Lost Profile when deleting Envelope #

[Swan Li]

We have members who are no longer able to make financial contributions at all.
When we delete the envelope #, it also deletes the entire profile of the individual.

Questions:
(1) How do we get back (retrieve) the lost profile.
The lost profile has the important dates, health & visit notes, etc.

(2) How do we delete envelope # without losing the entire profile?
People do go to assisted living or other institutions and not able to contribute financially. They do not need envelope/account # but their membership does not change.

We are presently using version 11. In the past (lower version) we had deleted envelope # without losing the profile.

Thank you.

[tborgal]

You don't really want to delete there number. What we do is move the number to an numbering area that is well above the number we would normally be issuing to free the old number up for regular givers.

Short of restoring a recent backup I am not sure there is a way of getting the information back.

[Zorak]

If you choose to do so, you can delete a person's envelope number by simply clearing out the envelope number field on the Maintain Personal Profiles screen and clicking Save. This will leave the person in the database while removing their envelope number. To completely delete a person from the database, you would need to click the Delete button at the top of the screen and then click Yes through all the warning prompts.

[NeilZ]

I think you got the answers to your second question, but the first issue bothers me.

Questions:
(1) How do we get back (retrieve) the lost profile.
The lost profile has the important dates, health & visit notes, etc.

First off ... is there any Mailing List profile for the person ??
Second ... I don't want to assume this, but you did go into Personal Profiles and used the LOCATE button to scroll through the names listed there ?

Of course, knowing the steps you did to delete the envelope number may give us an idea of what went wrong.

Normally, as Zorak said, deleting an envelope number will have no effect on the profile. However, as Tom said, you shouldn't DELETE an envelope number, but move it to a number series that is not within the normal envelope usage.

The reason for this is that the IRS requires that charities, including Churches, maintain contribution data for four years after the last donation.

Here is a suggested number system:

Range 1: Your normal range of envelopes. Many churches use 1 through 999 for church members. My last church used 101 thru 999, with numbers under 100 for church use. Such as tracking loose plate offerings with envelope 99.

Range 2: Visitors numbers 1001 thru 1099 (or more if necessary). This is a range that you can use to track visitor donations (when you have all the info) but do not have to issue an envelope. If they later join and become members, you can then reassign their contributions to their new member envelope number.

Range 3: Archives: 2000 & up. This is where you can reassign those envelopes for one-time visitors or transferred/inactive members who have not given in a year, but due to IRS regulations you must maintain the contribution information for three years after the year of contribution. (I'm quoting that time from memory, so please check IRS regs for the exact time).

Of course, you can modify these ranges to suit your particular situation.