Favorite Functionality in Gift Batch

La Donna Borth

Hello RE Users!

My favorite functionality (at least for this past week) is the Global Change in Batch (database view). It great for all those online donations that come down with the GL post date matching the date the gift was entered online. I globally change the date to more closely align the date that the $ will enter the bank and be posted to the general ledger. So much easier for our month closing process to balance with Finance.

What's your favorite functionality in RE that makes your life easier?

Barbara Kunkel

@La Donna Borth - I will stick with the database Batch topic. The recurring Batch along with the global gift date and post-date changes makes entering bi-weekly employee payroll donations of 200 so much easier.

Marie Stark

@La Donna Borth I like using the constituent window in batch.

Elizabeth Johnson

@Marie Stark I also love the constituent window. Always frustrated that you can’t include the most recent appeal in that window. After so many years of attempting to track packages and then not doing the analysis on them I decided to include them as an attribute and just log our appeal w/o a package. Wish I had thought of this sooner as you can include attri in the constituent field! We now have an easy way to track most of our appeals on the gifts!

Rachel Cavalier

@Marie Stark Yes! The constituent fields are so useful - what I would love would be if I could make the most recent gift aid declaration show there instead of the oldest one!

Elizabeth Johnson

@Rachel Cavalier I agree but I also like that you can see the the constituent giving history without going all the way into the constituent record, which can be so slow to open. And that you can dive directly into the past gift detail from there. Was thrilled when I stumbled onto that!

Sunshine Reinken Watson

I agree with all of the above! I also like custom business rules. I have business rules for head of household so I can make sure the gift goes on the right record, outstanding opportunity/proposal so I can make sure to link the gift, thank you letter preferences, whether the donor has an assigned solicitor/fundraiser, and the most recent appeal with package code.

La Donna Borth

@Marie Stark The constituent window is so automatic for me, I forget I had to set that up! I love that ability to do a quick double-check on my constituent data.

Beth Halleck

@Sunshine Reinken Watson Would you be willing to share your business rule for most recent appeal? That is my biggest time suck - opening a record to see the most recent appeal, and I can never get RE to keep the sort of most recent first.

Beth Halleck

@Elizabeth Johnson Is that from the drop down menu, or is it something you can see in the constituent window?

Beth Halleck

@Rachel Cavalier What is gift aid declaration? Where do you see it?

Jennifer Redalen

@La Donna Borth
can you share how I set up the constituent window in batch? thank you

Elizabeth Johnson

Hi @Jennifer Redalen,

Here is the kb article that will explain. Reply if you have further questions

Elizabeth Johnson

Hi @Beth Halleck,

It is from a drop-down menu in the batch. From the Constituent drop-down in the batch when you are on a constituent View Giving History will be an option. Here is a screenshot.

Hope you will soon enjoy this feature too!

La Donna Borth

@Jennifer Redalen I see @Elizabeth Johnson answered already. Let us know how you like it! I really find it useful, along with the “go to” arrow in the batch menu bar, especially for changing addresses (because I save the previous address). But, if you're given a phone number and didn't have one already, it's nice to add it in the constituent window without opening the whole const file.

Let us know how you like it.

JoAnn Strommen

@Beth Halleck Answer provided on how to see gift info. If you're asking literally what ‘gift aid’ is, it's a UK / European thing. Rachel is in the UK.

Sunshine Reinken Watson

@Beth Halleck Yes, I have constituent queries for each package and a corresponding user defined gift business rule (Config-Business rules). It requires some maintenance but saves a lot of time in the long run! I always search for the constituent to catch any business rules like this for any OEX gift batches.