How to Create Contribution Statements

On a quarterly or yearly basis, it is common practice for churches to provide donors with contribution statements that record their charitable contributions. This topic shows you how create a contribution statement that donors can use to substantiate their contributions, especially during tax time. These statements show contribution amounts and detail the donor's giving for the period you specify (for example, end of year 2013) when setting up the contribution statement. A letter template is also provided that enables you to customize a personal message to accompany the statement you send to your donors.

Setting Up Contribution Statements

Printing, Viewing, and Saving Contribution Statements

Printing Mailing Labels for Contributions

Setting Up Contribution Statements

1. If you manage several organizations, from the Organization list select the organization whose contributions you want to review.

2. Click to display the Offering Reports page.

3. From the Category menu, select Contributions. Then, select Statements from the Report menu.

The setup for the Contribution Statements report is displayed. For example:

The statement setup is presented in an easy-to-use, wizard-style interface that steps you through the process of creating your contribution statements. To advance through the setup, you can either click the tabs on the top right or click Next in the lower right. At any time, you can click a tab or Previous (lower right) to go back to view or make changes to previously entered information.

The Statement Summary section in the lower left presents summary of the selections you make on each of the tabs.

4. Starting on the tab, do one of the following:

• If you want to include specific funds in the report, select the checkbox next to each fund you want to include.

If the fund list is long, try using the column header filters to narrow down the list of funds to show only the fund or funds you want to work with.

• If you want to include all funds in the report, select the All Funds checkbox in the header (the checkbox to the left of the Description heading).

Be aware that selecting the All Funds checkbox selects only the funds on the page you are viewing. If you want to include all funds in the report, you must first select the checkbox (you can select it on any setup page), and then select the Select all records link that appears above the list of funds. The link shows the number of funds that will be included in the report.

5. Click to advance to the Options tab. Use this tab to select the desired content and format for the report. Do the following:

For descriptions of the setup options on the Options tab, go to Setup Options for the Contribution Statements Report.

1. In the Options group, select the report format, delivery format, and sort options (if applicable).
2. In the Filters group:

• Select the date range for the contributions you want to include in the report.
• Specify the minimum and maximum amounts in the contribution range.
• If you want to include zero-dollar contributions, select the Include $0 Contributions checkbox.
• If you want to list individual contributions of $250.00 or more, select the List contributions of $250 or more checkbox (applies to paper statements only).

3. In the Membership group, select the desired filters to search your database for givers that meet specific membership criteria.
4. In the Givers group, select which givers to include in the statements.
5. In the Contribution Source group, specify whether to include family or member contributions in the statements.
6. In the Electronic Statements section, this checkbox control is selected by default: Include Givers who have opened electronic statements.

• If you created electronic versions of your contribution statements and want to generate paper statements for givers have opened their electronic versions (in My Own Church), leave the checkbox selected.
• If you do not want to include givers who have opened their statements, de-select this checkbox.

6. Click to advance to the Template tab. On this tab, you can create a common, customized message to include with your contribution statements. Do the following:

1. In the Statement Dates section, select the statement date. This is the date when the statement will be generated or the date when the statement will be received in the mail.
2. In the Body of Statement section, select one of the following options from the drop down list:

• None: if you do not want to include a message to accompany the statement.
• New Template: if you want to create a customized message to accompany the statement. In the Statement area below, type the text of the message. Apply whatever paragraph and character styles you want to format the text. Be sure to type a name for the letter, and then click to save the template. The statement is identified by the name you gave it and is now available for future use.

Caution

To avoid losing your message text, save frequently. You must save the template before moving to the next tab or the text of your message will be lost.

• An existing template: if you previously created and saved a customized message, the name of the template appears in the list.

3. In the Signature section, select one of the following options from the drop down list:

• None: select this option if you do have a signature image to upload.
• New Signature: select this option if you have a signature image file on your computer that you want to upload. The system will insert the image at the end of the message accompanying your contribution statements. Click to search for the file, select it, and then click to upload it.

You can upload up to five signature image files. The required dimensions for the file are 264 pixels by 48 pixels. Be sure that the image meets these requirements. The image will appear distorted if the dimensions are incorrect.

If you want to save the file for future use, click . The system adds the file to the Signature dropdown list.

• An existing signature: if you previously saved a signature image, it appears in the list. Select it to include with the statement.

7. Click to advance to the Givers tab.

This tab shows you list of givers matching your fund selections and all of the filter criteria you previously selected.

8. On the Givers tab, do the following:

1. Individually select the names of the givers receiving the contribution statement.

Select the checkbox next to the Family Name heading to select the givers on the displayed page only. Select the Select all records link to select all givers.

2. To view the statements, click .

Your browser opens a separate tab to display the statements included in the report..

If the report is not displayed, check your browser settings to make sure that pop-up settings are enabled. Then, click  again.

The system can only generate one report at a time. While a report is being generated, the View Statements button is temporarily disabled (dimmed). After the system finishes generating the report, the button is activated again to allow you to generate another report.

Each giver's contribution statement is displayed on a separate page. The statements appear in A to Z order by giver's last name. Following is an example of a Contribution Statement that contains a personal message (created on the Template tab) along with the family contribution details:

If you chose (in Step 7c) not to include a personal message to accompany the statement, the system automatically removes the salutation ("Dear...") and moves the detail portion of the statement up so that it immediately starts on the first page.

Printing, Viewing, and Saving Contribution Statements

After you click , your browser opens a separate tab where you can save and print them.

Printing Mailing Labels for Contribution Statements

To print mailing labels for contribution statements:

1. Click to display the Givers tab.

2. Individually select the givers you are mailing statements to. Alternatively, click the checkbox in the header (next to the Family Name) to select all givers.

3. In the bottom-right, click .

The Report Viewer opens to let you preview the labels before printing the whole set. Labels are sorted and printed in A to Z order by last name.

4. Do one of the following:

• Click to print all of the mailing labels.

• Click to print the current page of labels only.

• Click to save the labels.

Related Topics

About the Reports Page

About the Report Viewer

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