Soft Crediting Orders

Soft Credits let you assign an Order to one or more connected Customer Records, other than the main Individual or Organization, without double counting income from the Order.

In this article, we’ll cover:

Introduction to Soft Credits
Differences Between Relationships, Soft Credits and Households
Setting up Soft Credit Types
Soft Crediting an Order
Viewing Soft Credits in the Customer Record
Reporting and Segmentation on Soft Credits

Introduction to Soft Credits

Soft Crediting allows for an Order to be credited to multiple Customers in addition to the Order Owner.

Soft Credits can apply to any purchased Item type, including Tickets, Donations, Memberships, and Merchandise. Soft Credits are especially useful with fundraising teams and can be an excellent way to track gifts across families and to avoid sending double appeals or renewal notices.

Common uses of Soft Credits include:

Crediting a membership to spouses or partners
Crediting the individual and company for a corporate matching gift
Crediting the board member who helped solicit a gift from another individual

Soft Credits are made on the Order level and for all items in the Order. Soft Credited items will appear only once in Reports, so there's no risk of accounting for the money twice.

TIP: Reporting on all Customers Soft Credited on an Order Item can be done with a Soft Credit Report. In this case, Soft Credited items will appear multiple times in these reports. Segmenting on Soft Credited Customers can be done with a Soft Credit Segment.

You can Soft Credit an Order during a transaction or after the transaction is confirmed.

An Order with a Soft Credit will credit:

Order Owner: The Customer who will be making the Order. This Customer is the Soft Creditor.
Order Facilitator: If an Order is being made on behalf of another Customer, for example, an Individual making an Order on behalf of an Organization, this Customer will be listed as Facilitator. A Soft Credit can also be added in the Facilitator’s name.
Soft Credits: Additional Customer(s) who will be credited for the Order who are neither the Owner nor Facilitator.

This means that:

The Order will appear in the Customer Records of the Soft Creditor and the Soft Credits.
Reporting and segmentation will include both the Order Owner and Facilitator and the Soft Credits when both are included in the Criteria Set or Output

REMINDER: In order to Soft Credit an order, the Order Owner and Facilitator and the Soft Credits need to have a Relationship.

Differences Between Relationships, Soft Credits and Households

Relationships

In the Spektrix system you can assign a Relationship between two Customers. Depending on the Relationship Type, a Customer can buy on behalf of another Customer, for example, a parent buying tickets for a child or an employee contact buying tickets on behalf of their company. Buying items on behalf of another Customer is known as a Facilitated Orders.

A Customer can have multiple Relationships, for example, connecting to a spouse, children, and a company in your system. While different Relationship Types allow one Customer to buy on behalf of only one other Customer through a Facilitated Booking, Soft Crediting an Order lets you credit multiple Customers.

Households

A Household in Spektrix is the grouping of Individuals together that share an address, receive marketing information together and may often purchase together. Most commonly, this will be families or spouses/partners. Customers do not need a Relationship to be in a Household together.

Households will aggregate purchasing behavior, for example, an Order for a Donation made by one Individual may show on another Household members’ Customer Record. However, the credit for the Donation will not be assigned to other Household members.

For example, Sue and Kristi are in a Household. Sue makes a $75 Donation. You can see the Order on Kristi’s Customer Record as a Household order. However, the Donation is owned and credited to only Sue. The Donation will not appear on in the Donations tab in Kristi’s Customer Records or under Kristi’s Customer ID in Reports.

Kristi Chandler’s Customer Record showing an Order with the text “Household
order. Made by Sue Chandler.

Soft Credits

Soft Credits assign credit for an Order to appear on other Customer Records.

In the example, If Sue’s $75 Donation is Soft Credited to Kristi, it will appear that both have made a single $75 Donation. The Donation will appear in the Orders tab and Donations tab for both Sue and Kristi.

REMINDER: Soft Credits will not double count the money received. In the case of the example, Spektrix will record $75 in income not $150.

Setting up Soft Credit Types

In Spektrix, there are Soft Credit Types that help distinguish why a transaction was Soft Credited and help make Reporting and Segmentation more accurate. This can describe the relationship between Soft Creditor and Soft Credited in a similar way that we position the Relationship functionality, but on the Order level.

Examples of Soft Credit Types may include:

Donor Advised Fund (DAF): A giving account established on behalf of an Individual. It allows Donors to make a charitable contribution, receive an immediate tax deduction and then recommend grants from the fund over time.
Matching Gifts: When an Individual donates money to a charitable organization and the company they work for will match all of or a portion of that gift
Household Giving: To assign credit to the gift for all members of the Household. Read more about the Differences Between Relationships, Soft Credits and Households in Spektrix.
Ticket/Membership Sharing: To showcase that someone “has” Tickets or Memberships with someone else. These Items will be shown on the Customer Record of both the Soft Creditor and Soft Credited.

To set up Soft Credit types go to the Admin Interface > Other > Soft Credit Types.

TIP: You will need the General Administrator user role to access the Admin Interface. If you don't have this permission, contact the administrator in your organization.

Add a new Soft Credit Type by clicking the New button in the lower right corner. Give the Soft Credit Type a unique name and keep the Active box checked. Click Save.

Adding Soft Credit Type Details to the system.

Editing Soft Credit Types

You can make edits to Soft Credit Types by clicking on the name of the Type.

You can change the name of a Soft Credit Type. Previous Orders made with this Soft Credit Type will be changed to the new name and appear with the new name in Customer Records, Segmentation and Reports.

You can make a Soft Credit Type inactive by unchecking the Active box. Previous Orders made with these now inactive Soft Credit Types will retain their historical data, still appearing in Customer Records, Segmentation and Reports. New or edited Orders cannot select inactive Soft Credit Types.

Inactive Soft Credit Types can be viewed in the listing page by checking View Inactive in the upper right corner. Inactive Soft Credit Types can be made active again by clicking on the name of the Type and checking the Active box.

Click Save to update the Soft Credit Type.

Soft Crediting an Order

Soft crediting an Order can be done during or after a transaction is confirmed.

TIP: You will need the Sales or Opportunities user role to Soft Credit an Order in the Sales or Opportunities interface, respectively. If you don't have these permissions, contact the administrator in your organization.

During a Transaction

Add a Customer to the Basket/Cart.
Click the Edit Soft Credit button.
On the Select Soft Credits screen, select a Soft Credit Type from the dropdown next to the Customer(s) you would like to Soft Credit and click Save.

REMINDER: If you have not yet set a Relationship with another Customer, you can do so by clicking the New relationship button, selecting a Customer and selecting the Relationship Type. The new Customer will appear on the Select Soft Credits screen where you can then choose the Soft Credit Type.
Add Items and Payments and complete the transaction.

After a Transaction

Search for the Order you would like to edit.
Next to the Customer’s name, click the Edit Soft Credit button.
On the Select Soft Credits screen, select a Soft Credit Type from the dropdown next to the Customer(s) you would like to Soft Credit and click Save.

REMINDER: If you have not yet set a Relationship with another Customer, you can do so by clicking the New relationship button, selecting a Customer and selecting the Relationship Type. The new Customer will appear on the Select Soft Credits screen where you can then choose the Soft Credit Type.

Removing a Soft Credit

You can also remove a Soft Credit by selecting the blank option from the dropdown.

The blank option selected in the Select Soft Credits screen.

Viewing Soft Credits in the Customer Record

Soft Credited Orders can be viewed directly in:

The Orders tab in the Customer Record

The Order will be listed in the Soft Creditor’s Order tab with the “Soft Credit to” line linked to the Soft Credits.

The Order will be listed in the Soft Credits’ Order tab with the “Soft Credit from” line linked to the Soft Creditor.

The Donations tab the Customer Record

The Donation will appear in the Soft Creditor’s Donation tab with the “Soft Credit to” line linked to the Soft Credits.

The Donation will appear in the Soft Credits’ Donation tab with the following:
1. On behalf of: This will link to the Order Owner
2. Facilitated by: This will link to the Order Facilitator
3. Soft Credit from: This will link to the Soft Creditor
TIP: If there is more than one Soft Credit on a Donation, additional “Soft Credit to” lines will link to the other Soft Credits.

The Timeline tab in the Customer Record in the Opportunities Interface

The Donation will appear in the Soft Creditor’s Timeline tab with no additional information about the Soft Credit.

The Donation will appear in the Soft Credits’ Timeline tab with the line “(Soft Credit).”

Reporting and Segmentation on Soft Credits

If you want to view Soft Credit data, you need to use a Soft Credit Segment in Customer Lists and Auto Tags, or a Soft Credit Report to get transactional information.

Customer Lists and Auto Tags

REMINDER: If you use Purchasing Segments in either Customer Lists or Auto Tags, Customers who have been Soft Credited to Orders will not show in the Customer Lists or have Auto Tags apply, respectively. Purchasing Segments can only segment between Order Owners, Order Facilitators or Households.

In the Soft Credit Segment type the following metric wrappers are available to use:

Soft Credits: This will look for Customers who made Orders that contain a Soft Credit or have been Soft Credited to an Order. Metrics include Accounting Date, Customer data, Date Transaction Confirmed, Soft Credit Types, if the Customer is Soft Credited in the Order and Total Charged.
Donations: This will look for Customers who have made a Donation whether or not it has been Soft Credited. Metrics include those similar to the Soft Credit wrapper and also include the Fund and Fund Attributes metrics.
Memberships: This will look for Customers who have purchased a Membership whether or not it has been Soft Credited. Metrics include those similar to the Soft Credit wrapper and also include the Fund and Fund Attributes metrics.

The Soft Credited Metric

In order to display Customers who are listed as Soft Credited in a Customer List or Auto Tag, you must add the metric Soft Credited and check the box.

Let’s say we want to make a Customer List of only Customers who have been soft credited on Donations last week. The Customer List should not include Order Owners.

In this example, two Donations have been made last week:

The first Donation made by Craig and Soft Credited to Marco.
The second Donation made by Eda.

Follow the instructions to build a Customer List.

Create a Soft Credit segment using the Donations wrapper > Accounting Date metric with Last Week selected in the dropdown. Using the AND rule, connect the Donations wrapper > Soft Credited metric box checked.

The Criteria Set with Donations with an Accounting Date of Last Week
and with the Soft Credited box checked.

In the Customer List:

Only Marco will appear because they are the only Customer that is Soft Credited to an Order
Craig and Eda will not appear in the Customer List as they are Order Owners

The Soft Credited metric can be combined with other metrics and segments so that Customer Lists and Auto Tags can display Soft Creditors, Soft Credits and Order Owners without Soft Credits in the same list.

Segmentation and the Differences Between Household and Soft Credits

In Differences Between Relationship, Household and Soft Credits we made the distinction between these three concepts in Spektrix. Knowing these differences will be important when building Customer Lists and creating Auto Tags.

For example, you may want to Auto Tag anyone who has made a cumulative Donation of $200 or more over the year, including Soft Credits. In this case, you would create an Auto Tag using the Soft Credit segment.

You would also like to make a Customer List for Customers who have made a cumulative donation of $200 or more over the year. However, you would like to only take a look at Households, as you'll be sending your Annual Report and want to send one per Household. In this case, you would create a Customer List using a Purchasing Segment.

For more information on how to set up an Auto Tag, read Setting Up Auto Tags.
1. Create a New Auto Tag with a New Local Segment using the Soft Credit type.
2. Select the Donations wrapper > Accounting Date metric (or Date Transaction Confirmed metric) and select Relative Date in the dropdown and input 365 days ago and today.
3. Connect the next set of metrics to the above set using the OR rule.
4. Select the Donations wrapper > Soft Credited metric and check the box. Using the AND rule, connect the Donations wrapper > Accounting Date metric (or Date Transaction Confirmed metric) and select Relative Date in the dropdown and input 365 days ago and today.
5. In the Soft Credit statistics, input a minimum of 1 Item purchased and a minimum $200.00 value.

For more information on building Customer Lists, read How to Build Customer Lists.
1. Create a New Customer List with a New Local Segment using the Purchasing type.
2. Select the Donations wrapper > Accounting Date metric (or Date Transaction Confirmed metric) and select Relative Date in the dropdown and input 365 days ago and today.
3. In the Purchasing statistics, select Household from the dropdown and input a minimum of 1 Item purchase and a minimum $200.00 value.

We’ll see how this Auto Tag and Customer List pull Customers differently although having similar Criteria. In this example, we have Jihyun and Evelyn, who have made a cumulative donation of $200 and share a Household. Evelyn is Soft Credited in every Donation made by Jihyun.

They’ll both receive the Auto Tag as a Soft Credit segment was used that tags both Order Owners and Soft Credits.
For the Customer List, only their Household will be pulled into the list as the Purchasing segment that is used groups data by Household.

Soft Credit Report Types

Standard Reports as well as custom Analysis and Accounting Reports will not double count any Items or Payments that have been Soft Credited. In these Reports, they will be credited to the Order Owner or Facilitator. Information about any Soft Credits can be pulled only in Soft Credit Reports.

Soft Credit Reports show one line per Order Item for the actual Order as well as a line per Order Item for each entity the Order has been Soft Credited to. This means an Item that has been Soft Credited may appear on two or more lines if it has been Soft Credited.

For more information on building Custom Reports, read How to Build a Custom Report.

Criteria Sets

Available metric wrappers for Criteria Sets in a Soft Credit Report Type include:

Soft Credits: Metrics include Accounting Date, Customer info, Date Transaction Confirmed, Soft Credit Types, if the Customer is Soft Credited in the Order and Total Charged.
Donations: Metrics include those similar to the Soft Credit wrapper and also include the Fund and Fund Attributes metrics.
Memberships: Metrics include those similar to the Soft Credit wrapper and also include the Fund and Fund Attributes metrics.

Outputs

Available Outputs include:

Order Items: Information about the Items in the Order including Soft Credit information such as Soft Credit Type, Soft Credited From by ID or Name
Customers: Information about the Customer, whether they are the Soft Creditor or Soft Credit
Donations: Information about the Donation including Fund information and Recognition information
Memberships: Information about the Membership Start and Expiry Dates and lapsed and renewal information

Sample Report

In this sample Output of a Soft Credits Report, we see the same Donation across four lines, one line per each Customer that appears on the Order.

Example output of a Soft Credits Report.

The Soft Credited output column returns a 0 for the Soft Creditor and a 1 for the Soft Credits. The Soft Credit Type, Soft Credited From - Id and Soft Credited From - Name columns will only return data if the Customer was Soft Credited to the Order.