Assistance with how to assist Finance with the difference between gift date and cash received date for credit card gifts?

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David Dines
David Dines ✭
Eighth Anniversary Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Hi, looking for assistance and recommendations from the Blackbaud community on how I (Director of Operations) might be able to provide assistance for our Finance team with efficiently recording gifts made by credit card, knowing that there's always going to be a lag between when the gift is made and when the cash is disbursed (from BBMS, let's say).  I know that this delay between the gift date and the cash date is most critically an issue at the the switchover from one fiscal year to the next: if some ridiculously generous person gave us $100,000 through one of our online giving pages on 6/30 (last day of our fiscal year) we'd want to recognize that as revenue but understand that BBMS would not disburse cash to us until later.  I want to believe that there is a sensible way to do this regularly, but I don't know thing one about accounting.


Currently, I'm using Raiser's Edge NXT and our Finance team is using Quickbooks Online but we are also in the process of transitioning from that to Financial Edge NXT.


Thank you for any help that can be provided!
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  • Stephanie Crawley
    Stephanie Crawley ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 2 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Hi David,


    The way I've always handled this is to use the Gift Date field for when the donor made the donation and to use GL Date field for the date the funds will show up in the bank. BBMS has a disbursement calendar that you can use to see when your disbursement will transfer to your bank account, based on the donor gift date. I use the GL Distribution Report to report gifts to Finance, since GL Date is the date they care about since it represents when funds were actually received/disbursed. If someone gives a credit card gift in one month or one fiscal year, but the disbursement doesn't show up until the next month or fiscal year, your Finance department should be able to code the gift (money) as "In Transit" for the current gift month/year and then post it to the GL in the next month/year once the money is received. It's similar to when you get a stock gift. The donor makes the gift on X date, but the transfer of stock doesn't show up in your broker account until a later date, and during that time it's referred to as "In Transit." Gift Date is the date the donor gave the gift and has only a tangential relationship with when we actually receive the money/stock/property. I've done it this way at 2 different organizations with no problems.


    Stephanie
  • David Dines
    David Dines ✭
    Eighth Anniversary Facilitator 1
    In this process with the two date fields, do you end up sending the data to finance before the BBMS disbursement, or after?  It looks like you only use that "In Transit" accounting for those gifts where the gift date and cash date would make for messy reconciliations; am I correct on that?


    Thank you so far!
  • Stephanie Crawley
    Stephanie Crawley ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 2 Name Dropper Photogenic
    I record and commit the gift batch with the separate Gift and GL dates after receiving the gift, but before getting the disbursement. I don't produce the GL Distribution report for Finance until GL Date (and post to the GL at that time.) If there is the month or fiscal year carryover issue, I let Finance know at the time I'm entering the gift what I'm entering and when they should expect to see the funds, then it's not a surprise when I give them month-end reports. Yes, you are correct Finance only uses the "In Transit" code when carrying over from one month/year to the next. But using the disbursement date as the GL Date on the gift applies to all credit card gifts, even ones that settle in the same month.

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