I am sorry that I have already asked these questions but I did not get enough responses to make a decision.  I need your opinon on what you use, gift date or gl post date when running queries, exports and reports.  We just came accross about 60 gifts since September that were not counted because of different gift dates and gift dates.   

Any advice on how to handle this situation would be appreciated.    

I use gift date.  The way we are structured, gift date and GL date are the same most of the time.  We've occassionally had a problem with gift posting so GL post date is different. 

If there were a difference, I know that our exec would want $ included immediately on reports so would use gift date.  Your finance office may want daily/monthly reports to reconcile with their accounting based on GL date.  If so, which one is greatest priority/concern.

I think you're biggest need is what you are doing, making a decision of which to use.  Once you consistently use just one criteria, your reports should be accurate. 

We also use gift date because that is when the gift was received.

We also use gift date.

Same here -- gift date.

We use gift date for everything, reports, GL and deposits.  We are small enough that we can coordinate RE with Finance (Not FE)

Cindy - I think I responded already but it really depends on the query export or report and how you are using the two fields.  If you have clearly defined what gift date and GL post date mean in your system that will totally dictate how you use them in queries, exports and reports.  I believe I posted my Gift Date policy (which covers both gift date and GL Post date) last time but I attached it again. 

In our financial reports we use gift date but when running mailings for acknowledgments we use GL post date.  This makes sense to us ONLY because of how WE are using the two fields. 

Can you tell us how you are using the two fields and maybe we can make some recommendations.

 I agree with Melissa - it's hard to know which one you should use until we know if there is consistency in the reporting.

 FYI/as inspiration, we use GL post date as the date the gift is entered into our system and the Gift Date is the date the gift was made -- date on the check, date the electronic gift was made, day the credit card was run. we generally report on gift date, rather than GL post date, although that may change once we start electronically posting gifts to Financial Edge (we might need the GL post date to be the date the posting was made.)

 I agree with Melissa - it's hard to know which one you should use until we know if there is consistency in how you use them and what each field means.

 FYI/as inspiration, we use GL post date as the date the gift is entered into our system and the Gift Date is the date the gift was made -- date on the check, date the electronic gift was made, day the credit card was run. we generally report on gift date, rather than GL post date, although that may change once we start electronically posting gifts to Financial Edge (we might need the GL post date to be the date the posting was made.)

 Last year, we began using the term Process Date.  This would allow for us to explain that the Gift Date in RE is our Process Date.  The Process Date is described below:

 Cash or Pay-Cash:  the deposit date

Pledge:  deposit date for payment accompanying the pledge card or the date other gifts are processed with with (we process in batches by date)

Stock or Pay-Stock:  date stock is received in our office or in our brokerage account

The GL Post Date is always = to the Gift Date.  We have found that if running certain reports as of a certain date, gifts that have different gift dates and GLPD will cause the report to hang.  It will process, but it usually takes much longer.  I believe this specifically applied to the Pledge Status Report which is generally slow anyway.

Therefore, we usually run any reports based on the Gift Date, unless I'm looking for something that is impacting accounting a certain way, then I'll run queries based on GLPD.

Also, as an aside, the Process Date was also designed to address donor's confusion with gift dates.  This was particularly to address end of calendar year gifts.  We preferred not to use the postmark on the envelope because we felt that would obligate us to keep the envelope, and we don't have enough room for that.  Therefore, we use the term "Process Date" on our receipts and allow the donor to uphold their obligation to prove to the IRS what their gift date is.  We placed a statement on our receipts that said "May we remind you that the date above reflects when we processed your gift, and does not imply the date your gift was made.  While you should consult with your CPA or tax preparer to determine the tax consequences of your donation, the date you delivered or mailed your donation is generally recognized as the gift date.  The determination of the contribution date is entirely your decision."  Prior to this we would use a gift date of 12/31/** and a GLPD of whatever the deposit date was.  However, due to the volume of gifts we receive at year-end, this would delay certain reports based on gift date, particularly fundraising status reports through 12/31, until mid to late January.  It was a nightmare for the gift processor.  Since implementing this process, the end of the calendar year flows MUCH better.