New to Power Church and wondering about contributions

[oppfirstmethodist]

Hi, I am new to Power Church and we are excited to be starting off the new year with this program. One question I have is: how do you record contributions from people who are not members, who are visiting, but may want a record of any contributions they have made during the year?

Thanks!
Sandise

[NeilZ]

Hi, I am new to Power Church and we are excited to be starting off the new year with this program. One question I have is: how do you record contributions from people who are not members, who are visiting, but may want a record of any contributions they have made during the year?

Thanks!
Sandise

You enter their data as a visitor, and give them a number that is outside your normal range of numbers.

For instance, if you have envelope numbers between 1 and 500, then you give the visitor a number like 1001. You may want to use 999 as the Loose Plate Offering number.

This is a suggested numbering scheme:

The best way to do this is to create different ranges of envelope numbers.

Range 1: Your normal range of envelopes. Many churches use 1 through 999 for church members. My last church used 101 thru 999, with numbers under 100 for church use. Such as tracking loose plate offerings with envelope 99.

Range 2: Visitors numbers 1001 thru 1099 (or more if necessary). This is a range that you can use to track visitor donations (when you have all the info) but do not have to issue an envelope. If they later join and become members, you can then reassign their contributions to their new member envelope number.

Range 3: Archives: 2000 & up. This is where you can reassign those envelopes for one-time visitors or transferred/inactive members who have not given in a year, but due to IRS regulations you must maintain the contribution information for three years (NZ: its now at least 4 years) after the year of contribution. (I'm quoting that time from memory, so please check IRS regs for the exact time).

Of course, you can modify these ranges to suit your particular situation.

I wrote this up about 10 years and two churches ago, and have still found it to be a viable way of tracking envelopes. Of course, the range may need to be adjusted if you have more than 900 giving units.

Hope this helps.