Contribution Fund Type

[tborgal]

In setting up a designated contribution I set a value in the Contribution Fund Type field. When I enter the contribution and enter the Fund Number, which has the same Contribution Fund Type selected as the designation I still get the full list of designations in the drop down menu. Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug. Using V11.5.

[NeilZ]

In setting up a designated contribution I set a value in the Contribution Fund Type field. When I enter the contribution and enter the Fund Number, which has the same Contribution Fund Type selected as the designation I still get the full list of designations in the drop down menu. Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug. Using V11.5.

Nope ... this is the way its designed. The designation drop down is available for any fund, so that if a family wants to donate in memory of aunt sally to the building fund they can, but if a friend of aunt sally want's to donate to the youth fund, they can do that also.

[Zorak]

Actually, you control this when setting up the designations on Maintain List of Designations. There is a Contribution Fund Type dropdown list. The default choice is <All>, but you can specify an individual fund type there for each designation.

[tborgal]

What is the Contribution Fund Type field for? In the help file it states the following " Setting up a designation on a specific Fund Type will limit which funds the designation will apply to, making data entry more efficient".

Does this not mean that the drop down menu in Designations when entering a contribution should be limited to only those that have the same Fund Type attached to them?

[NeilZ]

What is the Contribution Fund Type field for? In the help file it states the following " Setting up a designation on a specific Fund Type will limit which funds the designation will apply to, making data entry more efficient".

Does this not mean that the drop down menu in Designations when entering a contribution should be limited to only those that have the same Fund Type attached to them?

My bad ... we always list them for 'all' so we have them available.

The fund type is whatever you want to set it up for: We only have one additional fund type setup, 'pass-thru'. You can add ones such as 'memorials', 'flowers', 'missions', etc

Now ... I did go and do some testing, assigning the 'Easter Flowers' and "Poinsettias" designations to the Flowers type of fund (we only one one flower fund). However, I left the rest of the designations alone. Sure enough, they all appeared in the drop-down.

I then created a new Fund Type of memorial, and set the rest of the designations to that, and only the flower designations appeared when I entered a 'contribution' for flowers.

[tborgal]

So, if you don't have a Contribution Designation assigned to Fund Type it will show up in all Fund Types. That does not seem right. I would think that if you had a Fund Type assigned that only those assigned to that Fund Type would appear in the drop down menu. Don't know if I am explaining this correctly.

[Zorak]

The purpose of fund types is to allow you to include non-consecutive numbered funds together on reports.

If you have 15 different missions funds that have been added over time and are not numbered consecutively, you can still run reports for just the fund type of 'missions'. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to without renumbering all your funds.

[NeilZ]

So, if you don't have a Contribution Designation assigned to Fund Type it will show up in all Fund Types. That does not seem right. I would think that if you had a Fund Type assigned that only those assigned to that Fund Type would appear in the drop down menu. Don't know if I am explaining this correctly.

Tom, that is what I saw in my testing. I setup a Fund Type of Flowers, I assigned the designations to that Fund Type. I then set the Flowers Contribution Fund to the Fund Type of Flowers.

Only the flower designations appeared in the drop down when I finished that process.

[tborgal]

I understand what Zorak is saying and it does make sense. But the instructions specifically speak to making data entry easier. If setting a Fund Type to a Designation does not remove all the Designations not assigned to that Type from the drop down list when entering contributions, how does it make it easier to enter the contribution?

Neil, I tried what you described and was able to remove Designations from the list by assigning them to another Fund Type. But that means I need to assign every Designation a Fund Type to remove them from the drop down list. This is not always possible since some Designations are wanted across more than one fund.

[NeilZ]

I understand what Zorak is saying and it does make sense. But the instructions specifically speak to making data entry easier. If setting a Fund Type to a Designation does not remove all the Designations not assigned to that Type from the drop down list when entering contributions, how does it make it easier to enter the contribution?

Neil, I tried what you described and was able to remove Designations from the list by assigning them to another Fund Type. But that means I need to assign every Designation a Fund Type to remove them from the drop down list. This is not always possible since some Designations are wanted across more than one fund.

You see my point ... you have ALL, then you have SOME. So, if you want to have designations across more than one fund, you're going to have to create two separate designations:

IE: Memorials - General, Memorials - Building, Memorials - etc

It does make it easier to enter contributions as it still removes many of the designations from the list. So instead of 20 you only see 10 !!

FWIW .. trying to create a system where you can put a check next to each fund you want the designation to be assigned to will probably have to wait until the next version.

[tborgal]

OK, I did some playing around and managed to get the list shortened where I need to. I think I understand how this function works now. Thanks Neil and Zorak.

[Zorak]

Another thing that will "ease the data entry" process is to either set an active date range on the designations, or make them inactive when you are no longer taking up those collections. That way you won't have to scroll through a list of inactive designations during the data entry process.