IconCMO Blog

Press Release: Special update for Canadian churches

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IconCMO now has CRA-compliant donation receipts

MOORHEAD, MN–(Marketwired – April 25, 2017) – Icon Systems announced its IconCMO church management software is now compliant with Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) requirements for charitable donation receipts. The update, which was released last week, features a special donation statement format that includes:

  • Name and address of the charity
  • Unique serial/receipt number
  • Registration number
  • Electronic signature of charity
  • CRA web address
  • Name and address of the donor
  • Date and amount of donation
  • Any required descriptions

IconCMO has been well-received by Canadian churches and charities.

[IconCMO is] great accounting software, it’s really easy to use,” says Jasbir Warring of Sant Nirankari Mission in Canada. “[They have] outstanding customer service and are always willing to cater to specific needs.”

Not currently using IconCMO church management software? Learn more and get a free 14-day trial at https://www.iconcmo.com/.

Already using IconCMO? Here’s how you can utilize the new statement style

  1. Go to Organization: Preferences: Church Membership
  2. Enter a Starting Donation Receipt #
  3. Save Defaults
  4. Go to Contributions: Management: Contribution Statements
  5. Choose the Statement Style called CRA Receipt

Note: Customers in the US and other countries may also use this statement style by following the steps above; however, the statement style will be titled Split Receipt instead.

About Icon Systems: For more than 20 years, Icon Systems has been developing software exclusively for churches and religious organizations. Icon Systems offers multiple church management software packages that will meet the needs of any religious organization—from church plants to denominational offices. https://www.iconcmo.com/

View the original press release at http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/-2211693.htm

Archiving members in IconCMO

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Archiving is a great way to keep your database clean and your household counts down. Changing a members statuspablo-12 to delete is different than actually archiving them. Archiving can be done at the household level or the member level. Although you can archive all members of a households at once, only the members are archived, not the household. You will need to unarchive each member of the household separately.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS ON ARCHIVING

Household: Archiving all members of a household
  1. Go to People: Household: Hse-List
  2. Select the household you wish to archive
  3. Click “Delete”
  4. If contributions are applied to the household (household envelope) you will get the message: “This household last contributed money on “date.  Are you sure you want to delete this household?”
  5. Click “OK”
  6. You will then get the message: “Do you want to archive the household members?”
  7. Click “Yes”
  8. Please enter a reason for archiving – * required.
  9. Click “Yes”
Member: Archiving one member of a household
  1. Go to People: Members: Mem-List
  2. Select the member you wish to archive
  3. Click “Delete Member”
  4. If contributions are applied to the member (member envelope) you will get the message: “Are you sure you want to delete this member?”
  5. Click “OK”
  6. You will then message: “Do you wish to send this member information to the archives?”
  7. Click “Yes”
  8. Please enter a reason for archiving – * required.
  9. Click “Yes”

NOTES

Because only members are archived, any household notes stored in the household section will be lost. To make sure these notes are retained, you will need to transfer them to a member. Simply highlight the household notes and paste them into the member notes (Ctrl+C – copy & Ctrl+V – paste).

CONTRIBUTION STATEMENTS

You can unarchive a member to print their contribution statement at any time.  If you restore them to their “Original Household” the contribution records automatically are attached to the household.  If you choose to add the member to a new household, you need to create a household, unarchive the member into the new household and then go into Contributions: Envelopes: Env-Maintenance and give the new household an envelope number.  Finally go into Contributions: Management: Cont-Transfer and transfer the contributions from the old household into the new household.

REPORTS/UNARCHIVING

Go to People: Members: Archives for a list of archived members. This report can be filter by status and 4 additional fields can be displayed. To unarchive a member simple click on the their last name in this report. A new window will open displaying their name and previous household. Click on the “Unarchive” button. If you try to unarchive a member where the entire household has been archived you will get the following message. “The household this member belongs to no longer exists. Would you like to restore the original household or choose a new household to add them to (losing the original address information)”. If you are going to unarchive them to a different household, the household must be created before unarchiving the member.

What are pass-through accounts?

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pablo (1)

Pass-through accounts are established when a church collects money on behalf of an organization or event and does not want to record the money as income.  These accounts are set up as liabilities instead of revenue accounts since the money will only pass-through the church to another organization.

Try our church management software.

Follow the instructions below to create liability pass-through accounts in IconCMO.

Part 1: Accounting Setup

First, decide if the money can stay in the general fund or if the church wants to create a new fund.  To create a new fund:

  1. Click Add New Account.
  2. Go to General Ledger: GL: Fund Maintenance.
  3. Type in the Fund Name and click Add.Then, add your accounts.Fund Maintenance - adding a fund small window
  4. Go to General Ledger: Funds: Chart of Accounts.
    • Account Type: Liabilities
    • Liabilities: Other Current Liabilities
    • Type Detail: Other Misc Current Liabilities
    • Sub-account of: Not a sub-account
    • Account Name: Pass-Through

Repeat the process for any sub-accounts you want to add under Pass-Through.  I have created a sub-account called Belize under my pass-through account.

General-Ledger - COA - #2

Add New - Belize

Part 2: Contribution Setup

  1. Go to Contributions: Management: Cont-Maintenance
  2. Type in the Fund Name on the right and Save.
  3. Select the fund you created and click on Accounting Link.
    • Accounting Fund Affected: Choose the general fund or the fund you created
    • Banking    –   Checking
    • Contribution Liab   –   Belize

Accounting link - pass through accountsIf you’re looking for a good report for these accounts, go to General-Ledger: GL:GL-Reports. The Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet) will give you a report with all your liability account information.

What to do when two members of the church get married

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You know how to add a new member into IconCMO. But what happens when two members of the church get married? You already have both of them in your membership database, so you need to merge the two records together. And what happens if they’ve given contributions?

church-member-wedding-rings
Photo Credit: briannalouder via Compfight cc

Here’s an example

Let’s say John Anderson and Mary Smith got married on July 1st. Both of them gave contributions prior to being married. In this case, you will need to transfer the donations and print 3 separate contribution statements: one for each of them before they were married and one for their joint giving. You will also need to determine which household you wish to keep. For this example we will keep the John Anderson household and move the member record for Mary Smith to the John Anderson Household.

First, let’s transfer the contributions

  1. Go to Contributions → Envelopes → Env-Maintenance → Add/Edit Member #’s and enter a zero next to Mary Smith and John Anderson. You must do this in order to transfer the contributions or you won’t see their names.
  2. Go to Contributions → Management → Cont-Transfer and execute two transfers.
  3. Transfer contributions from Mary Smith Household to the Mary Smith Member.
  4. Transfer contributions from John Anderson Household to the John Anderson Member.
  5. Go to Contributions → Management → Cont-Maintenance → Check your funds to ensure no outstanding pledges are assigned to the Mary Smith Household.
  6. Go back to Contributions → Envelopes → Env-Maintenance → Add/Edit Household #’s and delete the envelope number for the Mary Smith Household. If her number goes to zero instead of erasing completely then there is probably a pledge or contribution still out there that needs to be cleaned up.
Contribution Transfer IconCMO
Transferring contributions from one envelope to another

Second, we’ll transfer Mary Smith to John Anderson’s household

  1. Go to People → Members → Mem-List.
  2. Click on the Last Name of the Member you wish to transfer.
  3. Click the down arrow next to “View: Select an Item” and select Member transfer.
  4. In the white box next to the find button enter in the Last Name of the household you wish to transfer the member to and click find button.
  5. Click on the Last Name of the Household you wish to transfer the member to.
  6. Press the transfer Member button.
Member Transfer
Transferring a member from one household to another

Third, we’ll update the household record and John’s member record

  1. Go to People → Households → Hse-List and select the John Anderson household.
  2. Change the First Name field from “John” to “John & Mary”.
  3. Change the Mail To field from “John Anderson” to “John & Mary Anderson”.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Click Add – View Members.
  6. Select John at the top left window.
  7. Change the relationship field of John to Husband.
  8. Click the Save Member button.
  9. View John’s Special Events.
  10. Add the Marriage date and click the Save button in the Special Events window.
  11. Click the Copy to Spouse button.
Member List Form
Updating relationship and special events

Lastly, we’ll update Mary’s member record

  1. Select Mary at the top left window.
  2. Change the relationship of Mary Smith to Wife.
  3. Change the last name field of Mary Smith to Anderson.
  4. Add the name Smith to the Maiden name field for Mary.
  5. Click Save Member.
  6. Go back to People → Households → Hse-List and open the Mary Smith Household.
  7. Press the “Delete” button. You do not need to archive since the household is empty.

And you’re done! Bookmark this page so it’s handy next time there’s a wedding in your church.

7 Ways to Survive the Holidays

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Don’t let the holiday season sneak up on your church ministry team!

The holiday season is a sacred time for devotion and celebrations, but it can also be a very hectic and stressful time of year. This is especially true for church leaders and volunteers. In addition to family get-togethers, shopping, and baking, you also have to meet all the extra demands at the church!

For some reason our culture promotes busy-ness and labels self-care as a frivolous luxury. But when we get stressed out and over-extended, things really break down and problems come up – especially in the middle of a big project or event.

stressed out christmas lamb

During a pre-flight safety briefing, a flight attendant advises that in an emergency, you should secure your own oxygen mask before assisting others. Helping others first may work in the short term, but it’s not sustainable. You can’t lend a helping hand to anyone if you’re passed out from a lack of oxygen! This analogy relates perfectly to your ministry team; you can’t effectively serve others unless you take care of yourself first.

Here are a seven steps you can take to make the holidays less stressful:

  1. Simplify – Make a list of holiday events and traditions you have at the church. Have the ministry team and church members work together to consciously decide which ones you really love and are worth keeping. Don’t do something because you’ve always done it!
  2. Delegate – This goes hand in hand with simplifying. The church doesn’t always have the time or budget to accommodate everyone’s suggestions, even if they’re great ideas. Someone wants the church to have a christmas program? Fancy holiday decorations? Ask them to volunteer their time or donate money towards the project. If something is important, they’ll find a way to make it happen.
  3. Organize – During the holiday season, there will be an increase of visitors and people who don’t regularly attend worship services. Have a plan to get their contact information and track donations so you can follow-up with them later and send them a contribution statement if necessary.
  4. Prepare – Write and schedule communication (e.g. email announcements, social media posts, bulletins) ahead of time. Even if you only make a rough draft, it will make a huge difference because you won’t be scrambling to pull everything together at the last minute. Also, start collecting pledges (if applicable) and wrapping up loose ends in your bookkeeping so your financial reports are accurate and you have everything you need to make a budget for the new year.
  5. Nourish – Pro-actively take care of your physical, emotional, and spiritual health to avoid getting sick and/or burnt out. Yes, it’s okay to indulge in a cookie or eggnog at a holiday party, but also eat veggies and drink water so your body isn’t missing vital nutrients.
  6. Unplug – At least once a week, completely disconnect from work to do something relaxing and fun. Schedule this time and protect it fiercely like you would anything else on your calendar. You wouldn’t flake on your dentist appointment or having dinner with your mom, right?
  7. Give thanks – So often we focus on what we don’t have enough of: help, time, money, sleep, etc. Take time this season to be grateful for what you do have and share that feeling with others. Tell your church staff and volunteers how much you love an appreciate them. They’re likely feeling overwhelmed, too, and kind words go a long way.

Bottom Line

Prioritize tasks and events ahead of time, then put your to-do list on hold, even if it’s for an hour or two. The church will keep running smoothly while you take time to recharge. Your to-do list isn’t going anywhere, and you’ll be able to get through it much more efficiently when you have energy.

—–

Photo Credit: Kyle May via Compfight cc

 

Communication and Church Donations (p2)

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Here is the second part to the 2 part series for Communication and Church Donations. If you haven’t read the first part you may want to read it first. 🙂

4. Clear communication also dispels the other person’s syndrome. The old story of — why should I donate to the same cause because someone else will step up? Some clear factual information can dispel this during presentations. Let’s use two scenarios:

A. Say the goal is $20,000 for some water wells and the congregational room has 125 people listening to the presenter. That boils down to about $160.00 per person if everyone gives or $320.00 per married family. Most people listening to the presentation can take a very quick conscientious inventory of the goal, approximately how many people, and figure out the amount per person. Many, if not more, of these observations will determine if they give or not.

B. What if the presenter, without giving confidential details, gave clear information about the percentage of people (IE 65%) that gave last year, the average amount of the donation ($250.00) along with the information above in scenario 1? With that information the family’s amount quickly climbs to about $493.00, instead of $320.00. Knowing these additional facts inform potential donors a lot about what’s needed for the cause.

When the average donations are less than what’s needed per family, it really shows that everyone has to pull together to help. This information helps dispel the other person syndrome quickly.

5. a.) The lack of commitment may not be present because the maturity hasn’t grown to the point where the person is comfortable making the commitment. The person hasn’t moved from the ‘Maybe I will become a (…) when I grow up’, to an action of laying out the specific steps that they need to execute. In churches, one example is pledging. Even though a pledge is not legally binding and your circumstances could change, a commitment shows maturity. Another reason is that a commitment may be because the person doesn’t have that personal connection, yet.

b.) The lack of spiritual maturity is unique as it could be the amount of time the person takes with the organization. Or, it could be their own spiritual walk. The organization shouldn’t make it any harder with unclear communication.

c.) Unclear communications attribute to the lack of understanding and a clear demonstrated need to the donors. If the church can’t present a clear need for a mission to possible donors, then that is a large hurdle to overcome. A lack of understanding could be mitigated by asking yourself, would a total outsider understand my message if I presented it to them? Would the literature, power point slides, presentation, and so on, tell the story and allow them to be personally invested in the cause? As mentioned in the points above, a person gives when they feel connected to something — the story must make that connection.

Summary:

Communication to donors are paramount to ensure they don’t lose interest, understand the goals for the donations, and what’s considered a successful campaign. Has your ministry team sat down and discussed how each mission will communicate to their donors? When was the last time the organization sent anything about the donor support missions and projects aside from the annual statement for donations? These are just some questions to start the communication conversation, as every church must take their own communication inventory.

Communication and Church Donations (p1)

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Communications and church donations go hand in hand. Let’s look at some reasons why people give to a particular cause.

  1. They see tangible differences made by their contributions.
  2. They have a personal connection to a cause.
  3. They feel they’re a part of something great.

What are some of the possible reasons people don’t donate?

  1. Manual forms or websites asking too much information to process a donation.
  2. A lack of understanding (communication) for the church’s mission or completed projects with past donated monies.
  3. Losing the personal connection to the mission.
  4. The thought that someone else will donate so why should they? The other person syndrome. 🙂
  5. Lack of commitment, spiritual maturity, understanding, or a clear need demonstrated.

There’s an overwhelming hidden theme in all of these. Clear communication plays a large role in each of them. Let’s look at how communication relates to each of the 5 reasons people don’t donate.

1. With clear communication paper forms and websites should only ask the bare minimum. When programmed correctly, a website can display information about the user, by pre-filling the fields for them. The website can give an option to remember the donor’s information to pre-fill for the next time they want to donate. Or, when the person types in parts of their address, why couldn’t the website pull up the address like Google Maps does? Or, if the credit or debit card’s billing address is the same as the address to receive the donation, have the website populate both areas during entry. The idea is to streamline the process so the user only inputs the bare essentials to process the transaction.

2. Many times, past donations for the project are never mentioned so a new donor has no reference to the ministry’s track record. Questions like, ‘what have they done in the past with donations?’ are left unanswered. Providing clear information about past projects, missions, and so on, helps new donors understand a lot about the organization’s focus and what’s important to them. For the faithful donors they like to know how certain missions or projects turned out.

3. Losing the personal connection to the mission, typically points to lack of communication about the mission. If you ever heard the saying – ‘the squeaky wheel gets the grease’ then you probably can relate. Disseminating information to donors, using appropriate frequency based on the mission, is one way to ensure donors don’t lose interest with your cause.

Stay tuned for the second part of this 2 part series.

Church Membership Management and Benevolence Ministry

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image resembling a person holding several paper money people interwined with each otherWhat does church membership management and the Benevolence Ministry have in common? Let’s start with how the Benevolence Ministry gets it’s funding. Majority of the time this comes from the church’s members. It would be hard to fund this ministry without donors and the ability to track them in a church membership management system.

With a church membership management system, the church can track various pieces of information. Many times donors want to know how the donation is used when they are giving money to an organization. The church may want to report back to donors how the ministry is doing and how much it is helping others. Many church membership management systems also provide a tax receipt for their offering.

What about the people the church helps? Should they be in the church membership management system, although they may not be members? Answer – YES. Why? The church may invite them to social events that could help them not only spiritually but possibly get them back on their feet. The organization may want to give updates on the ministries. Churches often notify people about events of interest, like an upcoming job fair. It may be wise to know who you are helping and how often they are asking for help. This can help the ministry avoid people taking advantage of the Benevolence Ministry.

For donors, the organization can update them on how the ministry has helped others each month. Without a record of who’s helped, it’s hard to provide non-confidential information to the donors. In most organizations, statistics like number of people helped or how many shoes given away to needy children are acceptable to share. Many donors are encouraged when they hear about the number of people the ministry helped. Encouragement increases donations because the donors see progress towards a shared goal with the ministry. The organization’s internal reporting should show if the ministry is growing or shrinking in revenue and are controlling their expenses.

Helpful hints are coming in part two. Watch for it!

image credit bobrusk

Encouraging Consistent Giving

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Cars in trafficIf there’s one thing churches want to eliminate when it comes to receiving contributions, it’s the Summer Slump. It’s that time of year when folks are taking vacations, attending graduations and weddings or spending weekends at the lake. The change in routine all too often causes a disconnect in regular giving, even though the light bill, salaries and other typical monthly expenses incurred by the church still need to be paid. While tools such as automatic electronic fund transfers and online giving pages can help lessen the blow, maintaining contact with those who need a little extra encouragement in order to be consistent with their giving can be beneficial for both the church and the giver. In IconCMO, you can use Contribution Statements to identify and generate mailing labels for individuals who have not made a financial contribution during a certain period of time.

From the IconCMO menu, go to Contributions : Management : Cont-Statements.

The Contribution Statements window
Fig. 1 – The Contribution Statements window

Let’s take a look at a particular scenario. To do this, we’ll make a few assumptions:

  • All contributions that have come in so far for June and July have been posted.
  • Giving has been consistent and on-target from January through the end of May, but began to slump in June and continued to run behind in July as well.
  • We are primarily concerned with consistent giving on the part of our active members and active non-members.
  • We want to make contact with individuals who have not made a contribution in either June or July. We’d like to send out a letter in August to encourage them in their giving, so we’ll need to produce some mailing labels.The setup parameters should look similar to what is shown below.
The Contribution Statements setup screen.
Fig 2. – The Contribution Statements setup screen.

Several important parameters have been highlighted in yellow. Notice that the People Who Have option has been changed to Not Given, so that we only print labels for folks who have not given a gift. We have set a date range which covers June and July, specified that we want people with a Household Status of either Active or Active NonMbr, and set our Reporting Options choice to Labels (All) so we get mailing labels instead of statements. Setting the correct Label Type and clicking the Show Report button will generate output to a PDF document from which mailing labels can be printed.

It’s possible you may want to produce your letter by employing a mail-merge technique, as this will allow you to automatically insert first names in the salutation of the letter. You may also want to print the member’s address on the letter itself. To do this, go to Contributions : Management : Cont-Giving Reports and click on Pledges and Contributions with Contact Info to access the report.

The contribution giving reports menu and report options.
Fig. 3 – The Contribution Giving Reports Menu

This report can generate output for the same group of people we printed labels for from Contribution Statements. The setup for the report should look similar to what is shown below.

The setup parameters for the Pledges and Contributions with Contact Info report.
Fig. 4 – Setup parameters for the “Pledges and Contributions with Contact Info” report.

Notice we have set a Date Range which covers June and July, specified that we want people with a Status of either Active or Active NonMbr, set our Pledge Range so that it doesn’t matter whether they made a pledge or not, and set our Giving Range to zero so we only find those folks who have not made a contribution in either June or July. Additionally, our output will be in Excel Report format, so we can mail-merge the data. Clicking the Show Report button will generate output that looks similar to what is shown below.

Output from the Pledges and Contributions with Contact Info report shown in Excel format.
Fig. 5 – Output from the “Pledges and Contributions with Contact Info” report shown in Excel format.

You will notice that the Name column is not in the ideal format for a mail-merge letter. There are options in Excel that can be used to put first names in one column and last names in another. In this example, we’ll use some formulas to do this. In the next two screen shots, you’ll see that we’ve inserted two new columns, First Name and Last Name. By entering (and then replicating) a formula in these columns, we can separate the first names and last names for our mail merge. The formula for extracting the First Name from Column A into Column B is shown in Figure 6, while the formula for extracting the Last Name from Column A into Column C is shown in Figure 7. The result yields some name columns with a data format that is suitable for use in a mail-merge letter.

Excel spreadsheet showing Excel formula for extracting the first name from column A.
Fig. 6 – Excel formula for extracting the first name from column A.
Excel spreadsheet showing Excel formula for extracting the last name from column A.
Fig. 7 – Excel formula for extracting the last name from column A.

Now that you have the tools needed to reconnect with your lapsed givers, might this be a good time to write that letter?

 

Selecting a Church Donation Software Conclusion

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church-audit-checklistRead the Intro before proceeding.

Concentrating on the basics throughout the entire selection process removes the mistake of choosing an overly complicated system. A typical weakness, of a feature rich system, is it’s complicated and difficult to use. This is what I call “fluff”. Typically, the complicated systems should only be in one place – the large churches (ie. mega churches). Two reasons as they have their own IT support staff and less turnover. Churches that are not in this realm, often times, rely on volunteers that help out the church. Staff or volunteers do not want to spend hours learning the couple of tasks on a complicated system. When turnover happens it means a new set of people need to learn the complicated system in a short amount of time.  Keep in mind, volunteers, have jobs outside the church which take up a lot of their time. Choosing a complicated software will disengage them from helping the church.

What are some examples of the Fundamentals?

  1. Can it print tax receipts to donors?
  2. Can you send statements via email and snail mail?
  3. Can you see a breakdown of the funds and how much was given and pledged by each person to a fund?
  4. Can you make changes to the batches when necessary because of an incorrect entry input?
  5. Are you able to import online donations – without re-keying them?
  6. Does the system provide a summary or link to a fund accounting system – preferably its own accounting system?

The above items aren’t comprehensive; however, it will get the ball rolling to answer the question – ‘what should our system have?’. Majority of the churches can use the above features and be content. Additionally, by not having all the extra fluff, it keeps cost down for the churches. Keep in mind the more features added to a system, there is more support (ie. Support Technicians and Programmers). The support needed for system operation, enhancements, and training the church’s staff and volunteers; all increase the donations software cost. Churches should concentrate on organizing the important information and let go of anything unimportant.

An acceptable practice as your ministry grows larger, adds more internal staff or volunteers, is to complete a software audit for the current software. The frequency of this audit is subject to how fast you are growing. When evaluating any software, the one question to ask is, what’s the purpose for collecting this data? Collected data should serve a purpose. For example, what’s our financial health, people demographics, or used for communicating. When it serves no purpose, then collecting it equates to clutter. The typical scenario is, the larger the church the more data they collect. It could be they have more trained staff members learning the software and they can exploit all the features. Or, there is less employee turn over that use the software. On the flip side, smaller congregations, don’t have dedicated IT or system administrators that teach others the software capabilities. Therefore, they rely on volunteers and a few staff to manage the church each week and they will learn the software on their own, without formal software training. These churches use a smaller set of features. Majority of the churches in the US fall into this smaller church criteria.

What makes a donation software the right fit? The software must fit the church’s unique needs and match its users capabilities to the features. Additionally, the software can’t max out the church’s resources like money and time. Don’t buy into all the hype of this feature does this or that, without investigating if you even need it in your church first.