Batch Gift Entry

Hello, welcome to this version of Batch Gift entry in DonorPerfect. My name is Arlene Berkowitz. I’m a member of the training team here at DonorPerfect. In this presentation, we’ll review the benefits of batch gift entry, we’ll discuss how the workflow is laid out. Read More

Hello, welcome to this version of Batch Gift entry in DonorPerfect. My name is Arlene Berkowitz. I’m a member of the training team here at DonorPerfect. In this presentation, we’ll review the benefits of batch gift entry, we’ll discuss how the workflow is laid out. We’ll talk about the entry templates that you’ll be using. And lastly, we’ll then demonstrate how to use batch gift entry.

Now why would you use the batch gift entry tool? Well, it was designed for scenarios where you have a high volume of gifts or pledges to enter to DonorPerfect. The tool will ensure that the total of your entries will match all of the details, meaning all of the checks that you’re entering. It allows you to review the data entry before those donations are posted to the donors records. And it provides a significant amount of flexibility, because you’ll be able to customize what the data entry templates look like. So let’s review the workflow. First, what you’ll do is design one or more templates that represent the fields that you need in the sequence that you want them to appear, and possibly with values set as defaults in those templates. When those templates have been designed, you then can go ahead and enter a batch using one or more of those templates. To do so, you’ll be instructed to first create a batch header that includes the date of the gifts, the total number of gifts in your batch, and the total dollars of the gifts in your batch. While this is used most commonly for gifts, you could also create a template for pledges. Enter the batch header, and then enter pledges as well. Otherwise, you’ll be entering all of your gifts. And as long as the dollars of your gifts or pledges match the total dollars, put in the batch header, as well as the count of gifts or pledges match the count in your header. You’ll then have what is known as a valid batch, where you’ll be able to post the batch so that those gifts or pledges will appear in your donors records. So how can we work smarter using batch gift entry? Well, you’ll first want to design templates based on the fields that are used most often in your data entry. You’ll want to create templates at a minimum for gifts. If you need a pledge gift entry template, you can do that as well. And should you need specific fields for split gifts as well as soft credits. These are the four different entry templates that you can design. If you have more than one person in your office, entering gifts or pledges into DonorPerfect, you can have templates based on a particular person’s name and having the fields and defaulted values that are representative of the gifts that they enter. For instance, if one person is exclusively doing membership, gifts, and another person does all of the direct mail gifts. And to make you even more efficient with this tool, we would recommend saving defaults in those templates. So you may want to set the solicitation code before you enter all of the gifts from a particular appeal. And then when the next appeal comes in. You can change the solicitation for the solicitor Using code for that appeal. Alright, so now let’s demonstrate how this works. You’ll go to tasks, batch gift entry. And this is what the screen looks like. Before we put gifts in, you’ll want to view the templates and create those user defined or customized templates. Now, you may have templates already here. But what I recommend is that you create templates for your organization’s needs, that have the fields that are relevant to you. Now while you can do this, if you’re familiar with the fields, you might want to look at a gift screen to familiarize you with the fields that are used in your gift entry, as well as maybe noting the sequence that information is entered. So if I want to create a new template, you might want to call it direct mail, gifts. That type of template it will be in this case, I’m going to start with my gift batch template. Click Continue, you’ll indicate which of your staff can have access to this tool. If you want to select all and then deselect any users who won’t be using it, you may do so and then click Continue. In this window, I have field names here and the field description next to it. What you might want to do is using the ctrl F or Command F on a Mac, to find the fields that you need. So if we need the campaign field, I start typing campaign. It’s highlighted here. And what we’re first going to do is come over to this checkbox. This checkbox is indicating that these fields are hidden and not needed in the template. If you want to use the fields in the template, simply uncheck this box to allow them to be displayed and used in your entry template. Another field you might use is the sub solicitation. Another field is my gift type. Or type of gift if you’d like to search for it based on the prompt,

uncheck that.

And another field that I would like is my tea why underline letter number.

And

if we’re entering checks, you might have the field called Check

underline date

which is not in this database. But if you have it, you might want to include that otherwise, with the word check that was highlighted for this field reference. So I want to uncheck that. So what I recommend you do with this point is to Save and Validate so that all of the fields that you’ve selected, will float up to the top and put them all together

now we see the fields that we’ll be using in our entry template are here and they all have a position five, which we’ll address shortly. What you want to do is to think of the sequence from left to right of the fields that we have just made available to see what makes sense in what order. So if we would like to have for instance gift type, then that will start here as position five. If next to that you would want the check date If you had that, then you’d want to change that position to 10. So increase these as recommended by fives. Since I don’t have check date, I won’t be adding that field. But if I want the reference field to come right afterwards, then the field for reference, I’m going to make that position 10, then I might want to have the campaign field follow that. So that’s going to be a 15. And the general ledger will be beside that from left to right. So that would be a 20. And the solicitation, I’m going to make 25, if you want to use sub solicitation, that would go to 30. And the thank you letter number field 35. And the reason why I have given them a position number, that increases by five is it makes it very easy should I want to take another field and inserted for instance, between 15 and 20, I don’t have to worry about remembering these, I can insert four fields if I needed to, in between any of these fields, and just increase the position to number six, for instance. So a field that is position six will be to the right of the field that has position five. All right, in terms of what else I’m going to do here, for the type of gift, what I’m going to be doing is defaulting this to the C k code, which stands for check. I can see that on the screen. But if you don’t need to see it, because everything is a check, then maybe I’ll want to make this a hidden field. If you do want it visible, then of course, leave it unchecked. If we check it, though, it will become hidden. In the case of my campaign, if I want to be able to look up the code, and have binoculars, then you’ll check that same thing with General Ledger. And any other code field if you want to be able to look it up, you’re going to check the box here. If your general ledger fields must be filled in on every entry, then you have a column to check for which fields are required, you will not be able to post any batch where they gifts do not have anything built in in the required fields. If you have many, many codes in a field, and you are more comfortable with starting to type ahead and you’re going to be entering the code, then I would recommend you check the boxes. Alright, at this point, I’m going to save validate to make sure that I didn’t type something that is an invalid code or select something that is not agreeable to DonorPerfect. So click save, validate. Great, there’s no error on my screen. What it also did was renumber everything. So one last moment I would take to look at this to make sure the sequence is logical. Fantastic. Then in that case, I’m ready to save and close. I know continue to design other templates as you need them. So if I have, at this point, the only template that I need, then I’m ready to create a gift batch. To do that, either click here from view batches or come back to test batch gift entry. And here we’re going to click create new gift batch. The batch ID will be automatically filled in and assigned by DonorPerfect. It will start with a four digit year and then an underscore and then the sequential number in terms of how many batches have been created. The batch size This will say either it’s open, or it’s been posted. The batch description is where you can create your own protocol, if you would like to have something a little more descriptive than just the six character batch ID. And this would be used. For instance, if you’re in an office where more than one staff person is using this tool, you might want to use a short version of the date. Maybe your initials, and maybe this is the first batch of the day. If you have more than one, I’ll tab over my date of gifts is the date you received or deposited the funds. Then my batch count will be the number of checks that are attached to the deposit slip, or the photocopies that I have, this is going to be the count that will determine a how many entry lines you’re going to use. For this illustration, I’m just going to pick the number four, then put in the total dollars that those checks will sum to or if the deposit was already made, then the total on that deposit ticket.

In this case, my template, I don’t want to use the default, I want to use the one that I created, which is d n gifts. Click Save and Continue. Because I said that I had four items in my batch count, I have four lines here. This is going to change as I enter my details. The most efficient way to use batch gift entry is if you have replied devices or cards or the bottom of the appeal comes back to you with the pre printed donor ID number. That way I could just type in a donor ID number, a hit tab. And this is my donor up here.

Put in any fields campaign, I can either click on my drop down or use the binoculars. General Ledger, my solicitation, which if this were from one campaign, I could have set as a default before I started. Subsidy solicitation might not apply in this situation. And if it’s not required, I’m going to leave it blank. My Thank you template you also might want to set that as a default before you enter the gifts. Come down to the next row. If you don’t have the donor ID, then you can click on the magnifying glass look for your donor. If that’s not the donor that you want, then you can always add an individual or add an organization

got to put in another gift

continue with my entries

Mr. Jim Barclay here, this is going to be 250.

Notice I’m

able to hit the letter that pertains to the description. In that case, I don’t want the first S I want the second s and here let’s look for more Leanne Williams and we’re going to put in another 250

All right. Now notice that the P lit up. This means that the donor has a pledge. And if this money is part of the pledge and needs to be applied as a like payment, you can click on the P. Ah, yes, I think I want to make the payment on the building fun. And you select the appropriate pledge and click Apply to pledge. If one of these gifts, were a tribute gift, click on the letter T,

look up a tribute

or creating a new attribute

that is a new attribute. And

send a notification to the honoree in this case.

And that would be Mr. Mrs. Rogers sandstone. So I can do my attribute entry, I can make a payment on a pledge, I can link to an employer to make a matching gift pledge. And I can also create a soft credit. At this point, I’m done with the four I don’t have any more checks to enter and my gifts to go with zero. But I have a bit of a problem here that the amount to go appears in red is 75. That means I’m short of the total dollars that I thought needs to be entered. I’m going to check my gifts and make sure that these are the exact amounts that these are accurate. If that’s the case, first I want to save to make sure I don’t have any messages telling me that that particular field was required. So that is not coming up. If at this point, though, I still have a problem with these items being out of balance, I’m going to save and close. And my message says back is not valid. Now in that case, I will not be able to post any of these gifts to the donors records, I must address the problem, figure out why it’s not valid. In my case, my header did not match the some of the gifts, I’m going to click on the pencil. The actual amount that I entered and verified with the checks was 675. This number is not correct. I’m going to change my header in that case, to 675. Save and Continue. My amount to go is now zero my gifts to go with zero. That should be all I need to do. When I save and close I should now be able to post because I have a valid batch message. If you would like to look at or print a batch detail report, you have this you also can run the version, which is subtotal by General Ledger. Either of those reports you can then print

what you want to make sure is that when you have a valid batch, either you post it immediately to the donors records or if you have more than one batch to enter in a day. You can wait till you’re done with all of the Batch Entry and then select or check the boxes have more than one batch and they can all at the same time be posted into DonorPerfect. If valid batches as well as any invalid batches are sitting here as open and not posted. They will not appear in donors records. They will not appear in the receipts area for you to thank the donors, nor will they appear in any of the reports and DonorPerfect. So I want to check that row And that allows this button to appear of post batches. And now that’s part of my history in terms of batches that have posted to validate that the gifts did post.

I’m gonna go to

Joan Jett,

we do see the last gift date was 324. So that’s encouraging. Her gift does appear here. Wonderful. Therefore it now is ready to be thanked in your receipts. I hope that you would found this to be helpful, and that you’re anxious to start using a batch gift entry. So remember to create the templates that have the fields that you use often. And in the sequence that makes sense. Setting up defaults on those templates before you enter gifts will save you a lot of time. And make sure that once you’ve ensured that the batch is valid, that you post any and all valid batches so that the gifts will appear in the donors records. And you’ll be able to thank those donors and also report on those gifts. So thank you so much for viewing this webinar.