How to reconcile Charitable Giving income
This help guide article covers how to reconcile Charitable Giving Income.
In this article:
The two options for reconciling Charitable Giving income
Option 1: Splitting payouts against donors manually using the 'mixed income' option
Option 2: Splitting payouts against donors automatically by uploading payout transactions
The two options for reconciling Charitable Giving income
Within ExpensePlus there are 2 choices for how to reconcile Charitable Giving 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 Charitable Giving, since it involves manually recording the different donations 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 via Charitable Giving, as it saves having to manually record donations.
You should not reconcile payouts from Charitable Giving as either 'Named Donation' or 'Income Received / Other income'. Charitable Giving charges admin fees, 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 Charitable Giving is recorded as income, and the Charitable Giving fees are correctly recorded as expenditure.
Option 1: Splitting payouts against donors manually using the 'mixed income' option
You will need to set up Charitable Giving as a donation method - click here to find out how to do this.
Reconciling Charitable Giving payouts on your main bank account statement
When reconciling your uploaded bank transactions, click on the payout from Charitable Giving on the left-hand table of your match transactions screen, then, within the pop-up that appears, select the transaction type 'Mixed Income'.
Within the next screen, enter the details for the transactions in the Charitable Giving payout:
- Named Donations - for any named donations;
- Less Expenditure - for the total of the fees deducted.
When reconciling Charitable Giving donations:
(1) You should always ensure the 'donation method' is set to 'Charitable Giving'.
(2) You should not record any donations as 'GASDS Donations'.
Where donors give anonymously, you may wish to create a donor called 'Anonymous Charitable Giving Donations'.
Option 2: Splitting payouts against donors automatically by uploading payout transactions
Reconciling Charitable Giving payouts on your main bank account statement
When you reconcile your uploaded bank transactions, click on the payout from Charitable Giving on the left-hand table of your match transactions screen, then, in the pop-up that appears, select the transaction type as 'Payout from Payment Processor', then select your Charitable Giving account.
You will first need to set up Charitable Giving as a payment processor account - click here to find out how to do this.
This will temporarily make the balance of your Charitable Giving account go negative (it should have been zero previously).
Downloading Charitable Giving transactions (from Charitable Giving)
Click here to sign in to your Charitable Giving Account.
Scroll down, and click 'Reports'
Select 'Download Excel Reports'
In the pop-up, select the date of the payout report, then select 'Accept and Download Report'.
Once you have downloaded the CSV file, don't edit or resave the file, or change the file format from .CSV to .XLS/.XLSX, as it may stop the file uploading properly to ExpensePlus
Importing Charitable Giving transactions
Within the bank reconciliation screen, select your Charitable Giving 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 Charitable Giving account balance should return to zero. That's because the net total of the transactions, in the payout report you've just uploaded into this account, should exactly match the amount paid out, since the payout went from this account into your bank account.
If your latest account balance for your Charitable Giving account within ExpensePlus is not zero, we highly recommend you fix this issue BEFORE you reconcile transactions - please see this separate help guide article.
Reconciling Charitable Giving transactions
The bank matching process for Charitable Giving transactions works similarly to a regular bank account - with the ability to remember and quick-match transactions.
This means that once you have reconciled Charitable Giving transactions for the first month, you won't need to manually enter transactions for future months - instead, you can 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) click on the transaction in the left-hand table of the match transactions screen;
(2) in the pop-up that appears, select the 'Named Donation' option and enter the details.
When reconciling Charitable Giving donations:
(1) You should always ensure the 'donation method' is set to 'Charitable Giving'.
(2) You should not record any donations as 'GASDS Donations'.
Where donors give anonymously, you may wish to create a donor called 'Anonymous Charitable Giving Donations'.
Card/Payment Process Fee
To reconcile Charitable Giving fees:
(1) click on the transaction in the left-hand table of the match transactions screen;
(2) in the pop-up that appears, select the 'Card/Payment Processor Fee' option and enter the details.
Why is my Charitable Giving statement not uploading?
- First Name (each transaction must contain a first name)
- Last Name (each transaction must contain a surname)
- Total Donation to Charity (each transaction must contain a non-zero amount)
- Admin Charge (each transaction must contain a transaction fee)
Note that:
- Additional columns can be present but won't be imported;
- The file format should be .CSV
To better understand the Bank Reconciliation functionality, please watch the module overview video here.