Ask about your file

What this screen is for

Type a question the way you would ask a colleague, and Steward answers from your own records. The box is labelled "Ask" on Reports, "Ask about this campaign" on a campaign's page, and "Ask" on the Calendar, where every question is about the dates on screen. On Home, the box under the greeting takes a question too. Under the box are a few suggestions, drawn from the questions your organization asks most.

Ask a question

1. On Reports, click the box that says "Ask anything about your file", type your question and press Enter, or click one of the suggestions.
2. Read the answer. Click any number to see the gifts or people behind it. "Counted:" says exactly what was counted.
3. Click "How Steward read this" to see how your question was understood.
4. Ask a follow-up in the box at the bottom, such as "And last year?" or "Who are they?", and click "Ask". It builds on the answer before.
5. Press Escape, or the × at the top, to close.

Keep an answer

1. Click "Pin to Home" to keep the answer on Home. It is worked out again every time Home opens, so the number is always today's. "Unpin" removes it.
2. Click "Save to a dashboard", choose a dashboard and click "Add". Only the person who made a dashboard can add to it.

An example

You type "How much did we raise last year from monthly donors?". Steward answers in one sentence with the total, say $18,240, and "Counted:" under it. You click $18,240 and see each gift behind it. You ask "Who are they?" in the box at the bottom and see the people behind the answer, then click "Pin to Home".

What Steward doesn't do here

The Ask box never changes a gift or a person's details, and never sends anything. When an answer offers to plan a step and you click it, the step goes on your Thread and nothing is sent. If Steward cannot answer from your records, it says so plainly. When your organization has an old system's report for a stretch Steward has no gifts for, the answer quotes it and never adds it into Steward's numbers.