How to reconcile GiveALittle Income

This help guide article covers how to reconcile GiveALittle Income.

NOTE: GiveALittle uses SumUp to process donations. The reason you can't just upload your SumUp transactions is that GiveALittle currently doesn't populate either the donor's name or what the donation is for within the SumUp description field.

Adding GiveALittle as a payment processor within ExpensePlus is a workaround we've built to overcome this issue for the churches and charities that use GiveALittle.

WARNING: If you are using your SumUp account for more than just processing GiveALittle donations (e.g. you have SumUp debit cards, or you process other income via your SumUp card reader), then this workaround WON'T work (because your GiveALittle transactions will only be a subset of your SumUp transactions).

If this is the case, we'd recommend that either:

(1) You don't use your SumUp account for non-GiveALittle transactions (instead use a different provider for processing these other transactions (such as SumUp, Zettle or Stripe).

(2) You switch from GiveALittle to another provider such as LoveGiving which provides a streamlined solution for in-person contactless card donations and captures Gift Aid details.

Assuming you only use your SumUp account for GiveALittle donations, then within ExpensePlus there are 2 choices for how to reconcile GiveALittle Income (you will need to pick the one that will work best for you):

Option 1: Splitting payouts against donors manually using the 'mixed income' option - This is typically the best and quickest option where you have only a few people who give via GiveALittle since it involves manually recording the different donations given that make up the payout received each time.
Option 2: Splitting payouts against donors automatically by uploading payout transactions - This option is typically best where you have more than 5 people giving with GiveALittle as it saves having to manually record donations.

IMPORTANT: You should not reconcile payouts from GiveALittle (via SumUp) as 'Income Received' since transaction fees are charged. So, recording the net amount that arrives in your bank account simply as income is incorrect from an accounting perspective. Instead, choose one of the above options - both of which enable you to ensure the gross amount of income collected via GiveALittle is recorded as income, and the GiveALittle transaction fees are correctly recorded as expenditure.

Option 1: Splitting payouts against support donors manually using the 'mixed income' option

Note: you will need to set up GiveALittle as a donation method - click here to find out how to do this.

Reconciling GiveALittle payouts on your bank statement

When reconciling your uploaded bank transactions, select the payout from GiveALittle (which will come via SumUp) on the left-hand table of your match transactions screen, click the + button, then within the popup that appears, select the transaction type as 'Mixed Income'.

Within the 'Enter Mixed Income' screen, enter the details for the transactions in the GiveALittle payout:

Named Donations - for any named donations (Gift Aid for these donations is handled within GiveALittle where a donation is elegible- contact GiveALittle support for more details)
GASDS Donations - for any donations where the donor name is 'anonymous' (these will automatically get picked up within GASDS claims in ExpensePlus, as Gift Aid submission download in GiveALittle doesn't include them)
Less Expenditure - for the total of the fees deducted (typically grouped into a single expenditure line)

IMPORTANT:

(1) You must NOT record any donations greater than £30 as GASDS (as this is above the maximum single transaction limit set by HMRC)

(2) You must NOT record any named donations where the donor has a valid Gift Aid declaration in either GiveALittle, ExpensePlus or elsewhere as GASDS (such donations are not elegible under GASDS)

Option 2: Splitting payouts against support donors automatically by uploading payout transactions

Reconciling GiveALittle payouts appearing on your main bank account statement

When you reconcile your uploaded bank transactions, select the payout from GiveALittle (which will come from SumUp) on the left-hand table of your match transactions screen.

Click the + button that appears next to the transaction, and in the popup that then appears, select the transaction type as 'Payout from Payment Processor', and then select your GiveALittle account.

Note: you will need to set up GiveALittle as a payment processor account before you can do this - click here to find out how to do this.

Note: This will temporarily make your account balance of your GiveALittle go negative (it should have been zero previously).

Downloading GiveALittle transactions

From the top menu, select 'Reports' and then 'Payouts'

Select the date of the payout, and then select 'Export Report'

Importing GiveALittle transactions

Within the bank reconciliation screen, select your GiveALittle account and click 'upload transactions'.

The upload process works similarly to a regular bank account, except that, each line on the statement will show as two transactions within ExpensePlus - one relating to the income and the other to the transaction fee deducted.

Once payout transactions are uploaded, your GiveALittle account balance should return to zero (because the net total of the transactions in the payout report you've just uploaded IN to this account should exactly match the amount paid OUT as the payout went from this account into your bank account).

IMPORTANT NOTE: If your latest account balance within ExpensePlus for your GiveALittle account is not zero, we highly recommend you fix this issue BEFORE you reconcile transactions - please see this separate helpguide article

Reconciling GiveALittle transactions

The bank matching process works similarly to a regular bank account, with the ability to remember and quick match transactions.

This means that once you have reconciled GiveALittle transactions for the first month, you won't need to manually enter transactions for future months - but simply click the 'quick match income' button at the top of the match transactions screen.

Where transactions haven't been previously reconciled and auto-remembered:

Named Donations

(1) select the transaction in the left-hand table of the match transactions screen;

(2) click the '+' button to the right of the transaction;

(3) select the 'Named Donation' option in the popup and enter the details.

NOTE: GiveALittle captures donor declaration details for donations that are eligible for Gift Aid and provides a Gift Aid Claim download that can be uploaded via the HMRC Gift Aid portal. It's best to claim Gift Aid on donations via GiveALittle outside of ExpensePlus directly. ExpensePlus automatically excludes donations with the donation method of GiveALittle from Gift Aid claims within ExpensePlus (even if the donor has a valid Gift Aid declaration).

GASDS Donations

Where the donor is 'Annonmous' and the donation amount is £30 or less:

(1) select the transaction in the left-hand table of the match transactions screen;

(2) click the '+' button to the right of the transaction;

(3) select the 'GASDS Donation' option in the popup and enter the details.

NOTE: Any anonymous donations via GiveALittle where the amount is £30 or less are eligible under GASDS. Because GiveALittle doesn't include these in their Gift Aid claim download, these do get picked up automatically within the ExpensePlus GASDS Claims in the Gift Aid Module.

NOTE: Contactless card donations over £30 are not eligible for GASDS and should be entered instead as 'Income Received'.

Card/Payment Process Fee

To reconcile GiveALittle transaction fees (charged by SumUp):

(1) select the transaction in the left-hand table of the match transactions screen

(2) click the '+' button to the right of the transaction

(3) select the 'Card/Payment Processor Fee' option in the popup and enter the details

Why is my GiveALittle statement not uploading?

Most likely, you are not uploading the statement detailed above. Whilst you can try uploading a different formatted statement, for it to work, you will need to update the column names, and the file must contain ALL of the following headers (spelt exactly as stated below):

Date (each transaction must contain a date)
Campaign (each transaction must contain a campaign name)
Amount (each transaction must contain a non-zero income amount)
Transaction Fee (each transaction must contain a non-zero transaction fee)
Donor Name (each transaction may contain a donor name, where there is no name, on import this will be set as 'Anonymous')

(additional columns can be present but won't be imported).