In a busy agency, there is incoming and outgoing client data processing every day. Within all this data lies a treasure trove of helpful information that can propel you towards your business goals. But first, let’s take a step toward getting organized by defining the client data that you have.
Transactional Data
Transactional data covers your core business activities. In a recurring membership-based business, this may include the data of your members and their membership. If you are a product-based organization, it could include the data of your products and buyers.
There will be more transactional data than any other type. You’ll find it stored in your payment processing system, accounting system, or both. Transactional data can determine whether your business is profitable or not.
Master Data
Your master data includes key information that makes up your transactional data. It may contain your clients, the products or services you offer, and purchase history. The client data may contain the contact person and all of the associated information. The product or service data may contain the product name, fee, and all of its associated information. Together they make up the transactional data from above.
Master data typically includes people, places and things.
- People would be defined as customers, vendors/partners, and/or employees.
- Places would be defined as purchase location or customer location.
- Things would be defined as products, assets, and/or items.
Transactional data happens quickly, but the master data is pretty constant. Your client list stays relatively the same, unless there is a new client or a client is dropped.
Metadata
Metadata is the smaller data needed to give context to bigger data. Metadata on a transaction could include the date of the transaction, the amount of the transaction, and who completed the transaction. You know a transaction happened, but you need the metadata to provide more context.
Metadata is important for short term. For example, did X payment process for X client? It is also important for the long term. For example, how many clients are subscribed to X recurring product?
Reporting Data
Reporting data is data that is aggregated for the purpose of strategic decision making. For example: customer data + transactions over the last 90 days. Taking everything from above, you can then generate useful reports or at-a-glance dashboards to give you deeper insights into your business.
A process conducted in one system will always relate to a process in another system. Each system may use the same master data, but if each system manages its own master data you’ll get duplication and inconsistency. This is where data management becomes essential. Bad data in equals bad data out.
Using these definition types you can begin to think about your unique client data. Think about the incoming and outgoing information and start to group this into the types above. You’ll be well on your way to getting organized.