Limit fund availability in batch gift entry?

Heather MacKenzie · April 2016

I'm finding that our data entry person is struggling to choose the right fund for our in kind gifts, which have a different suffix on them from the cash funds. I wonder if it's possible to limit what funds are available for choosing in batch? It's just an idea, but anyone know if that's possible?

Here's an example:

Unrestricted is "3001.2010"

Unrestricted In Kind is "3001.2080"

Many of our in-kind gifts for 2016 (over half) have gotten entered with the 2010 suffix instead of the correct 2080 one. If you have any other ideas on how to make this more easy/intuitive/available for my gift entry person, I'd appreciate any thoughts as well.

Nicole S · April 2016

Well, you can make the funds that you aren't using any more inactive and they will no longer appear in the drop down in batch as well as other areas of RE. If the fund is inactive, she will also get an error when she commits the batch (although she can ignore it and commit anyway). But this may not be an option if the funds are still being actively used elswhere.

How to remove old funds from the fund drop down list

How to remove old funds from the fund drop down list ... Delete the fund or mark the fund inactive. ... note: Funds can not be deleted if they are present of any gift records.

In addition, you can make certain funds and campaigns the default to each other or limit the funds to only go with certain appeals. This way if you have the 2016 GIK campaign, you can default to the 2016 GIK fund and you can also set it so that no other funds can be used wih this campaign.

How to limit gift entry to associated funds only for a campaign

... on a gift record, you may want to limit the funds to only those associated with that campaign. ... , click the Campaigns button.Open the appropriate campaign record.Select the Funds Giving ...

From another perspective, this can be viewed as a training issue. You can review the batch before she commits until she begins to catch on. Or enter GIK in a batch on their own and default to the correct fund.

Carley Haynes · May 2016

I do all the points that Nicole suggested!

Everything not being used is made inactive so that there are no mistakes! It does mean you have to occasionally go back and re-activate them but that is better than having entire batches filled with the wrong coding in my world!

The Campaigns / Funds and Appeals are limited as to what can match to each one. This limits what you see in each drop down menu on the batch. Time-consuming to set up but once it's done... gold!

I also keep all the GIK in one batch (we do 3 a month for ease 1-10th, 11-20th and 21-30/31st) and anyone can enter their GIK in there. The paperwork for the batch then goes to a central location and then someone who is completely 'in the know' checks it.

Ours is a training issue too but finding the time to train someone past the basics and matching your schedules is a tough one! We are still working on that one!

Faith Murray · May 2016

Is there any way you could re-name your Funds to something easier to remember (instead of serial numbers)?

I don't believe that re-naming a current fund will cause any disruption in processing or FE integration. Our Funds are named things like "Annual Appeal 2015", "College Bequests", "Capital Campaign-Restricted", "2015 Dinner/Auction", etc. Makes it easy to tell them apart, even if we have a few in there that shouldn't be Inactive but still rarely get used. Maybe you could simply name them "Event" and "Event-GIK"...

Rebeca Frohmader · May 2016

Nicole S:

Well, you can make the funds that you aren't using any more inactive and they will no longer appear in the drop down in batch as well as other areas of RE. If the fund is inactive, she will also get an error when she commits the batch (although she can ignore it and commit anyway). But this may not be an option if the funds are still being actively used elswhere.

How to remove old funds from the fund drop down list

How to remove old funds from the fund drop down list ... Delete the fund or mark the fund inactive. ... note: Funds can not be deleted if they are present of any gift records.

In addition, you can make certain funds and campaigns the default to each other or limit the funds to only go with certain appeals. This way if you have the 2016 GIK campaign, you can default to the 2016 GIK fund and you can also set it so that no other funds can be used wih this campaign.
How to limit gift entry to associated funds only for a campaign

... on a gift record, you may want to limit the funds to only those associated with that campaign. ... , click the Campaigns button.Open the appropriate campaign record.Select the Funds Giving ...

From another perspective, this can be viewed as a training issue. You can review the batch before she commits until she begins to catch on. Or enter GIK in a batch on their own and default to the correct fund.

When you make a fund inactive can you still query or filter reports using that fund or will it no longer be an option?

Michael Sherman 2 · May 2016

Your reports will still include the inactive funds. If you filter on funds instead of selecting "Include All" you need to check the "Show inactive Funds" before those funds will be available to include. You don not have to go into the fund to re-activate it.

Heather MacKenzie · May 2016

Hi everyone,

While I'm thankful to you all for taking the time to try to help, there's a piece of this that didn't apparently come through to you in my question. These are concurrent funds, and neither one is inactive, nor should it be inactivated - one is for cash gifts and the other for in-kind.

F Murray - our system is set up to match the accounting general ledger numbers, and I'd have a major revolt on my hands if I suggested changing it this far (about 10 years) into the system. Thanks for the idea though!

Any new suggestions?

Aldera Chisholm · May 2016

We have a lot of funds at our organization, so I have it set up in my user preferences to view the description, not the number. User Options/Recrods/Funds then choose Fund format to be Description instead of Fund ID.

That way, when entering into a batch, on entry we can enter the more intuitively named description instead of the number sequence. The Fund ID still matches our GL accounting, this just makes viewing and entering a bit easier.

Edit: We have a pretty standardized naming system for all our funds so it's consistent and simple.

Melissa S Graves · May 2016

Heather MacKenzie:

Hi everyone,

While I'm thankful to you all for taking the time to try to help, there's a piece of this that didn't apparently come through to you in my question. These are concurrent funds, and neither one is inactive, nor should it be inactivated - one is for cash gifts and the other for in-kind.

F Murray - our system is set up to match the accounting general ledger numbers, and I'd have a major revolt on my hands if I suggested changing it this far (about 10 years) into the system. Thanks for the idea though!

Any new suggestions?

Heather - if your system is set to use the GL functionality on funds then there is absolutely no need to have a separate fund for GIKS. using one fund and having the GL functionality use the gift type to determine the credit and debit accounts is exactly what that functionality is used for!

Jen Claudy · May 2016

If possible, I'd do what Aldera suggested. Have her switch to use the Fund Description and then edit that to put a "G" in front, or something where she can easily remember/find the right one.

Also, to clean up what has been entered incorrectly (and, depending on the volume, possibly a solution moving forward), you should be able to write a Query that finds Gift Type: In-Kind AND Fund: 3001.2010 then use a Global Change to change the Fund to 3001.2080.

Depending on how you use Campaigns and Appeals, you also have the option of restricting what Funds are available for either of those. I.e. if you have a Campaign: In-Kind, you can restrict the Funds associated with that Cpgn to 3001.2080 and any others that are in-kind. Or if you have an Appeal that is specifically asking for in-kind gifts, so long as you enter the Appeal first, the only Fund choices will be the ones restricted to that Appeal.

Elaine Tucker · May 2016

Melissa Graves - YES! however - a note for FE/REintegration....for 990's our auditors wanted to see the GIK's seperate, so we mapped the GL coding for GIK to include a TCode to show that it was a GIK. That way the VCO could be set as needed and the GIK were included in a specific spot, but can also be included in the Account Totals in FE.

Limit fund availability in batch gift entry?

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