The first year you use AWdb, you'll probably want to enter old book information for your clubbers, especially if a clubber is starting the new year in the middle of a book, or if they are in a club where book awards are cumulative. If you don't have all the completed books entered in the system, AWdb may not be able to determine the correct book award for the next completed book. Once a clubber is created, you can assign historical books to them and mark sections without affecting the current year's points or stats by following the steps in this article.
Keep in mind that the Web App is currently easier to use on an actual club night than for entering historical data, so this article will describe using the Windows App in some situations. If you have not used the Windows App before, you will need to first download it, then run the executable on a Windows machine (It will not run on a phone or tablet, and will only run on a Mac if you have a Windows virtual machine installed.)
First, assign the historical books. When using the Web App, if this is the first book you are assigning to a clubber, it will be forced to be the Primary. By marking each newly assigned book as Primary, it will clear the Primary and Current settings on the previous book. If you have already assigned the book for the current year, then just ensure that Primary and Current are unchecked for each historical book. You will want to keep any books that a clubber is still working in marked as "Current", so that the Windows App reports will include it.
Tip: While working with historical books in the Web App, you might find it useful to show the Handbook List within the member's Books tab, instead of showing the Handbook Sections. For more information about assigning books, including ones that don't initially show in the list to be assigned, or about switching between the two views, read the article on Member > Books.
If you would like to assign the same handbook to multiple clubbers at once, you should use the Windows App. Within either the Clubbers or Check-in module, select multiple clubbers then choose "Assign Handbook" in the toolbar's Action dropdown menu.
If you would like to mark an entire book as complete, you can use the Web App. With the book selected in the Members > Book tab, tap/click the Edit button. Check "Mark all required sections as completed", then choose an appropriate date, making sure it's not within the current year so that points are not awarded and so that the handbook does not show up in the Club > Year > Handbooks list. [Note: No awards will be generated for any sections marked by using this checkbox.]
If you would like to mark individual sections as completed in the past, you should use the Windows App. (Individual sections within the Web App are intended to be marked during a club's handbook time, so the app will automatically mark a member's attendance for the night when a section is completed.) When marking historical sections as completed, you should use the Member Dialog's Handbooks tab instead of the Check-in Module. To open the dialog, double-click a clubber from the Clubber or Check-in grid. Then, within the dialog's Handbooks tab, set the Entry Mode to either "Speed" or "History" to prevent awards and points from being awarded, and set the "use date of" to a date in the past.
If sections are completed with no skips, or there are few skipped, use the Speed mode. Just click the last section to be marked and it will mark all the previous sections too, then go back and uncheck any skipped ones.
If there are only a few sections completed, you can use the History mode and set the dates to the actual dates the sections were completed. You may find that this takes too much time and is not worth the effort, but it's up to you!
Entering historical data is time consuming for sure, but stick with it – it will pay off in the end!