What are Smart Fields?
Smart fields are fields you can create to find summary information that may take a long time to compile or synthesize manually. For example, if you wanted to see how much someone has given, a Smart field could be configured to specify which types of revenue or recognition you would like to consider in the giving total. To learn more about Smart fields and see how you could create one, view our video below or review the written steps towards the bottom of this article: 


What can I use Smart Fields for?
Once a Smart field is created, you can view each constituent's Smart Field value on the Smart Fields tab of their record.

Smart Fields are also used as a basis for an Ask Ladder to calculate a customized ask string for your constituents. For more information about configuring an Ask Ladder, see our related solution here: Can I configure custom suggested giving amounts in my appeal mailing?

In addition, you can also quickly filter on Smart Field values a query and output Smart Field values in a query, mailing or export. For more information about using Smart Fields in queries, see our related video here:
 

What are some common Smart Fields I can configure in Altru?
Altru allows you to configure Smart Fields for Constituent, Marketing, and Membership data. To view a full list of the different Smart Field definitions, see Understanding the Altru Smart Query Definition Options.

Below are the most commonly used Smart Field definitions and what summary information or statistics you can see with these smart fields:

Constituent Revenue Application Amounts: 

• I need to pull a report that shows all donors who donated a cumulative amount for a certain time period
  • Total Lifetime Giving 
  • Total Membership Dues
  • Total Event Registrations
  • Total Giving Amount This Year
• I need to find a constituent's first or last gift amount
  • First Gift Amount
  • Last Gift Amount
  • Largest Gift Amount
• Average Gift Amount: I need to find the average gift for a certain time period

• How to find first and last gift dates​
  • First Gift Date
  • Last Gift Date
  • Last Membership Payment Date
  • Largest Gift Date

• Total Number of Donations: I need to report on the number of gifts a constituent has made
• Consecutive Years as a Donor: How to report on consecutive giving years​
• Number of Years as a Member: I am trying to develop a query that would give me the names of members who have been members for a number of years
• Consecutive Years as a Member: I need to see my constituents consecutive years as a member.

1. Go to Administration > Smart Fields and click Add
2. Select the appropriate smart field definition that you would like to use. For this example we'll use Constituent Revenue Application Amounts, and click OK
3. Enter a name for the smart field
4. Add a description and category if you would like
5. Mark the Use Value Groups checkbox if needed. Value groups allow you to consolidate smart field values into groups based on a given value range. Note: The highest valid range will be used when assigning a smart field value to a group
   1. Enter your amounts in the Value Greater than or Equal to column
   2. Enter a name for each value group in the Value Group Name column
6. Select the Parameters tab to return the correct and desired data
   1. Values
      1. Value to return: Select from a variety of summary or explicit values. Note that only one value can be
         returned by a particular instance of the smart field
      2. For: Select from revenue or recognition options
   2. Revenue
      1. Revenue types: Select from the available checkboxes to include one or more types of revenue
      2. Transaction type/Application: Select from the available checkboxes the types of transactions or
         applications
      3. Recognition credit types: This section will be disabled unless one of the recognition options is selected in the For field. If enabled, select one or more recognition credit types to be included in the summary
      4. Application selection: Select a query selection of specific revenue application records to be used to
         calculate this value
   3. Timeframe
      1. Date range: Select a date range for the transactions to be calculated. Leave as “Specific dates” to include all transactions
      2. Start date/End date: Used when “Specific dates” is selected for Date range
7. Click Save
8. Back on the Smart Fields page, click the drop-down arrows next to your smart field and click Process Smart Field