Using Gift Detail and Summary Report to get YTD figures from prior FY

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I would like to pull a report on our FY15 annual fund giving YTD to compare numbers to this FY using the Gift Detail and Summary Reports. My issue is that when I change the start/end dates to 7/1/14-5/30/15 (or any date before 6/30/15), pledges made in the fall of 2014 are excluded, which means the total is too low. However, if I uncheck the "Use gift balance instead of gift amount" box on the Gift Types Tab for the Pledge Balance Column, then pledge payments made before 5/30/15 (or any date before 6/30/15) are included along with the original pledge, which inflates the total.


Ideally I'd like for the report to either show the total pledge or show the payments with a declining or zero pledge balance, but definitely not both! 


Has anyone encountered this issue before, or would you have a solution to it? Thanks so much!
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Comments

  • There are multiple (up to four) columns in the Gift Detail and Summary, and there's a Gift Types filter for each column.  You need to separate out Pledges and Payments into separate columns, or else count either one or the other, not both.
  • Hi
    James,


    Thanks so much
    for replying to my question. Can you help me make sure I understand
    what you're saying? Right now I have the columns set up as
    such:


    Column 1: Cash-
    Cash, Pay-Cash, MG Pay-Cash, Other, Pay-Other

    Column 2:
    Stocks- Stock/Property, etc..

    Column 3:
    Pledge- Pledge

    Column 4: MG
    Pledge Balance- MG Pledge


    Should I remove
    Pay-Cash (pledge pmts) from Column 1 and put it somewhere
    else?


    Thanks,

    Danise


    Danise
    Cavallaro

    Development
    & Alumni Relations Associate

    Dedham Country
    Day School

    90 Sandy Valley
    Road

    Dedham, MA
     02026

    p: 781-329-0850
    x2582



  • Right there with you Denise! 


    Where I used to work, we reported on "committed" gifts - Hard cash and Stock (No payments) and full amount for Pledge and MG Pledge. We then did a separate report of actual cash-in-the-door (cash, stock and all pledge pays.) That was easy and, to me, very accurate.


    In my current position they always ran the reports the way you are describing with these columns:
    Column 1: All Cash (including payments)
    Column 2: All stock (including payments)
    Column 3: Pledge balance
    Column 4: MG Pledge balance

    The problem with this is If you received a $5,000 pledge in FY15, with a $1,000 payment in FY 15, your final FY15 report will count $5,000. $1,000 in the All Cash Column and $4,000 in the Pledge Balance column.

    The next payment comes in FY16, so shows in the  All cash column as $1,000 - which is double counting since that $1,000 was included in the FY15 Pledge Balance. Then, when you run your FY15 report for comparison, the number will be lower because the pledge balance will only be $3,000.


    I can't get this through their heads ("that's the way we've always done it") and they want to keep doing it this way.  HELP!
  • Patti, how did you have your columns set up for the two reports, do you recall? It may be more work but I'm all for it if it's more accurate!
  • Ditto with you Patti. Under previous management, our reports were run including pledges and pledge payments both, and the pledge payments were included in the cash column. I guess the idea was that it showed total transactions processed by our department - how much activity. But it does double-count revenue. When I explained this to our new Dev Director, he decided to switch to a one-or-the-other system for our fiscal year revenue reporting.


    When we run the report, we only use two columns:

    Cash & stocks (Cash, Stocks, Recurring gift pay-cash)

    New Pledges (Pledge, MG-Pledge)


    On the other hand, for reconciling with our Business Office, we do run a separate monthly report to include a column for pledges and pledge payments each, so we can reconcile all transactions processed that month:

    Cash & stocks (cash, stocks, recurring gift pay-cash)

    Pledge payments (pay-cash, pay-stock, pay-other)

    New Pledges (Pledge) using full gift amount



     
  • The way to get consistent numbers from FY to FY. is to report on Cash, Stock, Recurring, and Full Pledge Amount and NONE of the pay- items.


    This would be SOP for most orgs anyway when reporting their income within a year and when it has passed.  The finance department counts the full amount of the pledge in the year the commitment is received.  So Pledge and Cash/Stock/Recurring/Other should get you the right totals for each year.

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