Standing Orders import - file from the bank NatWest

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Victoria Holtom
Victoria Holtom ✭
Ninth Anniversary First Reply
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
We are in the process of changing from ThankQ to Raiser's Edge and have been struggling with the Standing Orders import feature.  Blackbaud have sent me a file which details the columns that are expected in the import file so that it can read and assign gifts to pledges/recurring gifts, and I have sent this onto our bank (NatWest).  It has taken months to get a reply from the bank and this morning I finally e-mailed the team who are aparently supposed to deal with requests like this.  I received a reply saying that they had never seen such a file before.



I don't understand how this is possible as our Raiser's Edge trainer told us that Blackbaud consulted every bank when they were designing this, and received examples of the file that the bank would send to the customer to make sure that RE could import them.  So how did Blackbaud get a file from NatWest, that NatWest can't seem to send to me?  I don't know how to explain to NatWest what the information is that I want from them.



Does anyone out there actually use the Import Standing Orders?  How do you receive this import file from your bank?  Does everyone just use 'automatically generate transactions'?



Thank you.
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Comments

  • Colin Baynes
    Colin Baynes ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
    We've used standing orders for years but in the early days (before I joined) they were a nightmare. Eventually my predecessor worked out a way of formatting the bank file (containing all transactions within a calendar month) to RE spec using an Access database. But it wasn't easy.



    Banks are notoriously difficult to get any help out of, and since they're so big, just because Blackbaud talked to one part of the organisation doesn't mean that other parts will know anything about RE. We use Barclays and fortunately they have a specialist team who make the monthly file available for us to download and support any problems we have eg connection issues or formatting. Although it will be tough I'd encourage you to persist as someone at NatWest should be able to help - don't take no for an answer.



    After formatting through Access it's then relatively simple to use the Import Standing Orders feature in Admin, validating first of course before doing the full import. Then it's the exceptions that will take most time to work through.



    Do post back to let us know how you get on.



    All the best,



    Colin
  • Victoria Holtom
    Victoria Holtom ✭
    Ninth Anniversary First Reply
    Thank you Colin.  I will continue to persevere.  The last two communications contradicted each other, one saying - we cannot fill out spreadsheets and provide that information, and the other saying - yes we can, but someone has to do it mannually and type every line individually.  No export features!



    I'm a little concerned for the poor person who will receive our request every Monday and will then have to maually type 100 lines of donations out for us...  Pretty sure that is a very backwards step in technology.



    Thank you
  • Adrian Beney
    Adrian Beney ✭
    Ninth Anniversary First Reply
    My experience has been that BB don't know a great deal about the functionality of this superb facility.  The error processing appears to be slightly diminished on what it used to be, and BB provide very little documentation.  But if you are processing a lot of Standing Orders each month then it's absolutely worth persevering - I used to process around 1,000 standing orders a month and having dealt with a lot of exceptions when we first started using the facility, after 12 months or so we got it down to about 20 exceptions a month. Everything else went in automagically.
  • David Martin 3
    David Martin 3 ✭
    Ninth Anniversary First Reply
    Hi


    I would like to use the Standing Orders Import but I am having trouble getting a file in the right format.

    Could anyone share a file layout that they know works. I don't mind which bank it's from as I am happy to format our data to fit.


    Thank you


    David


     
  • Adrian Beney
    Adrian Beney ✭
    Ninth Anniversary First Reply
    Barclays Data Service works for me. I've attached a sample file I got from Blackbaud a while ago.  It's picky about the final carriage return being present.


    I've also attached Barclay's description of the file.
  • David Martin 3
    David Martin 3 ✭
    Ninth Anniversary First Reply
    Thank you Adrian

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