Click Here to view this article as a PDF.
Author: Kristenson, Joel
Last Updated: 2017-01-26
Overview
This article walks through the steps setup a credit card bank account. Then it covers how to create an invoice for your credit card bank account (payee), and record the detailed memo items (payments) so they display properly on your FEC report. The steps involve:
- Creating a credit card bank account (if you haven’t already)
- Creating the payees and invoices for the payments you made with a credit card
- Creating the invoice and payment (memo items) for the credit card payee
- Running the FEC report to verify the memo entries display correctly
Tip: Prefer video? This video tutorial walks through the steps to complete this task. Trail Blazer also provides unlimited free training and it’s pertinent that your campaign treasurer attends a 30 minute GoToMeeting session with one of our financial trainers to make sure they can accurately record the finances for your campaign.
Steps
1) Navigate to the Accounts list by following Application Menu > Financial > Banking > Accounts. Requires security clearance.
2) Click [Search] to populate the list of current accounts. Click [+ New] from the Search tool strip. *If your credit card account is already setup you can skip this step.
3) Enter all the information under the Bank tab including the Committee, Address, and Contact info.
4) Navigate to the Account tab and fill in all of the relevant information (Name, Address, Starting Balance, Etc). Make sure the Account Type is categorized as Credit Card. My example is below.
5) Click [Save and Close] to finish.
6) Click [Search] and the new account will display in the Accounts list. My example is below. To reiterate, these steps will also create a Credit Card ‘Payee’ which is used in later step.
7) Navigate to the Payee list by following Application > Financial > Disbursements > Payees (Invoicing).
8) Search for the payee you made a credit card payment too and open their record card. If they don’t exists, click [+ New] at the top and create a new payee record. In my example I used Trail Blazer Campaign Services.
9) Click [+ New] under the Invoices tab.
10) Fill out the invoice information and click [Save and Close]. If you’re going to record a payment right away you can just click [Save] and begin recording a payment. For the purpose of this article the payment steps are covered in step #12.
11) Repeat these steps and create invoice records for *all* payees who you paid with a credit card. In my example I recorded 3 invoices for 3 different payees.
12) Once the invoices have been recorded, open the payee record, and open the invoice by clicking on the Invoice ID. In my example I used Trail Blazer Campaign Services again, and the $500.00 invoice that was created in step #10.
13) Under the Payments tab click [+ New].
14) Fill out the payment form. Make sure to select the Payment Method as ‘Credit Card’ and select the correct credit card ‘bank’ from the drop-down menus. My finished example is below where I entered a full $500.00 payment against the $500.00 invoice using the Wells Fargo Credit Card bank account.
15) Click [Save and Close]. My finished payment example for one of my payees is below.
16) Click [Cancel] or the red [x] in the top-right of the invoice record to close out of it.
17) Click [Refresh] in the payee record and the results will update below to reflect the payment. Repeat these steps for all payees you paid with a credit card. My example is below.
18) Close out of the payee record card by either clicking [Cancel] in the bottom-right or the black [x] in the top-right.
19) Once all the individual invoices and outstanding payments have been recorded for the payees (that you paid with a credit card), run a search (from the Payees list) for the credit card ‘bank’ payee record, and then open the payee record. This payee record automatically gets created in step #1 when you create a new credit card bank account. In my example I used the Credit Card (Wells Fargo) payee record.
20) Click [+ New] under the Invoices tab.
21) Fill out the invoice form and click [Save]. Make sure that the box in the top-right is checked for 'Credit Card Principle Payment'. My example is below.
22) Click the [+ New] button under the Payments tab.
23) Fill out the payment form for the credit card invoice, and then click [Save and Close].
24) Navigate to the Credit Card Detail tab and click [+ New].
25) Check the boxes for the items that were included in the outstanding credit card invoice (which will need to add up to the original credit card invoice once you’ve checked them), and click [OK]. My example is below where I checked all the boxes which equaled $4,555.12.
26) Now that you’re finished with the data entry part it’s time to run the FEC report. Once the report is run you can view the credit card principle payment and the memo items on Schedule B. My example is below.
The related resources below link to a variety of other useful articles and videos related to this topic.
Related Resources
Article: How to Enter a New Payee
Article: How to Enter a Payment for an Invoice
Article: How to Enter an Invoice for a Payee
Article: How to Enter an Invoice and Payment with the New Payment System, and How to Add a Refund and Deduction
Article: Delete an Invoice/Payment
Article: How to Deposit a Contribution
Article: How to Print Checks through Trail Blazer
Article: How to Un-Deposit a Contribution (Primarily for Political Customers)
Article: Delete a Contribution
Video: Deposits – Setup Bank Account – Set Bank as Default – Create Deposit
Video: Credit Card Memo Entry (using 2015 version of Financial)
Trail Blazer Live Support
Phone: 1-866-909-8700
Email: support@trailblz.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Trail-Blazer-Software/64872951180
Twitter: https://twitter.com/trailblazersoft
* As a policy we require that you have taken our intro training class before calling or emailing our live support team.
Click here to view our calendar for upcoming classes and events. Feel free to sign up other members on your team for the same training.
* After registering you’ll receive a confirmation email with the instructions for how to log into the GoToMeeting session where we host our live interactive trainings.
* This service is included in your contract.
