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Donor Accounts

 
 

A Donor Account record is a record created or referenced when a check is scanned and MICR is read via the Batch Manager Tool. It is used to speed data entry by matching Donors to Donations being processed in the BMT. See this KB for more details on how Donors are matched.

The views on the Donor Account page are helpful in identifying what Accounts are in use, not in use, and have multiple Donors assigned.

Note: Donor Accounts are not related to Contribution Statements. If the Donation is assigned to the "wrong" Donor Account record, it does not cause any issues with a Donor's statement.

Donor Account Fields

  • Institution Name: The name of the banking institution.
  • Account Number: The account number of the Donor's bank account per the scanned check MICR.
  • Routing Number: The routing number of the Donor's bank account per the scanned check MICR.
  • Donor: The Donor record associated with this Donor Account.
  • Non-Assignable: If true, this account is not to be assigned to a Donor.
  • Account Type: The type of bank account (savings or checking).
  • Closed: If true, the account is closed (no longer used).
  • Bank: The bank related to this bank account from your Lookup Values.

Managing Donors Accounts

The below content is not explaining how to combine duplicate Donors (people). Rather, it deals with the rare situation when the same checking/routing number is listed in your system twice under the same Donor record. To combine duplicate Donors (people) you should use Combine Contacts Tool.
There are two primary ways that duplicate Donor Accounts come into existence. First, you may have combined duplicate Donor records where each had the Donor account once. Second, you may have had multiple Batches in production in the Batch Manager Tool where the Donor Account was present and unassigned. Both of these situations are rare.
 
If you have two identical Donor Account records (identical Donor + Account # + Routing #) and would like to combine them, there are two options. 

Option #1:  Eliminate the Donor Account after updating all Donations to point to the surviving Donor Account:
  1. You may want to temporarily rename one of the Donor account records to something obvious so you can easily identify it from a pick list.
  2. If there are any Donations assigned to the Donor Account you wish to delete/combine:
    1. Select all Donations from the Donations sub-page on the Donor Account Record.
    2. Xfer so the selection is now on the Donations page.
    3. Use the Assign tool to re-assign the Donor Account record to the one you wish to keep.
  3. Once any Donations are re-assigned to the Donor Account you wish to keep, you can safely Delete the record by selecting it on the Donor Accounts page and using the delete tool.
Option #2: Eliminate the Donor Account without worrying about updating donations
Select one of the Donor Account records on the Donor Accounts page and delete it selecting the "unassign" option for Donations on the delete screen. Those Donations are left in the system. There is no significant advantage to knowing historically which Donor Account sourced a Donation.
 
Note: There are situations, such as bank (bill pay) checks are issued. These Donor Accounts will show multiple Donors. These accounts are to be expected and do not need to be updated.