How do I export donation details to ChurchSuite?

If your organisation uses ChurchSuite, then you may wish to export your donations into ChurchSuite and claim Gift Aid within ChurchSuite.

Watch the ChurchSuite Export Module Overview video to find out how it works.

ChurchSuite Export Setup

Before you export to ChurchSuite:

1) you may need to set a ChurchSuite Fund Name for some of your income categories. The Export to ChurchSuite screen within ExpensePlus will notify you of any categories you need to do this for. The ChurchSuite Fund Names should match the Fund Names you have within ChurchSuite.

For example: within ChurchSuite you may have two fund names such as 'General' and 'Building Fund'. Any donation categories within ExpensePlus will need to be assigned a ChurchSuite Fund Name. You can manage this is managed in the Income and Expenditure Categories screen.

2) you may need to set up additional donation methods in ChurchSuite (as ChurchSuite doesn't come with as many donation methods as ExpensePlus has - however you can add more). Within the ChurchSuite Giving module, click on the cog symbol and add any of the following donation methods: 

• Stewardship
• CAF
• Impact Vouchers
• Charities Trust 
• GAYE
• Parish Giving Scheme

Exporting Transactions

Once you have finished bank matching donations in ExpensePlus, you can export transactions from the 'Export to ChurchSuite' screen within ExpensePlus.

You will get a CSV download that you can upload to ChurchSuite.

View the module overview video for more details.

By importing this export file into ChurchSuite (rather than a bank statement):

• You ensure that the donation data in ChurchSuite is always consistent and matches with the donation information in ExpensePlus
• All income transactions that are not donations (e.g. supplier refunds, non-donation income, etc.) get automatically stripped out for you
• Donations originating from ChurchSuite are not included in the export as they will already be in ChurchSuite (to avoid donation duplication in ChurchSuite)
• Donations that have already had Gift Aid claimed on them (e.g. those given through Stewardship or CAF) are included in the export, but marked so that ChurchSuite knows to exclude them from any Gift Aid claims (to avoid the risk of double claiming). This means your donor records in ChurchSuite will be full and accurate.

What if transactions are missing from the Export file?

If a donation you are expecting to appear within the ChurchSuite export is not there then this is likely to be due to one or more of the following reasons:

1. you are looking at the wrong date range (check the dates set at the top of the screen are set correctly)
2. the donation hasn't been recorded as a 'named donation' (to check this, click on the income transaction in question)
3. the income has been coded as a 'named donation' but the donation method is set as 'ChurchSuite'. ExpensePlus excludes these donations from the export, as these originated from and are already inside ChurchSuite, so including them on the export would cause duplication.

To better understand the ChurchSuite Export module, please view the module overview video here.