Vanco Imports

[tborgal]

I'm fairly new to Vanco and am still learning about the imported offerings. But I did notice that I am not able to add a designation to the contribution screen when I double click on a specific contribution. Is this intended or is it an oversight? It would really be nice to have that option when importing contributions since once you except them they automatically post and you can't change anything after that.

[NeilZ]

[quote="tborgal"]I'm fairly new to Vanco and am still learning about the imported offerings. But I did notice that I am not able to add a designation to the contribution screen when I double click on a specific contribution. Is this intended or is it an oversight? It would really be nice to have that option when importing contributions since once you except them they automatically post and you can't change anything afte

I think its intended to preclude changing anything that the contributor entered online. Seems confining, but looking at the manual, the only other way to change the entry is if there is something wrong with the contribution.

I'll flag this one for the techs to see if there's something they know that's not in the manual.

[tborgal]

I can change the fund number. We have had a special offering this Christmas and we have had a couple of contributors select the wrong fund number. I know this because of the description that was put in the a required field. I have been able to change the fund number of those contributions. I don't think there is a way to add the designation on Vanco's end.

[Zorak]

That is likely an oversight. I will write up a bug report and see if we can get that field added in.

[tborgal]

Thanks so much.

[UUCM]

Is there any update on this?
We're having the same issue - we're collecting donations for an emergency relief effort and the imported contributions through Vanco aren't showing up with the designation, so I'm having to go in and reverse/correct all of them to make sure they go to the correct fund.

[NeilZ]

Is there any update on this?
We're having the same issue - we're collecting donations for an emergency relief effort and the imported contributions through Vanco aren't showing up with the designation, so I'm having to go in and reverse/correct all of them to make sure they go to the correct fund.

Its been five years since this issue, and the topic has been active. Its always better to start a new topic as things tend to get lost, and scammers tend to add to old topics.

I'll flag this for the techs to look at in the morning.

[Zorak]

There is an open bug report/suggestion about this and I have added you to it.

The issue - which I think turned that "bug" into a "suggestion" - is the donor doesn't have the ability to specify a designation on the Vanco side, so when modifying the imported contribution, the PowerChurch user would be the one designating the contributions, which is not really what the feature is designed for.

It's still an open report, so I don't think it was a hard "No" to the idea of making the change, but the preferred way to handle this would be to set up a new Contribution Fund for this purpose, so that the donor can choose for themselves on the Vanco side.

[sgbani]

There is an open bug report/suggestion about this and I have added you to it.

The issue - which I think turned that "bug" into a "suggestion" - is the donor doesn't have the ability to specify a designation on the Vanco side, so when modifying the imported contribution, the PowerChurch user would be the one designating the contributions, which is not really what the feature is designed for.

It's still an open report, so I don't think it was a hard "No" to the idea of making the change, but the preferred way to handle this would be to set up a new Contribution Fund for this purpose, so that the donor can choose for themselves on the Vanco side.

Actually, I would also like to toss my hat in the ring for this topic: ability to choose a designation for a given online donation to a given fund. While each church does things differently, we currently have online donations come in under certain 'umbrella funds' (so to speak), but particular designations are possible for that fund. This is mostly for reporting purposes on the contribution side, as the fund accounting side handles things easily enough.
I can easily setup Vanco properly multiple funds and configure in many, that is not the issue.
Right now, I have to import the Vanco transactions, which I do via the weekly text file, then go back to modify the unposted transaction so the proper designation is listed. Again, mostly for reporting purposes, but being able to attribute a designation on an online donation. Perhaps this is only really possible when importing via file and not syncing with the Vanco servers.

Not really a deal-breaking issue, as I just have to remember each time I import via file to go back and find the unposted contributions and modify before posting.

I guess my argument in being able to add the designation is that you can practically change anything about the imported contribution before accepting and posting, so why not add the ability to attribute designations?

[UUCM]

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses. It appears that it's better accounting-wise to have separate accounts for these special projects, anyway.
We ended up moving all the "designated" contributions into their own income account and setting up a specific expense account to make the donation to the family who was experiencing the crisis.

Now we know!

Thanks again to all of you!