Envelope number not found

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Kevin Sawatzky
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon May 28, 2007 12:56 pm
Location: Winnipeg MB

Envelope number not found

Post by Kevin Sawatzky »

It appears that a $20 contribution has gone to an envelope number that is assigned to an "unknown contributor". However, when I print the Range Report this amount is not included in the envelope totals. My question is, how can a contribution be posted to an envelope number which can't be located when I search for it? Thank you for your help and insight into this question.
Kevin

NeilZ
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Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:20 am
Location: Dexter NM
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Re: Envelope number not found

Post by NeilZ »

Kevin Sawatzky wrote:It appears that a $20 contribution has gone to an envelope number that is assigned to an "unknown contributor". However, when I print the Range Report this amount is not included in the envelope totals. My question is, how can a contribution be posted to an envelope number which can't be located when I search for it? Thank you for your help and insight into this question.
The answer to your question is that it shouldn't. How do you know that the contribution went to an 'unknown' envelope?
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

Kevin Sawatzky
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon May 28, 2007 12:56 pm
Location: Winnipeg MB

Re: Envelope number not found

Post by Kevin Sawatzky »

NeilZ wrote:
Kevin Sawatzky wrote:It appears that a $20 contribution has gone to an envelope number that is assigned to an "unknown contributor". However, when I print the Range Report this amount is not included in the envelope totals. My question is, how can a contribution be posted to an envelope number which can't be located when I search for it? Thank you for your help and insight into this question.
The answer to your question is that it shouldn't. How do you know that the contribution went to an 'unknown' envelope?
When I run the report "Funds Total By Envelope" the envelope # (in this case #1863) shows a $20 contribution with the name "unknown contributor". I then ran the report "Unused Envelope Numbers" and #1863 was in a category by itself indicated "Envelope Used by a Non Contributor". We looked back at the PDF of the Unposted Contributions Report from the day this happened and noticed envelope #1863 has "Envelope number not found" under the Name column.

We were able to track down from our records the person that gave this $20 contribution. We checked their profile in the Membership Module. Under Integrated Data Entry the person's name and contact info were there, but there were no personal profiles listed. When we went to enter the name and assigned it envelope #1863 we received a warning message saying something to the effect of "This envelope number has contributions assigned to it already. All contributions under this envelope number will be moved to this person." We assigned it anyway and then looked and discovered the only contribution assigned to it was the $20 in question.

So we have solved our problem, but my question/concern is how is it possible to have an envelope number assigned to a non contributor? Did our data entry person do something when they originally set up this profile and assigned the envelope number to this profile that would have caused this to happen? Very bizarre to say the least.
Kevin

NeilZ
Posts: 10209
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:20 am
Location: Dexter NM
Contact:

Re: Envelope number not found

Post by NeilZ »

Kevin Sawatzky wrote: So we have solved our problem, but my question/concern is how is it possible to have an envelope number assigned to a non contributor? Did our data entry person do something when they originally set up this profile and assigned the envelope number to this profile that would have caused this to happen? Very bizarre to say the least.
FWIW .. I don't remember hearing something like this happening in the past few years, it is very rare. The only thing I can think of is that there was a restoration of a backup taken when the number was assigned. Now the backup could have been of only the membership database, or of only the Contribution database. I'm suspecting that the Contributions database was backed up, but the membership data was updated after that backup and someone changed the personal profile (or deleted it).

Then the contribution database was restored, and the number in Contribution was not connected to anyone in the Membership database, as the envelope number is the only thing that connects the two.

As I said, this is not a normal occurrence and should not happen during normal use. This is a good time to take a look at any of the audit logs for Membership and Contributions to see if this indeed happened in that way. I'd also take a look to see who has permissions to restore databases, and perhaps, reduce that number to only an authorized few.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

Kevin Sawatzky
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon May 28, 2007 12:56 pm
Location: Winnipeg MB

Re: Envelope number not found

Post by Kevin Sawatzky »

NeilZ wrote:
Kevin Sawatzky wrote: So we have solved our problem, but my question/concern is how is it possible to have an envelope number assigned to a non contributor? Did our data entry person do something when they originally set up this profile and assigned the envelope number to this profile that would have caused this to happen? Very bizarre to say the least.
FWIW .. I don't remember hearing something like this happening in the past few years, it is very rare. The only thing I can think of is that there was a restoration of a backup taken when the number was assigned. Now the backup could have been of only the membership database, or of only the Contribution database. I'm suspecting that the Contributions database was backed up, but the membership data was updated after that backup and someone changed the personal profile (or deleted it).

Then the contribution database was restored, and the number in Contribution was not connected to anyone in the Membership database, as the envelope number is the only thing that connects the two.

As I said, this is not a normal occurrence and should not happen during normal use. This is a good time to take a look at any of the audit logs for Membership and Contributions to see if this indeed happened in that way. I'd also take a look to see who has permissions to restore databases, and perhaps, reduce that number to only an authorized few.
Thanks Neil. Unfortunately that's not the issue. No backups were restored from any of our modules. There are only 2 people authorized to do backups/restores.

Something happened on the day of the contribution being entered. It's almost as if our data entry person created a new donor profile, assigned it the envelope number and some how the system saved the envelope number, but not the profile information. I know that probably isn't what happened, but that is what appears to have happened on the surface, because the envelope number was assigned according to the system, but the person's data was not in the system. Anyway, we have resolved the issue and will move on and hope it doesn't happen again.
Kevin

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