Membership Import or Manual Membership Migration

Implementing CivicRec often involves migrating large numbers of customer memberships. Two methods can be used to execute this task, but the approach is best determined based on the volume of memberships, the budget of your project, the configuration of those memberships (recurring versus one-time cost), and/or the amount of available staff time. This article outlines the different options, processes, and requirements for migrating memberships into CivicRec.

Option 1: Membership Import

The Membership Import is a contracted item for CivicRec Implementation. The Membership Import is most useful when the data from your previous system is relatively ‘clean’ (up-to-date and well-maintained). The import is a two-step process where you must:

Create the Membership Activities/Sessions in CivicRec, ensuring that all membership settings are complete and accurate
Complete the Membership Import Template Spreadsheet

It is important to note that before deciding to use the import, the Membership Import method does present some limitations for the use of those memberships in your CivicRec system. For instance:

Imported Memberships do not produce a transaction that is able to be refunded or adjusted.
Imported Memberships cannot be used as a prerequisite for any other activity/session.
Imported Memberships cannot be tied to discounts on other activities/sessions or facility reservations.
Memberships that have recurring payments, such as monthly or annual billing, cannot be imported.
Memberships that auto-renew cannot be imported.

If any of the above considerations present a significant issue for your department or customers, you may opt to migrate over your customers and memberships manually as indicated in Option 2.

Option 2: Manual Membership Migration

If the import method is not utilized, staff as part of the CivicRec Implementation Project Team will be tasked with manually creating accounts for those with memberships that need to be added to CivicRec. If you purchased the Membership Import and no longer wish to use it, you may still opt to complete the user information portion of the Import to help relieve some of the burdens of manually creating customer accounts, but associating those customers with the appropriate memberships will be executed by your project team. The Manual Membership Migration is a three-step process:

Completely and accurately create the Membership Activities/Sessions in CivicRec, paying close attention to the membership settings within the session
Complete the User Information portion of the Membership Import Template or Manually Create Customer Accounts
Process an internal transaction for each customer and their applicable memberships

There are no limitations to membership functionality when manually entering memberships, as compared to the Membership Import.

For memberships that use auto-billing/require a card-on-file, follow the migration instructions article.

Timing

Whether utilizing the import or performing a manual migration, setting up customers’ memberships will occur after Test Data Clearance and relatively close to launch so as to not ‘miss’ any new membership purchases or account holders that occur in the interim.

Step-by-Step Instructions Option 1: Membership Import

System Preparation:
- All Membership activities and sessions must be set up accurately in CivicRec prior to performing the import.
- Note: The name of the Membership Session in CivicRec must be an exact match with the Session name (Column A) in the Import Template. This is what the Import Tool looks at when tying the membership to the customer.
Data Preparation:
- Review the Membership Import Template to understand which data fields can be imported and which fields are required.
- Export, clean, and group households using your existing data. Ensure that you have no duplicates and establish an External Account ID for each household. This number will serve as an indicator that individuals should be ‘grouped’ together under the same household.
  - Note: The Primary Account Holder should be listed first in the household. For example, John is the Primary Account Holder, while Sarah is his spouse and Gary is their child, all have the same External Account ID
- If your member numbers all need to have the same amount of digits, use the following steps to format the template column:
  1. Highlight the Member Number (Barcode) column and click Format Cells
  2. Select the Custom tab and change the Type to the number of characters needed
  3. Member numbers with less than the specified number of digits should now have zeros at the beginning of the number
Import Process:
- Download the Membership Import Template
- Complete the following columns:

Data Formatting

Column Name	Description	Additional Notes
Column A	Session	Required Must be an exact Session Name match with the Membership Session that you built in "Step 1. System Preparation."
Column B	Expiration Date	Recommended Must be in M/D/Y format only.
Column C	Start Date	Recommended Must be in M/D/Y format only.
Column D	Member/Barcode Number	Required
Column E	Remaining Scans/Punches	Optional Only use this column if the Membership functions as a “Punch Card” for entries.
Column F	First Name	Required
Column G	Middle Name	Optional
Column H	Last Name	Required
Column I	Address Line 1	Required
Column J	Address Line 2	Optional
Column K	City	Required
Column L	State	Required
Column M	County	Optional
Column N	Zip	Required
Column O	Date of Birth (DOB)	Required Must be in M/D/Y format only.
Column P	Grade	Optional Kindergarten should be set as 0. Preschool cannot be imported.
Column Q	Gender	Optional Must indicate with either an “M” for Male or “F” for Female or left blank
Column R	Phone 1	Optional Must be 10 digits with no formatting Example: 1234567890
Column S	Phone 2	Optional Must be 10 digits with no formatting Example: 1234567890
Column T	Email	Required
Column U	Username	Optional Must be an email address. Can be the same as the Email field
Column V	External Account ID	Required Digits Only. This is used to group households together If no External Account ID is provided, users will be grouped by Address Line 1.

Additional Steps

Confirm the Primary Account Holder is listed first when grouping households together by External Account IDs.
Confirm there are no duplicate accounts by way of Username and/or Email data fields.
Submit your completed Membership Import Template via email to your Project Manager (PM) and Implementation Consultant (IC).
The Project Manager/Implementation Consultant will upload a test of the import into your Sandbox environment for you to review.
Once the Project Manager/Implementation Consultant receives your approval, they will execute the import in your production site and notify the project team of any issues or adjustments to the data that were made.
Once the import is successful and your CivicRec software is live, the accounts imported/created must be notified as soon as possible. This is to avoid duplicate accounts being created by the public user.

Contacting Public Users

Email users directly using the People Finder Report - The following template can be used:

Greetings!

On behalf of YOUR PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT, we would like to invite you to be one of the first users of our new software system, CivicPlus Recreation Management. You were selected to be one of our first users of Recreation Management because you currently have a membership with us!

Your account has been migrated over from our previous system using the email address this message is being sent to.

Please navigate to our NEW ONLINE CATALOG, click Log In with Email in the upper left corner, type in your email, select CONTINUE, and click FORGOT PASSWORD. Input the email address that this message was sent to (please do NOT create a new account). You will then receive a validation link via email to set up your password. You can also refer the steps outlined here. Once you are logged in, you can review your Account Dashboard and browse our online catalog!

If you have any trouble accessing your account or have any questions, please contact EMAIL ADDRESS.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you still modify (extend/suspend/cancel) memberships as needed?

Yes. Imported memberships can be modified, however, they will not produce a transaction that can be refunded/adjusted.

Will fees that are based on membership status (i.e., If I’m a Lodge member, I get the member rate on camp) be impacted, or just programs that require a prerequisite (membership/activity/level) for registration?

The action of importing cannot tie the membership to an activity/session as a prerequisite, as the system is going to seek a ‘transaction’ of that membership to determine if the customer has purchased the membership in the past to qualify them to register for an activity/session now.

Can program and facility reservation fees that are based on membership status be tied to discounts?

The action of importing memberships does not automatically tie them to a discount, but we can manually associate the imported memberships to “Membership Discounts” after the import occurs. We then associate the “Membership Discount” to activities/sessions and facility reservations as applicable.

Will the accounts/users from memberships with recurring payments be imported?

Users will be imported first, then they will be stitched to their applicable memberships via the Membership Import. You can import anyone you would like. For those with month-to-month auto-billing, you will have to perform a manual transaction on each one to set up auto-billing/recurring payments accordingly. This will also require you to have all their credit card information. If you don’t have credit card information, you can still run them through a transaction, and then the customer will be on the hook to initiate payment online when their balance is due. Many customers opt to ‘start fresh’ and cancel all the month-to-month continuous billing memberships and have their customers re-enroll.

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Option 1: Membership Import