Yesterday I entered a gift and it upgraded a current membership in a patron's record. My intent was to create a new pending membership for the upcoming 09/10 season. They paid really early, so by the rules we have setup it did what it was supposed to do.
So my question is two-fold 1. How to I correct this, and 2. for future gift entry, how do I make tessitura know I intend for the gift to create a new pending membership.
Hi, Heather -
I can answer the future part. On the membership tab in the contribution entry process, click on Allocate Funds and then Add New Membership. (Might not be the exact words - I'm writing from memory.) That will create a pending membership that begins when the active one expires.
You can also use the Allocate Funds button to upgrade a current membership when the rules would create a new one. This may not happen in your business practices, but sometimes does for us, so I thought I'd mention it.
Sarah
and to answer the first part, you will need to adjust the gift to zero and follow Sarah's advice when you re-enter it.
Is the 'Allocate Funds' button something fairly new? I've had a search through the 9.0 version notes and couldn't find anything satisfactory.
Our annual subscription payments are all in the Autumn and so we don't look at this sort of thing for months at a time. The Membership department have just started to put some really early pledges on and are finding this extra button means that something that was automatic is now more manual!
Can I switch it off?
Thanks, Suzanne.
Hi Suzanne,
I think the allocate funds button has been here since the get-go, at least I know it's older than v5.5 since there was a bug fix done at that time.
The purpose behind this option is to actually override the rules outlined in your membership setup so if they are using this option when processing pledges that is probably because your membership renewal rule states that it is still too early to automatically renew a membership.
Here is a bit of text about this taken from the Memberships document which also outlines all the different times you may need to use this option as well as how these rules are set up.
"If a contribution is made prior to the renewal period for a current membership record, it is automatically applied to upgrading the membership. To instead apply the additional contribution to renewing the membership, click the Allocate Funds button."
Hope this helps.
The Allocate Funds button has been there forever. It is used to process an early renewal or a late upgrade, in other words to override the renewal defaults set for the current membership record affected by the contribution. If your membership renewals normally begin in autumn, then the only way to process a renewal now is to use the Allocate Funds button. Either that or change when the renewal period begins in the membership setup area, though that would result in upgrades being a manual process instead.
Check out the Memberships document (recently revised and improved) for more details on early renewals.
Kevin Sheehan
Documentation & Learning Resources Specialist
Tessitura Network
1 888 643 5778 ext 329 Office
ksheehan@tessituranetwork.com