My organization just recently went through our annual audit. Though we ended up getting all of the info we needed to the auditors, I feel like there has to be an easier way to run one report that will get them everything they need to know easier.
I was wondering if anyone could point me to any reports they use to get the following, and I'll see if they match up with what I have been doing, etc.
1) Listing of all individuals/organizations (and addresses) who give more than a certain amount within a fiscal year
2) Listing of individuals who make new pledges greater than a certain amount within a fiscal year.
3) Listing of entire fund activity within a fiscal year with corresponding GL codes.
Our finance department does not use Tessitura, and I'm hoping better practices will help us with reconciling at year-end as well. Thanks!
Thanks for all of your help!
I think Output Set Builder is supposed to serve that function.
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From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Laura Chaney Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2015 1:05 PM To: Julie Hamre Subject: RE: [Tessitura Development Forum] Audit Reports
I wonder if there is a way for Development folks to encourage/work with Tessitura to create improved, user-friendly functionality for reporting and extracting data that does not require expertise in SQL programming. As a former user of Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge, where one could easily select any field data needed for exporting information , I have been confused by the necessity for software programming knowledge in order to use Tessitura.
Laura
From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Julie Hamre Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2015 12:34 PM To: Laura Chaney Subject: RE: [Tessitura Development Forum] Audit Reports
If you have an IT person on site who knows SQL programming, theoretically they can create a custom report, but my knowledge of programming consists only of learning where to click so I’m totally useless there. As I say, it seems odd to me that there is not a standard report for this function. The closest standard report that I can find is the Donor FY Giving Summary in the Development folder, but you have to use a list and it is based on transaction date, which may not exactly match the contribution date.
I don’t know how to get the GL number to export for the Fund Activity report. Have you had any experience with using the Output Set Builder function? I’ve played with that a bit (usually without success) but I’m sure it is user error that I can’t get what I’m looking for. I just haven’t spent the time necessary to learn how to use it.
From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Debbie Volkens Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2015 11:05 AM To: Julie Hamre Subject: RE: [Tessitura Development Forum] Audit Reports
Hey Julie -
Thanks for your help. I'm curious about custom reports - how do you go about creating them in the system? (To be honest - I didn't know anything about custom reports until the Conference this year, and I never got a grasp on how to create one. Does it have to be created by a consultant, or can you create it through the system yourself?)
Thanks for the tips for the new contributions report. I believe I used one of the pledge summary or balance reports, and it was just a little messy to sort through to find the new ones.
I also used the fund activity report for my third need, but I had trouble getting the report to export GL numbers along with the other information, and ended up doing it manually. Not really difficult, but very time consuming. Do you have any tips for having the GL export with the report itself?
From: Julie Hamre <bounce-juliehamre9206@tessituranetwork.com> Sent: 9/2/2015 6:48:59 PM
Ten years ago when we adopted Tessitura, the first custom report that I insisted be made was the first on your list – I can ask for donations totaling $xx or more by donor during the fiscal year, and it includes the address. I don’t know if we can share (since we paid an outside consultant to prepare it) but it has saved my life. Hard to imagine that there wouldn’t be a standard report for that by now.
I think you can get the second report using the New Contributions report in the Development folder. Use FY dates for transaction start/end dates, export it, then sort by amount of the gift and then by “P” (pledge) or “G” (gift).
The Fund Activity Report in the Finance folder gives you almost everything you want except the GL codes. But if you run that for the fiscal year and export it to Excel, it would not be too difficult to add in the GL codes.
Hope this helps.
From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Debbie Volkens Sent: Wednesday, September 02, 2015 2:31 PM To: Julie Hamre Subject: [Tessitura Development Forum] Audit Reports
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I did try to create a new output set with this criteria, but I couldn't get the GL code to pull. Perhaps I just don't know what it is called in Output Set Builder?