Adjusting Links to Tributes

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Ann-Marie Schell
Ann-Marie Schell ✭
Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
We are on the old RE system, RE7, I think. Anyway, we often have problems linking our tributes, whether they are forgotten, or as some have suggested, the links are broken, we tend to have a list of these every month. Can anyone tell me from an auditor's standpoint if these really require a formal adjustment? Thanks, any feedback will be greatly appreciated!
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  • John Heizer
    John Heizer ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Photogenic
    Do you have the Tribute module (is there an Honor/Memorial tab on Constituent records)?  If so I'm not sure how the links could be "broken" unless a Constituent record was deleted, in which case you may have bigger problems than just a "broken link."  You may be missing critical donor data.
  • Ann-Marie Schell
    Ann-Marie Schell ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
    Yes, we have the module, and their are Honor/Memorial tabs on the consituents records. And I have made many, many, many phone calls about this to RE, with more than one person telling me that the links "sometimes break," especially since we are on the old version, not NXT. That said, I also know sometimes users "forget" to link them. So my question is, do we have to do a formal adjustment just to go back and establish a tribute link?
  • John Heizer
    John Heizer ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Photogenic

    Ann-Marie Schell:

    Yes, we have the module, and their are Honor/Memorial tabs on the consituents records. And I have made many, many, many phone calls about this to RE, with more than one person telling me that the links "sometimes break," especially since we are on the old version, not NXT. That said, I also know sometimes users "forget" to link them. So my question is, do we have to do a formal adjustment just to go back and establish a tribute link?

    No, you shouldn't have to do an "adjustment" if you're not changing the amount or the fund.  You should be able to just add the link to the Tribute.



    If you post all your Gifts via a Batch you should be able to check the Batch Valildation Report to see if the Gift was entered correctly linked to the Tribute.  (I do see that there can be issues when using NetSolutions, but the system seems to be designed to catch them:  https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/38505)



    If RE really is just randomly "losing" links then that needs to be reported as a bug that they need to get fixed.  I'd be really upset if the system was deleting data I needed!

  • Jenny Norton
    Jenny Norton ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    My donor receipt letter for tributes puts the tribute right on the letter.  Thank you for your gift in honor/memory of XXXX so if my letter comes up and those words are missing, I know that I forgot to link the gift to the tribute and I go back into the gift and fix it.  I've never noticed any of them breaking later and we're on the older version of RE too.



    Jenny
  • Ann-Marie Schell
    Ann-Marie Schell ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
    Thanks Jenny, I know exactly what you're talking about, but my question is, do they require a formal adjustment? I cannot seem to get a specific answer to this from RE. They suggested I join this community to find out what others are saying the best practice is.



    John Heizer, in this community, suggested I "shouldn't have to do an adjustment if [I'm] not changing the amount or the fund. [ I ] should be able to just add the link to the Tribute." That means campaigns don't require adjustments either?



     We have had some staff turnover, so I trained my replacement and am doing his adjustments. It really is up to me to continue training him, I'm just not sure from an auditing standpoint what is considered the best practice.



    Maybe John can see this too? Is best practice for adjustment only those who have to have the fund or the amount changed? I really appreciate any help I can get on this. Is there a place to find "best practices?"

     
  • Jenny Norton
    Jenny Norton ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    I'm not an auditor and don't know the best practices but in my opinion, I don't think a tribute would require a formal adjustment because it's not changing anything related to the gift itself.  A tribute is essentially just a note that the gift was in honor/memory of someone.  Five years from now is anyone going to look at that and ask hmm who changed/added this tribute?  I don't think they will.  However, with campaigns, funds and dollars I think a formal adjustment should be used because it covers the person making the adjustment by allowing it to show what it was before and allowing notes to be added as to why the adjustment was made.



    Again, just my opinion. 

    Jenny
  • John Heizer
    John Heizer ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Photogenic

    Ann-Marie Schell:

    Thanks Jenny, I know exactly what you're talking about, but my question is, do they require a formal adjustment? I cannot seem to get a specific answer to this from RE. They suggested I join this community to find out what others are saying the best practice is.



    John Heizer, in this community, suggested I "shouldn't have to do an adjustment if [I'm] not changing the amount or the fund. [ I ] should be able to just add the link to the Tribute." That means campaigns don't require adjustments either?



     We have had some staff turnover, so I trained my replacement and am doing his adjustments. It really is up to me to continue training him, I'm just not sure from an auditing standpoint what is considered the best practice.



    Maybe John can see this too? Is best practice for adjustment only those who have to have the fund or the amount changed? I really appreciate any help I can get on this. Is there a place to find "best practices?"

     

    Ann-Marie, "best practices" can vary widely from one organization to another depending on the situation.  You can certainly get lots of GREAT guidance here and still find a whole spectrum of what is "best."  For instance, in your situation, whether changing the Campaign would require an adjustment would depend on whether or not that changes anything for your accounting system.  For some organizations it would, for others it wouldn't.  In RE only Funds are tied to GL account numbers so that's why I only mentioned Funds in my prior response.



    If your organization formally posts gifts from RE into an accounting program then RE won't let you change the Amount or Fund (if I remember correctly ... we don't post, so I can't remember exactly).  You can only adjust.  As Jenny pointed out, linking a Tribute wouldn't change any of the accounting and there wouldn't be anything to "adjust."  In fact the Tribute woudn't even show on the adjustment.  So I don't see how you would need an adjustment unless, in your situation, tribute gifts are supposed to have a specific Fund (or, possibly, Campaign) that the gift record doesn't currently have (another example of where you can't just rubber stamp "best practices").

  • Ann-Marie Schell
    Ann-Marie Schell ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
    Thanks so much John! Both you and Jenny have been very helpful. I guess I was just hoping for something authoritative to back me up. Guess I just have to establish our own policies, get the boss to sign off on them, and we'll be good to go.



    Again, I appreciate both you and Jenny's help!
  • Nicole S
    Nicole S ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Name Dropper Photogenic
    For what it's worth, I agree with JOhn and Jenny.  I can't imagine your auditors care about the tribute links.  

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