Posting Contributions to the correct year

Contributions, Faith Promises

Moderators: Moderators, Tech Support

Post Reply
SEL
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:10 am

Posting Contributions to the correct year

Post by SEL »

This is the second year my church has been using Power Church, so we've not yet experienced this. In entering Contributions there is the ability to check to see if the contributor has made a pledge. When flipped to that screen there is the current year's pledge and the previous year's pledge listed. The current pledge is listed at the top making it easy to choose that year. However, not all contributors pledge every year and the person entering Contributions needs to double check the year before continuing the process. That is, if a person pledged last year but not this year, last year's pledge is still listed at the top of the screen. Is there anyway to sift the previous year's pledge out of that screen so that only the current year's pledge is listed. So, the person who pledged last year but not this year would have no pledge listed and we'd immediately know that it is an unpledged donation.

Also, if the previous year's pledge cannot be removed, how many years does PC list this information - this list could potentially be endless...

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

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

Re: Posting Contributions to the correct year

Post by NeilZ »

SEL wrote:
Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:25 am
This is the second year my church has been using Power Church, so we've not yet experienced this. In entering Contributions there is the ability to check to see if the contributor has made a pledge. When flipped to that screen there is the current year's pledge and the previous year's pledge listed. The current pledge is listed at the top making it easy to choose that year. However, not all contributors pledge every year and the person entering Contributions needs to double check the year before continuing the process. That is, if a person pledged last year but not this year, last year's pledge is still listed at the top of the screen. Is there anyway to sift the previous year's pledge out of that screen so that only the current year's pledge is listed. So, the person who pledged last year but not this year would have no pledge listed and we'd immediately know that it is an unpledged donation.

Also, if the previous year's pledge cannot be removed, how many years does PC list this information - this list could potentially be endless...

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
The pledge history is kept as long as you want, however, it really does make sense to keep it as it allows you to track who is pledging, who is not, and to have your finance committee (or similar) try to inquire why.

That said, contributions entered in the current year will only be applied to the pledges of the current year. This is automatic. The only way pledges will update a previous year is if someone specifically does this action. What I would do is change the system under Preferences to not allow pledge lookups by data entry persons, as its not needed, as the system automatically understands that its an unpledged contribution.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

SEL
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:10 am

Re: Posting Contributions to the correct year

Post by SEL »

Thanks, but could you please further elaborate. I've poked through every Contribution set-up link and can't find anything that would allow the suppression of pledge lookups. I've tried to enter a contribution without completing the Fund Number field, making the assumption that PC would know that it is a pledge, but the system doesn't allow leaving the field blank. So there needs to be a fund number and we're now back to the beginning of the loop - has this donor made a pledge for the current year? Maybe we ignore the View Pledges look-up and just keep an alphabetical list of current donors handy while entering contributions, the old fashioned way.

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

Re: Posting Contributions to the correct year

Post by NeilZ »

SEL wrote:
Sat Feb 25, 2023 11:47 pm
Thanks, but could you please further elaborate. I've poked through every Contribution set-up link and can't find anything that would allow the suppression of pledge lookups. I've tried to enter a contribution without completing the Fund Number field, making the assumption that PC would know that it is a pledge, but the system doesn't allow leaving the field blank. So there needs to be a fund number and we're now back to the beginning of the loop - has this donor made a pledge for the current year? Maybe we ignore the View Pledges look-up and just keep an alphabetical list of current donors handy while entering contributions, the old fashioned way.
You have to add the fund number, that's required unless you're scanning the checks. Frankly, I don't understand why you need to know if someone pledged or not unless you're trying to segregate the funds in which case you're overthinking as there are reports that would give you that information about the amount of funds coming in that are pledged or unpledged in a fund. Plus you don't have to 'view pledges' to find a contributor, just click the magnifying glass next to the envelope number list.

Please explain how you're using the system.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

SEL
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:10 am

Re: Posting Contributions to the correct year

Post by SEL »

I'm guessing I haven't made our situation clear in my exposition. Our church has 52 Contribution Funds, and yes, we separate pledged funds (101) from unpledged funds (102) so that Income is properly reflected on our Income/Expense statements - at the request of our Stewardship & Finance Commission. Naturally, we click on the magnifying glass on the Enter Contributions screen since an envelope # is required for all entries. Not all contributors make a pledge, but all contributors require an envelope #, even the non-human type. We next click on the Contribution Fund look-up since we don't have all 52 funds memorized and one must be entered in that field. Throughout the year, the person entering Contributions comes to know who has pledged and who hasn't and can go ahead and type 101 or 102 in that field, but it takes time and it becomes especially confusing at the beginning of the year when some folks' checks are dated in 2022 and arrive in 2023.

From our brief discussion I've come to understand that there is no way to suppress the previous year's pledge info without deleting that info from some sort of contributor's record. We will work this out on our own. Thanks for your input.

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

Re: Posting Contributions to the correct year

Post by NeilZ »

SEL wrote:
Mon Feb 27, 2023 8:53 am
I'm guessing I haven't made our situation clear in my exposition. Our church has 52 Contribution Funds, and yes, we separate pledged funds (101) from unpledged funds (102) so that Income is properly reflected on our Income/Expense statements - at the request of our Stewardship & Finance Commission. Naturally, we click on the magnifying glass on the Enter Contributions screen since an envelope # is required for all entries. Not all contributors make a pledge, but all contributors require an envelope #, even the non-human type. We next click on the Contribution Fund look-up since we don't have all 52 funds memorized and one must be entered in that field. Throughout the year, the person entering Contributions comes to know who has pledged and who hasn't and can go ahead and type 101 or 102 in that field, but it takes time and it becomes especially confusing at the beginning of the year when some folks' checks are dated in 2022 and arrive in 2023.

From our brief discussion I've come to understand that there is no way to suppress the previous year's pledge info without deleting that info from some sort of contributor's record. We will work this out on our own. Thanks for your input.
What we've done in the past is inform the congregation that any contributions they want to reflect on the current year's pledges, or contribution record must arrive by Dec 31st. If they arrive after they go toward the next year's contributions. This has corrected most (if not all) of that happening.

That said, yes, you can't delete the previous pledge data without removing history, and causing a problem if there's a question about a previous year's pledge, or audit in the future.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

Post Reply