Master Recurring Batch for Monthly Donations

Peter Tan 2

Please I need help Raiser's Edge Community! 

I am new to the organization and I handle all the monthly donations thru a recurring batch and our database manager trained me a bit about this 2 months ago but totally forgot it on how to do it. Now she is on medical leave and I'm going to handle it by myself. So here's the scenario,  all new monthly donations I added up in the recurring batch with the gift date, GL post date, appeal, annual campaign, etc. Our database manager commits the batch every 1st and 15th of the month. There are various gift dates in the batch...1st question is when I commit the recurring batch - only those new monthly donor will be committed, is that correct? Thanks!

Aaron Rothberg

Hi Peter-


It's not entirely clear to me what you mean by "only those new monthly donors". Did you add donors to the batch and that's what you are considering "new monthly donors"?


When you run the batch, all gifts in that batch will be added to your database, not just some gifts. You'll have an opportunity to change the gift date when you run the batch, but that will not update the gift dates inside of the batch, it will modify the gift date to the gifts you are adding to the database by committing the batch.


Does that make sense? Maybe I've misunderstood your question.

Peter Tan 2

Yes I add these new donors to the recurring batch. I have to commit this batch before I can do some adjustments in RE for those rejects (I mean those donors who failed their payments on our merchant services).  I'm a bit confused - there are various gift dates and gl post dates in the batch. My question is - if I commit this batch - will they be committed according to the schedule dates that we set up in RE? Thanks Aaron! 

Aaron Rothberg

"Yes I add these new donors to the recurring batch."

"will they be committed according to the schedule dates that we set up in RE?"


I'm still a bit confused as these two statements seem to conflict with each other.


Are you directly interacting with the batch entering new Cash gifts and running that same batch once or twice a month over and over again or are you adding Recurring Gift pledges to constituent records on the Gift tab, assigning a scheduled Frequency and then creating a new/empty batch and Automatically Generating Transactions?


If it's the former (typing directly into the batch), the gift dates in the batch don't change. If I enter a new gift in a Batch today and I select yesterday's date for the gift date, I can run that batch 100 times and the gift date inside of the batch next to that gift will never change. The reason is, when you run the batch you can select a different gift date to be used for every gift in that batch and it is that gift date that is stamped on the gift records. The date in the batch remains unchanged.


If it's the latter (creating recurring gift pledges, setting gift frequencies, and automatically generating transactions), a new recurring gift batch is going to look up each and every recurring gift pledge in your database to check the installment schedules and if it's time for a payment to be made against any given pledge, that payment will automatically show up in the newly created batch.

 

Peter Tan 2

Yes it's the same batch that I run once a month to enter new monthly donors - I've been receiving every week new monthly donors from our Telefundraising agent or other campaigns and set their recurring gifts up in RE on the 1st day of the month (example September 1) and after that, I add them up in this batch.  My database manager commits the batch after I add them and I will do the adjustments in RE for rejects like failed payments in our merchant services. Since she is on emergency leave and I will handle all these monthly donations all by myself. I'm hesitant of committing the batch because I don't want to mess up the database. So if I commit this batch, as you said that the gift dates will never change.  So after committing, when I checked all the donors it will be updated their gift dated as 1st September, right? I'm really sorry I am new to recurring monthly gift batch.  I've been working with RE for more than 5 years but this one is new to me.  Thanks Aaron for your help!

Aaron Rothberg

I'm making some assumptions here since I'm still not entirely clear on your process.


Here's what I understand so far:


You do not enter Recurring Gift pledges into your database on the gift tab of a constituent record. Since you do not do this, none of your pledges have payment schedules because there are no pledges to put a schedule on. Since you have no pledges on file which means you have no payment schedules, you've created two different batches; one for the 1st of the month donors and another for the 15th of the month donors. Assuming all of this is correct, when you add this month's new donors to the batch, you are also leaving last month's gifts & credit card numbers that were run the previous month. In other words, you are continually adding to the same batch so the number of records in the batch grows every month.


If that's the case, when you run that batch (and I assume you are entering the credit card information directly into the batch) and select Create EFT Transmission file, every single credit card in that batch is going to be processed for success or failure. 


To your second question, when you click COMMIT on the batch you'll see a popup with three tabs before the batch commits. The third tab is where you select the gift date to be stamped on the gift. Then you press the GO button to commit.

Peter Tan 2

Hi Aaron,


" you've created two different batches; one for the 1st of the month donors and another for the 15th of the month donors. Assuming all of this is correct, when you add this month's new donors to the batch, you are also leaving last month's gifts & credit card numbers that were run the previous month. In other words, you are continually adding to the same batch so the number of records in the batch grows every month"  This is correct.  We do not use EFT functionality in RE and also we do not use BBMS. We have 2 merchant services we use for credit cards and another one for EFT.  Thanks Aaron!

Aaron Rothberg

Sorry Peter, you just lost me. I don't understand how you are running the credit cards if you don't use EFT and I've never cleared a batch using a merchant other than BBMS. I don't think I'm going to be very much help in this instance.

Peter Tan 2

Yes, like I told you I'm new to the organization, been here almost 4 months and we do not use BBMS and EFT module.  My last employer they use BBMS and EFT module. Here at my current organization, we are running credit card thru another providers called IATS and Authorize ( for our online donations). Thanks!

Dariel Dixon 2

If you are not using the EFT module, then are you debiting the accounts through the third party, and not through RE.  I think these batches are just putting the gift payments on the record, and not actually charging the card, if what you're saying is true.


I'm not sure in that case why you have to keep the credit card numbers if they are being automatically run through authorize.net and/or IATS.


I would think that you would be adding the new donors to the batch, and changing the gift dates and post dates for the old recurring gifts.  Committing the batch only will put the gifts on those records for all of the constituents in the batch.