Balancing Source/Status

Shelter Buddy relies on the Source and Status to work together in predictable ways to correctly calculate figures for reporting, such as days in care, incoming/outgoing figures, and whether the animal is in care or not. 

Any anomaly in the Source/Status history may impede this progress and either lock the file so users cannot update it or cause it to report improperly. 

There are many things that can cause these imbalances, but here are the main things to look for in order to find the imbalance: 

1. Ensure the initial Status Date/Time and the Source Date/Time are identical. 
   Any difference between these two date/time stamps will mean the record does not report correctly. It will likely report as having been in care but never entered care, or entering care without being in care, depending on whether the Status date/time is before or after the Source date/time. 
   
   To correct: Go into Admin > Maintain Status History for an Animal or Maintain Source History for an Animal and change the date/time stamp of the one that is incorrect so they are both exactly the same. 
   
   
2. Make sure there is at least one intake Status linked to every Source
   This is a rule for all intake Sources except for DOA sources (DOA sources can have the DOA status applied directly and still report correctly.) For every other source, there must be an intake source or the record will report that the animal left care, but never entered care. 
   
   To correct: This can be tricky to correct, but this method usually works: 
   
   • From the Animal Details page, check the Status history. If there is a superfluous status in there that you can use to add to this source, great. If not, add one. If the animal is no longer in care, click the "Deceased" or "Privately Rehomed New Owner Unknown" to add an extra status. 
   • Go into Admin > Maintain Status History for an Animal
   • Search for the Animal ID of the animal in question
   • When the status history appears, click Edit against the superfluous status you found or added
   • Use the "New Linked Source" to choose the source that only has an outcome. Make sure it shows as selected in this drop-down. 
   • Match the date/time of the status to that shown for the Source selected in the "New Linked Source" drop-down. 
   • If required, change the status to something applicable. 
   • Make sure the Change Animal's Current Status? box is ticked if the source in question is the one currently displayed on the Animal Details page. 
   • Click the Edit Status History button
   • This should now be correct. 
3. Make sure there is only ONE outcome Status linked to any intake Source. 
   If an animal has been given multiple outcomes (either via a bug or by a user incorrectly deleting sources) linked to a single intake source, then the next time a user brings it into care it will allow it, but then fire a validation message the first time it is updated after that to let them know the animal is not in care and can't be updated without bringing it in through a valid source. The current status isn't what it is looking at: to be considered "in care" the animal must have one more incoming Source than outgoing Statuses. If the number is the same, the system calculates that the animal is not in care, regardless of the current status. 
   
   To correct: This is one of the trickier problems to correct because it usually happens when someone has deleted out sources.  For best results: 
   
   • Talk to the client and find out the animal's timeline - how many intakes and outcomes should it have?
   • Examine the Source/Status history to see what is missing and what needs to be added (remember: one source per intake, and only one outcome should be linked to each source. The animal must have one more source than it has outcomes to be considered "in care")
   • If a missing Source is the problem, process a relevant intake (even if the animal is already showing an in-care status, it will allow this because the system is counting it as no longer in care)
   • Use Admin > Maintain Source History for an Animal to link the relevant statuses (see previous item) 
   • If the Status is the problem, remember that many outcomes have a process linked them (Adoption, Reclaim/Relinquish, Transfer Out). You will need to UNDO each process to get back to a point where the record is correct, then re-process anything that came after that to correct the record. If the Undo doesn't work, see if the status can just be deleted - sometimes they're not linked to a process because they're the result of an improper file duplication. If the status can be simply deleted, job done. If neither works, assistance from the engineers will be required. 
     
     
4. Check that the outcome statuses do not have a date/time stamp earlier than the previous status or source. 
   We have blocks to prevent this, but there are always methods to get around them (e.g. updating via Admin). 
   
   To correct: Go into Admin > Maintain Status History for an Animal and adjust the date/time stamps until they align correctly.

Reports such as the Maddie's Fund/Asilomar Accounts exception listings can be useful for finding troubled records.