Employee Payroll Gifts

Carol Gordon

Hello,

Curious if anyone who solicits a large number of payroll gifts would be willing to share how you streamline the processing of those employee donations. Currently we are importing into gift batches, bi-weekly, from Excel spreadsheets from our Payroll Dept. This year for 2018, we have over 1,009 employees giving with a bi-weekly payroll.

Thank you,
Carol L. Gordon
Prospect Research and Database Manager
p: 740.382.4885, 800.837.2211
f: 740.382.4884
e: cgordon@uchinc.org
United Church Homes, Inc.
170 East Center Street
PO Box 1806
Marion, OH 43301-1806
w: unitedchurchhomes.org

Ryan Hyde

I think the easiest way to do this would be to create a recurring batch. You can probably create the batch the first time via an import file, but after that, you will just need to commit the batch on a particular schedule. Of course, as people enter/exist your organization, you'll need to adjust the batch, but that shouldn't be too burdensome. 


The other way to do this would be to import these gifts as year long recurring gifts with a biweekly schedule. You could then create a batch by adding all scheduled gifts due within a particular date range and then commit the batch. To me, this seems like it would be a little more clunky though, but maybe that's just me. 


The only thing I would urge against is doing a combination of these two methods, e.g., a recurring batch full of recurring gift payments. If you do that, you'll need to go through every line in the batch and do Gift > Apply To > Recurring Gift in order to get everything set up correctly. (If I'm wrong about this, someone please correct me and teach me as this causes a small headache for me every month).

Jen Claudy

Ryan, at my last org, I had a set of Recurring Gifts for employee giving and then a Recurring Batch to enter the payments each month.  I would get the payroll information from Finance at the end of the month (or very early in the next month) and enter the 2-3 payrolls from the month at one time.  I would open my Batch, compare the totals with the totals from Finance, use Global Change in the Batch to put in correct dates and other necessary information (specific to that org), and commit the Batch.  Then do it again for the next payroll.  Because I set up the Recurring Batch manually and linked the Gifts to the Recurring Gifts (entered via Import) on the records, I didn't need to re-link them every time.  I didn't get detail from Finance, so if the total was different than RE's total, I'd need to manually adjust the Batch...I tracked new hires and terms in RE, so generally I had already terminated the RG or set up a new one as the case may be, and if I couldn't figure it out, I had a very helpful Finance Dept who would work with me to find the discrepancy.  Of course, we were working with 30-35 employees, so it wasn't a ton of data to go thru to find the problem; and if something went drastically wrong, it wouldn't take too terribly much time to fix it all manually in RE, either.


Another thing you might try, if you're getting detailed data from Finance/Payroll, is to import that data using Zeidman's Importacular.  You can set default values, or values for RE that are determined by values in the data (i.e. if the data includes "FundA" but in RE you need it to be "Fund A 2018", you can tell Importacular to change "FundA" to "Fund A 2018" during the import).  It's free to use for importing Constituents and Gifts, so it wouldn't hurt to look at it and test it with a handful of records.  For gift data, it will create a Batch which will then need to be committed, but also gives you another opportunity to fix issues.  I'm not sure about importing RG payments, but if anyone tries that, please post the results of what you find!

JoAnn Strommen

I'm hoping you'll get some replies from uses with large payrolls to put in.  Ours is not anywhere near that size.


If you want them to be applied as pledge payments obviously you'll need to get the pledges entered first. Gift clean up if you have a fair amount of turnover can be a pain to write off or adjust pledges. Just entering them as cash gifts could certainly be considered depanding on your reporting needs. We have staff goals so our are entered as pledges so we can report out what we need.


If I had that size of gift list I would do a gift import.


Second choice IMO, if they are entered as pledges I would use Tools > Auto Generate over using a recurring batch. I used recurring batch for ours and found it was a lot of editing out the people with no paycheck that pay period or adjusting amount to $0. Then next pay period had to put them back in or change amount. The auto-generate pulls everyone with scheduled payment into the batch and I only have to remove those with no deduction/paycheck for the pay period. I have a query of all staff at all branches with payroll deductions that I use for the records to include in the auto generate.


Carol, when you say you are "importing into batches" are you doing a straight data import or are you bring all the records into a gift batch. These are two different things.


Just some thoughts.

Carol Gordon

JoAnn Strommen:

I'm hoping you'll get some replies from uses with large payrolls to put in.  Ours is not anywhere near that size.


If you want them to be applied as pledge payments obviously you'll need to get the pledges entered first. Gift clean up if you have a fair amount of turnover can be a pain to write off or adjust pledges. Just entering them as cash gifts could certainly be considered depanding on your reporting needs. We have staff goals so our are entered as pledges so we can report out what we need.


If I had that size of gift list I would do a gift import.


Second choice IMO, if they are entered as pledges I would use Tools > Auto Generate over using a recurring batch. I used recurring batch for ours and found it was a lot of editing out the people with no paycheck that pay period or adjusting amount to $0. Then next pay period had to put them back in or change amount. The auto-generate pulls everyone with scheduled payment into the batch and I only have to remove those with no deduction/paycheck for the pay period. I have a query of all staff at all branches with payroll deductions that I use for the records to include in the auto generate.


Carol, when you say you are "importing into batches" are you doing a straight data import or are you bring all the records into a gift batch. These are two different things.


Just some thoughts.

Thanks everyone for your quick responses and ideas!

Here is what we do-so maybe it will give you a little more info on the process I do.  The first part of this whole process is the entry of pledges into a one-time pledge gift batch per community. (We are a long term care company with several communities throughout the US.) I then set up a query from that commited pledge batch and do a "group add to constituents from batch" and apply as a new gift batch for my recurring payroll gifts. These batches become my "templates" are what I use to match Finance payments to what we have.Each week I receive an Excel spreadsheet from our Payroll Department that has each employee's deductions listed for that particular pay period. I use this spreadsheet and basically do what JoAnn stated, I use a recurring gift batch and look at the totals and edit any discrepancies. I then commit the batch. My dilema in the whole process is the time it takes to enter all these pledges. We even use a spreadsheet to help us keep track who is giving and who is not. (Our payroll dept needs to know who is stopping their deduction, or it will just continue). I feel we touch this thing several times before I actually get to the per week payment batch. I just don't know of any other way around it. Is it possible to import new employees and existing employees for the pledge batch entry process????  I am just not sure how to make this more efficient. Thank you all very much!!  

Ryan Hyde

I'm assuming the spreadsheet you get form payroll does not include RE Constituent ID numbers (because why would it?) Does it contain a unique identifier (like an employee number, or an email address, or something else unique)? If so, you could import this unique item into RE in some way, either as an alias or an attribute most likely. Then, whenever you get the spreadsheet from payroll, you can output everyone in RE who is an employee (you'd query on the existence of the alias or attribute you set up to record their unique identifier from the payroll spreadsheet). You'll want to output their payroll unique identifier from RE and their constituent ID, in that order.


Then you'll use VLOOKUP in excel to map their constituent ID number into the spreadsheet. This will show you if it's an existing employee or if a new record needs to be created.


If there are a lot of new records to create, you can absolutely import new constituents into RE. You'll want to research this a bit if you've never done it before, but I do this on a regular basis at my org. 


You can then import pledges onto everyone's record using the info you have at your disposal (I'm assuming this only needs to be done once a year though, yes?). Once you have pledges on their record, you can use the pledge import ID to import future payments as payments on that pledge if you want. 


If you're not super familiar with the import tool, you're going to want to clear your schedule for a couple of afternoons and really research this stuff (and post more granular questions here if need be), but I think you can do everything you're looking to do with just the built in import tools in a fairly efficient manner. 

Carol Gordon

Thank you Ryan. This is so helpful. Yes, we do
have an employee number that is unique in attributes. I’m not super
familiar with this type of import, so locking myself inside the
office will be a must.

It sounds like it is just what I need to be
able to do for that front end of the process of adding all the
pledges.

Thanks again

 

 

 

Carol L. Gordon

Prospect Research and Database Manager

p:
740.382.4885, 800.837.2211

f:
740.382.4884

e:
cgordon@uchinc.org

 

United Church Homes, Inc.

170 East Center Street

PO Box 1806

Marion, OH 43301-1806

w:
unitedchurchhomes.org

 

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Jen Claudy

Importacular should take care of those match ups for you.  And it will import new Constituents at the same time as all of the Pledges.  The tool will attempt to match incoming records with existing records in your RE database, based on criteria that you enter.  You may be able to have it reference your employee ID Attribute, but I'm not sure on that.  (It should reference Alias, because that's a "name" field.)  I just looked, and Attributes are available under the [Advanced] button when setting the Criteria Sets...but I'm not quite sure how it works and am not able to test that right now.  Zeidman would probably be happy to help you out, though.  I've heard good things about their customer service.

Carol Gordon

Thank you-this sounds like a great option. I
will definitely check this out. Thanks so much

 

 

 

Carol L. Gordon

Prospect Research and Database Manager

p:
740.382.4885, 800.837.2211

f:
740.382.4884

e:
cgordon@uchinc.org

 

United Church Homes, Inc.

170 East Center Street

PO Box 1806

Marion, OH 43301-1806

w:
unitedchurchhomes.org

 

The information contained in this
message is intended for the use of the individual or entity to
which it is addressed and may contain information that is
privileged, confidential or exempt from disclosure under applicable
law. If the reader is not the intended recipient, nor the
employee or agent responsible for delivery to the intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, copying,
disclosure or dissemination of this communication is strictly
prohibited and may be subject to legal restriction or sanction. If
you have received this communication in error, you are requested to
immediately notify the sender by telephone (740-382-4885 Ext. 2083)
for return or destruction of the information.

 

 

Michelle Tribe

All great answers!  I would also suggest if your org has Omatic products, Import-omatic could be a tool to use to import the spreadsheet from finance. It also has the ability to make new constituents if needed.  Good luck!

Carol Gordon

Yes, these are all great answers! Thank you
all

We do not have this, but worth looking
into.

Thank you very much!!!

 

 

 

Carol L. Gordon

Prospect Research and Database Manager

p:
740.382.4885, 800.837.2211

f:
740.382.4884

e:
cgordon@uchinc.org

 

Gracie Schild

Our payroll deduction crowd is very small, but we do it more like Jen was describing. The Recurring Batch has both Recurring Gifts and Pledges as the "main" gift, and they are all linked. We also have the little check box on the Commit page for "Apply automatically to same fund pledges" (or whatever it says) marked. When we open the batch every other week, we change the default gift date to the appropriate payday (and go down the column using F2 to fill in the default - how do you do a global change in a batch, Jen?), and then commit as usual. When we add or change a gift, or a pledge comes to an end, we change the master batch. For record keeping purposes, we start a new batch every year, but with only a handful to reenter, it's no big deal. 

Marie Stark

 

We have a very large amount of employee recurring gifts.  I do 2 imports using ImportOMatic.  First I import any new gifts to set up the initial recurring gifts.

Then I do a large import each pay period for the recurring gifts pay cash. With Imporotmatics you can tie the payment to the recurring gift by using the gift import ID.

Jen Claudy

I don't have RE open right at this moment, but there is a Global Change option under one of the menus...[Tools], I think.  Click in the column you want to change, then find the Global Change option and you can change that column in all rows at one time.


There is an [Overwrite] checkbox, so if you only want to fill in records without a value in that field, you can do that.  But you do have to change each column/field separately (unlike regular Global Change where you can change multiple fields at once).  Of course, you can also Query the records just created by your Batch (after you commit it) and use Global Change to update data after the fact...might be easier in some situations (like if you have hundreds of rows and only need to change half of them).


I've also used the [F2] load defaults option when there are a handful of records that need to be changed, but not all of them.

Carol Gordon

Thank you everyone-these are great
ideas!!!!

 

 

 

Carol L. Gordon

Prospect Research and Database Manager

p:
740.382.4885, 800.837.2211

f:
740.382.4884

e:
cgordon@uchinc.org

 

 

 

Gracie Schild

Thanks, Jen - I learn something new literally every day!!!