How to create a Batch and Enter Donations in Silent Partner
In Silent Partner, a Batch is a holding place for donations.
- A Batch collects donations together until you are ready to Post them.
- Until you Post a Batch, you can edit the Batch, edit the gifts, delete, add, etc.
- Posting a batch makes the gifts permanent and adds the gifts to the donor's record.
- Many organizations match the Batch date to the bank deposit date to make reconciling donations and bank deposits easier.
- If you have a large volume of gifts, grouping gifts in a batch based on payment method with further simplify reconciliation.
Working With Batches
Create a Batch
Click the "Enter donations" button on the Green Screen.
If you have more than one office in your organization, select the office. Start by selecting an existing Batch or by creating a new Batch.
Note your other options are to Edit, Clone, By-pass, Delete, View the Summary, or View old batches. Cloning a batch is used when you have made an error and a Batch needs to be corrected. This is explained here.
Set up a batch
When you click New, the "Adding New Donation Batch" window will open. Here you can set the date, select the office the gifts apply to, and select default values for the gifts you will enter, such as Motivation code, Designation account, How Paid and Donor Advantage code.
When you click in the Description field (in yellow), the date and batch number will be combined to describe the Batch. There is space to enter further characters to describe the batch. If you are reversing gift, use this extra space to note it is a correction or reversal batch.
Using a Control Amount is useful when you know exactly the total value of the batch. If the value of the gifts entered in a Batch don't match the control amount, you cannot Post the Batch. This can prevent entry errors!
Once you click OK, you are taken to the Donation Entry screen.
Entering Gifts
Once you've selected/created your batch, you are taken to the Donation Entry screen. The information bar at the top of the screen tells you that you are in the Donation Entry screen, as well as which batch you are working in.
Locate the donor's record and highlight it. Then click the Enter Donations button.
If the donor is splitting their gift over two or more designation accounts, you can select the "Enter Donations [multiple accounts]" button immediately to the right of the "Enter Donations" button.
In the Donation Detail screen, select Motivation Code, Designation Amount, How Paid?, Reply Code, etc. for the donation, then click OK.
Posting the Batch
Once the gifts are entered, close the Donation Entry screen. From the Green Screen, click Post Donations.
Select batch to post, and click OK.
Double check the Debit accounts, Send output to, Report title, etc. Select "Send to Screen" first to double check the batch.
When you are satisfied the batch is correct, select "Send to Printer."
NOTE: In the sample above, "Send output to:" is set to Microsoft Print to PDF. This will result in creating a PDF of the batch report. If you want to print a hard copy instead, make sure your printer is selected.
Make sure that the Batch report printed successfully, and click "Yes" to the message asking you to confirm that the Batch report printed.
A pop-up will tell you that the Posting was successful. Click OK.
A pop-up will tell you that the Posting was successful. Click OK.
The donations have been posted and will now appear on the donor's record!