What Records are Needed for Compliance Reporting?
Setting up your database for Compliance reporting is an important first step in ISP. This involves creating your committee’s record with committee IDs and other committee information, as well as creating Treasurer, Candidate (if applicable), and other staff records, then linking them correctly.
To start, set up staff and candidate records, then add the committee record and link other records.
How do I set up the Candidate record?
1. Click Add/Search, then Individuals.
2. Enter the name of the candidate you are going to set up, then Search. If you had ISP import data for you, you may already have the candidate’s record in your database. If so, you can bypass the creation of the candidate or treasurer record and click on the name in the search results instead to review the details for accuracy.
3. If the candidate is not already in the system, click the Add Individual button.
4. In the window that appears, complete the basic information fields, then click the Is Candidate box.
5. New fields will appear that will allow you to enter in Candidate info, such as Office Sought data and Party. If the Candidate already holds office, select the Office Held tab and complete details there.
6. Once you’ve added all the necessary details, click the Add Individual button.
If you don’t have some details and need to enter them later, there is a Candidate Info section within the candidate’s record where you will be able to add and edit details when you receive them.
How do I set up the Treasurer record?
Setting up the Treasurer record is no different than setting up a standard Individual record. You can follow steps 1 through 3 above, skipping steps 4 and 5, to add the record to the system. Once the committee record is set up, you’ll be able to link the Treasurer record to the committee record at that time.
How do I set up the Committee record?
1. Click Add/Search, then Organizations.
2. Enter the name of the committee you are going to set up, then click Search. As mentioned above, if you had ISPolitical import data for you, you may already have the committee record in your database.
3. If the committee is not already in the database, click Search. If you have turned on the option to include results found via your agency’s filing database and your committee is already registered with the agency, you may see your committee in the results.
It’s important to note the feature for agency related results is limited to Federal and specific state agencies that have made the data available in this way. If you do not see this option on the Account Management page, it is because those details through your filing agency are not available.
4. If you don’t see your committee in the results, click Add Organization at the bottom of the screen.
5. In the window that appears, click the Type dropdown and select Political Committee. New fields will open on the right where you will enter in various committee details you have available to you. Like candidate records, data can be added or edited at a later time.
Be aware that your Committee Type can often determine the available Compliance reports on the reporting page. Be sure you have the correct Committee Type selected. If when attempting to generate a report and you don’t see it in the list, most likely the Committee Type needs to be corrected.
6. Once you’ve added the basic details and other committee information, click the Add Organization button.
Once you’ve added the committee record, you’ll automatically land in the record itself. At this point you’ll need to link the Treasurer, as well as any applicable committee staff, the candidate included.
How do I link staff records to the committee?
1. In the Relationships section on the right, click the green triangle in the top right corner.
2. In the Affiliated field, start typing the name of the treasurer. This runs a search on your database for a matching record.
3. Click the name of the committee’s Treasurer.
4. Select Treasurer relationship from the Relationship Type dropdown menu.
5. Click Add Relationship to save the relationship, or click Add & New to save and add another relationship (i.e. Candidate or other committee staff members).
