What are donor references?
Donor references are a unique way to identify donors. They are also sometimes used to anonymise donors.
An example
For example, a church that still has cash offerings may use envelopes labelled with donor reference numbers rather than names. This system ensures donors are anonymised, because only the person with the list of reference numbers can identify donors by name.
Within ExpensePlus, whether you use donor references or not, 'donor reference' is a required field. ExpensePlus will automatically generate donor references for new donors, though you can update this to a reference of your choice.
Donor references can be only a number, or can also contain a specified prefix.
Donor names can be hidden or made visible per user.
Important: It's not possible to hide donor names in the following places:
Reports:
- Finance Report: All Transactions (by Match)
- Finance Report: All Transactions (by Account)
- Donations Report: Generate Donor Statements
- Donations Report: Donor Mail Merge Data
Modules:
- Bank Reconciliation
- Petty Cash (if any named petty cash donations are recorded)
- ChurchSuite Export
Most users shouldn't have been given access to these reports and modules within their user role!
Note: If a user has the role of 'Finance Team' or 'Independent Examiner', they will automatically see donor names (as this is a requirement of both of these roles by default). Consider assigning the user a different user role if you don't want them to be able to view donor names.
Adding a donor reference
You can view and manage donor references within the Manage Donors screen.
To edit a donor's reference number, just click on the donor you want to edit. This will take you to a screen showing the details of that donor. Click on the 'Edit' icon to edit their donor reference number.
Note: You can also import donor references as part of the donor import process.
Hiding donor names
Within User Settings, you can specify whether donor names are visible or hidden for each user. Click on the name of the relevant user to view their User Profile, then select or deselect 'Hide donor names'.
By default, donor names are hidden.
You can enable a user to view donor names within any report or module they have access to. Typically, most users won't have access to the screen where donor names appear anyway.
Where donor names are hidden, donor reference numbers will be shown instead.
Donor reference prefixes
If your organisation uses donor prefixes, then you can add these within the Manage Donors screen.
Click the 'Settings' option in the top right of this screen, then select the 'Reference Prefixes' view and 'Add Reference Prefix'.
Prefixes can be customised with up to 5 uppercase letters, e.g. 'G', 'SITEA', or 'EP'
Note: When you add the first prefix, all existing donors will be assigned this prefix (but when further prefixes are added, you will then be able to update the prefix a donor has been assigned).
To better understand the Manage Donors module, please view the module overview here.