member deleted and giving statement problem

doug · Post by **doug** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:33 pm

I am just finding out that our new secretary deleted several folks who have moved out of the community in the last several weeks. No longer am I able to pull up an individual contribution report for those folks as it cannot find the envelope number. If I reenter the old name and envelope number, will I be able to pull up that giving statment for last year or this year? Or am I better off to do a restore from a backup that is several weeks old and then reenter the giving history for the last couple of weeks of all givers? I tried looking for the 99999 envelope number as suggested in the book but that did not work.

What is best way to handle those who move? Leave them in for a year or more and then delete? Just curious.

Thanks for your help!!

Doug Tenney
Mills Memorial UMC
Lancaster, Ohio

Zeb · Post by **Zeb** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 3:38 pm

The database size is certainly not a limitation, you could certainly leave them, at least for a year or 2 and then either delete them or their envelope number. Restoring a backup is going to be the best solution. If you are just trying to run a statement for them, you could install another version of Powerchurch in another computer or another folder on your current computer and restore the backup there.

Randy B · Post by **Randy B** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 8:34 am

I ran into a similar problem in that the secretary deleted people before I handed out year end giving statements. I had a log outside Powerchurch on an EXCEL spreadsheet of each week's giving by person. I established an envelope 999998 and entered the date and giving and then entered a negative amount for envelope 999999 for the week deleted. It did not change cash or the contribution but got it out of 999999 and into the right person. I told the secretary to check with me before deleting people again and that got me the right information for people on their year end giving statement.

Post by **Zaphod** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 10:42 am

Some churches will set aside a range of envelope numbers for non-active givers that they want to keep in the system. For instance, the active range could be from 1 to 1000 and the inactive could be 8000 - 9000 or something like that. That way, you could exclude that range from reports if you wanted, but you could see them if you needed to. When someone moves, you could transfer their envelope number to the appropriate range, rather than deleting them. You could also set up a personal status in Personal Profiles for inactive or something like that. That way, you know that they are moved, but you can still access their info if necessary.