BBMS with Online Express

Patti Hommes, bCRE-PRO

osted by Patti Hommes on Jun 2, 2016 10:59 am


We are in the process of transitioning all of our credit card processing to BBMS (only active for donations at the moment)  Our mobile readers have a place in the setup for comments or notes, so we can indicate whether it is being used for the School Store, Parent Event, etc. This is very helpful for the BO as it appears on the transaction downloads, so they know where to allocate the funds. 


My question: Is there any way, in Online Express, that we can include the BBMS Comment field on a Giving Form? Before moving to OLX, our giving forms were created in onMessage and the name of the form used for the donation appeared in the Comment field on the BBMS transaction export.


Thanks!!


Patti

Faith Murray

Hi, Patti - this may or may not answer your question, because we moved to BBMS AFTER implementing OLX. The OLX donations forms do have the option for a Comments field, as well as a Fund/Appeal designation. However, I have never seen this information transfer over to the BBMS transaction reports in the BBMS portal. It DOES have the ability to be included on the transaction details of the email notifications, though. So what we do is simply include our Finance Office in the email notifications list whenever a new donation comes in. Then they already know where to allocate it before we even post the gift in RE.

Melinda Dietrich

Patti Hommes:

osted by Patti Hommes on Jun 2, 2016 10:59 am


We are in the process of transitioning all of our credit card processing to BBMS (only active for donations at the moment)  Our mobile readers have a place in the setup for comments or notes, so we can indicate whether it is being used for the School Store, Parent Event, etc. This is very helpful for the BO as it appears on the transaction downloads, so they know where to allocate the funds. 


My question: Is there any way, in Online Express, that we can include the BBMS Comment field on a Giving Form? Before moving to OLX, our giving forms were created in onMessage and the name of the form used for the donation appeared in the Comment field on the BBMS transaction export.


Thanks!!


Patti

 

I've been trying to get an idea about how BBMS/Online Express makes it's way into Raiser's Edge.  Would you guys be willing to share your experiences?  What does it look like? What are the steps? How does it post? Lessons learned?

Carley Haynes

Melinda Dietrich:

Patti Hommes:

osted by Patti Hommes on Jun 2, 2016 10:59 am


We are in the process of transitioning all of our credit card processing to BBMS (only active for donations at the moment)  Our mobile readers have a place in the setup for comments or notes, so we can indicate whether it is being used for the School Store, Parent Event, etc. This is very helpful for the BO as it appears on the transaction downloads, so they know where to allocate the funds. 


My question: Is there any way, in Online Express, that we can include the BBMS Comment field on a Giving Form? Before moving to OLX, our giving forms were created in onMessage and the name of the form used for the donation appeared in the Comment field on the BBMS transaction export.


Thanks!!


Patti

 

I've been trying to get an idea about how BBMS/Online Express makes it's way into Raiser's Edge.  Would you guys be willing to share your experiences?  What does it look like? What are the steps? How does it post? Lessons learned?

 

Hi Melinda,


It's a fairly easy process, BBMS basically creates a batch for you. You can select one transaction at a time or multiple transactions in one batch. BBMW attempts to match transactions with existing constituents within your RE database, which for us has worked out fairly well so far but I'm still going through and checking each one quite thoroughly! If there is no match you can create a new constituent from the BBMS screen and/or a new tribute from there as well if necessary. When you create the batch you can then go through it and add / subtract fields as necessary, just as per a normal batch you create. It posts the gifts almost the same as a normal batch but the naming conventions are different and the OLX Naming strings are very long!!!! Lessons learnt for us.... wait until the disbursement account comes in so finance can match up the amount put into the bank with the transactions... other than that we've only been using it for a month so far so I'm sure there will be more lessons to come!!!


I really like it, and while it's not quite as 'automatic' as what I had initially dreamed of, it is much easier than using an outside source like Kintera!! Hope that helps a little! 

Carley.

Faith Murray

Melinda Dietrich:

 

 

 

 

 

Agreed, it's a fairly easy process. Our lesson learned is, don't process recurring gifts or AFTs on the same batch as regular cash gifts. (You can select which gifts to download at a time.) The recurring gifts are pledges, not actual cash received, so if you include them in a regular batch, it will throw off your cash received totals on the batch report for Finance's end of things - especially if you use Financial Edge. Also, EFTs (as opposed to credit cards) may or may not automatically process through BBMS. We learned we have to download those gifts into a batch, then create an EFT transmission file manually for our financial insititution, to process those gifts.

Carley Haynes

Faith Murray:

Melinda Dietrich:

 

 

 

 

 

Agreed, it's a fairly easy process. Our lesson learned is, don't process recurring gifts or AFTs on the same batch as regular cash gifts. (You can select which gifts to download at a time.) The recurring gifts are pledges, not actual cash received, so if you include them in a regular batch, it will throw off your cash received totals on the batch report for Finance's end of things - especially if you use Financial Edge. Also, EFTs (as opposed to credit cards) may or may not automatically process through BBMS. We learned we have to download those gifts into a batch, then create an EFT transmission file manually for our financial insititution, to process those gifts.

 

Hi Faith,


Being new to OLX could you expand on the Recurding Gifts are pledges and the EFT's a little more for me please? We haven't come across those yet! 

Thanks in advance,

Carley.

Faith Murray

Being new to OLX could you expand on the Recurding Gifts are pledges and the EFT's a little more for me please? We haven't come across those yet! 

Thanks in advance, Carley.

Sure thing, we didn't really use Recurring gifts either until Online Express. A recurring gift is when the donor selects that he/she wants to make this gift on a monthly basis. The form will tell the donor something like, "This gift will recur on the 1st of each month." However, unless the donor actually fills the form out on the 1st, that gift will not auto-process through BBMS that day. The Recurring Gift comes into RE and is actually a type of never-ending pledge template. The basic difference is that, unlike a pledge, there is no "grand total", there is just a dollar amount how much the donor wants to give each month into perpetuity. When it comes onto your batch with other gifts, the first installment is not due yet until the first of the next month (or whatever date you have set). So you don't actually receive the money at the time you download the batch - but the Recurring gift amount still shows up in your projected batch totals. To get the money later, you must wait till the correct date when the payment comes due and then initiate an EFT batch in RE. (A side-note, in RE reports, the Recurring Gift Pay-Cash gift type is the actual money received after it is processed. The Recurring Gift is just the pledge template, not real money.)


A Direct Debit (ACH) gift, even a one-time gift, also does not auto-process in BBMS. Once you download it into your batch, you must create an EFT transmission file, and then send it through either BBMS or your financial institution, for processing. Processing usually takes a couple of days, so again you don't receive the money instantly, like the regular credit card gifts on your OLX batch.


For this reason, we have found it best to download both ACH and Recurring Gifts onto their own batches, separate from regular one-time credit card gifts in OLX. The recurring gifts we commit, but mark "Do Not Post" so our Business office (which uses integrated FE) does not pull it over as cash received. The ACH gifts we submit to our financial institution and then commit after the money hits the bank a couple days later.

Jorgen Gulliksen

Faith Murray:

Hi, Patti - this may or may not answer your question, because we moved to BBMS AFTER implementing OLX. The OLX donations forms do have the option for a Comments field, as well as a Fund/Appeal designation. However, I have never seen this information transfer over to the BBMS transaction reports in the BBMS portal. It DOES have the ability to be included on the transaction details of the email notifications, though. So what we do is simply include our Finance Office in the email notifications list whenever a new donation comes in. Then they already know where to allocate it before we even post the gift in RE.

It DOES have the ability to be included on the transaction details of the email notifications, though. 


Can you describe how you were able to do this?