may be corrected in the Transaction Correction screen (Maintenance).
You will quickly get a feel for how members should report their revenue. Most instances will be intuitive, though we try to let individual members decide what reporting best fits their business model (and the frequency of their reporting…which should never be longer than quarterly). When in doubt, please check Refma’s Revenue Guidelines in section 3.3. Staying consistent will lead to better analysis of your chapter internally and versus other chapters and organizations.
Refma will occasionally check to make sure that Admins and Members are entering reasonable data. If we have a question, we will contact you. Likewise, please contact us should you have a question.
Enter Referrals
When you Enter Referrals, keep in mind that the Member you see in the drop-down box is the member giving the referrals. Enter the number of referrals given next to the receiving member's name. Then type the customer name (and comment, if applicable) related to the referral. Inputting customer names in the database may allow for future tracking of multiple generations of the same referred client throughout your chapter.
If a member receives more than one referral from the same person, enter "1" and a Client/Comment for each referral, clicking "Submit" each time. For now, this is the only way to ensure that Open and Closed Referrals are tracked properly. (If you enter multiple referrals on the same line, they will go to the Open Referral screen as one referral.)
Then click "Submit for Approval" and go to the next member who gave a referral. In the Approval screen, you can check to make sure you didn't make any glaring errors in entry.
Please note: If you expect your members to track closing rates for individual leads and referrals, then you must enter customer names. You may enter partial information, and the member receiving the referral may correct your entry in the Open Referrals screen. If you grow tired of entering this information, and you are okay with your chapter not tracking by referral, then that is your chapter's decision.
Remember, too, that those professions/members affected by privacy laws may opt to keep customer names private. Therefore, your entire group is unlikely to participate in tracking by specific referrals. ChapterTracker's robust functionality still provides very meaningful tracking for your chapter. In a similar vein, failure of members to participate in this part of the program will not affect key tracking numbers.
Remember to click "Submit" before selecting another member from the drop-down box!
Enter Attendance
If your chapter does not want to track attendance, the remainder of ChapterTracker will function just fine. You may begin tracking attendance at any time.
First, select the meeting date for which you are entering attendance. If your group skips a meeting, we suggest you count everyone present.
Follow your organization's guidelines for counting Visitors. Enter that number in the space next to the inviting member's name. On the last entry line, you will see that "uninvited" guests may be entered as brought by Visitor…this is the same as saying that the visitor brought him or herself.
As a general rule, if the same visitor attends twice, we suggest crediting the inviting member both times…since each visit has value and works to establish a relationship and business for other members. If the visitor attends a third time (or more), from then on they are entered as brought by Visitor. Note: If your group uses "Subs," we would consider a Sub to be a Visitor.
In the attendance section of the screen, the default value is Present. If a member is not Present, then they are either Excused or Absent Without Excuse. Tardy means late. Please follow your organization's policies for taking attendance.
Enter Visitors (Coming soon)
Visitor information will display on the Roster screen, which all members may access. ChapterTracker.com does not track referrals from specific visitors. Over time, the process would become unwieldy for the members and the Admin. Rather, we track revenue and referrals from Visitors as a group.
If a visitor is applying for membership, hold any referrals and revenue until a decision is made. If the visitor is accepted, you may Add a User and credit the referrals and revenue to that person. If the visitor is not accepted, simply credit the amounts to Visitors.
Add a User
We make the addition of new members simple. You are required to enter only very basic information (the fields marked with an *). We do ask you to enter a member’s email address twice to confirm correct entry. Auto-emails are a very important function in ChapterTracker.
We also request that you assign the member to a business Sphere of influence. If you are unsure, simply assign one. We understand that members may be a part of more than one sphere. This is why we ask you to make assignments, rather than let members confuse the issue. You may make changes at a later date, if necessary.
Then when you click "Submit Changes," an email is automatically sent to the new member with username and random password. The member may then update his or her own profile.
ChapterTracker will indicate at the top of the screen that the member was added (or not).
Update/Delete User
This screen is the same as the Add User screen, but allows you to make any necessary changes. Rarely (if ever) will you Delete a User, unless you added someone twice. You will want to keep all chapter history. Therefore, you inactivate members rather than delete them. If you wish to make a member Inactive, simply uncheck that box at the bottom of the screen.
If you want to grant Admin access to another member, check that box.
NOTE: At signup, the Admin who created your chapter will not be assigned to a Sphere. You must use the Update/Delete User screen to assign that Admin to a Sphere.
Transaction Correction
This screen allows the Admin to change or delete any transaction that is already recorded in the database. Of course, we recommend you do so only when necessary. Simply search for the transaction in question and click the pencil next to it, make the change, and click "Submit."
You may also "Add a Record." This feature is particularly useful when a recent Former Member receives revenue from an active member (either the active member or Former Member may inform you). You may use the Transaction Correction screen to enter revenue from the active member to the Former Member. We recommend these types of entries not be made after the Former Member has been gone for about six months. Our rule of thumb is to reward the active member for his or her effort of putting business in motion that took a while to be realized.
Change Chapter Setup
Use this screen to make basic changes. The most important change would be any alteration of your meeting date and time, because ChapterTracker uses this setting to determine when to auto-email the members.
You may also Change your ChapterTracker.com Subscription Level via this screen. We will notify you if you need to do so. Both your current subscription and the "required" subscription based on your membership are displayed. Clicking on a new subscription level will take you to PayPal for actual payment.
Note: If you change your subscription level, you will want to cancel your old subscription while you are already logged into PayPal. If you forget, we will remind you.
Here is why we say "required" subscription. If your chapter size has decreased, but you intend to add another member (or more), then you may want to simply continue your current subscription and avoid the need to re-subscribe later. Likewise, if your chapter size has increased, we will extend a grace period, until you are two members past the break point, before you must increase payment. This arrangement will keep your chapter from bumping up temporarily and having to re-subscribe.
Organizations that pay for all of their chapters negotiate a separate fee. Therefore, those member chapters will not see options for changing subscription levels.
Chapter History
Once you set up this screen, you never need to use it again! If you do, you will change history.
If you have annual totals prior to the year when you establish your ChapterTracker account, this screen allows you to enter that annual history. If you do not have this history, then skip this screen.
The row labeled "Partial This Year (Setup)" is where you will enter any year-to-date totals for this year prior to using ChapterTracker. These numbers will be included in your Chapter Summary screen, but will not be accounted for on the individual Member Summary screens. This history for the first part of the year plus ChapterTracker data for the remainder of the year will equal your total year's data.
Please understand that different groups bring us data in all sorts of condition, and this is our attempt to keep things uniform and simple. Few chapters will have member-to-member details. You may have more detailed history than we provide space for here, so we suggest you keep your data as you now have it for future reference.
Using ChapterTracker.com, you will soon have access to very complete data! The longer you use ChapterTracker, the more uniform your data tracking will become.
This concludes the ChapterTracker.com User Guide. Please contact us with any questions. Thank you!