Hi, Jenny! I hope this finds you doing well. It's been a long time!
We, at Strata Information Group (SIG), have also been doing implementations to Slate Advancement. You are correct, there's not a definitive plan to follow for the project. But, there is a definite order which must be followed for loading the gift data (which is not exactly your question, but hopefully helpful advice to share).
It must go in this order: define and create relationships, especially spouses; load planned gifts, then pledges, followed by all giving history. (Then, repeat for company/foundation records--remember, organizations in Slate are schools, so I like to be consistent with the naming conventions when training staff and teaching them their new product--non-person entities are called company/foundation records).
Another thing to remember is Slate has a different process when posting gifts manually than for online gifts (it must be a one-to-one relationship when a gift is manually processed). If the donor wishes to split their gift to multiple campaigns or designations, this needs to be entered as separate gifts in Slate (say, if they pay by check). However, the Slate online giving feature allows a donor to split their gift multiple ways at the time they are making it, so the distribution to multiple funds for one gift IS allowed on what they call the payment record (what results from an online gift). Then, when online gifts are automatically posted into Slate (a nice feature!), they are able to have the multiple campaign/designation combination on them. I just wish this was consistent.
As far as a predefined project management plan, there's not a recommended one available that I am aware of. But, the product is powerful and easy to use, which makes it attractive to many institutions, especially those with resources already available on campus because of also having Slate Admissions (they can operate together in one instance, or, be two separate instances, as desired).
Hope this helps!
Dave
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David Smittle
Senior Consultant
Strata Information Group (SIG)