This article will show you how to manage Boomerang and sync contact and transaction data in Handbid
Connecting Handbid to Bloomerang
Handbid will synchronize contacts and transactions to your Bloomerang account. The synchronization is bi-directional, meaning any changes to contacts made on Handbid or Bloomerang will be reflected in the other. Transactions will be synchronized once an event has been finalized and reconciled in Handbid. This article will explain how to set up the synchronization, initiate a contacts sync, and manage transactions for sync.
The first thing you will want to do is log in to your Bloomerang account. Once logged into Bloomerang, you want to edit your "User Account". Do this by clicking on your account icon at the top right and selecting "Edit My User."
On the User Settings screen, look for the section called "API Keys v2.0". Click the "GENERATE" button. Once you generate the API key in Bloomerang, it may be advantageous to name it "Handbid" in the event you have multiple API keys.
Once you have that API key copied, it is time to get that into Handbid. Login in a separate browser window (tab) to your Handbid manager account at manager.hand.bid.
From there, you will want to access your "Org Settings" where you will connect your account. Once on the Org Settings dialog, click on "Apps" tab to get to the Connected Accounts section.
Under Connected Accounts, select "Bloomerang". Paste your API key in and press "connect your account". You will get a pop up that says that it is successfully connected, click the "finish" button.
To make sure the connection has been completed, go back in to your organization settings and the apps tab. There you will see the connection and you can edit or remove it if you wish.
If this is the first time you have connected, Handbid will prompt you if you want to synchronize your contacts. If you select "YES", a first-time contacts sync will start.
NOTE: If you have a lot of contacts, this can take a while. After the initial contact sync completes, further updates will happen much faster.
Managing Contacts Sync
To manage your contact data, go to the "contacts" tab on your organizations dashboard. Then go to "contact list" and go to the CRM sync tab. This will show timestamps, successes, and failures of previous syncs. You can also trigger a sync to start from this screen.
To edit contact data, click the name of the user on the contact list to edit any information such as name, phone number or email.
To view contact data in Bloomerang, go into your Bloomerang account and go to constituents. From there you can edit this contact data in Bloomerang which will sync to Handbid.
This sync does not happen instantaneously, especially if you have a lot of contact data. If you make edits to contact data in Handbid or Bloomerang, the changes will reflect in the next sync cycle. As mentioned earlier, you can trigger a sync to start at any time in your contact list.
Adding a contact to an event
To add a contact as a registered bidder go to "register new bidder". Then search for a contact. Make sure the "contacts" button is selected when Handbid is searching for the user. You can confirm or edit this users information. Once the correct information is added or confirmed you can register this user to the event. If changes are made on the contact record, these changes will reflect after the next sync cycle.
Adding a contact to the guest list
To add a contact to the guest list go to the "people" tab and select guests then select guest list. Select "add guest" and search for a guest in your contact list. Select that guests name to edit or confirm information. When that information is edited or confirmed you can add this user to the guest list.
Adding a contact to the invite list
To add a guest to the invite list go to the "people" tab and the go to "invite list". Click "add invitees" and select "add invitees from contacts". You can chose various criteria to pull these contacts from for example bid in a previous event, registered in a previous event, etc. You can also choose which specific events you wish to pull contacts in from. The more contacts and more open the criteria the longer the process of pulling users in may take.
Transaction Sync
Handbid will automatically synchronize transactions as soon as the auction reconciles. When does that happen? After your auction closes and you have finalized all remaining payments in Handbid (and hopefully zeroed out all invoices), then you will request your event to be reconciled. Handbid's team will process that reconciliation for you. During that process, all transactions will sync over. It is always best to settle all invoices and transactions BEFORE reconciling your event.
You can also trigger transactions to sync by using the Handbid reporting system. Go to the "reporting" tab and select "financial" and select the "transactions" report. In this report select the transaction(s) you wish to sync. After all or some of the transaction records are selected, click "Send to CRM". You will get a popup to select the fund, appeal, and campaign. After you select these, click sync and you will get a confirmation.
Here are some things to consider about how transactions sync:
- Transactions sync, not invoices. So if an invoice has multiple transactions on it, then you will need to manually reconcile which transaction maps to which element on the invoice. Handbid does not link transactions to invoice items.
- Invoice items are recorded in "NOTES". When a transaction is pushed to Bloomerang, Handbid will populate the NOTE field on the transaction with the name of the event, and a list of all items from the invoice (separated by a ;).
- Acknowledged. If an emailed receipt was sent from Handbid, the transaction in Bloomerang will be marked as "Acknowledged."
If you have any questions about how the sync works, or if you are getting "failed" contact sync jobs, or missing transactions, please reach out to us at service@handbid.com for help!