Batch Donations

From the Donations List you can click a button at the top of the list to toggle between "Donations" and "Donations (Batch View)". The "Donations" lists shows individual donations and the "Donations (Batch View)" shows batches of donations. For example: a batch could be made of 50 donations that were all collected in the same week. Let's walk through creating a new batch and see the benefits of creating batches of donations. Note: Using batches is completely optional.

After you click the "New Batch" button it takes you to the batch settings screen. This screen is used to setup the batch name and the defaults to use when entering donations. The defaults help make data entry faster and easier.

This is the main screen for entering donations to the batch. The general process is to:
- enter the contact
- enter the donation amount
- enter the donation date (note: for the next donation it will remember this date since there is a good chance you will be using the same date)
- enter any other info needed (at the top half of the screen)
- click Enter and the donation will show in the list at the bottom

Repeat this process until all donations are entered.

Our goal is to make it as easy as possible to enter donations!

Once you have entered all donations for the batch you will see the donations all listed on the bottom half of the screen, you can now do the following:
- click Open on any individual donation to open it for viewing/modifications
- click Remove on any individual donation to remove it from the batch (Note: this does not delete the donation it just removes it's association with this current batch)
- click Batch Settings to adjust the defaults used by the batch (this will then change details of what happens when new donations are entered)
- click Post Batch to lock the batch (see below of screenshot after Posting Batch
- click Add to Batch to add individual donations that already exist and are not currently in a batch, to the existing batch. Note: a donation can only be in ONE batch.
- click Export Batch to Excel or Quickbooks to export the batch to an Excel spreadsheet or a Quickbook iif file (see the secdtion on Quickbooks for more detailed info on how the Quickbooks integration works).

Once a batch is Posted the batch screen changes so that no additional donations can be added. Also each individual donation now becomes locked so that the critical information on the donation cannot be changed. So in this example if you opened any of the 45 individual donations that makeup this batch you would see that you cannot make changes to any of these donations. At the top of the donation screen it will show the batchname and whether it has been posted/locked. It's a good idea to post batches of donations

Here is an example of opening a donation that is in a batch that has been posted/locked. The critical fields such as dates, amounts, funds and contact are locked down so they can't be changed. The batch name shows at the top of the donation.

Note: when trying to change information on any list of donations this same type of lockdown is also in effect. Example: the donation list on the contact screen, campaign screen, event screen or main donation list if you try and adjust the donation amount you will not be able to make the change.