Our auditors are directing us to separate the gift receipting and gift acknowledgement process to provide better cash controls (that is, assure that the same person does not open, deposit and prepare thank you letters). How have you dealt with this requirement within RE while keeping both functions in the same department (that is, not taking a portion of the process to an external accounting department or other financial area with in your organization)???? You may reply to me directly at [Email Removed] or by phone at 888-248-2664 ext. 2.

When the mail is initially sorted, all donation envelopes go to someone in accounting who opens and creates the deposit slip and deposits. She gives me a photocopy of the checks and passes them along with the original envelopes/accompanying notes/letters to me, the Donor Admin. Assist. who then records in RE and generates receipts/acknowledgements. I then print out a deposit slip which matches her deposit slip and also the Batch Control report.

On Similar note How do you track grants made against restricted fund? We do not have the grants/projects module. I am considering adding a GL account number (expense) or would a transaction attribute suffice, and what happens when I have several grants against several pledges? thanks

At this time I don't deal with the grants and we do not track our grants in RE. Sorry, I am not of much help.

Hi Staci :) I'm currently looking at this whole thing in detail. In previous organisations typically the post-opening was done by general admin staff, often on a rota basis. Income and other items were collated and distributed, with control mechanisms including tillrolls, supervisor's sign off, envelope count etc. The batch data entry then took place, batches and summary data going on to Accounts Dept for actual banking, with thanking happening at the end of each day or week via database queries. Currently we have a complex and not entirely successful payment handling model that also includes external fulfilment, and as you might see elsewhere here I am asking for feedback from everyone on "best practice" ... If everything has to be within one department, then you may need to apply a rotation system for different parts of the job, so that over the course of a week people undertake different stages of the process each day. Alternatively you might want to permanently assign individuals or sub-groups to a particular area ... it might be something you could actually discuss with your staff, or review in terms of the range of skills you have in your team, and what level of variety is required for motivation etc. Good luck! Feel free to contact :) Chris [b]Chris Trevor[/b] Database Consultant St Dunstan's DDI : 020 7616 7931 [Email Removed] [i]--- Edited at 10/21/2004 10:57:59 AM by Chris Trevor[/i]

Our renewal notices and any direct mail pieces are sent to a lockbox. The accounting office receives lockbox payment reports and documentation first, then forward to my office. Gifts that arrive directly to our Development office is opened by the Development Assistant and distributed to the appropriate person. That person completes a gift transmittal form that is fom that is forwarded to my office for further processing. We only go letters for special gifts or gifts that are $250 plus. The development asst. prepares these letters for individuals. The corporate, government/foundation and planned gift areas prepares their own letters. I have 2-3 staff members that do the actual gift entry and myself or assistant prepares batch reports and deposits. Deposits are made with one office and the slips with supportng documentation go to our accounting office to book. I use to prepare all the acknowledgements and it was not a wise use of my time and I did not know the particulars of each gift or how to personalize the letters. I discussed with my director, weighed the pros and cons, and there was some resistance, but in the end, i'm one happy person. Monica Solomon Asst. Director of Development and Membership Services