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Free Utilities

Data Utilities, version 5.9

On January 10, 2012, the Corporation for National Service changed the official list of Service Catagories and Focus Areas used by Senior Corps programs. This utility not only updates your Reporter with the official list, but prepares a detailed report of every change you need to manually make in order to have all of your data match the new offical list. It makes the process of converting to the new official list very easy.

This utility only works with version 5.9 of the Volunteer Reporter, not with earlier versions. Along with changing the codes, CNS also changed the name of "Issue Areas" to "Focus Areas". We haven't yet made that change in the Reporter so they are still called Issue Areas for the time being.

Download the Data Utilities (DataUtil.exe) into the Reporter's program folder which is probably c:\reporter\program. After downloading, run DataUtil.exe and follow the instructions.

We also have a tutorial available which explains how to download this utility and update your codes. The tutorial is called Service Categories 2012 Update Utility.

Import Assistant

The Import Assistant enables you to import volunteer and station data into the Reporter yourself. It is a Do-It-Yourself utility that you can use to import data from an existing database into the Volunteer Reporter. It is designed to help new users of the Volunteer Reporter get started by bringing in their existing data.

You can import data from either dBase (.dbf), Access (.mdb), Excel (.xls), or comma separated text (.csv) files. The Import Assistant is very easy to use and anyone can do it. We'll be glad to help out over the phone if you have any trouble using it.

The Import Assistant has some limitations:

  1. It overwrites any existing data in the Reporter. In other words, if you already have entered some data into the Reporter, that data will be deleted and lost if you use the Import Assistant.
  2. It only imports volunteer and station data, not placements or hours (except for lifetime hours).
  3. It does not import all data. It imports names, addresses, phones, emails, birth dates, emergency contacts, and lots of other data, but not everything. We expect that you will be able to import over 80% of your volunteer and station data, but not all.
  4. You must already have installed the Volunteer Reporter, version 5.4 or higher.

Download the Import Assistant (Import.exe) into the Reporter's program folder which is probably c:\reporter\program. After downloading, run Import.exe and follow the instructions.

The volunteer fields that you can import are: Volunteer Number, Salutation, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, First Street Address, Second Street Address, City, State, Zip, Home Phone, Work Phone, Cell Phone, Email, Comments and Notes, Starting Date, Termination Date, Birth Date, Sex, Person with Disability (Y/N), Driver's License, Driver's License Expiration, Social Security Number, Lifetime Hours, Emergency Contact (Relationship, Name, Street Address, City St Zip, First Phone, Second Phone), and Beneficiary (Relationship, Name, Street Address, City St Zip, First Phone, Second Phone).

The station fields that you can import are: Station Number, Station Name, Salutation, First Name of Station Supervisor, Middle Name, Last Name, First Street Address, Second Street Address, City, State, Zip, Phone, Fax, Cell Phone, Email, Web Address, Comments and Notes, Starting Date, Termination Date, and "Is this a health care facility?"

Import from Volgistics

 Import directly from Volgistics into the Volunteer Reporter. It will import all of your volunteers, sites, assignments, service hours, checklist reminders, contacts, availability and notes. It will not convert schedules, training, or filters.

Here are some things you need to know:

  1. It overwrites any existing data in the Reporter. In other words, if you already have entered some data into the Reporter, that data will be deleted and lost if you use this.
  2. You must already have installed the Volunteer Reporter, version 5.8 or higher.
  3. You must install this utility into the Reporter's program folder which is probably c:\reporter\program.
  4. You need to have administrator rights in order to run this utility.
  5. You must export your Volgistics data to an Excel spreadsheet first.

Download the Volgistics Importer (vgImport.exe) into the Reporter's program folder which is probably c:\reporter\program. After downloading, run vgImport.exe and follow the instructions.

It is automatic and very easy to run. You don't need to know anything about the file structure of either Volgistics or the Volunteer Reporter, it does it all for you.

Import from Volunteer Works

 Import directly from Volunteer Works into the Volunteer Reporter. Volunteer Works is a specific, common computer program that many of our customers used to use and this utility will only convert data from it, not from any other program. It will import all of your volunteers, departments, jobs, placements, hours, recognition, traits, reminders, and notes. It will not convert archived volunteers, schedules, training, or filters.

Here are some things you need to know:

  1. It overwrites any existing data in the Reporter. In other words, if you already have entered some data into the Reporter, that data will be deleted and lost if you use this.
  2. You must already have installed the Volunteer Reporter, version 5.7 or higher.
  3. You must install this utility into the Reporter's program folder which is probably c:\reporter\program.
  4. You need to have administrator rights in order to run this utility.
  5. If you are using Windows Vista, you must have User Account Control (UAC) turned off.
  6. This download is quite large. It is about 14MB.

Download the Volunteer Works Importer (vwImport.exe) into the Reporter's program folder which is probably c:\reporter\program. After downloading, run vwImport.exe and follow the instructions.

It is automatic and very easy to run. You don't need to know anything about the file structure of either Volunteer Works or the Volunteer Reporter, it does it all for you.

Fix Version 5.4

 Some people are having trouble with version 5.4 of the Volunteer Reporter. The problem seems to be caused by a security setting in Windows XP that prevents anyone except for an administrator to change data sets or performance settings. This utility fixes it so that you don't have to be logged in as an administrator to use the Reporter.

Running this utility fixes two problems. Both problems only happen if you are not logged in as an administrator. One is that you can't switch data sets. The other is that when you go into filters, you get an error about not enough file handles.

You must be logged in as an administrator to use this utility program.

Download this small utility program and run it once while logged in as an administrator. It only takes a second to run.

After running this, there is one final step. Start the Reporter and click on File | Preferences. Click on the Performance tab. Change the performance setting to any other setting and click on Ok, letting the Reporter restart. After the Reporter restarts, go back to the same Performance Settings and change it back to the recommended setting.





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