Church Contribution Getting Started Guide
IconCMO Church Software by Icon Systems Inc.
Church Contribution Getting Started Guide All rights reserved. No parts of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems - without the written permission of the publisher. Products that are referred to in this document may be either trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners. The publisher and the author make no claim to these trademarks. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, the publisher and the author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of information contained in this document or from the use of programs and source code that may accompany it. In no event shall the publisher and the author be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this document. Printed: October 2017 Publisher Icon Systems, INC. 1100 32nd Avenue South Suite G Moorhead, MN 56560 Sales: Phone: 1-800-596-4266 Email: sales@iconcmo.com Support: Phone: 1-218-236-1899 Email: support@iconcmo.com Web Site: https://www.iconcmo.com
4 Church Contribution Getting Started Guide Table of Contents Part I Contributions 5 1 Organizational... and Personal Settings: 5 2 Envelopes... 5 3 Contribution... Fund Maintenance 8 4 Contribution... Batches 10 5 Preparing... Contribution Statements 16 Index 20
Contributions 1 Contributions 1.1 Organizational and Personal Settings: 5 First Month in Fiscal Year o Be sure this is set correctly. Normally the fiscal year is January through December but not always. Check with your accountant if you are not sure. The first day of the month is assumed to be the first day of your fiscal year. This setting affects only the accounting side of the system and not contributions, however it's placed here as contributions can post to the accounting side of the system. It's best to have both sides right before making your first posting. o Contributions should follow the church's pledge year which can be different than the church's accounting fiscal year. How contribution funds are set up for the start and end dates is explained in the Fund Maintenance section of this guide. For example, IconCMO can be set up to handle the church's accounting books from July 1st to June 30th for the fiscal year, but pledge on the calendar year for the members to lessen confusion for your members. Or, IconCMO can be set up where both sides of the system obey the July 1st to June 30th fiscal year. Keep in mind when the calendar is not used for contribution funds, the member's giving statements will have two sets of funds showing on the report. For example they will see the 2018 General Fund for contributions date Jan. to June, and 2019 General Fund for contributions dated July to Dec., assuming a July to June fiscal year for this example. o Because this screen affects the entire system we highly recommend only a few people have access to change these settings. Fiscal year to work with o Set the Fiscal year you want to work with. Each user can work in a different year, provided they are signed in under a different user name. We highly recommend that all users have their own user name and have access to this screen as they should be able to change what year they are working in for the data entry. 1.2 Envelopes
6 Church Contribution Getting Started Guide Designating your Donors - Names of Households and Members are not automatically added to the contribution section. You don't have to re-type the names but you do need to tell the system which of these households and members you want to appear in the contribution section of the system, as donors. By designating your donors, the contribution secretary can limit the people they view, therefore saving time. o A household or family member must have an envelope number assigned before a contribution can be entered for them. If you don t use envelope number, give everyone who will be contributing an envelope number of zero. When possible, we recommend churches using envelope numbers other than zero as it greatly speeds up the contribution entry process. o It is best to assign an envelope number to a household. Doing this gives credit to the responsible adults of the household. Envelopes should be assigned to individuals when they file separate tax returns or for children in the household as they become members of the church. Example 1: A married couple (John & Mary) are giving a contribution. You will want to use the Household as the giving entity. That way when the contribution statement is sent it displays both of their names on the statement. Example 2: A child of a household makes a donation and wants to receive a separate contribution statement. You want to add the member envelope to the contribution section. Example 3: A single person living by his or herself makes a donation. In a situation like this you could add either the household or the member envelope to the contribution section. We suggest using the household record. Assigning Envelopes to Households and Members - Manually or Auto-Assign. Assigning Envelopes Manually: o This method is helpful when you are only adding a few, such as a new member and you already have existing donors in the system. The church has a choice to either add them in as a household or a member envelope number as seen below by the two buttons. Go to Contributions -> Envelopes -> Env Maintenance. Click on the Add/Edit Household # s to bring up a list of households or the 'Add/Edit Member #'s' to bring up the member list. Please see the examples above (1-3) to see the difference between the household and member envelopes. 1. Change the status to 'Everyone' for the Status to view drop down list, type in the first few letters of household name, and press the Find button. Each household or member will have a box next to their name.
Contributions 7 2. Locate the household or member you want to add, remove, or edit (see explanations below of each option). a. Add - Locate the household you want to add an envelope number and type the envelope number in the box next to their name. The entry is saved automatically when you press tab. b. Remove - Clear the envelope # and press the tab key. If there is a pledge, contribution either posted or not, the number will turn to a zero as there's activity under the envelope number and it can't be totally removed. c. Edit - Put the cursor in the edit box to make your change and press the tab key. 3. Press the Close button. Auto-Assign Envelope Numbers: 1. This method is helpful when you want to add a large number of donors based on a status code. Go to Contributions -> Envelopes -> Env Maintenance. Click on the Add/Edit Households or Add/Edit Members. Change the status to the status code you want to use like 'Active'. 2. Click on the Add All button to add all households. A confirmation displays which you can either click 'Cancel' or 'Ok'. This action will add all households that have the status code 'Active' to the system as a donor. 3. This process can be repeated for multiple status codes. Each household is assigned a zero so they are shown as donors. Once you are done then, press the Close button. 4. If you would like to mass change the zero envelope number for each household you can press the Auto Assign # button on the main envelope screen and complete steps 5-6. 5. Enter the Starting # Ex. 1 or 100. 6. Press the Assign #s button to quickly auto assign envelope numbers in numerical order according to the household last name and click the 'Ok' on the confirmation message. NOTE: Once numbers are assigned and given out to the church members, you shouldn't preform this step as it will change previously assigned numbers and confuse your members and possibly credit someone with another person's donation.
8 Church Contribution Getting Started Guide **The same envelope number cannot be assigned to more than one household or member in the same year.** 1.3 Contribution Fund Maintenance Use this window to maintain the various funds your church uses to manage its contributions and pledges (not required). A fund name can be changed any time even after contributions have been posted to it. IconCMO manages funds by fiscal year and is absolutely crucial this is set correctly for each user. When set incorrectly the donations are applied to the wrong set of funds. Contribution funds maintain the same names from year to year, however they are different pots of monies. For example a 2017 General Fund is not the same as a 2018 General Fund on the contribution side of IconCMO. The funds that appear in the scroll window is determined by the fiscal year setting in the Fiscal Year drop down located in 'Organization - Preferences - Personal' window. Ensure each user is under the right fiscal year before entering any donations or other data. The year can be changed temporarily by using the Fiscal Year drop down on this window. IconCMO provides for multi-year funds simply by setting the fund's date range across multiple years (ie 01/01/2017-12/31/2019). Adding a new fund: Maintenance. Enter the name of the fund in the 'Fund Name' text box. Check the start and end date of the fund. The default setting is one year. When entering pledges these dates are important as you don't want to re-enter them for every pledge record. Press the 'Save' button to add the fund. Recording Pledges (optional): Select the desired fund from the scroll window and press the 'Enter Pledges' button.
Contributions 9 Select a household or member by clicking their last name. This moves their information to the fields located below the scroll window if they had a previous pledge. Enter the pledge amount. Set the frequency to Week, Month, Quarter, Annual, or Other from the drop down and ensure the date range is correct. Press the Save button which updates the scroll window. NOTE: If the start and end dates are coming up wrong then the fund's dates are incorrect. Modify the fund's start and end dates and then the pledge start and end dates will come up correctly for each new entry. Additionally, each household or member can have one pledge per fund. For example, the 2017 General Fund can have one pledge from the John and Mary Smith's household of $50.00 per month. The same household can't have $50.00 a month and also a $60.00 weekly to the same 2017 General Fund. Accounting Link (optional): Go to Organization -> Preferences -> Church Membership and you can either set the Link to Fund Accounting "Yes or No". Then go to Contributions -> Management -> Cont-Maintenance Click on a fund then click on "Accounting Link"
10 Church Contribution Getting Started Guide Set up link and save for each fund. 1.4 Contribution Batches All contributions are processed as a batch. A new batch is typically created for each event where contributions are received (church services, fund raising efforts, etc.). Contribution batch names are for the user's reference and have no affect on when contributions would be dated on a person's contribution statement. The giving date within the batch for each transaction is the one date the user should ensure is absolutely correct as this does affect people's statements. If the church uses the accounting side, they would also want the 'Acctg Date' correct when the batch is created. Finished batches should be posted as soon as possible so the information is available to other financial reports like contribution statements. Entering contributions in a batch does not affect a household or member's financial record until it's posted. Creating a Batch: The 'Batch Date' (or 'Acctg. Date') field is filled with today s date and is a batch creation date and should not be confused with the contribution giving date. The giving date is what is used for
Contributions 11 contribution statements -- not the 'Batch Date'. The most important date on the system is the giving date which is recorded for each transaction under the batch and is found in the next section -- Entering Contributions. IconCMO can have several batches open or worked on at the same time. Each batch can only be opened by one person at any given time as they are the responsible person for that batch. Normally the 'Batch Date' field does not need to be changed unless you are using the link to IconCMO Fund Accounting or QuickBooks. When linked to the accounting system the 'Batch Date' ('or Acct. Date') is used as the transaction date for the entire batch. Therefore, it should represent the date you want to use in the accounting system to realize the revenue for the profit and loss, budget, and other reports. For example, if your church collected offerings on Sunday, Oct 31st, would the church want to realize the revenue (donations) in Oct when they were collected or when they're entered on Monday, November 1st by the contribution secretary? Enter a batch Name. E.g. Worship 01032018. Click the 'Create Batch & Enter Contributions' button, which will take you to a new screen to enter your contributions - see the next section. Entering Contributions: You can leave a batch and come back to it without losing any information. Even closing the browser and returning the next day will not affect what has been done. Select the contribution batch from the scroll window if it exist, or review the Creating a Batch section to create a new batch. When choosing an existing batch, the Add Batch button will change to an Enter Contributions button.
12 Church Contribution Getting Started Guide Click the Create Batch & Enter Contributions button, which will take you to a new screen to enter your contributions - as seen below. This is the screen where all contributions are entered into a batch or corrected. There are five check-boxes located in the contribution entry box on the next screen. Clear After Save When checked, all the entry fields, except the giving date, will be cleared. Bypass Currency Field When checked, this field will be bypassed as part of the key entry process. Using Check #'s When checked, the focus will return to the check number field after the Save button is pressed. When unchecked it will return either to the currency button or to the envelope field depending on the 'Bypass Currency Field' setting. Bypass fund list **Key entry works by using the 'Tab' or Enter key to move from field to field. ** When checked, this field will be bypassed as part of the key entry process. Clear Comment After Save When checked the comment will clear for each transaction. If you would like the same comment on several transactions you would want this unchecked.
Contributions 13 Enter the contribution date in the Giving Date field. Enter the Check # (if applicable). Uncheck Using Check #s check-box to bypass this field and go to Envelope No if your church doesn't track check #s. Set the Currency Type to Check, Cash, EFT, or Non-Cash. Enter a household or member Envelope No. The quickest way to retrieve a contributor's name is by entering a nonzero envelope number. The system will instantly display the household or member assigned to that number. When a contributor does not have a unique number (i.e. the number zero) then that household or member must be selected by clicking on their name in blue shown in the scroll window to the right. Enter the Amount Given if applicable (dollar amounts are not entered for Non-Cash entries.) Select the Receiving Fund from the drop down. When the focus is on the Fund drop down box there are 3 ways to make a selection: o Use your cursor to open the drop down list and select. o Press the key on your keyboard representing the first letter of the fund name. When more than one fund begins with the same letter, movement will continue through the list by repeating the letter selection. o Using the 'down' or up arrow keys on the keyboard will scroll through the list. Note: If all the donations will go to the same fund for many of the transactions use the 'Bypass Fund List check box mentioned above and the system will not change the fund and will move the tab order (executed by pressing tab or enter key) to the save box instead of the fund list.
14 Church Contribution Getting Started Guide Type a note in the comment box if desired (this is required for Non-Cash entries but not other type entries like cash and check). Press the Save button to save the transaction. There is no need to wait for any confirmation. Saving a transaction is most quickly done by pressing the 'Enter' key when focus is on the 'Save' button. Pressing the 'Tab' or Enter key when on the fund drop down list will move focus to the 'Save' button. IMPORTANT: Press the Close Batch button when you are finished; a batch cannot be posted or deleted unless it is closed. Editing a Transaction: Transactions that have been entered can be viewed, edited, or removed by using the 'View/Edit Transactions' button. Transactions entered can be sorted by envelope, last name, order entered, or dollar amount. When the 'View/Edit Transactions' button is pressed the 'Save' button is replaced with Modify and 'Delete' buttons. To modify a transaction: select it from the scroll window, make the changes, and click Modify. To delete a transaction: select it from the scroll window and click the 'Delete' button. Press the 'Return to Add Mode button below the list of transactions to close the view/edit transaction window and return to the transaction entry window. This enables you to enter more transactions in if you wish or you can simply close the batch. Additionally, a print edit list can be viewed before closing the batch by various sort options such as - envelope, last name, amount, fund, person totals, order entered, fund summary, deposit slip, receipt, and comment. Choose the sort option you like and click the 'Print Edit List' button. Posting a Batch: The window displays all batches that are closed with a balance greater than zero on the enter contribution screen, and/or contain Non-Cash entries. Contributions entered into a batch are not reflected in any financial report until the batch is posted. The posting process applies the contributions to household and member financial records and other giving reports for church leadership.
Contributions 15 Select the batch you want to post by clicking on "No" in the column labeled 'Marked'. Clicking on a value of 'No' will change it to 'Yes'. If multiple batches are selected, they will be posted in the same posting journal. Press the button 'Begin Posting' to post batches. A posting journal should appear for you to print. If not you can still retrieve this report under the Giving Report screen. Reversing a Batch: There will be times when you would like to undo the posting of a batch. Perhaps the wrong giving date had been used, wrong amount, or the wrong fund. Select the journal to reverse out by clicking on the desired journal number in the scroll window. Information for the selected journal will appear below the scroll window. Enter Reason for reversing out this journal. Choose whether you would like the batches in the journal to be returned to the Contributions window or deleted from the system entirely. Press the 'Return Batches' or 'Delete Batches' button to perform the request. If the church uses the accounting side of IconCMO you will be presented with a confirmation box asking you what accounting date you want to use. Typically we recommend the original transaction date, however it is best to get advised by your church's treasurer as to what date they would like to see the revenue reversed. Once the batch is returned to Contribution entry then you can modify it just as a batch that has never been posted. See the 'Editing Transaction' section of this manual. Once editing is complete then the batch can be posted. See the 'Posting a Batch' section of this manual.
16 1.5 Church Contribution Getting Started Guide Preparing Contribution Statements When emailing ensure you have set up the donors under the Maintenance screen first. Let's break this screen into three separate parts and explain each section noted by the A, B, and C below. The left side of the screen allows the user to pick from the various statement styles, date range, and other options as explained below. A. Keep in mind this is the section that decides which statements to print while the other sections are options for the statements and how to print or email them. In other words if one of the criteria in the screen above is to create statements for only those 'People who have Given', then anyone that hasn't given would not show up for a statement. You would have to choose the criteria of 'People Who Have Not given' for these people to show up. Another example, is if you choose a date for the first three months of the year to create 1st quarter statements and someone hasn't given then they would not show up for the selection of 'People Who Have Given'. 1. Statement Style:
Contributions 17 o Standard Statement - This will be the statement you use most frequently. It lists each contribution and the date of the contribution. This statement does qualify for IRS purposes because it shows all the detail. o Summary Statement - This statement shows the total amount given to each fund for the date range specified. It does not show any detail giving. This report is most often used for quarter 1, 2 and 3 because the reports are informational only and usually take a single page unless there is a long letter or the person contributed to a large number of funds. This statement does NOT qualify for end of year tax contribution reports to the Internal Revenue Service. o Simple Statement - This statement was designed to be read easily. The simple statement uses more paper than the standard statement. This statement does qualify for IRS purposes because it shows all the detail. o Receipt - This statement is mostly used by the Canadian churches as they have a few requirements that differ from the USA churches. 2. Ensure you are in the right fiscal year that you run the statements. To change your fiscal year you can see the 'Personal Settings' section of this manual. 3. Fund types - is defaulted to tax deductible, however other options are available. o Tax deductible is the one that most churches set their funds up as. This simply means that the fund can be taken as a tax deduction for the donor. o A taxable selection will still produce a statement, however these funds were set up as a taxable fund and therefore are not a tax deduction. o The IRA tax deduction fund type is for individuals that may have IRA's and are trying to limit their tax bill and at the same time take their minimum required IRA distribution. The church would have to contact a CPA to ensure they do these statements correctly and if they are tax deduction for the individual as there are different rules depending on the situation. 4. The name range allows you to do a specific name range or select just one person. We recommend using the 'Lookup' button to select the names and not just type the names in. 5. The 'People who Have' drop-down list allows you to run statements using various different criteria like 'People Who Have Given', 'Not Given', 'Envelopes', 'Pledged and Not given', and 'Pledged'. Each of these would produce different results for the statements and the church may want to address each group with a different letter. For example the 'People that Have Given' should get a thank you letter, whereas the 'People that Have not Given' may be asked to consider donating to the church for the first time this year. 6. There's also a minimum amount to consider if the church wants to limit statements to print only if the total amount is over a certain dollar range. To ensure you receive as many donations each year we recommend the church send statements to people even under the $250.00 threshold.
18 Church Contribution Getting Started Guide 7. The date given allows to print statements by entering in a custom date range. For example if you want first quarter statement you would enter in 01/01/2014 to 03/31/2014. For the third quarter it would be 07/01/2014 to 09/30/2014. 8. Letter to Use - A thank you letter or IRS disclosure can be included on the statement. Press the 'Lookup' button that is to the right of the 'Letter to Use' prompt. It will open a window from which letters can be written and retrieved to include on the bottom of the statement. There is no limit to the number of letters that can be created and saved. To enter a new letter give it a name using the letter name edit box, type in the letter and press the 'Add' button to add it to the list of letters. To change a letter, select the letter to be changed from the drop down list, make the changes and press the 'Change' button. To select a letter to include on a statement, select it from the drop down list and press the 'Close' button. You should see the name of the letter in the grayed out field on the statement window. This is where the church would include the various different IRS disclosures that are required. B. On the same screen there are contribution statement options as seen above. Each statement style will have a different set of options for the user to choose and changes the data seen on the statements. Some of the options include printing the pledge amount, include bulk mail comments, print receipt information, include logo, show check numbers, etc. Each option is turned on by clicking the button to a 'Yes' or turned off by clicking it to a 'No'. C. The reporting options seen above give the church the ability to either print the statements using a printer, email the statements or print labels. If you choose to email statements, ensure the email maintenance screen is set up for your donors on the following screen -- Contributions: Envelopes: Email Maintenance. Put a dot next to the option you want by clicking the circle. After
Contributions 19 you chose the option you want, then click the button at the very bottom that says 'Show Report' if you are printing the statements or it will say 'Send Email Now' if you chose to email statements. You can only execute one option at a time. If you wanted to print statements and also the labels for them you would first choose the 'Statements (All)' option and click the show report button, then choose the option 'Labels (All)' and click the show report button. Now the labels and statements should match for the user to easily put these into the envelopes and affix the label in order. You are all set"
20 Church Contribution Getting Started Guide Index -CContributions - Entering 11 creating a new donation batch 10 -EEditing a posting 14 -FFiscal year 5 Fund Dates for start and end. 8 -Pposting a contribution batch 14