I am a new Tessitura user with limited background in other CRM systems. I have inherited a 12-year-old Tess database that changed Devo personnel in charge of maintenance about every three years. I am trying to streamline processes and ensure that we are using the most efficient and accurate methods of data management from here on out.
One area that has given me a lot of pause is Workplace Giving. It looks like for the past two years, the most recent coordinator at our organization would enter contributions under a Tess account for the third-party entity in charge of funds disbursement - we have constituents for "Your Cawse" and "Benefity" in Tess. Then, she would (sometimes) soft credit the actual donor from there. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, because we are missing quite a lot of data - if Xiao Mei works at Newspaper X, the way the previous coordinator entered information, we have no record of Newspaper X being involved in the giving - the total amount is soft-credited to Xiao Mei.
So I know that isn't the best way to do it, but I am stuck on what is. Let's say I have a $500 cheque from "Benefity"; $250 comes from Xiao Mei (Individual - Payroll) and $250 comes from Newspaper X, her employer (Employer Match - Payroll Match). Do I enter $500 under Xiao Mei's constituent record and soft credit $250 to Newspaper X's? Do I enter $500 under Newspaper X's constituent record and soft credit $250 to Xiao Mei's? Was the old coordinator correct and the whole thing goes to Benefity with $250 soft credited to Newspaper X and Xiao Mei respectively?
Related question: Is there a way to soft credit a constituent with the "Matching Gift" designation instead of "Family" or "Miscellaneous"? And if so, how?
I am sure there is a simple solution but I have choice paralysis and the workplace giving transactions I need to enter are stacking up... Thanks for reading and I hope someone can share how they do it!
Both places I've worked with Tessitura has had this same conversation, you're definitely not alone. There's a few different ways I know orgs handle these situations, and I feel that as long as your Finance team is on board with what you're doing, they can all work. I am a fan of consistency is processes whenever possible - but if the process no longer serves you, embrace change. At the Guthrie we do it like your previous coordinator did, and it works just fine. We place the money on the account of wherever the money came from - this keeps things financially very clean and tidy. For example, I get $500 from Benevity, $250 from Xiao Mei and $250 from Newspaper X as a match. I enter it as $250 on Benevity's account and "Assign Membership" to Xiao, and I use our Payroll Source code/appeal. Then I enter another $250 gift on Benevity's account, using the corporate match source/appeal, and "Assign Membership" to Xiao as well. In the notes I also mention that it's a payroll donation through Newspaper X, and a corporate matching gift from Newspaper X. I don't 100% love our system, it's just what I inherited, and it's on my list to review in the future to see how we could improve the process.