Names

4.1 General

Names and addresses in Banner should have a customer friendly appearance. The objective is to enter names and addresses with both upper and lowercase letters so that when a name or address is printed on correspondence, it looks contemporary and professional.

4.2 Person Name Formatting

Enter the last, first and middle names using the individual's legal name. If given the full middle name, enter the full middle name. Do not change a full name to an initial. Always use normal upper- and lower-case letters for names.  Human Resources must have the legal name for all employees.  Student transcripts require the legal name as well.  (A person's legal name appears on a Social Security card, a court order, a marriage license or passport.) 

Enter any preferred names in the preferred name field.  This preferred name will then print on mailings and correspondence as the "customer" wants it to be printed.

Case

If the person has written all upper-case letters, enter the normal upper- and lower-case letters. If the person's name starts with a lower-case letter, enter the first letter in lower case.

(This becomes guess work where the name could be one with a space and double caps, for example Vander Vaart or Vandervaart)

Note:  If a legal name begins with a lowercase first letter (e.g. dellaToria) and the name is entered as lowercase, remember that this name will appear after all capital letters in a search or list.  (dellaToria would be after Zwick).

Externally obtained data feeds will be converted into this upper- and lowercase format.

Initials

Use a period after initials, whether a first name initial or a middle name initial.

Note: If possible, avoid using an initial for the first name unless the name appears as such on legal name documentation.

Spaces

If the provided name information shows a space within a name, maintain the space in last names (one space maximum). See the following examples:

Spaces are also permitted in first names for double names such as:

but you may need to user the "skip name verify" checkbox in order for it to save properly with the space

Punctuation

Use hyphens, apostrophes, or dashes exactly as indicated in the legal name. Do not add punctuation where there is none. Any of the following examples would be correct in format; the data source would determine which is accurate.

Prefixes and Suffixes

Enter prefixes and suffixes in the respectively named fields in the APAIDEN current identification block.  Do not enter prefixes and suffixes (such as Mr., Ms., Lt., or Rev. and Jr., IV, or Esq.) in the last name, first name, middle name, or preferred first name fields.

Note: If a professional prefix is used, do NOT use a professional suffix. Either format below is acceptable; the prefix or suffix should be entered as requested by the person.

Previous Names – What are we doing with Jitterbit and SF

Bethel’s practice is to maintain previous name information in Banner. Previous names are entered in the alternate identification block with a label “PNAM.”  If the name is known to be a maiden name, assign the label “MADN” instead.

Legal Name

The first, last, and middle names fields in the APAIDEN current identification block should contain the individual’s legal name. Bethel University does NOT use the special "legal name" field in Banner.

Preferred First Name

The "Preferred First Name" field is used for variations of the legal name.  The preferred name is optional, but will be used in most reports and mailings when entered.

Of course, a lot of our data comes from the Admissions application where students will occasionally list multiple preferred first names like "Will or William." In this instance, I leave "Will" in the preferred first name since "William" would still be in the system as the legal first name. Someone would need to reach out to the student or make a judgment call in other situations in order to remove the 'or.' Since the preferred first name is pulled into communication, we want to avoid having a letter sent out to "Will or William."

Note: Depending on how the rest of the data pulls in, sometimes names may appear funny. For example, in Degree Works, we pull in preferred first name, middle name, last name. Therefore, if the student's preferred first name is their middle name, it will show MiddleName MiddleName Last Name.

4.3 Non-Person Formatting

Non-persons generally include churches, businesses, foundations, schools, and vendors.  Vendors are companies or organizations doing business with Bethel in a professional capacity and may include suppliers, granting agencies, banks, institutions, government entities, and individuals.

Only one id record and one identifier should exist for each non-person/vendor. It is important the database be searched thoroughly before adding a new non-person to Banner to ensure the entity or individual does not already exist. (See Section 2.3, Non-Person Name Searches).

General Format

Non-person names should always be entered in the non-person name field on the bottom of the APAIDEN current identification block.  Spaces are permitted between multiple names.

The pound sign (#), percent sign (%), underscore (_) and asterisk (*) should not be used in non-person names because they may cause ORACLE database errors.

If an “article” (a, an, or the) is used in the full legal name of a non-person entry, it should be included when entering the name in Banner. If a non-person name begins with the word “The”, it should also be included when entering the name.

In the case of a d/b/a (doing business as), the owner ID must first be created for the individual or company name appearing on the W-9. Then create the record for the d/b/a or vendor sharing a tax ID and link it to the owner ID.

Uppercase / Lowercase (Non-Person)

Enter all information using mixed case (upper and lower case) and standard capitalization. Never use all uppercase or all lowercase letters, except for acronyms.

Initials and a Non-Person's Name

Names should be entered with spaces between the words.

Punctuation (Non-Person)

Do not add punctuation where there is none.  Do not use periods (.).

Apostrophes may be used, but do not use spaces before or after the apostrophe.

Commas should not be used between names.

Acronyms (Non-Person)

Acronyms and universally accepted abbreviations should be entered with no spaces and no periods between the letters.

Connective Words (Non-Person)

Connective words such as “and”, “in”, or “for” are to be entered in all lowercase unless they are the first word of the organization. The use of “and”, “or”, and “&” should be determined by the preference of the company.

The ampersand should only be used when part of a formal name. Use “and” in all other cases.

Hyphens and Slashes (Non-Person)

Hyphens or slashes may be used to separate names.  When using a hyphen or slash, do not use a space before or after. Spaces are also permitted between multiple names, if preferred by the vendor.

Numerals as part of a Name (Non-Person)

If a numeral is part of the official corporate name, enter the numeral rather than spelling out the number.

Abbreviations (Non-Person)

In general, company names should not be abbreviated. However, when space limitation requires the use of abbreviations, common abbreviations may be used. If additional space is still required, abbreviate the last word at the end of the line. Punctuation should not be used (i.e. no periods).

Government Agencies

Government agencies should be created with separate Banner records and

linked using the Owner ID function.

Example:

• Vendor 1: State of Minnesota - Create the State of Minnesota as a non-person record and define as a vendor.
• Vendor 2: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources - Create Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as a non-person record, define as a vendor, and link with the State of Minnesota as the owner ID
• Vendor 3: Minnesota Department of Revenue - Create Minnesota Department of Revenue as a non-person record, define as a vendor, and link with the State of Minnesota as the owner ID.

Churches

Enter the full name of the church if possible.  Avoid abbreviating the word "Church".

4.4 Procedures

Adding New Records

Person and non-person records are created when someone enters them in Banner for the first time. Creating new records is restricted to several departments and these units must follow these data standards when creating new records.

Creation of New Person or Non-person Record

The following departments have the ability to create a new general person or non-person record.

• All University admission offices (CAS, CAPS/GS, all three Seminary admissions offices)
• Human Resources
• Alumni and Development
• Business Office
• Church Ministries (churches)
• Communication and Marketing (newspapers)
• Career Services (companies & organizations)

Name Change Policies

Whenever an office receives a name change request it is necessary to determine what that person or non-person’s connection to Bethel is.   The Banner INB form GUASYST and the Argos Current Student and Employee datablock in the Banner Search folder are helpful tools in determining that connection.

Informed professional judgment must be used to determine what constitutes a name correction (i.e. data entry or spelling error) rather than a name change. The following chart summarizes procedures for making name changes for person and non-person entities in Banner.