When it comes to reports and groups, it's rare that two organizations are exactly alike. That said, there are a few tips and tricks that everyone could use!
In this article:
Tips & Tricks
Conditions may look similar, but they each serve a different purpose.
Pay close attention to the conditions you are pulling in your reports.
For example, you might want to pull a condition for the Member Type Name (which is Member Type (Designated) > Name), but instead, you pull the condition of the record name (General Info > Name). Of course, these may look similar, but they are very different, so be sure to double-check what conditions you are pulling.
Search by keyword instead of scrolling through all options.
Keep in mind that you can type in keywords to search for conditions when creating reports. You don't have to scroll through the hundreds of conditions to find what you need. Once you start typing, the list will start filtering.
Commonly Used Conditions in Groups and Custom Reports
Membership Status:
In Reports, use the General Info > Membership Status condition to pull any of the following: Current, Expired, Prospect, Non-Member, Inheriting, Pending, Grace Period.
In Groups, Inheriting can be a condition, or it can also be accomplished under the Group Beneficiaries settings.
If you're NOT using the Membership Status condition, use this in Custom Reports:
Active in QuickBooks Online = Yes - Use to remove any records marked as "deleted" from your reports
Only people:
Is a Person = Yes
Only companies:
Is a Company = Yes
Members in a certain member type:
Member Type (Designated) > Name
Groups Based on Subscriptions
If you're creating groups based on those who have purchased a subscription, you'll want the condition to be:
Subscription Expiration - Days Ago = Less Than = 0
This will ensure that you only get those who have subscribed and not the rest of the membership.
Keep in mind for regular products, the condition is just "has purchased" or "has not purchased."
AND vs OR Conditions
A helpful way to understand AND vs OR logic is to ask: Which group is larger?
People who live in California AND Florida
People who live in California OR Florida
At first, you might guess the first group is larger. But think about it – how many people actually live in both states? Probably not many. On the other hand, either California or Florida? That’s tens of millions of people. So, AND makes your group more specific, while OR makes it broader.
Another way to think about it:
AND means all conditions must be true at the same time
OR means any one of the conditions can be true
Use AND when all conditions must be true.
Example: If you're targeting members who are Current and have a specific custom field value, use AND. You're narrowing down the results to only the members who meet every condition in that group.
Use OR when any one of the conditions can be true.
Example: If you're looking for members with one of several possible job titles, use OR. You're including anyone who meets at least one of those conditions.
Tip: Start by listing everything that absolutely must be true. These conditions belong in your main AND group. After that, you can layer in optional or alternate criteria using OR, depending on your goal.
Example:
Let's say you want to target members who are both Current and interested in Education, but only if they fall into specific Member Types. In this case:
Membership status and interest should go in the AND group
The different acceptable Member Types should be grouped under an OR condition
Members in a Certain State in Groups and Custom Reports
To find records that have a shipping address in a specific state, you'll want to create a condition group with the conditions below. Make sure to set it to OR. This will account for records that meet either condition.
People Who Work for Member Companies (in either Groups or Custom Reports)
1. To pull a list of people who work for a member company, you will want to use parent conditions to identify the fact that you're looking for children records where the parent record meets certain conditions (see #1 below).
2. You might also want to add conditions for the children (see #2 below).
3. Finally, you can pull only people by setting the condition of Is A Person > Yes
Setting Conditions for Drop-Down Values in Groups and Custom Reports
If your goal is to find records that have a particular value from a custom field drop-down menu (set of options), you'll want to use the "contains" condition instead of "equals."
Parent Custom Fields in Groups and Custom Reports
Custom field values from a parent's record can be used as conditions in groups and as conditions and/or display columns in custom membership reports.
Condition:
Column to Display:
To add a field like this to your report conditions and/or display columns, click in the field and start typing "parent custom field" - this will filter the drop-down options so you can easily find the field you need.
Examples:
Display Column: Pull a list of people or sub-companies and include a custom field value from the parent's record in the report (e.g. Unit Count or NAA ID).
Report Condition: Pull a list of people or sub-companies based on a condition for the parent's custom field value (e.g. Annual Income or Region).
Include Association Admins in Groups
When segmenting members using groups, occasionally Association Admins should be included in the group as well. There's a condition for that!
In the example above, the group includes Current or Inheriting members as well as Association Admins (another option is to include Limited Association Admins).
Do Not Send Marketing Emails
If your goal is to include or exclude members for a group depending on whether or not they wish to receive marketing emails, you'll want to use the condition "Do Not Send Marketing Emails".
In the example above, the group includes Current members as well as members who do not want to be sent marketing emails.
Related Articles
Creating Custom Membership & Event Reports - Learn how to pull the data you need out of your database by creating custom reports.