Quick Gift Entry

Quick Gift Entry is designed to help when you are adding a group of gifts that mostly have they same characteristics. For example, the gifts may all be the result of a specific direct mail appeal or they may all be for a specific campaign.

Each time you use Quick Gift Entry, you select or create a template that includes just the fields you need for each gift. The template also allows you to set default values for all of the gifts you're entering, such as the date and Reason, Campaign, and Fund codes.

Prior to entering gifts, you enter the total amount you expect to add. This is a good way to ensure accuracy in the gift amounts that you add.

As gifts are entered using the template, they are displayed in a list. The total added is compared to the expected amount as you go, helping you stay on track. If you notice that you have made an error, you can correct it directly in the list or open a more detailed gift entry form to correct it.

After all of the gifts have been entered, and you have verified that they are correct, you need to add them to the donor records. You can add them as a batch, so they appear in the Batch Manager, or you can add them directly without using a batch.

If you need to suspend adding gifts to this group of gifts without adding them to the donor records, you can close the Quick Gift Entry tab and even log out of ExceedFurther. When you return later, the partial list of gifts is still available for you to complete.

Note that this list of gifts is tied to your logged in user name. If a user opens the Quick Gift Entry tab, they may see your list of gifts and any gifts that may have been entered by other users. To see only your gifts, select your user name from the list of Users that appears about the list grid. After you select your name, enter your expected total in the User Expected Total field.  If your name does not appear in the list of users, enter your first gift. This adds your name to the list of users associated with this group of Quick Gift Entry gifts.

On the Gifts and Pledges Navigator, the count of gifts that have been entered in Quick Gift Entry but not get saved to donor records appears next to the Quick Gift Entry menu item. This number can help you remember to save the gifts.

WARNING: if you leave Quick Gift Entry without saving the gifts, the gifts do not appear on any donor records, are not part of any report, and may not be acknowledged.

To use the Quick Gift Entry screen, do the following:

1. Add up the total amount for all of the gifts that you are entering in this group.
2. Determine what gift entry fields do not apply to this group of gifts. For example, you may have no tributes or matching gifts among these gifts.
3. Determine what fields are likely to have common values across all or most of these gifts, for example, the date, the Reason and the Fund.
4. Decide what fields must be entered for each gift and should be required.
5. Select Quick Gift Entry from the Gift Navigator.
6. If you have saved a template that meets the conditions from steps 2 - 4, select that template.
7. If no template applies, click on Create Template to make a new template. After you close the new template screen, select the template from the list of templates.
8. Click on Load Template.
9. Fill in the fields that apply to most or all of the gifts and click on Save Defaults.
   1. Each time you add a new gift, these defaults are automatically filled in. However, if any of the values do not apply to the gift you are entering, you can enter or select something different. For example, if you set the default amount to $15.00 because most of these gifts are that amount, but one gift is $20.00, you can replace the $15.00 with $20.00 for that gift.
10. Type in the Expected Total above the list of gifts at the bottom.
11. Look up the name of the first gift's donor, entering the name in the Search box below the template name and pressing enter.
    1. A list of matching names appears. The list of names that appears includes households, organizations, individuals and couples. Take care in selecting a name from the list. In most cases a gift should be attached to the Household or Organization, not to an individual or couple. If you select an individual or couple name, rather than the corresponding household or organization, you are asked to verify the selection.
12. If the donor is not found on the list at all, use the +H or +O in the search results list to add a new household or new organization for the donor.
13. Fill in all of the fields associated with the gift. See the How to Add a Gift topic for details about gift fields.
14. Click on Enter.
    1. The gift you entered appears in the list of gifts at the bottom and the actual total and difference between that and the expected total are adjusted.
15. Repeat steps 11 through 13 for each gift.
16. Before saving the gifts, make sure the actual total and the expected total match. Look through the list of gifts to check for any errors.
17. If you find an error, select the gift in the list and click on the Edit button. This opens an edit screen where you can change any of the information about the gift.
18. If you need to delete a gift completely, select the gift in the list and click on the Delete button.
19. Once the gifts are correct, you must save them for them to be attached to the donor records.
    1. If you wish to add them to a batch as they are saved, click on Save and Batch to add them to a new or existing batch. The batch appears in the list of batches in the Batch Manager.
    2. If you do not wish to add them to a batch, click on Save and Clear. This appends each gift to the donor and clears the list.
20. If you saved the gifts to a batch, you can use the Batch Manager to create acknowledgment letters.  If you saved the gifts without creating a batch, you can use the Mailing tab to create acknowledgment letters.
    1. The Acknowledgment Process topic contains more information about thanking your donors for their gifts.