Understanding Contact Attributes vs Payment Attributes

Attributes in Vega allow you to store additional information for reporting, searching, workflows, and segmentation. Choosing whether to use a Contact Attribute or a Payment Attribute depends on what the information relates to.

• Contact Attributes describe the person or organisation and are generally consistent across all of their interactions with your organisation.
• Payment Attributes describe an individual payment and may vary from one transaction to the next.

Using the correct attribute type helps keep your data organised and ensures your reporting accurately reflects either your contacts or your financial transactions.

Contact Attributes

Contact Attributes are used to record information about a contact that is likely to remain the same over time or apply across all of their interactions.

Examples of Contact Attributes include:

• Volunteer status
• Membership level
• Preferred language
• Preferred communication method
• Donor category
• Organisation type
• Region or branch
• Board member status

Once recorded, Contact Attributes can be used throughout Vega for:

• Searching and filtering contacts
• Reports
• Workflows and automations
• Document merge fields
• Audience segmentation

Because these attributes belong to the contact, they remain available regardless of how many payments the contact makes.

Payment Attributes

Payment Attributes are used to record information that relates specifically to an individual payment or transaction.

Unlike Contact Attributes, Payment Attributes can be different for every payment made by the same contact.

Examples of Payment Attributes include:

• Appeal or campaign source
• Event ticket type
• Donation channel
• Payment collector
• Fundraising event
• Collection bucket or donation box
• Payment reference
• Processing information

Payment Attributes are useful when you need to report on or categorise payments independently of the contact.

Contact Attributes vs Payment Attributes

Example

Jane Smith is recorded in Vega as an Individual Donor.

Over the course of the year, she makes three separate donations:

In this example:

• Donor Type is a Contact Attribute because it describes Jane.
• Appeal is a Payment Attribute because it relates to the individual donation being made.

Although Jane's Contact Attribute remains the same, each payment records different Payment Attributes depending on its purpose.

When should I use each?

Use a Contact Attribute when the information:

• Describes the contact.
• Will generally remain the same over time.
• Should be available across all interactions.
• Is useful for searching, reporting, workflows, or communications.

Use a Payment Attribute when the information:

• Describes a specific payment.
• May differ from one transaction to another.
• Is required for financial reporting or payment analysis.
• Helps categorise or track donations, memberships, or other transactions.

Best Practice

If the information describes who the contact is, create a Contact Attribute.

If the information describes how or why a payment was made, create a Payment Attribute.

Using the correct attribute type keeps contact records clean while providing detailed reporting on individual transactions.