Review and Delete Dormant Profiles

Review and Delete Dormant Profiles

It may be necessary at times to delete dormant profiles from FIMS. A dormant profile is one that does not have any Gifts, Pledges, Grants, Scholarship, or Accounts Payable data associated with it. The Dormant Profiles utility allows you to do the following:

• List every Profile that has not been used – based on the data related to it.
• Delete any unused Profile records.

Warning: CAUTION: You should always make a backup copy of your database before using this utility (or any other process that will delete multiple records). It is also a good idea to run this tool in the demo database first.

Note: Profiles with Gifts, Pledges, Grants, Scholarships, or Accounts Payable data are not considered dormant. Optional criteria include date added, date changed, and presence (or absence) of related data: Affiliation codes, Contacts, Notes, or Fund Associations.

Note: Due to the large amount of data that this utility must analyze, it may take a long time for the utility to finish its process. You can help reduce the run time by limiting the time period you want to analyze.

Before running the tool:

Set the SaveAsDir in User Preferences (just the FIMS user) or System Options (all users) first which sets the location where the report with deleted records will be saved to:
 
 Changing the SaveAsDir in User Preferences:

1. Tools > User Preferences
2. Select All Other Preferences (default) and click ok
3. Under Option: (the middle column), scroll down to the bottom and select SaveAsDir

The location in this example is set for the S drive temp folder in Azure Cloud, you can choose another folder to output the deleted profile report such as a local folder.

This is just an example of what that would look like for an on-premises customer. This is a folder on the local user's machine. Any path\folder you choose here has to actually exist on the user's computer: 

How to run the Dormant Profiles Tool:

1. In the Profile Management module, select File Maintenance > Dormant Profiles. The Dormant Profiles window opens.

Dormant Profiles Window

2. Enter the date range that you want to search for dormant Profiles.

• Date Added Less Than: Searches all Profile records that were created before the selected date.
• Date Changed Less Than: Searches all Profile records that were last changed before the selected date.

3. Make optional selections to indicate the records that will appear on your report:

• Only Profiles With: Select any or all of these checkboxes to determine the records that will be searched. The utility will automatically pass over Profile records that do not match the selected criteria (for example, if you select the No Affiliations checkbox, only Profiles that do not contain any Affiliation codes will appear on the report).
• And Are Not: Select any or all of these checkboxes to further limit your search results. The utility will automatically pass over Profile records that meet these criteria along with those you selected in the Only Profiles With section.

4. Click OK. Once the utility is finished running (could take a long time, depending on the size of your database and the date range that you select), the list of dormant Profiles opens in the FIMS Viewer.

5. Carefully review the report.

6. If you are sure you want to delete all of the dormant Profiles, click Delete Profiles on the FIMS Viewer menu bar. 

7. You will see a message box appear asking if you are sure you want to delete the listed items. If you are sure, click yes.