We have started an annual pledge campaign to run for one year. We would like to automate the payroll of pledge payments monthly and have never done this before.  After the constituents are put into the system as well as Honor/Memorials (we gave this option),  what are the next steps? Also, which choice? Batch or Import? I do know you can't cut and paste in batch. I think it would be import since we can get excel file for each month's payroll to manipulate. Some of these employees already have a pledge in the system from previous campaign.  I do have a clock # in the SS field that I can export them by as well as constituent code of Employee. I will be getting part of the 800 employees in this month's. More to be added in the next as payroll inputs the balance. 

Anyone brave enough to step me through this process with warnings?????  THANKS so much. I accept phone calls or I can call you! 434 200-4704
virginia.hubbard@centrahealth.com

We import our employee payroll deductions.  I have a table in Access which specifies all the gift fields I need for the import with their SS#.  When I get the payroll report from our IT dept. it has their SS# and amounts and I add that to Access as a separate table.  Then I create a new list that combines the information and using Excel I add the gift date and save it as a .csv file to import.  It's not as complicated as it sounds. The only thing I don't like is you can't apply pledge payments with just one import.  I only have a few so they create an exception while importing and I do them in a recurring gift batch. You can email me if you'd like a template of the import file - eharris@conemaugh.org.

We started an employee campaign for a new surgical center project.  We have approximately 300 or more employees contributing to the campaign through payroll deduction.  It took some leg work in the beginning (especially to enter the employees in to RE) but we created a recurring batch, which I update monthly when I receive the check from the hospital for the previous month's payroll deductions designated to the campaign.  The gift amount stays the same for each individual employee every time I commit the batch.  The fields that do change are the date, check date and post date.  Those fields can be changed by doing a Global Change in the batch each time you commit.  The only field that does get changed but is not easily changed by a Global Change (that's a lot of change ) is the check number.

katelillis@crouse.org

 Kate Lillis

Crouse Health Foundation

It's very easy Virginia.  Set up a RECURRING Batch, then all of the names, pay-cash amount, fund name, etc. are held in the batch every month and all you have to do ech month is to change the date on each line and apply it to their pledge (Control + Y). 

I also set up my pledges through Batch. 

Make sure that you click the box that says This Is a Recurring Batch.

Joanie Caselton 

LLCC Foundation

Springfield, IL

217-786-4612

To all of you, why do you take the time to enter this informatio on a monthly basis?  Is it to produce cash flow reports?  We get a single annual check from Finance and I enter a single gift for each donor, as a yearly contribution.  In our case, having the monthly detail was not bringing additional information but I am curious to hear otherwise.

I agree - at my last job (we do not have a payroll deduction program here now) we got one report annually (at the end of the FY) from payroll talling us how much was taken out for each person and we paid the pledge down with one payment.  Doing it biweekly would have killed me.

I get a monthly spreadsheet from finance with the payroll deductions.   They do their magic with the money, I never see it.  I have a batch set up and only have to change the date.  Takes all of 5 minutes a month. 

I get the deduction info (person, fund, amount) bimonthly from the Business Office.  I had put them into a recurring gift batch, which works fine as it is, but it does not deduct from the pledge.  Presently I have to go into each record and apply the gift to the pledge after I run the batch.  Pain!  However, 1) there are only 5 of them (we're small but choice), and 2) these pledges should be paid off in a couple of months.  Technically, the staff don't make pledges, they sign up to donate $x per paycheck.  It'll be much more convenient when the pledges are paid off and I can continue them as true recurring gifts.

I post payroll every 2 weeks.  It probably takes about an hour (some weeks less, some more depending on the amount of new employees) to post and do the thank you's for all the new additions.  I do have 10 different recurring batches (only because I get separate checks) and one of those batches has 994 lines.  Once a batch is set up, it runs fairly smoothly.  The larger hospital batch comes by excel spread sheet and I compare one week to the previous so that I only have to go in and make changes in the batch with those that change.  Initially, you can globally add constituents to a batch, so if you have a way of identifying them in RE, then you can query and globally add.  you also can globally add campaign and appeal and fund.  We are an exception, I believe, because we have over 500 different funds but the batches have been set up for over 6 years.  When you post this recurring batch, you have the option to check the box to automatically apply to pledges and recurring gifts and also check the box to only apply to those with the same fund.  This eliminates having to find those with pledges, I have over 50 with some kind of pledge.  I haven't gone to recurring gift types yet as I haven't found the need to change from what we are doing.  We also have the gifts coded with an attribute of payroll deduction so when they want to separate this out from other donations, we can do that.  Hope this makes sense. 

Any questions, you can email me or call.

Thanks

Shelly Van Peursem

Database Administrator, Sanford Health Foundation

vanpeurs@sanfordhealth.org  or 605-328-5722

We get a check each pay period - so I don't think we have a choice but to enter them monthly - for cash flow reports.  We were just discussing the option of going to an annual check but decided we'd rather have the money in our account on a monthly basis.  I agree annually would be much easier! 

We recently just finished our employee campaign.  Each employee pledged a certain amount to the campaign - when setting up the recurring batch, there is a way to select the specific fund and select that you want the payment to post against an existing pledge.  I would have to go back and dig out my instructions if you want to know how to post against the pledges.

Carrie Revoir

St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation

carrieanne.revoir@sjhsyr.org

I enter the data using a recurring batch bi-weekly for one program.  For our agency the benefit of entering it bi-weekly rather than monthly or yearly is the ability to determine the avaliable funds for use by the associated club.