Prepare Your PDS Data for Migration
Before you can migrate from PDS to MinistryPlatform —and to ensure a successful transition— your data needs to be optimized. This means all of your PDS records are orderly, with no duplication or missing information that's required in MinistryPlatform. That's where our cleanup process comes in! Follow the steps in this guide to prepare your data.
Wait, What's Wrong with My Data?
- Staff are able to create their own types and keywords.
- In diocesan instances, standardization doesn't exist across parishes.
- Best practices for data entry may have been lost during staff transitions.
- Parishes may not have routinely cleaned up data or been aware that it was needed.
What Will Cleaning Up My Data Do?
- Identify families without members and members without families
- Reduce the number of old letters, calls, visits, and interactions that are no longer needed
- Combine similar phone types and email types *
- Assign certain phone numbers and email addresses to the appropriate members *
- Identify and combine duplicate sacrament types
- Identify and combine duplicate sponsor types
- Identify and combine duplicate marital statuses
- Identify funds with bad totals (meaning an activity is blank or incorrect)
* These items are critical for a successful migration and cannot be easily updated after the migration.
Additionally, you must combine any duplicate Family records and duplicate Member records before your final migration. This can be done before or after using the Clean Up Data process.
Don't worry – this guide will walk you through all the steps you need to take. Ready to get started? First, check out Preliminary Steps.