VSys One: Volunteer Management Software

Next Steps

Zip/postal codes

After installing VSys, on the Administrator tools panel click the link Check for zip/postal code updates. This can be used to populate the "zips" table with US zip codes and/or Canadian postal codes. You only need to do this once: all users sharing the same database share the same "zips" table.

Converted data

If this is your converted data, check it!

• Compare it against your source database (Volunteer Works, Raiser's Edge, Volgistics, etc.)
• For the second and later conversion passes: ensure that requested changes have been made.

Remember that once you start using your final conversion data, if you find things missing/wrong in the future, any re-conversion would overwrite anything you've added to, changed or deleted from VSys One. If this isn't your final data, the next conversion pass will overwrite anything you do between now and that pass. This is a good opportunity to "play" in VSys to explore and try things out since everything you do will be un-done with the next conversion pass.

Configure VSys Security

When you first install VSys One and your data, VSys Security is not enabled. Any user accounts in your source database (Volunteer Works, Raiser's Edge, Volgistics) have not been converted. If you want to use VSys Security, you'll need to set that up yourself.

Backups

VSys One can be backed up either or both of two ways:

• VSys One. The built-in backup tool in VSys One backs up just the VSys One tables and it makes a .zip file that VSys itself can restore. If you're working with a database converted by Bespoke, you most likely have a VSys One backup in front of you. Only VSys One can restore these backups, and they have two advantages over SQL Server backups:
  • Individual tables can easily be restored, and
  • The backups are usually much, much smaller than a SQL Server .bak file.
• SQL Server. Since your data is in a SQL Server database, and no VSys One data is stored other than in that database, backing up the SQL Server database using your organization's standard tools will ensure that everything can be recovered. VSys doesn't have any special requirements as to how you back up that SQL Server data: any tool that works for you is fine by VSys. Restoring from a backup made this way requires that your DBA restore the VSys database using the same tool that backed it up. Since VSys itself wasn't involved in the process it can't do that for you.

We recommend that you use both methods of backup. Your SQL Server databases are probably backed up on a nightly (or more regular) basis and this is done transparently to VSys and the end users. Backups using VSys One can be done on whatever basis you most feel comfortable with, but daily or more often is best.