Depositing Incoming Money: PVSWiki

Depositing Incoming Money

Thank you mailings and Check Deposits:
Thank you mailings should be completed every 2 weeks. If you get to the 3 week mark, panic. If you get to the 4 week mark, the entire office should shut down and help get thank yous out. You can track the status of your thank yous in the DevComm Tasks sheet. For info on how to generate thank you letters, visit How to do a Thank you Mailing
Every time we do a thank you mailing, we complete a check deposit and go through the step 1-10 process detailed below.

Table of Contents

Depositing Incoming Money

Overview

Check deposits may also be completed prior to the 2 week mark, if there is a heavy amount of checks (more than 200 checks). However, if you are not planning on doing a thank you mailing, do not close the batch, thereby ignoring steps 9 and 10. Leave it open until you are ready to do thank yous. In this case you will have a Batch 100XX A and B.

*Note: The more checks you deposit at one time, the more room for error. You ideally want to break up large deposits (more than 200 checks) into 2 separate deposits. Ex. Batch 100XX A and B.

Checks over $1000 should deposited immediately upon receipt, as single deposits. All incoming money is deposited into our Wells Fargo operating account. From there, Vote Smart's Administration may choose to transfer money into investments or interest-bearing accounts; often this is done with large gifts immediately upon being deposited. As a result, large gifts should be expedited so that we may maximize our investment earnings.

Occasionally we will receive other sources of income not entered in DonorPerfect: for example, reimbursements. This income should be noted to the accountants when you send the accounting packet for that month, and the check image should be sent to them and saved in the single deposit folder.

Every time a deposit of any kind is made, there must be a check image of the check(s) and a deposit confirmation.

What is a batch?

A "batch" is a grouping of individual gifts. By grouping gifts together we are able to run bulk processes (like deposits and thank you letters) in a more efficient manner. B

A DonorPerfect batch is a set of all types of contributions, including credit card donations, stock donations, and PayPal donations. A Wells Fargo deposit is only check donations and cash (if there are any). Generally, Wells Fargo deposits will include all the checks from the DonorPerfect batch. Two exceptions: Large checks that were deposited immediately, and AZ checks. AZ Checks should have the letters "AZ" appended to the check number to make it clear that they were deposited in Arizona (for example, #AZ1234).

The Donor Perfect "batch report" is a report generated by Donor Perfect of a group of donations entered. We use this report to check this against the gifts received, ensuring that we have entered information correctly, and ultimately the deposits made to into our account, ensuring that the deposits went through properly.

Make sure to do everything in order

The following How To describes the entire process of a batch from beginning to end.
This is important. If you do not do things in order, you will not be happy with yourself.

Step 1: Figure out which date you are thanking through.

You want to complete all of your data entry through a specific date, and then DO NOT do data entry past that, until you close the batch.
For example, if you complete all of the data entry (including CyberSource!!!) through a Tuesday 4/11, you do not want to complete any data entry for Wednesday 4/12 until the batch is closed.
The data entry you want to have completed through a certain date includes any mail we have received, CyberSource reports, ACH payments, or checks received in-house from staff, Richard, or members.

Step 2: Run Queries to check preemptively for data entry errors

Login to donorperfect.net
You will run some filters in DonorPerfect to catch any early errors or issues.
Go to ‘Reports Center’ and click on the “Listings” folder. Select Report: Giving History with Complete Donor Profile

Check “Include No Mail Names”
Click on “Set Selection Filter” on the left hand side bar

These filters are found in DonorPerfect filters, in TY Mailing filters folder, as:
TY Mailing Check #1 - ck # blank:

Batch = 0, Payment type = CK && Check # is blank
This will catch any checks what don’t have a check #

TY Mailing Check #2 - cc, ck # is not blank:

Batch = 0, Payment type = MC,VS,DI,AX && Check # is NOT blank
This will catch any donations marked as a CC that have a check #

TY Mailing Check #3 - Freebie:

Batch = 0, Amount = 0 && payment type != freebie
This will catch any non-freebie donations with an amount of $0

TY Mailing Check #4 - DT:

Batch = 0, Flags contains DNT && TY != DT
This will catch anyone with a DNT flag who has been given a TY code of anything but DT.

TY Mailing Check #5 - MJD:

DPGIFT.BATCH_NO = 0, DP.CYTD >= 300.00
This will catch all major donors who donated via your current batch. You will need to go through this list of people and add MJD flags to anyone who is missing one.

Make sure not to add the MJD flag to API subscribers

Step 3: Sort the checks by check number in order from lowest to highest.

Look at a previous batch report for reference to make sure you ordered them correctly - it goes in order as it would if you hit A-Z in excel.

Step 4: Print the Batch Report

This will produce a list of every entry made in this batch. This includes checks, cash, credit cards, and the occasional stock donation. Note: In DonorPerfect, the current batch is considered to be Batch 0, until the batch is closed. See Step 10. Once the batch is closed, the Batch # will become active in DonorPerfect.

Hover over 'Reports' Click ‘Easy Reports’,” then scroll down and select ‘Batch Report’
Ensure that the Selection Filter is Current Batch 0 -
To create the new filter - Build New Selection Filter -> ‘Gifts’, select ‘Batch Number’ then ‘Exactly Equal to’ O.
Click ‘Continue’ and then ‘Done’.
Click ‘Include No Mail names’ on the left side
Download the report to Excel and print it. Make sure to fit the name, check # and amount columns all onto one page.

*Look over a previous batch report if you need to see what it should look like.

Step 5: Compare the batch report with the checks you have.

By comparing the batch report with the checks, you are, in effect, checking the accuracy of Data Entry in Donor Perfect.
This is an important step that needs to be done with attention to detail.

What you want to do is take the stack of checks, and have one person read off each check number, amount, and name, and have a second person look at the batch report to make sure that those fields are correctly entered in DP (aka on the report).

Problem Solving:

If a check isn’t entered, is double entered or you see an error with the check # or dollar amount, you need to go back to the envelopes and problem-solve.
If you have a DP entry but no check, it's possible someone forgot to take the check out of the envelope when data entering.
If you see a check and no entry, it is possible that someone forgot to data enter something
If there is an incorrect check number or dollar amount you need to fix it in DP immediately.

If all of the information matches up and all of your check/ data entry is accounted for, you are good to move on to the next step. If there is a discrepancy you need to stop and figure out the problem.

Step 6: Find the total dollar amount of the checks you are about to deposit.

To find the total dollar amount for the batch, go to ‘Receipts’ -> Click the screen button -> Scroll to the bottom and you will find a box labeled “Details by Gift Type”.

You will find “Check” and next to it you will see the number of checks in this batch, as well as the check total.

Write on the batch report the total amount of checks and total $ amount that DP has recorded.
Subtract any AZ checks (should have AZ in front of the check #), or checks previously deposited, from your running total. Once you’ve subtracted these out, you will have your control total

A good trick is to look at the “(insert month) single deposit” folder in membership- accounting- batch reports and see if there deposits previously made within the batch.

It helps to write on the batch report all of the math that you did to get the control total. That way if there is a discrepancy you can clearly see which checks you subtracted out.

Step 7: Create check images

Use the program “Panini Multidemo” on the check scanner computer
While these settings should be saved, double check by:

Click the settings icon of two gears located at lower right hand side of the screen
Select the “Checks” tab
Under the 'Image Front - CHEQUE' tab select the format of the 1st image to be JPEG Gray
Under the 'Image Rear - CHEQUE' tab select 'None' for the 1st image format
Click 'Ok' at the bottom of the settings screen

Click the play button
Scan the checks
When you’ve completed, hit the stop button
Select the print to FoxIt Reader
Save it as a PDF
Save the file as Batch xxxxx Check Copies, save it to the Batch # folder in \\membership\Accounting\Batch Reports\20XX Batch Deposits
Make sure to also print out a copy (double sided to save paper!) and place it with the batch report and deposit confirmation in the filing cabinet.

Step 8: Go to Wells Fargo, or use check scanner to deposit the checks.

Ensure the deposit receipt matches with your control total.

This is very important- one time we made a deposit of a $100,000 check in the Wells Fargo Anaconda Branch and they deposited it as a $10,000 check, which would have been a $90,000 loss had it not been caught.

If it doesn’t, you need to figure out where the discrepancy is.

See if you forgot to subtract out an already deposited check
Depending on the amount of the discrepancy, see if a check was scanned through twice
If you’ve done both of those things, it’s likely that your control amount was off. You need to go back over your batch report and find the problem.
DO NOT deposit your checks until the discrepancy is resolved.

Save a copy of the deposit confirmation in membership\Accounting\Financial Information\20XX Batch Deposits in a folder with that Batch #
Make sure to also print out a copy and place it with the batch report and check images in the filing cabinet.
Give a copy to the office manager.

At this point you should have a batch report, check images, and deposit confirmation in the filing cabinet. You should have a deposit confirmation and check images saved on the Drive.
There should also be no financial discrepancies.

Step 9: Find out how many letters you will generate in the thank you mailing

Do this before you close the batch or you will hate yourself.
Click on ‘Receipts’ -> ‘Generate Receipts’ -> Draw a table to list out each TY letter. Separate it by total, Us, and Adelaide’s
Make sure to keep this info until you fill out the mailing form - you will need to fill in the # of letters on the form!

Here is an example table:

Codes	Total	Us	Adelaide
01	59	48	11
08	47	47	0
17	23	18	5
RN-2	80	68	12
Total	209	181	28

Thank You codes:
01 - First gift/ renewal of the renewal year
08 - New Member
17 - Second or more gift of current renewal year
19 - Memorial Giver
20 - Memorial gift family notification
API - API subscription thank you
DT- Do Not Thank
45 - Matching gift TY
16 - Gift Membership TY

Step 10: Close the batch.

Click ‘Receipts’ on the top bar of DP.
Click ‘Update Batch No.’
You are now allowed to do data entry.

You have now completed the financial side of the thank you mailing. You may move onto generating letters in the How to do a Thank you Mailing wiki.

For Reference: Wells Fargo Desktop Deposits

Desktop Deposits can be processed using the check scanner and Wells Fargo CEO software.

Depositing Checks in Wells Fargo CEO
wellsfargo.com/ceo - You should have your own personal login
Use the computer with the check scanner on it
How To:

Select "Desktop Deposit"
Select "Create a deposit"
In Control Total field put in the Total deposit amount.
Put in current batch number in the deposit name field.
Click on Scan checks
Place the checks in scanner a few at a time with face of check facing right. Keep the checks in order.
After all checks have gone through click on "Review Now."
Check each entry for correct total and correct if necessary
Corrections to be made may include re-scanning a check that was not captured, editing the micr code at the bottom of the check or filling in the amount if it was not captured.
After checks have been reviewed and are correct, check to be sure Control and Running total are the same
Click Submit deposit
Click on Complete deposit
Click on view pdf of deposit confirmation
Open pdf
Print 3 copies of the deposit confirmation:

One for our records to be filed with the check images and batch report
One to keep rubber banded around the checks in the safe for 10 business days
One to give to the Office Manager

Download and save a copy of the confirmation in \\POPROCKS\membership\Accounting\Batch Deposits\20XX Batch Deposits in a folder titled with the Batch #

PVSWiki : BatchProcessing