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Author: Kristenson, Joel
Last Updated: 2016-11-22
Overview
This article will teach you how to enter the tax-deductible donation amount when recording/updating donations. It walks through a few different methods such as:
- Recording it on a single donation record
- Setting the tax-deductible percentage for a list of donations en masse
- How to batch enter the data in a list (grid) view utilizing the editable column feature
Outline
#1 Enter the Tax-Deductible Donation Amount into a Single Donation Record
#2 Set a Tax-Deductible Percentage for a List of Donations En Masse
#3 Batch Entering the Tax-Deductible Amount for Donations in the List (Grid) View using Editable Columns
#4 Related Resources
#1 Enter a Tax-Deductible Donation Amount into a Donation Record
Navigate to the Contacts (Voters/Donors) list.
Query for and open the donor’s record that contains the donation that you want to record a tax-deductible amount for. In my example I searched for my own record.
Navigate to the Contribute tab and open the donation record you want to record a tax-deductible amount for. In my example I selected a $1,500 donation made on 4/6/2012.
Under the General tab you can fill in the ‘tax-deductible amount’, and then click [Save and Close]. My example is below where I entered the full amount as tax-deductible.
The next section will show how to mass update a list of donations with a set tax-deductible percentage (either full, partial, or zero).
#2 Set a Tax-Deductible Percentage for a List of Donations En Masse
Navigate to the Contributions list.
Build and run your search query for the donations you want to update the tax-deductible amount for. In my example I populated all credit card donations for 2016 which produced 76 results (as of the time this article was written, online donations will have a tax-deductible amount of zero).
Click File > Set Tax Deductible Amount.
Click [OK] to proceed.
You now have 3 options for setting the Tax Deductible Amount:
- Full – Set Tax Deductible Amount = Amount
- Non – Set Tax Deductible Amount = 0
- Partial – Set Tax Deductible Amount = % of Amount (then choose the percentage)
In this example I updated the amount to 100% for all donations in my list. Click [OK] to proceed after selecting your preference.
After the process is finished you’ll get a notification with the results, click [OK] to finish.
If you format in the Amount Tax/Deductible column into the grid you can verify the results. My finished example is below.
If a mistake was made you can usually roll-it-back if you catch it in time.
The next section will show how to modify the tax-deductible amount in the ‘grid/list’ view by adding in the necessary columns and making them ‘updatable’.
#3 Batch Entering the Tax-Deductible Amount for Donations in the List (Grid) View using Editable Columns
Navigate to the Contributions list under the Application Menu.
Build and run your search query. In this example I populated all credit card contribution records for 2015 which produced 656 donation records.
Click the [Format] drop-down and select Columns.
Check the box on the right for ‘Amount/TaxDeductible’. This is the step that will add that column into the list (grid).
Navigate to the Format tab and scroll to the bottom of the list.
Scroll to the right until you see the column called Updatable. Check this this box for the Amount/TaxDeductible row and click [OK].
Scroll out to the far right of the grid where the new tax-deductible amount column will display.
Click-and-hold on the column title and drag it to the left until it’s next to the Amount column, then release it to complete the move. In my example I also removed columns I wasn’t interested in via formatting.
After you’ve placed the tax-deductible column next to the amount column, click the [Edit] button so the new column turns green. Any cell in green in Trail Blazer allows you to edit it in the grid view, which can save a lot of time instead of going record by record.
You can now double-click in the green cell and populate the data for the tax-deductible amount. Click [Save] in the bottom-right as you go. My finished example is below.
The related resources below link to a variety of useful article and videos on this topic.
Related Resources
Article: Contribution Year-End Report
Article: Enter Contributions
Article: How to Change your Current, Previous, and Next Cycle or Fiscal Year, and How to Mass Update Donations to a Specific Cycle or Fiscal Year En Masse – Nonprofit Only
Article: How to Add and Remove the Allocation Funds to your Online Donation Form, and to the Drop-Down Menus in your Database
Article: How to Remove an ‘Event’ from the Drop-Down List when Entering Donations
Article: Contribution Year-End Report
Article: How to Create a Custom Redirect Thank-You Page for your Donation Form(s) that Automatically Populates the Donor’s First Name and the Donation Amount they Gave – Advanced Feature
Article: Memorial and Honorarium Gifts – Add the Option to your Online Donation Form, and How to Run Searches and Build Reports on these Type of Gifts in the Database
Article: Custom Donation Amounts for Non-Primary Pages – List of All Configurable Donation Page URL Options
Article: Recording Non-Monetary (In-Kind) Contributions and Creating New Non-Monetary Types
Article: Delete a Contribution
Article: How to Enable ACH (E-Check) Payments with the Vanco Merchant Gateway on Trail Blazer’s Donation Form
Article: Modify your Donation Form – Change the Amounts – Add Descriptions – Add & Remove which Amounts Display
Article: How to Put your Trail Blazer Donation Form on your Facebook Page
Article: How to Add the Security Disclaimer Section to your Online Donation Form, and How to Style the Text Inside with html & CSS
Article: How to Create a Custom Thank-You Auto-Responder Email with Merge Fields for your Online Donation Form
Article: How to Configure Recurring Donation Options for your Trail Blazer Donation Form (must be using either Vanco Services or Authorize.Net as your Merchant Gateway)
Video: Getting Started 106a – Entering Contributions (NON PROFIT ONLY)
Video: Thank you’s using mass email
Video: Thank A Person Once For Multiple Contributions
Video: Getting Started 107 – Writing Contribution Thank You Letters
Video: Year End Tax Letter
Video: Write Letter – Edit Letter after Mail Merge
Video: Filtered Contribution Columns in Format
Video: Donation Auto Responders with Merge Fields
Video: Attributes – Add To Donation Page
Video: Iframes
Video: Contributions Online – Change Default $ Donation Amounts
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