Why are donations not appearing on the Gift Aid screen?
This article outlines some troubleshooting tips for when a donation is not appearing on the Gift Aid screen.
In this article:
ExpensePlus makes claiming Gift Aid simple. Since donation management is inbuilt within ExpensePlus, it automatically knows which donors are eligible for Gift Aid.
ExpensePlus also records which income transactions are named donations, and which donation method was used. This enables ExpensePlus to automatically and accurately generate Gift Aid claims for you, which can then be submitted to HMRC directly at the click of a button.
Find out more here: Which donations are included in Gift Aid claims within ExpensePlus?
The guidance below will help you troubleshoot why particular donations are not appearing on the Gift Aid claim screen.
Troubleshooting guide
Identify a specific donation that you were expecting to show on the Gift Aid claim screen, then follow the four checks below.
The best way to locate a transaction is to either find it within the view statement screen (selecting the bank account and month) or within the Income & Expenditure Transactions (by Category) report (selecting the fund, category and month).
1. Has the donation been recorded correctly?
Click on the donation transaction in question to view the edit income screen as in the image below (only Finance Users have permission to do this).
NOTE: On the view statement screen, you need to click on the transaction under the 'Transaction Details' heading on the right-hand side of the screen to view the edit income screen.
- Income type - the donation needs to have been recorded in the 'Named Donations' section. If it's been recorded in the 'Income (other)' section the row needs to be deleted, and the transaction details need to be entered as a row in the 'Named Donations' section (as shown above).
- Donation already claimed - if the delete button to the right of the donation is greyed out (along with some of the other fields), this tells you that the donation has already been claimed.
- Donation method - if the donation method is set to a payment processor that manages Gift Aid, then the donation will automatically be excluded from appearing within ExpensePlus Gift Aid claims to avoid it being claimed twice.
Donation methods where Gift Aid is pre-handled, and therefore excluded within ExpensePlus |
| CAF Donate |
| CAF Payroll Giving |
| CharitableGiving |
| Charities Trust |
| ChurchSuite |
| Donr Text Giving |
| GAYE Scheme |
| Give A Little |
| GIVT |
| Goodbox |
| Impact Voucher |
| Parish Giving Scheme |
| Stewardship |
NOTE: If the colour of the screen is green rather than blue, then the income is part of a bank deposit which is yet to be matched. If this is the case, you need to wait until the bank deposit has been matched in order for the donation to appear within the Gift Aid claim screen.
2. Does the donor have a valid Gift Aid Declaration?
Take note of the donor name, the fund the donation is recorded against, and the donation date of the specific transaction.
Then go to the Manage Donor Screen (Gift Aid Declaration view) and click on the donor.
Note: The donation date is shown at the very bottom of the edit income screen as 'Bank Date'.
The donor should show as having one (or more) Gift Aid declarations (as shown below):
Click on the Gift Aid declaration(s) and check that the date of the donation you are investigating is between the start and end date of one of these declarations.
Only donations where there is a valid Gift Aid declaration covering the date of the donation are included in Gift Aid claims.
3. Are your funds set up correctly?
Within the Fund Settings screen, check that the fund the donation is recorded against is set as eligible for Gift Aid.
4. Has the donation been manually excluded?
Within the Gift Aid module, click on the Manually Excluded Donations option and check that the donation you are investigating doesn't appear on that screen. If it does, check the reason the donation has been excluded and if this is incorrect, then un-exclude it.
What next?
If you have checked all of the above, then the donation will be showing on the Gift Aid claims screen as part of one of your 'Claims to Make'.
NOTE: Claims are 'per fund' and 'per financial year', so it's worth checking you are clicking on the claim that corresponds to the fund and the donation date of the donation you are investigating.
To better understand the Gift Aid module, please view the module overview video here.