deleting contributions

[bhoerr]

I read that I should clear out old contribution data. and delete inactive profiles.

Do I need to make a hard copy of old data? How do I go about deleting the contribution data?

Thanks.
Becky

[NeilZ]

I read that I should clear out old contribution data. and delete inactive profiles.

Do I need to make a hard copy of old data? How do I go about deleting the contribution data?

Thanks.
Becky

You don't HAVE to, but you can.

First off, you are required by the IRS to maintain any Contribution records for at least four years. So that means that you need to have them available in case someone needs to get a copy.

There are a few ways of doing this:

Suggestion 1:

Make a backup of the database to CD. Very easy to do, you can then clear out the data right away, and you don't have to have it around on the database for 4 years. Problem is that if you move to a new version of Powerchurch during that time, you won't be able to access this data unless you keep a copy of the old version's CD around to reinstall and access that data.

Suggestion 2:

a) Make a backup of the database. Thought you were going to get out of doing this, right?? Nope, always a good practice to do when you're doing anything that will create major changes on the database.

b) Renumber the envelope number to one within our Archived data range. We use 5000-5999, which is outside the normal range of envelopes, and easily excluded from Contribution reports.

c) Mark the Mailing List and Personal Profiles with statuses that will not turn up in a normal Membership report. If the member is deceased, mark the records to reflect that. Of course, if its a married couple, you will still have the spouse as active until they transfer or pass away. Another status I use is Member-Transfrd, again someone who has left the congregation. After the end of year reports are done, I remove all the checkmarks on the Mailing List profile. We also have a date field on the personal profile to reflect the Loss date as that comes into play when we do our yearly denominational reports.

d) After 4 years, we remove the Contribution data, and the profiles:

• Go to Membership, and delete any Mailing List records that have been inactive for the time between the start and end dates for the range you're clearing out . If you delete the Mailing List profile, the Personal Profiles that are linked to it will also be deleted. You can get a list of profiles that would fall into this range by using the Loss date on the Personal Profile and running a report against that date. Remember, if there is still a surviving spouse, or other active members on the mailing list profile, I would not delete the 'inactive' record unless you decide its no longer necessary to link the two together.
  
  Go to Attendance, and the Delete Old Data function there. In v11 its under the Attendance Setup submenu, earlier versions have it on the regular Attendance drop down menu. Enter the date range you want to clear out, and click OK.
  
  In Contributions, go to the Delete Old Data function. In v11 its under the Contributions Setup submenu, earlier versions have it on the regular Contributions drop down menu. This works in much the same way as the Attendance Delete Old Data, the data is deleted and will not show up in any reports.

People have emailed me privately asking How do I determine when four years are up?, I go by this rule:

• If someone has left the congregation and become inactive (for whatever reason) say in 2010, their Personal Profile will reflect the date of inactivation or Loss. So I start with a range of 01/01/2010 thru 12/31/2010. Now I don't clear out old data every month in 2014, I will wait until Jan 2015 to clear out the 2010 data. This gives all the data for the year 2010 at least 4 years in the archive to satisfy the IRS rules on record retention.

If you have any questions, please ask.

[bhoerr]

Thank you!

This is exactly what I needed.

Becky