With the Family & People
Form open, pull down the 'People' menu and select the Pledge Settings...
option. You will need to come here in future years to change these
settings.
You can also just 'activate' the use of pledges by pulling down the
'Tools' menu and selecting Properties.
Just move the Columns of any field you want to bypass to the right of the Amount Column..
It is there - but not active so you can't get to it. This was done so that no one would 'accidentally' use this by mistake for tax year 2002 - as it is different. That is why the readme said all donations for tax year 2002 must be printed in the prior version. The new Tax Report not only deals with Cash-Checks, but also Goods, Services, etc. which were not a part of the prior system. I just saw the new IRS info for year 2003 and that report will again be modified to take that into consideration as well. It will be posted in a few weeks on the web site, and also everyone will receive that and all the changes on the courtesy CD.
Several ways: (1)While in the Enter Giving form, pull down the Giving Menu and select the 'Giving or Pledge Category...' option. (2) While in the Family & People Form, select the People pull down menu and then select the 'Customize Drop Down List' option. (3) While in the Giving Form, right click on the Category and select the 'Add/Edit Defaults' option. (4) While in the Enter Groups form pull down the Groups Menu and select 'Giving or Pledge Category...' option.
With the Family & People Form open, pull down the 'People' menu and select the Pledge Settings... option. You will need to come here in future years to change these setting.
On the form you actually entered the Giving on, there is a pushbutton that looks like a Printer. Press it - and you will see 2 reports - 1 a detailed list, and the 2nd one a summary list. You can Preview them on the screen, then just press the little Printer button on the Preview toolbar to actually print it if you wish.
This is far superior in COMS v.8.x as this version enforces you to set up a pledge for a person ‘if pledges are activated.' The old version 5.x would just 'create a pledge form on the fly' if one wasn't there. So, if a person gives but is not part of a pledge you can create a pledge form for that person - and either check 'Giving only (no pledge data)' if it is not a true pledge, or leave it unchecked if it is a pledge. If you check this as being 'not a real pledge,' you can always go back at a future date - uncheck this - make it a true pledge and then enter their actual 'pledged' amounts (not the monies received, but the monies they pledged). Another nice thing about the new COMS
v.8.x on this is those giving amounts will already be there in that pledge
form that you had to create. The end result of all this is that it will
take a little extra ‘thinking’ to make sure it is all correct up front,
but then a snap in future years, etc.
Type CTRL+F instead of CTRL+L and you can enter an Envelope# within a
text box.
At this point, that report can not be modified.
The normal Windows procedure to delete an item is Ctrl + D.
Pull down the Family & People Form, and add the person (either as a new
Family, or as part of an existing family). If you wish, you can then close
the Family & People Form - or leave it open if you need to add additional
people. When back in the Enter Giving form. Notice that you do not need to
close the Enter Giving form to add new people.
When pledges are activated - the only "allowed"
categories that should appear for a person you are entering a giving on in the
Enter Giving Form are if you have a Pledge Form setup for that person. This is a
change from the old COMS v.5.5x and makes entering pledges bullet proof in the
new COMS V.8.x (as its impossible to enter a pledge to the wrong Pledge Form -
unless you actually select the wrong Pledge Form category from the drop down
menu). What this all means is that you must have a Pledge Form setup for a
person before you can enter a giving toward it. If you do not have it setup as
of yet, just press the Pledge button on the Enter Giving Form, and you can do it
there. You will then notice in that Pledge Form that all 100+ Categories do
appear so you can pick from any of them to properly setup the Pledge Form. As
you can see, its easy to actually setup Pledge Forms at the same time you are
actually Entering Giving.
Here is what many other churches do: when entering this type of gift,
use a 'Payment Type' of 'Goods' and then in the special info line that
will appear titled 'Info on Goods' you can enter something like 'MSFT
Stock - $9,999.99'. When the Donor Tax statement prints out, this
information will also print out.
Once in the COMS 8.x, open up the Family & People Form. There will be a
menu at the top of the screen titled People. Pull down the People menu and
select Giving Report Settings.
This is where you enter or change the message that is required by the
IRS to print on the tax statements you give to your donars.
In Canada, it is required that Tax Receipts be numbered (such
as the first one that prints out will read Receipt # 0001, then the next one
will read Receipt # 0002, etc.) Although this is not required in the USA, many
churches have requested this feature.
This feature is only available in the yearly Tax statement,
or reports that have been modified from this report. When you select the Tax
statement the Report Setup form will appear. Select the checkbox that reads
"Number the Receipts" and the incremental number will print out on the Tax
statement.
This is actually very easy. Here is a step by step procedure.
1) When using the COMS, you either have pledges activated or
not. If they are activated they need to always be activated. We will assume
that pledges are activated.
2) We will use the category GF Giving Fund as an example,
and assume 1/2 your people are part of the GF pledge (which means they have
'pledged' to give a certain amount of dollars toward the GF as a pledge). The
other half will also give towards GF but have not designated how much.
3) In order for those that are part of the pledge, and those
that have not pledged to give monies toward the GF, you must setup a Pledge
Form. This is practically automatic and easy.
4) Pull down the Enter Groups Form and select Pledges. You
will be able to select the Category GF from the drop down list. If it is not
there, just pull down the Groups menu at the top of the screen and select
"Giving or Pledge Category..." and then add GF General Fund.
5) Next, in the list of people you see in the Enter Groups
Form select the people who have decided to be a part of the Pledge to the GF
and check them. You can use the Check All and Uncheck All to help with this as
needed. Enter the Pledge Year and then hit Default. A default Pledge Form will
appear. Fill this out as accurately as you can, especially the part about the
beginning and ending pledge dates. If everyone is actually pledging a different
amount (which is usually the case) you can leave the pledge amounts as 0.00, or
perhaps most people pledge the same amount – and if they do enter that amount.
You will eventually need to update each person’s Pledge Form with the correct
Pledge Amount. However, you can do that later at a more convenient time. Press
Apply to make sure it looks correctly, and if it does press OK. Press Apply and
follow the on screen instructions to create the actual Pledge Form for these
people.
6) That’s it! You can now Enter Giving for GF for these
people.
7) Now let’s deal with the people who are not a true
Pledger, but will give to the GF at some point. Repeat steps 1 to 4 above. Step
5 is almost the same except you need to press the ‘Default’ button on the Enter
Groups form to bring up the default Pledge Form again. Since this person is NOT
a pledger for GF you need to check the item that is called either “Giving Only (no Pledge Data) or
Donation Only (no Pledge Data). This is flagging this person as a potential
giver but not a pledger. Press Apply and OK. Select the people who are not
Pledgers in the list. You could even Check All if you wish and everyone who is
not a pledger will be flagged a non-pledger (which is what you want). Notice
that those you have setup as Pledgers in step 5 above will not be over-written
even if you select them now as a non-pledger.
8) You are now done! You can now repeat the above procedure
for additional Categories (such as BF, etc., etc.).
9) Eventually you will need to massage the Pledge Form of
those who are actual pledgers. The quickest place to do this is on the Enter
Giving Form right before you actually enter a giving amount. Once you have found
the person with the Lookup button in the Enter Giving Form, you can then press
the Pledge button and enter the actual amount of the pledge, etc. When
finished, you can close the Pledge Form and then actually enter their regular
weekly Giving, etc. If you don’t want to do this in the Enter Giving Form, you
could just as easily do this in the Family & People Form. You find a person
who is a pledger, then press the Pledge button and enter their pledge amount,
etc. Note: you do not have to do anything additional for those who are
non-pledgers!
