The Organization and Layout of the Contributions Screen

The Contributions Screen helps you to maintain a comprehensive record of giving in your church or ministry, as well as to track your church’s giving trends in detail.

TIP: You can password protect the contributions screen in order to protect the sensitive nature of contributions. Click on this link Security Options to learn how.

When you click on a date, the contributions for that date are displayed in the window on the right. You can enter contributions for a new date by clicking the "Add a New Date" button. A summary of the contributions for the selected date appears at the bottom of the screen.

Important Contribution Screen Considerations

You cannot enter an anonymous contribution. Every contribution must be assigned to a person. You may want to create a new "person" (on the people screen) named 'Unknown Person' or 'Loose Change' and assign anonymous or unknown contributions to this 'individual'. If you receive contributions from an organization, you will still need to enter the organization's name as an individual on the People screen. You may choose to break the name up and enter part of the name in the first name field, and part in the last name field. Alternatively, you can enter "Organization" (or some other description) in the last name field, and the name of the organization in the first name field.

Contributions must be assigned to an individual, not to an entire family. It is best to remain consistent by always assigning contributions to the head of the household, unless both husband and wife give separately and request that their contributions be kept separate. Even though you are assigning contributions to an individual, you have the option of displaying the family name (both husband and wife) on the contribution statements that you give to your contributors for tax purposes. This preference can be changed by clicking Utilities, then Report Settings.