How to update a donation when Gift Aid has already been claimed?
If you are trying to update a donation that is part of a Gift Aid claim that has been submitted, many of the fields that would usually be able to edit will be greyed out (see screenshot below).
This help guide article explains how you can edit a donation but via different means.
Note: if the screen you are looking at doesn't look like the one above, and instead the 'submit' button isn't displaying, then check out this seperate help guide article. It's highly likely your issue is that the transaction you are viewing is in a locked financial year.
Updating the fund
Whilst it's not possible to directly update the fund of the transaction if it's part of a submitted Gift Aid claim, you can use the income category transfer option within ExpensePlus to transfer the amount of income:
- FROM the fund/category where the transaction is allocated
- TO the fund/category you wish to allocate it to
IMPORTANT: Don't forget that the Gift Aid relating to a donation typically needs to be allocated to the same fund the donation is allocated to. So when entering the income category transfer you will typically need to enter a second income category transfer to the account for the Gift Aid as well. This second transfer will be for 25% of the transaction amount.
Note: the category field of the transaction isn't locked. So if you only need to update the category (not the fund) of a donation, then you can still do this within the edit donation screen.
Updating the Donor Name
Whilst it's not possible to directly update the Donor Name for a transaction if it's part of a submitted Gift Aid claim, you can follow the steps below to correct for this issue:
- Manually upload two bank transactions
Following these intrustions, manually upload a paid in and a paid out transaction for the same amount as the transaction you want to update. The date of these two transaction should be the same date as the transaction you are trying to update.
Top Tip: Give your two manually uploaded bank statement transactions a helpful description as shown above to make it easy for anyone looking at these to know why they've been added.
Note: as the paid in transaction and the paid out transaction you upload are for the same amount, this will not change your bank balance. Double-check that you've done this correctly, by ensuring your latest bank statement balance within ExpensePlus still matches your actual bank statement balance for that date.
- Reconcile the income bank transaction as a 'donation refund'
Within the match transactions screen
- On the left-hand table, select the paid out transaction uploaded in step 1
- Click the + button to the right of the transaction,
- Select the Donation Refund option and enter the transaction details.
IMPORTANT: ExpensePlus will automatically include a Gift Aid adjustment for the donation refund in the next Gift Aid claim you create. So you don't need to manually add this for the donation previously wrongly claimed that you are trying to edit.
- Within the match transactions screen
- On the left-hand table, select the paid in transaction uploaded in step 1
- Click the + button to the right of the transaction,
- Select the Named Donation option and enter the transaction details.
Note: ExpensePlus will ExpensePlus will automatically include this donation within your next Gift Aid claim if the donation is eligible for Gift Aid.
Updating the Donation Method
Whilst it's not possible to directly update the Donation Methord for a transaction if it's part of a submitted Gift Aid claim, you can follow the same process detailed in the 'Updating the Donor Name' section above.
You can manually add a pair of bank transactions that will allow you to 'refund' the incorrectly recorded donation and re-enter the donation again.
Note: Whilst the incorrect donation method may display within some of the donation reports, the fact that a donation method appears incorrectly for a particular donation typically doesn't cause any issues and therefore typically no action is needed.
However, the donation method matters the wrongly selected donation method means the donation does not to appear within the Gift Aid claim screen when it should be, or it is appearing when it shouldn't be. The you can change it using the process above.
To better understand the Manage Donors module, please view the module overview here.