Export gift total including pledges but excluding pledges that have been written off

Claudia Bickel

Hello All!


I am running an export that includes summary gift amount in which I would like to include pledges and cash. The results are working accurately in my query but when I run the query through the export (which I need to do in order to export all sorts of other info only available through export), the export is counting "written off pledges" in total. I have checked the box in gift type window of export that says "Exclude zero amount gifts" (as the written off pledges all have an amount of "$0.00"), but no luck - the report is still including written off pledges.


For a little more context - what I would like to do is to run list of "top donors" (living).... Of course, I am not including "pay cash" gifts in either the query or export.... 


Any thoughts you might have on this would be most helpful!  


Claudia

Alan French

Would it work if you included pay-cash gifts and ticked the "use gift balance instead of gift amount" box, in order to reduce the pledge amounts by whatever's been paid or written off?

Keri Barnhart

Claudia Bickel:

Hello All!


I am running an export that includes summary gift amount in which I would like to include pledges and cash. The results are working accurately in my query but when I run the query through the export (which I need to do in order to export all sorts of other info only available through export), the export is counting "written off pledges" in total. I have checked the box in gift type window of export that says "Exclude zero amount gifts" (as the written off pledges all have an amount of "$0.00"), but no luck - the report is still including written off pledges.


For a little more context - what I would like to do is to run list of "top donors" (living).... Of course, I am not including "pay cash" gifts in either the query or export.... 


Any thoughts you might have on this would be most helpful!  


Claudia

Hi Claudia,


In the Gift Criteria for the Total Gift Amount summary field, are you including the Write Off gift types? Also, do you have "Use gift balance instead of gift amount" checked? (That will ensure that Pledges and Pledge Payments aren't double-counted, too.)

I believe that Written Off gifts still have a gift amount, it's the pledge balance that is moved to $0 without any (additional) payments applied.


EDIT: I just reread and realized you're counting Pledges + Cash but NOT Pledge Payments. In that case, you wouldn't want to check Use Gift Balance Instead of Gift Amount! Do make sure the Write Off and MG Write Off aren't included in the gift types, that should be what you need.

JoAnn Strommen

Agree with Alan and other posts. If I remember correctly from trying to get data without the write-offs had to switch gift type and use/check gift balance, RE does not handle write-offs like one would expect and the $ can pull on a lot of reports unknowingly.


Just FYI, there is a Top Donors report under Reports > Analytical. May save you a little work. You still need to set the gift types.

JoAnn Strommen

Should have said agree with Alan. Thought there was another post suggesting same as his.


In my experience what Keri posted has not worked: Including the gift type 'write off' actually increases the $ amount in a report. She is correct in that write offs still have a pledge amount, it's the balance that is $0.

Keri Barnhart

JoAnn Strommen:

Should have said agree with Alan. Thought there was another post suggesting same as his.


In my experience what Keri posted has not worked: Including the gift type 'write off' actually increases the $ amount in a report. She is correct in that write offs still have a pledge amount, it's the balance that is $0.

 

Oops, I saw this and thought "wait, I said not to include Write off" then realized my post wasn't very clear. I definitely meant to look for Write Off and MG Write Off in the "Include Gift Types" list and make sure they're not there! Gotta make sure I review my replies for people who can't read my mind, right?

Claudia Bickel

Thank you for your responses!


Yes, I see now why excluding gifts of "$0.00" does not work - it is the balance,not pledge that is "$0.00."


So, in the end, I am happy to report that for this particular issue I have found a work around.  I have found I can export summary total of written off pledges (created second summary total that includes only gift type of "write off"). In my excel spreadsheet I have then subtracted totals in write off column from total in column that includes cash and pledge gift types (which includes written off pledges) - and presto, total giving that does not include pledge write offs.


I checked totals in write off column against records in RE and am so glad to say that in tabulating "total of written off gifts," the system is automatically subtracting any payments that were made on the pledge prior to its having been written off.


I will look into the top donor gift report. I am not as familiar with the canned reports as I would like to be. I know that it is possible to save a report as a query and then run it through export and that might have been another option... 


Thank you again JoAnn and Keri and Alan!


Claudia