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Parramatta City. meals on wheels (MOW). Brian Shaughnessy Lighthouse Consulting & Design www.lcdservices.biz. background. district/region of Sydney provides services to the residents CiviCRM used extensively for back-office support meals on wheels. meals on wheels.
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Parramatta City meals on wheels (MOW) Brian Shaughnessy Lighthouse Consulting & Design www.lcdservices.biz
background • district/region of Sydney • provides services to the residents • CiviCRM used extensively for back-office support • meals on wheels
meals on wheels • serves elderly citizens of the district • delivers meals at discounted prices M-F • provides various options • chilled/frozen meals • soups • salads • juice • dessert
meals on wheels • creative use of CiviCRM architecture • allows full integration with other services managed through the site • required extensive customization, but also relies heavily on the core data structures
activity record • clients place orders on a weekly basis • order details • week/year [one order per week/year; future only] • exceptions [skipped by bulk generator] • custom data set for M-F with fields for each meal type • dietary details stored in custom data attached to contact record
payment record • separated order (activity) from financial obligation (contribution) • modeled after event/membership structure • link activity to contribution • orders_activity_payment (activity_id, contribution_id) • added support for > 1 payment per order
payment record • auto-created with activity order • calculates total due based on standard meal rates • constants defined in code • eventually place in option values • detail the order in contribution record • record changes to the order • adjustment to contribution record • order history through notes (>1 per contrib)
bulk order generation • clients place orders on a weekly basis • most orders are exactly the same from one week to the next • needed to develop method for quickly generating future-week activity records based on prior week
bulk order generation • manually triggered, but options locked down • log table tracks bulk order history • determine last week run • log order counts and activity IDs
bulk order: special handling • order exceptions • skipped by bulk order generator • most immediate prior non-exception order used • account for existing orders for a given week/year • on-hold • hold start date/hold end date • if any overlap, skip bulk generation
bulk order: special handling • third party payer • soft credit to client • payment to TPP entity • handled with relationship defining when TPP begins/ends • admin fee • system default; contact override • direct deposit • set contrib status = completed • else = pending
stock management • set starting values • update when order is created/updated/deleted • special contact: Parramatta Stock Manager • stock adjustment activity types • dashlet report to summarize current levels • summary data handled in stock_log table • tracks current levels • line item stored as activities
reporting • ughhhh… • originally planned to use reporting framework • specs required many unique calculations • unique data handling (field criteria interaction) • too many options • most reports built (or rebuilt) as purely custom implementations
packaging labels • generate by week number/year • calculate number of packages based on meal/salad/soup/dessert combo • track frozen/chilled
full delivery run sheet • used by delivery staff • each contact is assigned a run number (geographic assignment) • MS Word export (scalability/easy to modify)
order invoices • generate invoices for pending payments or by date range
order statements • filter by payment status, contact, date range • calculate balance based on various criteria
other stuff • active services • custom data group • other data groups dependent on active status
quarterly stats report • generate calculations per service for a variety of stats
what I’d do differently… • torture by custom field proliferation… • move as much as possible into dedicated CRM path • spend more time working through data model with client • better method for classifying meal field types • spend more time developing specs. for report requirements (much time was spent, but it always seems like more is needed)
challenges • deciding what to lock down to prevent user-created failures • date-model (week/year): effective for the situation, but required some "translation" for end users • end of year wrap-around a pain • mission-critical system with constantly evolving specs
project status • core system in production for approx. 1 year • ongoing report/statement/invoice tweaking for quite some time • currently wrapping up final adjustments for reports and closing the project