Batch Gift Entry vs. Manual Gift Entry

Andrea Egloff · May 2017

We recently converted to RE and are looking for best practices for gift entry. Do you enter all gifts through Batch Gift Entry or do you do a combination of Batch and Manual Gift Entry? If you do Manual gift entry, how do you code the gifts to easily identify the audit trail for each gift? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Karen Stuhlfeier · May 2017

I always enter by batch. Using batch I can easily balance with my finance department, acknowledge the gifts using a conditional merge in Mail and set up defaults in the batch to make gift entry easy and insure that gifts are all entered with the same details.

Diane Wilputte · May 2017

Andrea Egloff:

We recently converted to RE and are looking for best practices for gift entry. Do you enter all gifts through Batch Gift Entry or do you do a combination of Batch and Manual Gift Entry? If you do Manual gift entry, how do you code the gifts to easily identify the audit trail for each gift? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Andrea - we always use Gift Batch for entering gifts - it makes for quicker entry, and we have a Batch Commit Control Report for our records. It also makes it easier to receipt - we query by batch number and then receipt the batch.

JoAnn Strommen · May 2017

Ditto, Karen and Diane. Strongly recommend using batch for all the reasons cited and I'm sure there are more.

Megan Shackle · May 2017

I also strongly encourage using batch entry only for gifts. Even if you have a batch containing only one gift. Having the batch number for every gift helps with reconciliation on the finance side and also helps create an audit trail.

Andrea Egloff · May 2017

Thank you for your quick feedback. You have just re-affirmed what I was thinking as being the "best practice".

Jill Collins · May 2017

Andrea Egloff:

We recently converted to RE and are looking for best practices for gift entry. Do you enter all gifts through Batch Gift Entry or do you do a combination of Batch and Manual Gift Entry? If you do Manual gift entry, how do you code the gifts to easily identify the audit trail for each gift? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all - I really enjoy reading what other orgs do. I'm relatively new, and once I found batches I thought I was in heaven! Anyhow, a little off-topic about batches...yesterday my batch # in the formal Batch section was NOT the batch # on the constituents' gift records, so when I queried the batch I couldn't find the gifts. Has this happened to anyone??? I can't imagine why the system would have assigned a different batch # once the gits were committed. I figured it out on the phone with BB but it's super convoluted and strange.

JoAnn Strommen · May 2017

I've never noticed #s not matching. Glad BB could help get it figured out for you.

Christine Cooke 2 · June 2017

Andrea Egloff:

We recently converted to RE and are looking for best practices for gift entry. Do you enter all gifts through Batch Gift Entry or do you do a combination of Batch and Manual Gift Entry? If you do Manual gift entry, how do you code the gifts to easily identify the audit trail for each gift? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I always use Batch entry. Even if the batch only has one gift in it. Much easier to track, trail, reconcile, audit gifts that are in batches.

Karen Hartt · June 2017

Andrea Egloff:

We recently converted to RE and are looking for best practices for gift entry. Do you enter all gifts through Batch Gift Entry or do you do a combination of Batch and Manual Gift Entry? If you do Manual gift entry, how do you code the gifts to easily identify the audit trail for each gift? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Andrea,

We always use batch entry even for one gift. It allows us a better audit trail, catches errors quicker, and allows better reconciling with FE.

Amanda Tindale · June 2017

Karen Stuhlfeier:

I always enter by batch. Using batch I can easily balance with my finance department, acknowledge the gifts using a conditional merge in Mail and set up defaults in the batch to make gift entry easy and insure that gifts are all entered with the same details.

Hi Karen

I've never used the Mail function before (we create each acknowledgement letter separately from each gift), but it would be much quicker if we could do them all in one go. Can you tell me a bit more about this works? I had a quick play with the Mail function just now, but it told me no records meet the specified criteria.

Thanks!

Amanda

Samantha Jones · June 2017

Jill Collins:

Andrea Egloff:

We recently converted to RE and are looking for best practices for gift entry. Do you enter all gifts through Batch Gift Entry or do you do a combination of Batch and Manual Gift Entry? If you do Manual gift entry, how do you code the gifts to easily identify the audit trail for each gift? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all - I really enjoy reading what other orgs do. I'm relatively new, and once I found batches I thought I was in heaven! Anyhow, a little off-topic about batches...yesterday my batch # in the formal Batch section was NOT the batch # on the constituents' gift records, so when I queried the batch I couldn't find the gifts. Has this happened to anyone??? I can't imagine why the system would have assigned a different batch # once the gits were committed. I figured it out on the phone with BB but it's super convoluted and strange.

Did you click the "this batch is recurring" by accident? That's happened to me before

Sam

JoAnn Strommen · June 2017

That you used a recurring batch is my thought also. If you go to the batch you thought you used, look at the recurring box. If it's checked you can click "history" to see any batches you made using it.

One of the small details I don't care for in RE, that you can't see in the batch list any batches created using a recurring gift batch.

Jill Collins · June 2017

Samantha Jones:

Jill Collins:

Andrea Egloff:

We recently converted to RE and are looking for best practices for gift entry. Do you enter all gifts through Batch Gift Entry or do you do a combination of Batch and Manual Gift Entry? If you do Manual gift entry, how do you code the gifts to easily identify the audit trail for each gift? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all - I really enjoy reading what other orgs do. I'm relatively new, and once I found batches I thought I was in heaven! Anyhow, a little off-topic about batches...yesterday my batch # in the formal Batch section was NOT the batch # on the constituents' gift records, so when I queried the batch I couldn't find the gifts. Has this happened to anyone??? I can't imagine why the system would have assigned a different batch # once the gits were committed. I figured it out on the phone with BB but it's super convoluted and strange.

Did you click the "this batch is recurring" by accident? That's happened to me before

Sam

I'll look - I have no idea! Thanks so much...

Jill Collins · June 2017

Jill Collins:

Samantha Jones:

Jill Collins:

Andrea Egloff:

We recently converted to RE and are looking for best practices for gift entry. Do you enter all gifts through Batch Gift Entry or do you do a combination of Batch and Manual Gift Entry? If you do Manual gift entry, how do you code the gifts to easily identify the audit trail for each gift? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all - I really enjoy reading what other orgs do. I'm relatively new, and once I found batches I thought I was in heaven! Anyhow, a little off-topic about batches...yesterday my batch # in the formal Batch section was NOT the batch # on the constituents' gift records, so when I queried the batch I couldn't find the gifts. Has this happened to anyone??? I can't imagine why the system would have assigned a different batch # once the gits were committed. I figured it out on the phone with BB but it's super convoluted and strange.

Did you click the "this batch is recurring" by accident? That's happened to me before

Sam

I'll look - I have no idea! Thanks so much...

Samantha - thank you! Yes - that's the issue. Man, I really appreciate knowing. This makes sense!

Kim Berry · June 2017

Amanda Tindale:

Karen Stuhlfeier:

I always enter by batch. Using batch I can easily balance with my finance department, acknowledge the gifts using a conditional merge in Mail and set up defaults in the batch to make gift entry easy and insure that gifts are all entered with the same details.

Hi Karen

I've never used the Mail function before (we create each acknowledgement letter separately from each gift), but it would be much quicker if we could do them all in one go. Can you tell me a bit more about this works? I had a quick play with the Mail function just now, but it told me no records meet the specified criteria.

Thanks!

Amanda

Amanda - it doesn't appear that anyone replied to your question about merging acknowledgment letters en masse through Mail. Because you are creating an acknowledgment from each gift, you don't have any unacknowledged gifts for Mail to pick up on. Try doing a small batch without acknowledging individually, then you'll have unacknowledged letters that will get picked up. If you have online training, go through any of the Mail/Acknowledgment topics to help you along. I know I struggled a bit when I first started - getting the acknowledgment letters in RE, making sure you are assigning a letter code to each gift and learning how to do conditional merge so you can run annual fund letters and scholarship letters all in the same group.

You can save each batch as a query and then just start with that query for the acknowledgment process. We don't have a heavy volume of gifts so I created a "Gifts Not Acknowledged" query and just use that - that way I won't forget any one particular batch. Another important point - when running the process you'll end up running twice - the first time when it asks if you want to mark gifts as acknowledged, say no. After you know that you've gotten your letters, run the process again and say yes and then just don't print the letters a second time.

Jen Claudy · June 2017

I generally chose to enter directly on Constituent Records rather than Batch. But that was a personal choice, with a low volume of gifts. I often needed to review several (or many) other pieces of the constituent record, and found it easier to just open the record directly rather than thru Batch. We also record Finance's deposit date on the Gift, so I could still easily query on any particular day's gifts. I did use recurring batches for things like employee payroll giving.

Joan Maske · December 2017

Jen Claudy:

I generally chose to enter directly on Constituent Records rather than Batch. But that was a personal choice, with a low volume of gifts. I often needed to review several (or many) other pieces of the constituent record, and found it easier to just open the record directly rather than thru Batch. We also record Finance's deposit date on the Gift, so I could still easily query on any particular day's gifts. I did use recurring batches for things like employee payroll giving.

I also have chosen to input manually directly to Constituent Records. As our volume increases I am beginning to use batch. Issues which someone may have the answer to: memberships still have to be input individually and I have not found how to add fields on the condtituent bio info panel to update while inputting batch. Ideas, anyone?

Heather MacKenzie · January 2018

Joan Maske:

Jen Claudy:

I generally chose to enter directly on Constituent Records rather than Batch. But that was a personal choice, with a low volume of gifts. I often needed to review several (or many) other pieces of the constituent record, and found it easier to just open the record directly rather than thru Batch. We also record Finance's deposit date on the Gift, so I could still easily query on any particular day's gifts. I did use recurring batches for things like employee payroll giving.

I also have chosen to input manually directly to Constituent Records. As our volume increases I am beginning to use batch. Issues which someone may have the answer to: memberships still have to be input individually and I have not found how to add fields on the condtituent bio info panel to update while inputting batch. Ideas, anyone?

Here's the KB article on that, https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/40738, but it's basically this: From within the batch grid, when you're ready to start your gift entry, select your View menu, and then choose Constituent Window. There's also a way to select what you see in that window, but it's been so long since I set mine up that I've forgotten and I'm logged out of RE at this moment. Hopefully it will be obvious to you!

Batch Gift Entry vs. Manual Gift Entry

Comments

Categories