Hard Credit vs. Soft Credit Customizable Rollups ~ Power of Us Hub

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Understanding how NPSP determines what data rolls up to a hard credit or soft credit Customizable Rollups can be confusing. And what makes a Customizable Rollup either a hard credit or soft credit rollup? And how do individual donations (from Contacts) or organization donations (from Organization Accounts) play into all of this? We're going to help you figure it all out!

First, let's define what we mean when we say hard credit and soft credit. A hard credit is a credit for a donation that a Contact or Account made. In other words, the donor “signed the check.” A soft credit is a credit for a donation that a Contact or Account did not make themselves, but may have somehow influenced. For example, a Contact's employer sent in a matching gift, or the Contact is a member of the family that made the donation.

When creating Customizable Rollups, you decide whether the rollup is for soft credits or hard credits using the Rollup Type field.

Note

If you need a refresher on what rollups are, head on over to the Rollups Overview to learn more.

Here are the Rollup Types for Contact rollups:

The Rollup Type field showing the options for Contact rollups.

Here are the Rollup Types for Account rollups:

The Rollup Type field showing the options for Account rollups.

How Hard Credit and Soft Credit Customizable Rollups Work

How hard credit and soft credit rollups work depends on whether the donation came from a Contact, a Household Account, or an Organization Account.

Contact and Household Account Donations (Opportunities)

Customizable Rollups created using a Contact (Hard Credit) rollup type are based on the person listed in the Primary Contact field on an Opportunity (the Contact who actually paid for the donation).Customizable Rollups created using a Contact (Soft Credit) rollup type are based on the soft credit Contact Role(s) on an Opportunity.

Important

It's important to note that this is different from how hard credit rollups worked before Customizable Rollups came along. Previously, hard credit rollups were based on the Contact with the Opportunity Contact Role marked as Primary. In theory, the Contact with the OCR marked as Primary and the Primary Contact on an Opportunity should be the same, but this isn't always the case, so it's important to note this distinction.

For Household giving, the Primary Contact field on an Opportunity is especially important. When you create an Opportunity where the Opportunity's Primary Contact is automatically populated, such as from an Action on the Contact, that person is listed as the Primary Contact on the Opportunity (in the Primary Contact field) and gets a hard credit. The other Household members get soft credits and are assigned an Opportunity Contact Role (OCR) that is defined as indicating soft credit status (such as Household Member, Soft Credit, Influencer, etc). These roles are created and defined automatically when you started using the NPSP Trial, and were configured in NPSP Settings before Customizable Rollups was released. You now define which OCRs you want a rollup to consider using filter rules (within a filter group) that are applied to the rollup itself. For more information on filter rules and filter groups, see Create Filter Groups.

Important

The concept of Primary Contact can be confusing because there is a Primary Contact on the Account and a Primary Contact on the Opportunity. These are two different fields that affect how hard credits are assigned. If an admin created an Opportunity (donation) from a Household record, the Primary Contact on the Account would automatically be assigned as the Primary Contact on the Opportunity after the record is saved. But, if any of the other Household members make a donation and the Opportunity is created from their own Contact record, that Contact is assigned as the Primary Contact on the Opportunity (we'll show this in the example below). And as we mentioned before, the Primary Contact field on an Opportunity is used for hard credit rollups on Household giving, so it's important to understand how this field gets populated!

Organization Account Donations (Opportunities)

On an Organization Account Opportunity, the Primary Contact isn't required. If there is a Primary Contact listed, an Opportunity Contact Role called “Soft Credit” is automatically created for that Contact. That OCR is also marked Primary. Even though it's marked Primary, since this is an Organization Account donation, the value of the donation is only reflected in the Contact's soft credit totals. So, by default, for Organization Account Opportunities, the Account gets the hard credit and the person listed as the Primary Contact gets a soft credit.

For donations that an Account didn't directly make, but may have influenced, you can assign the Account a soft credit with a specific role. Customizable Rollups created using an Opportunity > Account (Account Soft Credit) rollup type are based on the Account Soft Credit role(s) assigned on the Opportunity. When setting up an Account Soft Credit Customizable Rollup, you determine the roles to include within a filter rule (in a filter group), and then assign that filter group to your rollup.

Example—Household Member Donation

Let's look at an example that illustrates how a donation from a Contact within a Household works with Customizable Rollups.

The Williams family has three members: Terrance, Josephine, and Dante. Terrance Williams is the Primary Contact on the Williams Household Account. Josephine makes a donation to a local food pantry in the amount of $500, and writes the check from her personal bank account. The food pantry receives the check and pulls up Josephine's Contact record in NPSP. They create the Opportunity in the amount of $500.

Opportunity record showing that Josephine Williams is the Primary Contact and showing that there are 3 Contact Roles.

You'll notice on the Opportunity record that Josephine Williams is listed as the Primary Contact (1), which means that she will get hard credit for this donation. That hard credit will be reflected in hard credits rollups to the Williams Household Account and in hard credit rollups on Josephine's Contact record. You'll also notice that three Contact Roles (2) were created on this Opportunity. Josephine gets the Donor OCR (with the Primary Checkbox checked), and Terrance and Dante are assigned the Household Members OCR. Terrance and Dante each received soft credit for this donation because they are part of the Williams Household and the Household Member role is designated as a soft credit role.

So, now let's look at the Contact records and Account record to see how this all rolls up. First, we'll look at Josephine's Contact record. You see that the Total Gifts field (which is populated by a hard credit rollup) shows the $500 donation.

Contact record for Jospehine Williams, showing that the Total Gifts field includes the $500 donation.

Now, if you look at Terrance or Dante's record, you'll see the $500 donation listed in the Soft Credit Totals section, because Terrance received a $500 soft credit for Josephine's donation.

Contact record for Terrance Williams, showing that the Soft Credit Total rollup field shows the $500 donation.

And lastly, if you look at the Williams Account record, you'll see (1) the hard credit reflected in the Total Gifts field (which is populated by a hard credit rollup) and (2) the soft credit reflected in the Total Household Member Soft Credits field (which is populated by a rollup created using the Account (Contact Soft Credit) rollup type).

Note

The Total Household Member Soft Credit field shows data for a Customizable Rollup we created using the Account (Contact Soft Credit) rollup type. This rollup type doesn't double count soft credits, so if Dante and Terrance each received a $500 soft credit, the field will only show $500. If they each received a partial soft credit for $250, this field will only show $250.

Account record for the Williams Household, showing that the Total Gifts field includes the $500 donation, and the Total Household Member Soft Credits field also includes the $500 donation.

Example—Organization Account Donation

Now, let's look at an example that illustrates how a donation from an Organization Account works with Customizable Rollups.

Josephine Williams is an employee at ABC Corp., a company that regularly donates to local nonprofits. Because Josephine is so passionate about the food pantry, she recommends to her employer's Foundation group that they make a donation. ABC Corp. agrees to make a $5000 donation and sends a check to the food pantry. The food pantry receives the check and creates an account for ABC Corp. They then create an opportunity for $5000, and since Josephine influenced the donation, list her as the Primary Contact on the Opportunity.

Opportunity record from ABC Corp with Josephine Williams listed as the Primary Contact, and with a Soft Credit Contact Role.

Since this is an Organization Account donation, ABC Corp. will get hard credit for the donation. The $5000 will be reflected in hard credit rollups to the Account. You'll notice on the Opportunity record that Josephine Williams is listed as the Primary Contact (1). You'll also notice that there is a Contact Role (2) for Josephine on this Opportunity. Since Josephine is listed as the Primary Contact on the Opportunity, she was automatically assigned a Contact Role, which means that she will get soft credit. You'll see the $5000 soft credit reflected in soft credit rollups on Josephine's Contact record.

Note

The Contact Role that is automatically assigned to Josephine is determined by the value in the Contact Role for Organizational Opps field in NPSP Settings under Donations | Contact Roles.

Keep in mind that the Contact Role assigned to Josephine must be included in a filter group applied to soft credit Customizable Rollups. Otherwise, the donation won't roll up.

Now, let's look at the Account and Contact records to see how this all rolls up. First, we'll look at ABC Corp.'s Account record. You'll see the $5000 hard credit in the Total Gifts field (which is populated by a hard credit rollup).

Account record for ABC Corp., showing that the Total Gifts field includes the $5000 donation.

Now, if we look at Josephine's Contact record, we see the $5000 in the Soft Credit Total field (which is populated by a soft credit rollup), because Josephine received a soft credit for the Organization Account donation.

Contact record for Josephine Williams, showing that the Soft Credit Total field includes the $5000 donation.