Pledge payment reporting help needed

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Hello. I’m new to Tessitura, only in my second month, and have encountered a reporting problem I’m not sure how to solve.

 

I have been using the “pledge gift” report to get information on who gave how much on what date. Last month this worked fine, but now that I have pledge payments in their second month, I realize that the report will not pull pledge payments received. (For example, if someone makes a $60 pledge in July and pays $10 of it, that shows on the July report. When they pay another $10 in August, I don’t see it on the August report because Tessitura counts it as a July transaction—when in fact that second $10 payment arrived in August.)

 

This is unacceptable for our financial reporting because I need to know the “who/how much/what date” for every gift, regardless of whether it’s part of a pledge. It’s also important that the report pull the date the payment was made (not the “transaction date,” i.e., whatever day I’m working in the computer, and not a posting date).

 

I would appreciate hearing how other people get around this problem. If you have created a custom report, would you be willing to share code that I could pass on to one of our more IT-knowledgeable staff? Any advice or guidance would be appreciated. Thanks!

Parents
  • Alaina

     

    Based on what you are saying the system would never have the date you consider the received date.  I’m also not certain how you are doing receipts etc.,     A payment will never have a contribution date.   It seems the system will not be able  to do nearly a fraction of what it could be doing given this different definition.    Are you changing the contribution dates – using your example--- from 8/1 to 7/31 when you enter them in the system?

     

    Your financial folks might for the sake of having accurate data in the system and deposits – change the way deposits are done.  CASH FLOW IS IMPORTANT – I truly understand that but for being able to track things it might be worth it.

     

    Here for our major gifts we have a 2PM cut off for getting things to our Cashier.   Any checks we give her are what are entered/posted AND  deposited  that day.   If we receive a check after the deposit run, it is held until the next day.

     

    Are ticketing and smaller gifts are entered/posted in a different building and have to go through a different quality control check each morning before the prior day’s batches are posted.   These items are entered in the system the day before they are deposited and posted.   Our Cashier is able to track adequately this way.    But I understand everyone has their style of doing things.

     

    The other thing is if you are consistent that deposits are all done the day before the they are entered then wouldn’t you be able to run your reports with this in mind.   So that if you want your deposits for the month of July you would run the Fund Activity 7/2 thru 8/1.

     

    Seems you are looking for a third date – I just saw Dale pop up   and he makes a suggestion.   I think your best  bet is talk with the financial folks about the dates the systems has and determine how to interpret them for your site.  

     

    Leslie

     

    From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Alaina Smith
    Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 5:12 PM
    To: McKinley, Leslie
    Subject: RE: [Tessitura Development Forum] Pledge payment reporting help needed

     

    Thanks both to Leslie and Dale.

    The fund activity report may have potential, but if it pulls on transaction date, then that's a concern because for us, transaction date (date working in computer) is not necessarily gift date. (In fact, the gift date received is more often than not a different date from today's date.)

    Say a pledge payment comes in during summer for a pledge made in January. The check for the pledge payment is deposited to the bank on 7/31. The data entry occurs on 8/1. While doing data entry, we consider the gift date to be 7/31 (date of deposit). So, the "contribution date" is 7/31 and the "transaction date" is 8/1. Since the fund activity report only pulls transaction dates, it would a sweep for certain contribution dates.  I'm wondering how to capture "contribution dates" even though I know Tessitura's technical definition for "contribution" doesn't include pledge payments.

    How would I find the above-style transaction? Thanks again!

    From: Dale Aucoin <bounce-daleaucoin4707@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 8/31/2010 3:53:45 PM

    Alaina,

    I don't think the New Contributions report will work for your situation since it doesn't show pledge payments.  It only shows new pledges and new gifts.

    Dale




    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!

Reply
  • Alaina

     

    Based on what you are saying the system would never have the date you consider the received date.  I’m also not certain how you are doing receipts etc.,     A payment will never have a contribution date.   It seems the system will not be able  to do nearly a fraction of what it could be doing given this different definition.    Are you changing the contribution dates – using your example--- from 8/1 to 7/31 when you enter them in the system?

     

    Your financial folks might for the sake of having accurate data in the system and deposits – change the way deposits are done.  CASH FLOW IS IMPORTANT – I truly understand that but for being able to track things it might be worth it.

     

    Here for our major gifts we have a 2PM cut off for getting things to our Cashier.   Any checks we give her are what are entered/posted AND  deposited  that day.   If we receive a check after the deposit run, it is held until the next day.

     

    Are ticketing and smaller gifts are entered/posted in a different building and have to go through a different quality control check each morning before the prior day’s batches are posted.   These items are entered in the system the day before they are deposited and posted.   Our Cashier is able to track adequately this way.    But I understand everyone has their style of doing things.

     

    The other thing is if you are consistent that deposits are all done the day before the they are entered then wouldn’t you be able to run your reports with this in mind.   So that if you want your deposits for the month of July you would run the Fund Activity 7/2 thru 8/1.

     

    Seems you are looking for a third date – I just saw Dale pop up   and he makes a suggestion.   I think your best  bet is talk with the financial folks about the dates the systems has and determine how to interpret them for your site.  

     

    Leslie

     

    From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Alaina Smith
    Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 5:12 PM
    To: McKinley, Leslie
    Subject: RE: [Tessitura Development Forum] Pledge payment reporting help needed

     

    Thanks both to Leslie and Dale.

    The fund activity report may have potential, but if it pulls on transaction date, then that's a concern because for us, transaction date (date working in computer) is not necessarily gift date. (In fact, the gift date received is more often than not a different date from today's date.)

    Say a pledge payment comes in during summer for a pledge made in January. The check for the pledge payment is deposited to the bank on 7/31. The data entry occurs on 8/1. While doing data entry, we consider the gift date to be 7/31 (date of deposit). So, the "contribution date" is 7/31 and the "transaction date" is 8/1. Since the fund activity report only pulls transaction dates, it would a sweep for certain contribution dates.  I'm wondering how to capture "contribution dates" even though I know Tessitura's technical definition for "contribution" doesn't include pledge payments.

    How would I find the above-style transaction? Thanks again!

    From: Dale Aucoin <bounce-daleaucoin4707@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 8/31/2010 3:53:45 PM

    Alaina,

    I don't think the New Contributions report will work for your situation since it doesn't show pledge payments.  It only shows new pledges and new gifts.

    Dale




    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!

Children
No Data