Knowledge Base

Vanco Payment Solutions - Online Giving Workflow


The Import Contributions process has been redesigned in PowerChurch Plus Version 11.5 and PowerChurch Online. A Maintenance Release update on 09/09/2015 installed these changes.

This article shows the flow of information for a few contributions, from the beginning of the process - the person making an online contribution - through to the end of the process - your bank reconciliation.

The following table shows the list of online contributions.

Date Name Payment Method Amount
Thursday, July 9 John Williams Bank Draft $25
Thursday, July 9 Melinda Parker Visa $50
Friday, July 10 Fred Murphy American Express $15
Friday, July 10 Dave Wilson Bank Draft $35
Saturday, July 11 Beth Sanders MasterCard $40


PowerChurch Plus > Contributions Module

In PowerChurch, you will see the same basic information as above when you look at the posted Contributions. The dates, names, and amounts will be the same as above. One single Contribution Type, such as "Online", will be applied to them all.


Monthly Bank Statement

On your bank statement, you would see deposit transactions that look something like the following.

Date Deposit Amount
Friday, July 10 $25.00
Monday, July 13 $83.18
Tuesday, July 14 $38.45
Friday, July 17 $14.03

As you can see, there is hardly any correlation between the dates and amounts of the original contributions and what shows up on the bank statement. The difference in the dates are caused by the amount of time different payment methods and credit card companies take to settle the transactions and deposit them into your account. The difference in the amounts are caused by different fee structures and percentages for those different payment methods.

In the example above, Monday's deposit of $83.18 was made up of Melinda Parker's Visa payment on Thursday and Dave Wilson's Bank Draft on Friday. Credit card fees are taken out of the original payment amount before it is deposited into your account. Bank Draft fees are taken out of your account once a month, so what is initially deposited into your account is the full amount of the contribution, as in the example of John Williams' $25 payment on Thursday, which was deposited on Friday.


PowerChurch Plus > Fund Accounting Module > Contributions in Transit

With the redesigned integration with Vanco Payment Solutions, the following transactions would show up in Fund Accounting to represent the original online contribution dates. Notice that they are not debiting the actual bank account at this point:


Thursday, July 9 - CONTRIB

Account Name Debit Credit
01-1310-000 Transit Asset $73.18  
01-5610-000 Credit Card Fees $1.82  
01-4110-000 Contributions Income   $75.00


Friday, July 10 - CONTRIB

Account Name Debit Credit
01-1310-000 Transit Asset $49.03  
01-5610-000 Credit Card Fees $.97  
01-4110-000 Contributions Income   $50.00


Saturday, July 11 - CONTRIB

Account Name Debit Credit
01-1310-000 Transit Asset $38.45  
01-5610-000 Credit Card Fees $1.55  
01-4110-000 Contributions Income   $40.00


PowerChurch Plus > Fund Accounting Module > Bank Deposit

A second set of transactions will be created to reflect the difference between Contribution Date and Deposit Date. Money initially all flows into a "Transit" account and sits on the books until the actual bank deposit date, when these transactions occur:


Friday, July 10 - CONTRIB

Account Name Debit Credit
01-1110-000 Checking $25.00  
01-1310-000 Transit Asset   $25.00


Monday, July 13 - CONTRIB

Account Name Debit Credit
01-1110-000 Checking $83.18  
01-1310-000 Transit Asset   $83.18


Tuesday, July 14 - CONTRIB

Account Name Debit Credit
01-1110-000 Checking $38.45  
01-1310-000 Transit Asset   $38.45


Friday, July 17 - CONTRIB

Account Name Debit Credit
01-1110-000 Checking $14.03  
01-1310-000 Transit Asset   $14.03

As you can see, those deposit amounts match the list of actual bank deposits shown above, so the Reconcile Bank Accounts process will match up exactly and let you balance down to a $0 difference each month.

There is one last thing that needs to be taken care of. The once a month transaction that withdraws all the ACH/Bank Draft fees out of your account. Unfortunately, that transaction will need to be entered manually in Fund Accounting > Enter Transactions. The monthly statement that you receive from Vanco will show this transaction, so you know the amount of monthly fees.

It will be a simple transaction, something like this:


Wednesday, July 15 - ACH FEES

Account Name Debit Credit
01-1110-000 Checking   $2.80
01-5615-000 Vanco ACH Fees $2.80  

Created: 07/10/2015
Last updated: 07/25/2021