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Data Entry and Management

The date field requires an exact date, and I don’t know the exact date of an event?

The tool will require dates in MM/DD/YYYY format to save the information. If you don’t know or remember an exact date, you should estimate the Month, Day or Year as needed and make a note in the record that the date is an estimate only.

 

Should I enter a Personal Contact for the individuals who have profiles in my tool?

We recommend that you create a Personal Contact record for each member of your household even though you have already entered some of their information in the profile section. This will allow you to print their contact information in your contact list and link to their personal information in other sections of the tool.

 

Why am I asked to link individual members of my household to each vendor, contact, etc., and what is the best way to use this feature?

This feature has many benefits. It allows you to:

  • Enter information once and associate that information to one or more members of your household.
  • Designate which member of your household is authorized to transact or interact with a particular vendor, asset, or liability.

It is recommended that you designate / select the individual(s) who are authorized to transact business with an account or vendor or who have the legal responsibility for a particular asset or liability. If, for example, your cell phone account is in only one person’s name, you would only select that person as the individual authorized to transact business on that account.

 

What is the difference between a Service Provider and Vendor and when should I use each one?

A Service Provider is a person and a Vendor is a business. You may have many service providers associated with one vendor, but generally, you will only have one vendor associated with an individual service provider. An example of this relationship is that you might have many individual doctors (service providers) associated with one health system (vendor).

Establishing this relationship will allow you to see all Service Providers who are affiliated with the same vendor and will allow you to enter the vendor detail only once. If your Service Provider works for him / herself, it is not necessary to enter Vendor information for that Service Provider.

 

Do I need to enter all of the fields for every vendor / provider? What if I don’t know their address or never use their website?

The tool is designed to be able to capture all of the information that you might need / use, but it is only recommended to enter information that you will actually use. For example, if you never use or need the address for a vendor because all transactions are handled over the internet, there is no need to enter a physical address for that vendor.

 

Why are vendors from one section showing up in a search for another section?

Because some vendors cross-sections of the tool, they might be listed and/or appear in searches in multiple sections of the tool. Also, if you have designated their “Service Type” as “Other”, they will likely appear in multiple searches.

 

Where do I record codes to unlock my phone, PC, car, etc.

We recommend creating a record on the Websites & Passwords page of the Household section to capture this information.

 

What do I do if I can’t find a field that I need?

It is possible to create a custom field on any page of the tool. Before you create a custom field, you will want to ensure that the field you are creating is not already included somewhere else in the tool by entering key search words in the “Field Name Search” function in the upper right corner of the tool.

If you don’t find the field that you need using the “Field Name Search”, you might also consider if the information you want to capture can be entered in an “Other Notes” section on a related record. If that is not adequate for your needs, you can create a custom field on any page of the tool.

 

How do I create a custom field?

You can create a custom field on any page of the tool with the following steps:

  • Go to the Settings page in the Administration section and set the “Show Custom Data” field to “Yes”.
  • Return to the page where you want to enter the custom data and Scroll to the bottom of the record where the “Custom Data” section will now be visible.
  • Click on “Add or search for a record”.
  • Click “Add New”.
  • Enter data for the “Custom Field Name” and “Value”.

The custom field you create is only added to that specific page and record.

 

How does the program know when a section is complete?

The Section status is changed by the user because only you will know when you have entered all of the information that applies to your household in that section. Please note that the section status applies to all profiles and information in that section and can up updated either on the Table of Contents or on the top of each individual page of the tool.

 

How do I delete a blank record that I created on accident?

If you accidentally create a record, you can archive the record and then discard it by following the steps in the “Archiving and Discarding Records and Profiles” section below.

 

Can I upload data that I have stored in an Excel spreadsheet instead of entering it through the My Data Diary+ application?

This feature is currently available for uploading information into the Websites & Passwords page in the Household section of the tool only.

  1. Go to the External Transfer page of the Printing & Sharing section of the tool. Select “Import From”. Select “Websites & Passwords”. Click “Download Example File”.
  2. Go to the MDD Document Transfer folder on your My Data Diary USB drive. Open the “WebsitesAndPasswords_ExampleFile”. Enter your personal website and password information into the spreadsheet using one line per record. Save the file with your personal website and password information to a location on your computer and to the MDD Document Transfer folder.
  3. Return to the External Transfer page of the Printing & Sharing section of the tool. Select “Import From”. Select “Websites & Passwords”. Click the “Select Document to Import” button. Navigate to the MDD Document Transfer folder and select the file you created. Click Open.

 

Can I export data from the My Data Diary+ tool into another application?

This feature is only available for select use by Affiliate partners. This feature is not yet available for general use.

 

How often should I update my information?

You should update the information in your My Data Diary+ tool anytime there is a material change to your information. We recommend opening and updating the tool at the time you become aware of a change, but we recognize that may not always be practical or possible.

We recommend that you update and re-share your information with your care companions at least once a year. A great time to do this is right after you file your taxes when you have all of your personal and financial information readily available.

 

How should I keep track of items that need to be updated in the tool?

If you need to change something in the tool but don’t have time to make the change right now, you can change the section status to “Needs Update” and add a note for yourself next to the Section Status on the Table of Contents Page.