PatronManager Help

Learning Path: For Everyone

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Learning Path: For Everyone: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1158133

Are you a new PatronManager user? Then you're in the right place!

This Learning Path will help set the foundation for everything you'll need to know to get started. Whether you're an Executive Director or part-time Box Office superstar, there are basic tools every PatronManager user should learn.

After completing this Learning Path, you'll understand:

  • The structure of your data
  • Navigating around PatronManager
  • What is possible in PatronManager
  • Where to look for help when you need it

This Learning Path should take approximately two and a half hours to complete.

Here's a checklist for you to print out and keep track of your progress:

1. Get Started

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Are you ready? As Maria would say,  let's start at the very beginning. After all, it is a very good place to start.

1.1. How to Log into PatronManager

Even if you already know how to log in, check this video out; you'll learn what to do if you forget your password or have trouble logging in.

Required for all organizations:

1.3. Using the Help Tab

Access hundreds of articles, videos, on-demand webinars, and more in the PatronManager Help Tab.

Required for all organizations:

2. Introduction to PatronManager, Accounts and Contacts

Estimated time: 60 minutes

Time to learn how to navigate PatronManager and understand the basic structure of your data.

2.1. Intro to PatronManager and Data Structure

Learn the basics of PatronManager including how to navigate around and the data structure of the system.

Required for all organizations:

2.2. Find and Create Accounts and Contacts

Everything in PatronManager centers around Contacts and what those Contacts are doing. No matter your role, it's important to understand how to find and create Accounts and Contacts.

Required for all organizations:

2.3. Manage Accounts and Contacts

Trust us: life is best when you keep your Accounts and Contacts organized and up to date.

Required for all organizations:

Required for some organizations: (ask your supervisor)

2.4. Qualification

Qualification helps prevent duplicate Contacts in PatronManager and ensures Ticket Orders and Donations are attributed to the correct patron.

Required for all organizations:

3. PatronManager and Salesforce

Estimated time: 20 minutes

To understand more about PatronManager, it helps to learn more about the platform it's built on.

No, not those platforms. We're talking about Salesforce!

3.1. PatronManager vs Salesforce

As you may remember from the Introduction to PatronManager video, PatronManager is an app built on the Salesforce platform. But where does PatronManager stop and Salesforce begin? That's a helpful question to understand how PatronManager works and, more importantly, where you can go for help when you need it.

Required for all organizations:

3.2. Lightning vs Classic

When you log in to PatronManager, you'll see one of two interfaces: Classic or Lightning. Lightning Experience is the new, fresh interface from Salesforce; besides a modern look and feel, there's also new functionality you'll want to take advantage of.

Required for all organizations:

4. Make the Most of PatronManager

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Harness the power of PatronManager with these amazing features.

4.1. Chatter

Chatter is a built-in collaboration tool you can use to plan meetings, discuss donor activity, collaborate on group sales, and more.

Required for all organizations:

4.2. Record Types

Record Types are used to categorize data within PatronManager and control the page layout, what fields you see, and which values you want to see in your picklists.

Required for all organizations:

4.3. Favorite Records & Global Actions

Lightning comes with many new features. Two you should definitely know about are Favorites and Global Actions. Favorites allow you to bookmark any record in PatronManager - a Report, Contact, Donation record, and more - to easily access the information you want at your fingertips. With Global Actions you can quickly create records, events and tasks, send an email, or log a call without leaving the page you're on.

Required for all organizations:

4.4. List Views and Kanban

List Views allow you to see a specific set of contacts or other object records. Kanban is a visual representation of your List View that is especially helpful when looking at Donations.

Required for all organizations:

4.5. Practice & Testing in a Safe Environment

Sometimes you want to play around with PatronManager features and your system without accidentally affecting everything in your account. A Sandbox gives you a safe environment where you can practice and test out creating events, Ticket Orders, Contact and Account records, Donations, Subscriptions, and more!

Required for all organizations:

Future Toolbox:

Remember: You probably won't do all this customization now, but it's good to know the possibilities, and when you do test customizations, Sandboxes will play an integral role in your process!

Be sure to finish our PatronManager Admin Certification Program before diving into customizations and Salesforce Administration.

5. More Learning Resources (~20 mins)

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Ready to learn more? Check out these additional learning resources from PatronManager and Salesforce.

5.1. All About Trailhead and Salesforce Help

When it comes to Salesforce features - like Reporting and Campaigns - there are tons of resources directly from Salesforce to help you learn more. Salesforce Help has hundreds of articles and can be accessed right within PatronManager. And Trailhead is a game-ified learning platform where you can earn points and badges as you learn!

Required for all organizations:

5.2. The PatronManager Client Community

The PatronManager Client Community is a place for all PatronManager users to interact! Crowdsource best practices, converse with other users in similar departments, all in the Community. The Community section also allows you to check on the status of a Support Request (or Case) you've submitted to us.

Required for all organizations:

5.3. Live and On-Demand Webinars

PatronManager hosts free, live webinars year-round covering topics from Box Office to Development and everything in between. We feature clients' Best Practices and third-party vendors with recommended integrations. Take your learning to the next level with our webinar offerings.

Required for all organizations:

6. Test Your Knowledge

Ready to test your knowledge? Take our short quiz to see how well you learned everything in this Learning Path: click here!

Congratulations on finishing your first Learning Path! Ready for the next step?

Now we'll dive into a more role-specific Learning Path, depending on what you do at your organization:

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Next Article Learning Path: Box Office
Still Need Help? Continue to the Client Community