About computer to computer audits

BPA and VAC conduct "computer-to-computer" audits. In order to participate in this type of audit, you must provide them with a galley data file and an addition and removal list.

Galley data file

When you run the 'Issue labels' update for an audit issue QuickFill creates a galley data file containing data for all of the qualified subscribers who were served that issue. This is one of the files that you must send to the auditor. Even though you send a copy of the galley file to the auditor you must still leave it in your database sub-directory. QuickFill uses the galley data file for several purposes including compiling information for the 'Publisher's statement' and 'Audit issue galley' reports.

The auditor must be informed the galley data file is a dBASE file (even though we have given it a file extension of "QFDAT"). The galley data file's name is made up of the database name, publication code, and issue number. For example, if your audit issue for publication code WIDGET in the standard QuickFill database (that is the database files are named QFWDB*.QFDAT) was issue number 144, the galley data file would be named QFWDB_WIDGET_0144.QFDAT. The galley data file is located in the database directory.

dBASE files contain a header which describes the data structure of the file. The auditor will be able to access this information. You can do so too by opening the database in Microsoft Excel, provided there are no more than 65,000 records in the file. We have tried to make the file as self-explanatory as possible. In most cases the field names are sufficient.

Here is the structure of the galley data file:

 

Field name

Type

Width

Description

UPDTDATE06

Date

8

Date the label update was run

UPDTTIME

Character

4

Time the label update was run

CUSTNUM

Numeric

9

Customer number

ORDERNUM

Numeric

9

Order number

SUBDA

Numeric

9

Database address of the subscription record

PREFIX

Character

12

Prefix

FNAME

Character

20

First name

LNAME

Character

30

Last name

SUFFIX

Character

5

Suffix

TITLE

Character

40

Title

COMPANY

Character

40

Company

DEPT

Character

40

Department

STREET1

Character

40

Street 1

STREET2

Character

40

Street 2

CITY

Character

26

City

STATE

Character

2

State

ZIP

Character

10

Zip code

COUNTRY

Character

24

Country name

CNTRYCODE

Character

4

Country code

ADDRTYPE

Character

1

Address type

EMAIL

Character

60

Email address

QDATADATE

Date

8

Date the qual. data was entered

QDATABATCH

Numeric

4

Batch in which qual. data was entered

QUALDATE

Date

8

Qualification date

QUALBATCH

Numeric

4

Batch from which the subscription became qualified

QUANTITY

Numeric

4

Number of copies

SUBDATE

Date

8

Original order date of the subscription

ORDDATE

Date

8

Date of the order from which the issue was served

PAYDATE

Date

8

Last payment date for the order from which the issue was served

PAYAMT

Numeric

9

Total amount paid (including 2 decimal places) for the order from which the issue was served

PRICE

Numeric

9

Price of the order, not including tax or shipping.

SERVICE

Character

2

Service code for the order from which the issue was served

SHIPCLASS

Character

1

Shipping class (this field may be blank for group subscriptions in galley files upgraded from Version 1.20 to Version 1.30 of QuickFill)

PERSID

Character

20

Response to personally identifying question

SUBCLASS

Character

3

Subscription classification

REQTYPE

Character

3

Request type

TERM

Numeric

5

Term of the order, in issues

EXPISS

Numeric

5

Expire issue

TRACK

Character

6

Tracking code

SOURCE

Character

6

Order source for Paragraph 3b (this field used to be named PAR3BSRCE)

Q1

Character/Numeric

3/9

Qualification data

Q2_1

Character/Numeric

3/9

Qualification data

Q2_2

Character/Numeric

3/9

Qualification data

Q2_3

Character/Numeric

3/9

Qualification data

Q3

Character/Numeric

3/9

Qualification data

 

The field names for the qualification data all begin with "Q" and are followed by the question name you assigned in QuickFill. For questions which allow multiple answers there will be one field for each possible answer (the maximum number of responses allowed is defined in QuickFill). In the example above the Qualification form had three questions (named "1", "2", and "3"), questions "1" and "3" allowed only one answer and question "2" allowed a maximum of three answers.

Addition and Removal List

You also need to send the auditor a list of the customer names that were added to or removed from your circulation for each issue within the audit period. To obtain this list you should run the 'Addition and removal list' report that can be found on the 'Audit reports' menu. After running the report, select the 'Print...' command from the Reports menu and locate the report file that you just ran. Look for the name 'Additions and Removals' with the most recent date and time. Select the report by clicking on it, then click the 'Export to Excel' button on the bottom left of the screen. This will produce an Excel spreadsheet which you should send to the auditor.

If you have a large publication, or you have a lot of turnover in your circulation it is possible for the 'Addition and Removals' report to contain more than 65,000 lines, exceeding the maximum length of an Excel spreadsheet. In that case you should run the report separately for each issue in the period, thus producing several smaller lists instead of one large one. Export each of the smaller reports to Excel and send them all to the auditor.

 

See Also