Using Givelify for Online Contributions

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Blessed
Posts: 28
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 7:23 pm

Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by Blessed »

Hello Neil,
My questions is in reference to this post. Out of necessity, COVID-19, we are getting a crash course in on-line giving. We chose Givelify. I am using PChurch 11.5. You said when posting to funds accounting, debit (show) the Vendor Fees and reduce the deposited amount under the right side/credit column. My question is, if I'm entering the contributions manually, would I be able to just reduce the Tithes and Offering or BF, Scholarship... by that amount? Would it impact my balances anywhere else or does it matter at that point since the actual amount to those funds flowed from the contribution module? Thanks!

NeilZ
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Re: Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by NeilZ »

Blessed wrote:Hello Neil,
My questions is in reference to this post. Out of necessity, COVID-19, we are getting a crash course in on-line giving. We chose Givelify. I am using PChurch 11.5. You said when posting to funds accounting, debit (show) the Vendor Fees and reduce the deposited amount under the right side/credit column. My question is, if I'm entering the contributions manually, would I be able to just reduce the Tithes and Offering or BF, Scholarship... by that amount? Would it impact my balances anywhere else or does it matter at that point since the actual amount to those funds flowed from the contribution module? Thanks!
How are you entering the data? Are you reducing the amount shown on the donor's contributions by the amount charged? For example, the donor gives $20, fee is $.88, do you show $19.12 on their Statement, or you showing the entire $20 and then absorbing the cost?

Frankly, editing the transaction coming from contributions without showing why there is a reduction in income will cause audit questions. If Contributions shows that $1200 came in one week, but you're showing an income of only $1150, any auditor worth the title would ask where the other $50 went.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

Blessed
Posts: 28
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 7:23 pm

Re: Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by Blessed »

I'm sure that would cause questions. Well, I haven't entered anything yet. We are looking to roll this App out this weekend and I wanted to find out what the best practice would be and the simplest way to accomplish it (I'm keeping the books, certainly not a book keeper) I saw the above post and I was trying understand the concept and entry process. We want to give the donor the full credit and have the church absorb the fees. Is this another possibility: How would it work if I Entered Givelify as a Vendor and used manual check entry and Draft as the check number to account for the fees?

Zorak
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Re: Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by Zorak »

You may want to consider entering the Contributions for the full amounts, but when you Post Contributions, choose the Contributions Module Only option. You can then enter accurate transactions in Fund Accounting > Enter Transactions.

The problems with posting online giving directly over into Fund Accounting are two-fold:

- The dates aren't going to line up. The date the person gives online vs when that money is deposited into your bank account. Also, I'm not sure about Givelify, but other payment processors will make all deposits once a day, so you may have contributions of different types from different dates all being deposited together. Different credit card companies vs. ACH all potentially take a different number of days to process before they hit your bank.

- The amounts aren't going to line up. After the fees are expensed out of the donated amount, as you previously mentioned, the amount you receive is less, but the expense needs to be accounted for as well.

These things are all accounted for when importing from Vanco, but we aren't able to get all of the additional information when importing from a file or manually entering things in the Enter Contributions screen.

Blessed
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Re: Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by Blessed »

Thank you. You're right the dates and amounts wouldn't line up. I will enter the online contributions, but not update in fund accounting. Then, enter the transaction from online giving, using the date and amount that they actually deposited into the church account. How do I show the online fees with that entry? What would it look like? For example Total Contributions received $1000; Fees $29; Bank deposit $971

Zorak
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Re: Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by Zorak »

The transaction would look something like the following:

01-1110-000 Checking (Debit) $971.00
01-5110-000 Expense (Debit) $29.00
01-4110-000 Income (Credit) $1000.00

mtararatsocialmedia
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Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2021 10:56 am

Re: Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by mtararatsocialmedia »

I read the post below and trying to get some clarity as to how to show Givelify in PowerChurch. My first question is in respect to showing a Givelify donation of $1000 in the following way, is that just for when the church is absorbing the fee or does it matter? Normally when we receive a donation from Givelify, we only give the donor credit for what is deposited in the bank.

The transaction would look something like the following:
01-1110-000 Checking (Debit) $971.00
01-5110-000 Expense (Debit) $29.00
01-4110-000 Income (Credit) $1000.00

My second question is can you explain the following statement "I will enter the online contributions, but not update in fund accounting."?

Finally, when is it appropriate to enter transactions using fund accounting?

NeilZ
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Re: Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by NeilZ »

mtararatsocialmedia wrote:
Wed Apr 28, 2021 7:59 am
I read the post below and trying to get some clarity as to how to show Givelify in PowerChurch. My first question is in respect to showing a Givelify donation of $1000 in the following way, is that just for when the church is absorbing the fee or does it matter? Normally when we receive a donation from Givelify, we only give the donor credit for what is deposited in the bank.

The transaction would look something like the following:
01-1110-000 Checking (Debit) $971.00
01-5110-000 Expense (Debit) $29.00
01-4110-000 Income (Credit) $1000.00
That transaction is for when the church is 'absorbing the fee'. if your congregation expects that the amount donated will be reduced by the fee, then it does not apply.

However, if the congregation does NOT explicitly understand that say if they give 100.00, the church only sees 95.00 then that needs to be spelled out to them, otherwise there would be questions later on.

My second question is can you explain the following statement "I will enter the online contributions, but not update in fund accounting."?
You have the option to post Contributions to Fund Accounting, or only post to Contributions. Most churches post directly to Funds Accounting, however, those that use some online giving sites need to give the donor credit for the full amount given, as they then absorb the fee. In this case these organizations will post the online giving only to Contributions, and enter the deposit transaction in Fund Accounting using the same type of entry as the example above.
Finally, when is it appropriate to enter transactions using fund accounting?
You want to have all transactions entered in the various accounting modules (Accounts Payable, Payroll, Accounts Receivable), and Contributions, directly posted to Funds Accounting. This creates the proper transactions needed for posting in Fund Accounting. You also want to initiate any corrections, voids, or reversals in those originating modules, then posted to Funds Accounting. This is done to update the database in those modules, and create the proper transactions for Funds Accounting.

The only times I enter a transaction in Funds Accounting are entries for deposits of funds not coming from Contributions, updates of endowment funds (mutual funds, etc), and stuff like that. Does that help?
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

Greghc48
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Re: Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by Greghc48 »

We are also considering on line options for accepting donations. After reading through this thread, can we do the following?

Using PayPal, or other on line giving solution, our church would pay the transaction fee on each contribution. So… with a $100.00 donation that carried a $2.00 fee, our approach would be to give donor credit for the $100.00, and post from contributions module to Fund Accounting the full $100.00.
Then, in Fund Accounting, create a separate transaction entry for $2.00 for the fee associated with that donation.

Would there be an issue for that, or…. Should we post the online donations only in the contributions module, and then do the following transaction:

01-1110-000 Checking (Debit) $98.00
01-5110-000 Transaction Fee (Debit) $2.00
01-4110-000 Income (Credit) $100.00

NeilZ
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Re: Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by NeilZ »

Greghc48 wrote:
Mon Feb 07, 2022 1:18 pm
We are also considering on line options for accepting donations. After reading through this thread, can we do the following?

Using PayPal, or other on line giving solution, our church would pay the transaction fee on each contribution. So… with a $100.00 donation that carried a $2.00 fee, our approach would be to give donor credit for the $100.00, and post from contributions module to Fund Accounting the full $100.00.
Then, in Fund Accounting, create a separate transaction entry for $2.00 for the fee associated with that donation.

Would there be an issue for that, or…. Should we post the online donations only in the contributions module, and then do the following transaction:

01-1110-000 Checking (Debit) $98.00
01-5110-000 Transaction Fee (Debit) $2.00
01-4110-000 Income (Credit) $100.00
Something like this would work, and yes since there's really no direct interface with PayPal, you would have to manually enter the data. However, I would seriously consider using Vanco as it will save you loads to time since it integrates directly with PCPlus.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

Greghc48
Posts: 82
Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2015 11:23 am

Re: Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by Greghc48 »

Thx… we are using the desktop version of Powerchurch. Will vanco work with desktop?
And…

We have 3 accounting funds:
General (fund 01)
Designated (fund 02) (with multiple designations)
Building (fund 03) (with multiple designations)

If we received an online donation for one of the designated funds, wanted to give full donor credit, but have the church pay the fee from general fund, how would we work the transaction and post in PC?

NeilZ
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Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:20 am
Location: Dexter NM
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Re: Using Givelify for Online Contributions

Post by NeilZ »

Greghc48 wrote:
Mon Feb 07, 2022 3:02 pm
Thx… we are using the desktop version of Powerchurch. Will vanco work with desktop?
And…
Yes, it works with all versions

We have 3 accounting funds:
General (fund 01)
Designated (fund 02) (with multiple designations)
Building (fund 03) (with multiple designations)

If we received an online donation for one of the designated funds, wanted to give full donor credit, but have the church pay the fee from general fund, how would we work the transaction and post in PC?
I think this can be done, but I would give Vanco a call to find out for sure. In any case, I'm fairly sure the donor will get full credit for any donation if you want and the fees listed as an expense to the church.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

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