Mail Musings: A Brief History of eReceipts

Douglas Clinton — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:26:00 GMT

The earliest receipt was developed by our Neanderthal ancestors, who used large, heavy rocks to acknowledge the exchange of goods or services. This led to a great deal of confusion, as these same rocks were also used as currency, and all available goods and services were in some way rock-related. Over the millennia, the receipt evolved, rocks gave way to clay tablets, papyrus, parchment, and ultimately the modern paper receipt. In recent years, evolution has leaped forward, providing humankind with a new tool: the electronic receipt. In The Raiser's Edge, eReceipts let you create and send receipts without creating anything on paper.

When you work with eReceipts, you must specify an SMTP mail server and port number for your local email server that will be used to send electronic receipts. This information is added to The Raiser's Edge under Configuration, Business Rules, Mail options. If you are hosted by Blackbaud, you will need to request that your organization be configured to use SMTP relay before you run eReceipts for the first time. Create a case or email OnDemandSupport@blackbaud.com and an analyst will assist you.

Once this is configured, enter the following in the SMTP field: re-relay.hurricane.blackbaudhost.com. Enter 25 in the Port Number field.

If you have created custom receipts in the Mail module before, using eReceipts will be a snap. The process is the same way in that you open a new Receipt parameter file in Mail and select Create custom data file as the Receipt Type on the General tab. On the Fields to Include tab, select the fields to include on the receipt.

On the eReceipts tab, mark the Send as eReceipts checkbox and select Write Message. Indicate who the email is from, specify the subject, and then compose an email to accompany the receipt, using the Insert Field button to add the merge fields you selected on the Fields to Include tab. Once you are done, click OK to save the email and then specify the Email Types to Use. Select Send to Word Merge Wizard, save the new receipt parameters, and click Next to begin the Mail Merge Wizard. You can select to mark gifts as receipted, receipted and acknowledged, or Do Not Update as appropriate.

If you are creating one type of receipt for all donors, select to perform a simple mail merge using only one document. If you are creating customized receipts based on fields such as gift type, campaign, fund, appeal, or letter code, select to perform a conditional mail merge using multiple documents. Add the receipt template(s) to the wizard, and click Finish to merge them and send receipts electronically. The receipts will preview for record-keeping purposes. When the preview appears, the email message will have already been sent with the receipt as a PDF attachment.

You can read more about eReceipts in Knowledgebase solution BB186795.

The User's Edge : eReceipts

Mail Musings: A Brief History of eReceipts