Would anyone be willing to share their process for gift processing, both from the perspective of the development department and the finance department? Thanks!
Hi Maureen,
I also would like to hear about best practices surrounding gift processing, segregation of duties etc.. At this point at HS, the Finance department is wanting to try moving gift processing to the Finance Department, a function traditionally kept and maintained by the Development department.
Here is the traditional/old processing trail (highly summarized):
1) Finance receives and opens mail
2) Finance deposits and batches contributions received in the mail and scans in documentation (checks only- credit card forms received sent to Development separately outside of a "pre-made" batch)
3) Finance sends mail batches to Development to process/entry the gifts (credit cards deposited at point of gift entry batch close)
4) Development enters ALL gifts from Finance organized mail, Online Contributions, Add-On Donations, and internally received gifts/pledge via gift officer correspondence. Entry is "by the deposit" or by payment method i.e. no mixing credit cards, checks, cash or pledge entries.
5) Development closes and posts ALL their batches and e-files posting report in shared drive location for Finance access.
6) Development only scans in documentation for gifts/payments/pledge of $1,000+ (that were not captured by Finance's scans of the check documentation per step 2) and also drops them in shared file location
7) Development retains and maintains contribution batch files with original paperwork retained per organization's retention schedule.
8) Finance does development reconciliation with Tessitura and Financial Edge every month.
Here is the new trail as proposed by Finance (and which we will be beginning this Month, Aug. 2018- I have included some additional comments in these steps):
2) Finance deposits and batches contributions received in the mail and scans in documentation (checks AND credit card forms- basically ALL documentation will now be scanned or saved as PDFs in the shared file location i.e. also online reports to serve as Finance's supporting documentation. (They are a paperless department, even though, at this time Development is not, so they are doing away with the $1,000+ threshold per the traditional set 6)
3) Finance Department enters ALL gifts from Finance organized mail, Online Contributions, Add-On Donations, and internally received gifts/pledge via gift officer correspondence with Development person (me) serving as liaison for Development needs re: entry/special notes or situations that Finance may not be aware of for certain gifts. They place all finished batches on HOLD.
4) Development has a deadline of 12pm daily to submit any paperwork into shared filed for Finance to process that day, if not received by 12pm it goes in the following day.
4) Finance Department reviews all documentation before approving the batch closes and posts, then e-filing posting report in shared drive location for Development access
5) Finance has a deadline of 3pm daily to complete review of documentation provided in line with Tessitura entries by "taking ownership" of the batches and reviewing the contribution entries then comparing to the documentation. If they do not see "enough" documentation for an entry they will NOT close or post the batch or if they see an error.
6) Development only gets to go back through the documentation AFTER it has been closed and posted to ensure all Development needs were met and things were entered correctly from the Development donor knowledge points and per specific source codes, notes etc. that we have developed standardization for.
7) Development still responsible for capturing any data hygiene entries/corrections from paperwork/documentation i.e. program listings, address changes, deceased notifications, other specific Development data updates that had been rolled up into part of gift entry duties from the Development perspective, but that Finance does not consider their responsibility. They are just worried about the transaction and campaign/designation application.
8) Development still retains and maintains contribution batch files with all original paperwork that Finance will remit to them after entry.
9) Finance does development reconciliation (aim for a weekly reconcile vs. monthly)
Sorry for the LONG reply, but I really hope this opens up a dialogue, as a Development Gifts and Records staffer for the last 5 years, I have a lot of issues with some of Finance's changes here. I do NOT think segregation of duties is being accommodated or that we are really streamlining things on either end, which is suppose to be the goal. There are some good points, but in my opinion we are asking for a whole lot of room for error and creating more work by dealing with a back and forth dynamic in this liaison format. I am hoping the month of August will lead to more compromise then this current set-up.
Looking forward to hearing some thoughts on this from Finance and Development Colleagues alike! What do you think Maureen?
Thanks!
Irma