This tool is one that really requires clients to think hard about what they’re actually telling the tool to pull, as it may not always be what it seems. There are several considerations when using this tool.
First, think of the months that you are comparing when using the tool - each month uses a different data source.
Any Previous Month = Data comes from EOM files for MASTER and MSHIST tables.
Current Month = Pulls from the live files for MASTER and MSHIST. There is no BOD or EOD element to this report when running over current month – it just pulls the live data. Meaning, memberships could be closing or opening this very second so current month #s changing slightly from run to run would be normal.
Secondly, and most importantly, you have an option within the tool to choose whether or not to include written-off loans in your total count (the tool defaults to report written-off loans separately). Here is a visual of what each option does:
Default – Report written off loans separately
Total Members =
+ New Memberships
- Closed Memberships
- Existing Member with new write-off
+ Existing Member with write-off that was closed off the system
Optional – Include written off loans in totals
Total Members =
+ New Memberships
- Closed Memberships
Another way to say think about this is that it is including all memberships, regardless of “write-off status”. So, existing members are still of course experiencing changes in “write-off status” but in this scenario net changes are moot since we’re including all members regardless of whether they have a written off loan or not.
Lastly, the report includes two definitions of a total member count. Let’s say your credit union has 50 new memberships but only 47 new SSNs, as some of those other new memberships may be second or third memberships for the same person, but when the first one was opened 3 years ago it’s not part of the new population. So, the report captures 1 new membership and 1 new SSN in the “New” report, but when running the “All” report, which takes those individual memberships under the same SSN into account, the report will show membership count increasing by 1 while SSN count does not change (due to member's existing 3-year old membership already having them counted in that category). This works the same with closed.
Which means again in the case of live data for current month – if a loan is written off at 2:00pm then running the report at 3:00pm will definitely see the member count decreased by 1 but only possibly may see the SSN count drop by one. Why not automatically both? Because a person with 2 memberships can have a loan written off on membership #1 (decreasing member count) while membership #2 stays “clean” (leaving SSN count static since there is still at least 1 “clean” membership tied to that SSN).