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Fund Activity Report & Pledges

Phil Petch
$organization
As most of us are aware Fund Activity Report is the holy grail for all things donations reporting. This year, I am reporting donations activity based on contribution dates, not transaction dates as in years past. This is fine. EXCEPT that pledges negatively impact the accuracy of the report. This is because the Fund Activity Report recognises all of the instalment payments within the payment schedule that have been transacted to date attributing them to the overall contribution date of the pledge, not their individual transaction dates, which could be in separate months / quarters etc. Utilising both transaction date & contribution date when running this report would have further impact particularly based around EFT gifts where the transaction date and contribution date are very rarely one and the same. Has anyone encountered this problem, and how have you overcome it? Please note that I cannot extract and manipulate the Fund Activity Report in a program like excel to achieve my desired outcome - it's all about maintaining the report's integrity - and I cannot go back to utilising transaction date as the sole parameter for reporting donations activity, it must be contribution date - but pledges are making my work life very challenging at the moment. Thanks, Phil (also, I had this typed up in paragraphs, but upon posting the message board has clumped my query together in one hideous block of text. Sorry for having to navigate one hideous block of text).


[edited by: Phil Petch at 8:48 PM (GMT -6) on 31 Jan 2017]
  • $organization
    Phil, Yeah, this is the really tricky part about the Fund Activity Report when it comes to pledge payments and the criteria you're using for reporting on dates. I've taken to use Contribution Start and End Date as my guiding criteria in running the report because that allows for us to report when we've had to backdate gifts at the end of the calendar or fiscal year, but again that doesn't solve anything with regard to the specific issue here. As I think through the options, it's hard to imagine anything preserving the single utility of the Fund Activity Report, unless somebody were to alter the underlying code for the report to pull the transaction date of a pledge payment (but even then it sounds like that wouldn't quite achieve your desired result here since you've switched over to contribution date). Sorry for the round-about chat here, but maybe the thought exercise will spur some SQL creativity in the community. Thank you, Brian (And yes, formatting is a mess on the forums right now; no matter how hard you try, line breaks aren't recognized unless you reply via email.)
  • $organization
    Phil, The Contribution date is changeable so we change the contribution date to when future pledges are due. Its important though that you talk to your finance department and other staff who view contributions in your organization if you are going to do this as the contribution will get hidden in the future so you may have to uncheck the Date box to see them. Our finance department looks at transaction date reports so this does not cause a problem for them. At the end of the year I do a pivot table on all contributions so they can be viewed both by transaction and contribution date for the auditors. We have trained our other users to double click the contribution to see the actual paid date and how to find the future contributions by unchecking the date box. We do three year future pledge drives and this has worked well for us for several years.
  • $organization
    I highly recommend that your DBA makes a custom copy of that report and adds contribution date as a new column (along w/ any other contribution fields you would find helpful that the stock report doesn't include). It's been very helpful. But, if your reporting needs to all be on contribution dates, you may be best suited with a new report that simply runs on contribution dates in the parameters. I have a custom one here that does that, reporting one row per contribution, and the report includes a column for the majority of contribution fields. Megan Hall Seattle Symphony
  • $organization in reply to Megan Hall
    Hi Megan, Unfortunately I don't have a DBA so I can't undertake any customisation without paying for it - and I simply have no budget - so I need to make do with the stock functionalities and reports. I'd love to see a version of your custom one if you were willing to share, just to see what's displayed. Thanks for your reply. Cheers, Phil
  • $organization in reply to T.C. Brown
    Hi T.C., thanks for you response. I've obviously misunderstood what you've said because what you've described is exactly the outcome you get when using transaction date as your report criteria. What does using posting date as your parameter do differently / exclude / include that transaction date doesn't? Cheers, Phil
  • $organization in reply to Former Member
    Hi Kristin, so long as the report only totalled pledge payments received / transacted for the period you wanted to report on and not inflate the total by including instalments yet to be received / transacted. Cheers, Phil
  • Former Member
    Former Member $organization

    Phil, I would love to see an upgrade to this report that totaled gift and pledges in another column for the same date period. If that was there we would not have to export to excel or find a work around at all. Would that solve your issue? Maybe we could put that in the ear of the Tessitura gurus.

     

    Kristin

     

    From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Brian Parker
    Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2017 11:15 AM
    To: Kristin Starling <kstarling@nashvilleopera.org>
    Subject: Re: [Tessitura Development Forum] Fund Activity Report & Pledges

     

    Phil, Yeah, this is the really tricky part about the Fund Activity Report when it comes to pledge payments and the criteria you're using for reporting on dates. I've taken to use Contribution Start and End Date as my guiding criteria in running the report because that allows for us to report when we've had to backdate gifts at the end of the calendar or fiscal year, but again that doesn't solve anything with regard to the specific issue here. As I think through the options, it's hard to imagine anything preserving the single utility of the Fund Activity Report, unless somebody were to alter the underlying code for the report to pull the transaction date of a pledge payment (but even then it sounds like that wouldn't quite achieve your desired result here since you've switched over to contribution date). Sorry for the round-about chat here, but maybe the thought exercise will spur some SQL creativity in the community. Thank you, Brian (And yes, formatting is a mess on the forums right now; no matter how hard you try, line breaks aren't recognized unless you reply via email.)

    From: Phil Petch <bounce-philpetch5841@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 1/31/2017 8:43:22 PM

    As most of us are aware Fund Activity Report is the holy grail for all things donations reporting. This year, I am reporting donations activity based on contribution dates, not transaction dates as in years past. This is fine. EXCEPT that pledges negatively impact the accuracy of the report. This is because the Fund Activity Report recognises all of the instalment payments within the payment schedule that have been transacted to date attributing them to the overall contribution date of the pledge, not their individual transaction dates, which could be in separate months / quarters etc. Utilising both transaction date & contribution date when running this report would have further impact particularly based around EFT gifts where the transaction date and contribution date are very rarely one and the same. Has anyone encountered this problem, and how have you overcome it? Please note that I cannot extract and manipulate the Fund Activity Report in a program like excel to achieve my desired outcome - it's all about maintaining the report's integrity - and I cannot go back to utilising transaction date as the sole parameter for reporting donations activity, it must be contribution date - but pledges are making my work life very challenging at the moment. Thanks, Phil (also, I had this typed up in paragraphs, but upon posting the message board has clumped my query together in one hideous block of text. Sorry for having to navigate one hideous block of text).




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!

  • $organization

    Hi Phil,

     

    We post everything to the date that the cash/pledge comes in.  So if I run the Fund Activity report and use posting date for the parameters, I only see what came in during that date period, as opposed to contribution date that can pull in payments on pledges that fall outside of the dates.

     

    Hope that helps.

    T.C. Brown

    Database Administrator

    412.392.4834

     

    From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Phil Petch
    Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2017 8:45 PM
    To: TC Brown <TBrown@pittsburghsymphony.org>
    Subject: [Tessitura Development Forum] Fund Activity Report & Pledges

     

    Dear All, I work in Development, and as most of us are aware Fund Activity Report is the holy grail for all things donations reporting. This year, I am reporting donations activity based on contribution dates, not transaction dates as in years past. This is fine. EXCEPT that pledges negatively impact the accuracy of the report. This is because the Fund Activity Report recognises all of the instalment payments within the payment schedule that have been transacted to date attributing them to the overall contribution date of the pledge, not their individual transaction dates, which could be in separate months / quarters etc. Utilising both transaction date & contribution date when running this report would have further impact particularly based around EFT gifts where the transaction date and contribution date are very rarely one and the same. Has anyone encountered this problem, and how have you overcome it? Please note that I cannot extract and manipulate the Fund Activity Report in a program like excel to achieve my desired outcome - it's all about maintaining the report's integrity - and I cannot go back to utilising transaction date as the sole parameter for reporting donations activity, it must be contribution date - but pledges are making my work life very challenging at the moment. Thanks, Phil




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!

  • $organization

    Hi Phil,

     

    I guess it depends on your business practices.  We post pledges, gifts and payments to the day they were received, not the day they were entered.  We often enter a contribution/payment after the day it was received.  Here is an example that I have with running the report.

     

    I have a pledge of $50 received Nov. 30, but it was entered on Dec. 2 and a payment of $30 toward the pledge received Dec. 27, but entered on Dec. 29, and we posted the pledge to Nov. 30 and payment to Dec. 27.

     

    Contribution date is Nov. 30

    Transaction date1 is Dec. 2

    Transaction date2 is Dec. 29

    Posting date1 is Nov. 30

    Posting date2 is Dec. 27.

     

    When I run the report using only Contribution Dates for month of Nov., the $50 pledge and the $30 payment pull into the report.

    When I run the report using only Transaction Dates for month of Nov., this contribution doesn't pull

    When I run the report using only Posting Dates for month of Nov., the pledge appears, but no payments.

     

    Likewise if I run the report for dates for month of Dec. I get the following:

    Contribution Dates, nothing pulls for this contribution in the report.

    Transaction Dates the $50 pledge and the $30 payment pull into the report.

    Posting Dates only the $30 payment pulls into the report.

     

    So if I am looking for what actually came into our organization for any period, I can easily find it by using posting date instead of any of the other dates.

    Hope that clarifies.

     

    T.C. Brown

    Database Administrator

    412.392.4834

     

    From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Phil Petch
    Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2017 7:43 PM
    To: TC Brown <TBrown@pittsburghsymphony.org>
    Subject: RE: [Tessitura Development Forum] Fund Activity Report & Pledges

     

    Hi T.C., thanks for you response. I've obviously misunderstood what you've said because what you've described is exactly the outcome you get when using transaction date as your report criteria. What does using posting date as your parameter do differently / exclude / include that transaction date doesn't? Cheers, Phil

    From: T.C. Brown <bounce-tcbrown4438@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 2/1/2017 9:23:03 PM

    Hi Phil,

     

    We post everything to the date that the cash/pledge comes in.  So if I run the Fund Activity report and use posting date for the parameters, I only see what came in during that date period, as opposed to contribution date that can pull in payments on pledges that fall outside of the dates.

     

    Hope that helps.

    T.C. Brown

    Database Administrator

    412.392.4834

     

    From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Phil Petch
    Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2017 8:45 PM
    To: TC Brown <TBrown@pittsburghsymphony.org>
    Subject: [Tessitura Development Forum] Fund Activity Report & Pledges

     

    Dear All, I work in Development, and as most of us are aware Fund Activity Report is the holy grail for all things donations reporting. This year, I am reporting donations activity based on contribution dates, not transaction dates as in years past. This is fine. EXCEPT that pledges negatively impact the accuracy of the report. This is because the Fund Activity Report recognises all of the instalment payments within the payment schedule that have been transacted to date attributing them to the overall contribution date of the pledge, not their individual transaction dates, which could be in separate months / quarters etc. Utilising both transaction date & contribution date when running this report would have further impact particularly based around EFT gifts where the transaction date and contribution date are very rarely one and the same. Has anyone encountered this problem, and how have you overcome it? Please note that I cannot extract and manipulate the Fund Activity Report in a program like excel to achieve my desired outcome - it's all about maintaining the report's integrity - and I cannot go back to utilising transaction date as the sole parameter for reporting donations activity, it must be contribution date - but pledges are making my work life very challenging at the moment. Thanks, Phil




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!

  • $organization
    Hi Phil, Here at SBCPA we have a custom version of this report that pulls all gifts, pledges, gift adjustments by contribution date; and pulls all pledge payments by payment date (transaction date). I see you don't have a DBA, but are you able to install reports from the Shared Reports TASK workspace? If so I would be happy to add it there for you and anyone else who might find it useful.
  • $organization

    Hi Stacey,

     

    My sincere apologies for the delayed response, work has been extremely busy.  I would be most appreciative of the opportunity to try the custom report you have referenced.  A colleague of mine has confirmed that we can access the Shared Reports TASK workspace, so if you can let me know when your report is uploaded I will have my colleague access etc.  Thank you for taking the time to respond to my enquiry, and offer your custom report. 

     

    Kind Regards,

    Phil

     

    From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Stacey Voigt
    Sent: Tuesday, 7 February 2017 3:56 AM
    To: Phil Petch
    Subject: Re: [Tessitura Development Forum] Fund Activity Report & Pledges

     

    Hi Phil, Here at SBCPA we have a custom version of this report that pulls all gifts, pledges, gift adjustments by contribution date; and pulls all pledge payments by payment date (transaction date). I see you don't have a DBA, but are you able to install reports from the Shared Reports TASK workspace? If so I would be happy to add it there for you and anyone else who might find it useful.

    From: Phil Petch <bounce-philpetch5841@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 1/31/2017 8:43:22 PM

    As most of us are aware Fund Activity Report is the holy grail for all things donations reporting. This year, I am reporting donations activity based on contribution dates, not transaction dates as in years past. This is fine. EXCEPT that pledges negatively impact the accuracy of the report. This is because the Fund Activity Report recognises all of the instalment payments within the payment schedule that have been transacted to date attributing them to the overall contribution date of the pledge, not their individual transaction dates, which could be in separate months / quarters etc. Utilising both transaction date & contribution date when running this report would have further impact particularly based around EFT gifts where the transaction date and contribution date are very rarely one and the same. Has anyone encountered this problem, and how have you overcome it? Please note that I cannot extract and manipulate the Fund Activity Report in a program like excel to achieve my desired outcome - it's all about maintaining the report's integrity - and I cannot go back to utilising transaction date as the sole parameter for reporting donations activity, it must be contribution date - but pledges are making my work life very challenging at the moment. Thanks, Phil (also, I had this typed up in paragraphs, but upon posting the message board has clumped my query together in one hideous block of text. Sorry for having to navigate one hideous block of text).




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!

  • $organization

    Hi Phil,

    This report is available in Shared Reports – look for the Contribution Activity Report. More about it in this forum post: http://www.tessituranetwork.com/Community/forums/t/17693.aspx

     

    Let me know if you have any questions!

     

     

    Best,

     

    Stacey

     

    From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Phil Petch
    Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2017 3:12 PM
    To: Stacey Voigt
    Subject: RE: [Tessitura Development Forum] Fund Activity Report & Pledges

     

    Hi Stacey,

     

    My sincere apologies for the delayed response, work has been extremely busy.  I would be most appreciative of the opportunity to try the custom report you have referenced.  A colleague of mine has confirmed that we can access the Shared Reports TASK workspace, so if you can let me know when your report is uploaded I will have my colleague access etc.  Thank you for taking the time to respond to my enquiry, and offer your custom report. 

     

    Kind Regards,

    Phil

     

    From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Stacey Voigt
    Sent: Tuesday, 7 February 2017 3:56 AM
    To: Phil Petch
    Subject: Re: [Tessitura Development Forum] Fund Activity Report & Pledges

     

    Hi Phil, Here at SBCPA we have a custom version of this report that pulls all gifts, pledges, gift adjustments by contribution date; and pulls all pledge payments by payment date (transaction date). I see you don't have a DBA, but are you able to install reports from the Shared Reports TASK workspace? If so I would be happy to add it there for you and anyone else who might find it useful.

    From: Phil Petch <bounce-philpetch5841@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 1/31/2017 8:43:22 PM

    As most of us are aware Fund Activity Report is the holy grail for all things donations reporting. This year, I am reporting donations activity based on contribution dates, not transaction dates as in years past. This is fine. EXCEPT that pledges negatively impact the accuracy of the report. This is because the Fund Activity Report recognises all of the instalment payments within the payment schedule that have been transacted to date attributing them to the overall contribution date of the pledge, not their individual transaction dates, which could be in separate months / quarters etc. Utilising both transaction date & contribution date when running this report would have further impact particularly based around EFT gifts where the transaction date and contribution date are very rarely one and the same. Has anyone encountered this problem, and how have you overcome it? Please note that I cannot extract and manipulate the Fund Activity Report in a program like excel to achieve my desired outcome - it's all about maintaining the report's integrity - and I cannot go back to utilising transaction date as the sole parameter for reporting donations activity, it must be contribution date - but pledges are making my work life very challenging at the moment. Thanks, Phil (also, I had this typed up in paragraphs, but upon posting the message board has clumped my query together in one hideous block of text. Sorry for having to navigate one hideous block of text).




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!