I'm writing to see how all of you manage your gift entry and acknowledgment letter process.
Here at the Kansas City Symphony, it was determined when we converted to Tess in 2006 that I would do a separate batch for each TYPE of gift "bundle" for each date.....so for example, lockbox checks dated 6/15/09 would be a batch, daily checks for 6/15/09 would be a separate batch, credit cards for 6/15/09 would be a batch, lockbox checks dated 6/16/09 would be a DIFFERENT batch (as I am required to use the date on the lockbox/daily check report/etc. as the contribution date AND posting date, which often requires me to back date batches.) I believe this was decided to somehow help finance keep track of things and make it easier to reconcile.
Besides the obvious issue of having so many batches per day, each batch may have various types of acknowledgment letters. This is a huge issue when running the acknowledgment report since it is based on gift date and letter type. I have to spread out ALL the 6/15/09 batches on my desk and determine which letters are in which batches and how many of each there are (to verify that one was not inadvertently missed). We merge our letters into Word, FYI.
What I think I recall hearing from other Tessitura people is that they will have one batch per day....they open a batch in the morning and anything that comes in THAT DAY will go in it.....credit cards, pledges, lockbox checks, daily checks....everything, and that the contribution date for those gifts will be the current day and the posting date will also be the current day.
Can you all share your process for gift entry/acknowledgment letters? Or any suggestions we might use to make our process more stream-lined? Our process has become unmanageable since I am the only person responsible for this, and our process is no longer efficient and effective, especially with the continually growing number of donors.
Thank you!
Marcy Osburn, Donor Information Specialist, Kansas City Symphony