We use Quickbooks in our church for accounting. One feature I would love to eventually see integrated here is to be able to group a batch of contributions by selecting them or filtering (keywords, dates, etc) and then create a simple batch report. All it needs to be is the amount, date and fund (keyword will work). The resulting file should be a simple quicken import file like we get from the bank.

Some other menu options:

• Filter by Date
• Print : (whatever is filtered on the screen... with or without names (for privacy)
• Print : end of year giving summary or detail

Toby, great start.  This is a really difficult section.

There are a host of items which could be added, but only a few which I would deem absolutely essential.

...split a check between multiple accounts (or tags).  For example, we often have checks which list a gift to the general account and the building fund. Occasionally we will offer a book for a $20 donation where $10 is counted as a tax-deductible contribution and $10 is the actually cost of the book (not deductible). It would be nice to have a clear record of both the check amount and its splits.

...sort by date of offering and by a batch number.  We usually count multiple offerings pertaining to the same day, for example,  Sunday morning, Sunday Evening, Concession Stand, etc.  It would be nice to keep these separate. Additionally, we run an adding machine tape of all the checks in a given batch to compare with the computer.  If they don't match, we have to review all the entries in that batch.  It makes error correction faster if the batches are kept small, so often we will have two or three batches for one offering.

...indicate cash or check.  You could do this with a logic that makes all entries without check numbers be cash. This would give you the data necessary to provide a report to prepare a deposit slip for a bank deposit.  That report would need to give a list of checks with their amounts, totaled, and the total amount of cash (including coins).

Some important items, but not essential (in my humble opnion).

...show the address of the person to be verified with the check

...pledges...  wow, this will be another big one...

Thanks for all the feedback guys! This is why I wanted to get this section up and running soon as a beta, so we can shape it into what will be the most beneficial for you all. I'll take a look at these suggestions and probably have some questions to ask you guys as well.

My thoughts...

1. Split Check. I have been monitoring Quicken online, Mint online money manager and some others. I have a feeling this is not as easy as it sounds. Intuit has not implemented split transactions yet. Mint has but you cannot create your own tags for categories. If you check out http://www.wesabe.com/ you can see how one company has used tags with split transactions pretty effectively. The only solution I see at this time is entering the check two times with two different amounts. Obviously this is not a good system for audits.
   
2. Date, batch number, cash or check... YUP YUP.
   
3. Deposit Slip. This might be a bit tricky, also. Some banks require that you use their deposit slips. Many banks have gone to forms that use magnetic ink or magnetic toner for electronic imaging. Though it could print out a report that someone transcribes to a bank deposit form I think that a batch import to quickbooks would be the dream solution. Then it not only gets entered into an accounting program automatically, but QB can print the deposit slips easy enough and accurately.  If you have to print a deposit report then you not only have a manual deposit slip process, but you must also hae a manual process to enter into quickbooks, both of which leave room for errors and complications.
4. Not usre I would go for the address of the check thing in my case. I have a lot of military who have accounts in other states, that would just confuse things on my end.
5. Pledges. We do not use them, so I have no idea how that system would work. Sam, can you elaborate for my personal education when you get some time?

My final thought is this: It is August!!!! IF you are going to make this contributions thing work it has to be functional before January 1. That means we need to have it out of beta, feature sufficient and stable before November 1st so that we can prove to our church boards that it is a good idea to use it. For me that means end of year reports, batches and some form of quicken output file. We are runnin gout of time, Toby. It is no good to have this working in May - too much back entry.

Thanks for the feedback Mike! I just got back from a vacation (our baby just turned 1) so I've been off of Stafftool for a little bit, but here are my thoughts:

1. Yeah splitting does introduce some tough problems...I'll take a look at wesabe, i like those guys and they've probably solved it pretty well, like you said
2. Dates there, batch number won't be too hard and I can make the cash or check thing better by offering the choice, then showing the check # field if check is chosen
3. I agree that exporting to a quickbooks format would be great...CSV will first most likely, and I'm going to look into what is necessary for QB
4. Not sure about this one... as each contribution can be tied to a person, they'll most likely have their address associated in that record... I suppose there could be a way to show the address in-line or something, but this will require some more thought and feedback i think, as I'm not sure what's truly necessary here
5. My understanding is that each person or household pledges a certain amount per year/quarter/month/ or week and is then accountable for that pledge. I'd love to be able to have each person have the ability to have an associated pledge that could then be checked on with the actual giving. For instance, have a graph that overlays the pledged amount on top of the actual amounts or something like that, similar to a budget. This is for sure something I'd like to make available in the future.

So, yes, it is getting later in the year and this does need to be polished and taken out of beta soon so you can all use it more confidently. I think having the things you mentioned as being necessary to use should be doable...the main issue has been that there is some serious work being done in the backend to redo large portions of functionality (mainly the javascript) that will provide a much better foundation moving forward...however it's extremely involved since the majority of the app is javascript powered. I'm making very good progress, it's just taking a while, so I haven't had time to dedicate to things like the contributions portion since I'll be duplicating effort implementing it in the old fashion for the current site, and then redoing it for the new version.

However, I know that these things need to be progressed to make them viable parts of the system...so I'll try to make as much progress as possible on these final contributions improvements to at least get it out of beta. Sorry for the seeming lack of progress lately, the backend stuff is necessary for the future, but isn't anything really "visible" or exciting for the end users...but it should hopefully make more exciting things easier and quicker when they're finished.