Knowledge Base

Vanco Payment Solutions Integration


In a Maintenance Release for PowerChurch Plus Version 11.55 dated 09/09/2015, we redesigned and greatly improved the Import Contributions process. The original import from file still works great and allows you to easily get the individual contributions into the system without having to manually enter them all on the Enter Contributions screen.

However, a common problem is that what needs to show up on the Accounting side of the software with online payments is not the same as it is with your weekly contributions deposit. If you have dealt with credit card payments and ACH transfers before, you know that it is difficult to connect those individual contributions with what eventually shows up in your bank account. You'll find bank transfers normally land in your account the next business day, but different credit card companies have different processing times.

To illustrate the flow of funds, we have published an article that follows a few contributions from the time they are given, to when they are imported into PowerChurch, the details of what you will see in Contributions, and at the end of the process, what you will see in Fund Accounting. You can view that article from the link below:

www.powerchurch.com/support/446/1/vanco-payment-solutions-online-giving-workflow

With the redesigned Vanco integration, what you will see is that the Contributions side of the software references the actual date the contribution was made online and the actual amount given. The Fund Accounting side of the software shows the contribution income, expense for credit card processing fees, and the date the money was actually deposited into the bank account.

Now, let's take a walk through the steps of the import process.

  1. Go to Contributions > Import Contributions > Import from Vanco.



  2. Click Next. If this is your first time using the redesigned Vanco Payment Solutions integration, you will be taken through two setup steps.



  3. Enter the following information:

    • Vanco Payment Solutions Programs. Making use of different programs/services offered by Vanco, you may have multiple account credentials. Click the Add Program button to add a new named set of credentials. You can also delete or edit the programs using the buttons along side of the list.
    • Vanco Payment Solutions Credentials. Contact Vanco Customer Care at (800) 675-7430 to request API access for PowerChurch Plus. Vanco will provide you with credentials to enter into these fields in PowerChurch.
    • Assign imported contributions the following type. This is the Contribution Type that will show up on new contributions that are imported. Select an existing Contribution Type or choose the option to add a new Contribution Type specifically for those imported from Vanco.
    • Contributions Transit Asset Account. This account will be used on the Fund Accounting side of the software and holds money from the date the contribution was given until the date the money was actually deposited in your account. Click the Add Account (+) button to add a new asset account if necessary.
    • Expense Account to record fees. This expense account is used to lower the actual amount  of money that is deposited, by recording the expense of credit card processing fees. Click the Add Account (+) button to add a new expense account if necessary.

  4. Click Next. This is the second step of the setup process. Choose the option that best describes your organization. The option you choose here will determine the earliest date of contributions that PowerChurch will import from Vanco Payment Solutions.



    • We are new to Vanco Payment Solutions. Choose this option if you have never imported or manually entered contributions from Vanco into PowerChurch. Enter the date that you began receiving contributions from Vanco.
    • We are existing Vanco users, but were manually entering contributions in PowerChurch. Choose this option if you are an existing user of Vanco Payment Solutions, but have been manually entering contributions into PowerChurch. Enter the earliest date of Vanco contributions that you have not yet entered into PowerChurch.
    • We have previously been importing contributions via file from Vanco. Choose this option if you have been using the Import Contributions feature in PowerChurch to import from the CSV file provided by Vanco. Browse to the earliest file you have received from Vanco that has not yet been imported into PowerChurch.

  5. Click Next. PowerChurch will connect to the Vanco servers and will download the contribution transactions. If there are contributions from people whose envelope numbers do not match, or contributions to funds that the fund numbers do not match, they will be highlighted in red.



  6. Double click on an entry shown in red to link the contribution entry to an existing person and/or fund. The information received from Vanco (Name & Address, Fund Number & Description) will be displayed in red text. You can add a new contributor right from the Edit Contribution screen by clicking the Add Contributor button if necessary. A link will be stored in the database so that next time, PowerChurch will recognize contributions from this person and/or to this fund.



  7. When finished matching up any ** Unknown ** entries in the list, click Next. The contributions will be imported.



  8. Click Print Report to generate a report of the imported contributions, then click Close to exit out of this screen.

If you have Accounting set up in PowerChurch, then your imported contributions will be posted directly to Fund Accounting. Otherwise, the contributions will be saved as unposted contributions.


Created: 07/06/2015
Last updated: 07/25/2021