Pledge payment for last year

[fpchurch]

We have someone who pledged $7800 in 2012. They paid $405 in January 2013 for their 2012 pledge, (the amount they owed was $305.) It was entered in January 2013 as payment for the 2012 pledge. When I run a statement from Jan 2012 through Jan 2013 it shows the pledge payment correctly under Fund Summary but under Pledge Summary it shows -305 for the difference. Shouldn't it show $100 as the difference since the pledge was overpaid in January by $100?

[NeilZ]

We have someone who pledged $7800 in 2012. They paid $405 in January 2013 for their 2012 pledge, (the amount they owed was $305.) It was entered in January 2013 as payment for the 2012 pledge. When I run a statement from Jan 2012 through Jan 2013 it shows the pledge payment correctly under Fund Summary but under Pledge Summary it shows -305 for the difference. Shouldn't it show $100 as the difference since the pledge was overpaid in January by $100?

No, because the pledge is setup for Jan thru Dec. Since it arrived and was entered in January, that amount cannot be applied to the last year pledge. It will show an extra $305 in this year's contributions.

The statement must reflect it this way because you cannot credit contributions received in this year, against the prior year, per IRS rules.

[fpchurch]

I don't want the contribution changed to 2012. I just don't understand why it does not show that the 2012 pledge was paid in full. We have some people who fulfill their obligations late and want it to reflect on their statement.
The past practice was to take the balance unpaid each year and create a new pledge called "pledge balance". That was a lot of work so the Treasurer decided to eliminate that practice and that is when we noticed it doesn't show the pledge has been fulfilled if we continue posting to that pledge. I tried changing the date to run the pledge through January but it still didn't show the pledge was paid in full.

[fpchurch]

I just went back and read your reply more closely. Are you saying that we cannot accept contributions made for a prior year pledge once that year is passed? I know about the tax credit of contributions having to be credited in the year made.
I really appreciate the help.

[NeilZ]

I just went back and read your reply more closely. Are you saying that we cannot accept contributions made for a prior year pledge once that year is passed? I know about the tax credit of contributions having to be credited in the year made.
I really appreciate the help.

I'm trying to remember exactly if the system doesn't allow the pledge update or you have to specifically select the contribution made in the next year to update the pledge of the prior year.

I'm going to test that right now ...

The system will NOT allow you to charge a contribution made in this year against the pledge of a prior year. I suspect that you will find that $405 has been charged against the pledge for this year.

If you really MUST show that the pledge was fulfilled for some person, you can go into the Maintain Pledges function of Contributions, highlight the pledge, then click the change button. You can then add the amount you need to show on the pledge to the 'starting balance' block of the pledge window.

This will increase the pledge amount given, the actual amount given on the statements will not reflect that amount.

[fpchurch]

I agree it is non productive to collect past pledges, someone who was here before me was adamant about it but we have been slowly moving away from it. They used to create a new pledge called "pledge balance" and actually carry that for another year on the statements. This seems to be the case for convincing the holdouts that we need to give up the practice.

[fpchurch]

If the program won't allow posting to a previous year's pledge what would happen? I don't post but according to the Treasurer this contribution was posted. It doesn't reduce the amount owed on the 2012 or 2013 pledge.

[Jeff]

You can apply the contribution to any pledge in any period. So you can apply a pledge given in 2013 toward the 2012 pledge. The contribution statement does not show this the best way. The pledge statement report does a better job of showing this.

[NeilZ]

You can apply the contribution to any pledge in any period. So you can apply a pledge given in 2013 toward the 2012 pledge. The contribution statement does not show this the best way. The pledge statement report does a better job of showing this.

Jeff .. I tried that and the system would not let me attach the contribution from 2013 to 2012 when I did a search for contributions.

URP ... just noticed that when I selected the contribution in Posted Contributions and clicked on the Change Pledge button that a box appears with the list of pledges. However, this test contribution has a checkbox for Do not apply this contribution to a pledge checked.

When I remove that checkmark .. the pledge can be assigned. Learned something new today ....

OK .. make me even more embarrassed, when was that added (and please don't tell me its been there)

[Jeff]

That was changed in version 8.5 or 9 when the pledges were reworked. It used to be that you could only have one pledge to a fund, even if the date ranges did not overlap.

The Search looks for contributions that somehow did not get applied to pledge and will automatically apply them a pledge that was active at the time of the contribution.

[NeilZ]

That was changed in version 8.5 or 9 when the pledges were reworked. It used to be that you could only have one pledge to a fund, even if the date ranges did not overlap.

The Search looks for contributions that somehow did not get applied to pledge and will automatically apply them a pledge that was active at the time of the contribution.

Aha ... so, the search for contributions function would not work for a contribution given in this year, but was intended for last year's pledge. You would have to manually do that under Posted Contributions.

[Jeff]

Correct

[fpchurch]

So when the contributions were posted where would this post in Fund Accounting?

[NeilZ]

So when the contributions were posted where would this post in Fund Accounting?

Current year, since it was received in 2013.