Gift Aid Tutorial

Robert Peter

Informations

• Publié par: Chion
• Nombre de lectures: 19
• Langue: English

Extrait

Gift Aid SQL
Tutorial
Introduction
Gift Aid is designed to make the recording of donations as simple as possible. For example
each donor’s details are only entered once and do not have to be re-entered with each
donation. This tutorial will guide you through the basic operation of the application.
Navigation and Keyboard Shortcuts
When a form such as ‘Adding a Donation’ is displayed the cursor is placed in the first field
where an entry is required. After completing that field press the Tab key to move to the next
field, enter the data, tab again and so on. If you make a mistake and need to go back to a
previous field, press Shift + Tab simultaneously. Alternatively use the mouse to left click in
the field required.
When the cursor is in a field with a down arrow at the right of the field, pressing the ↓ key on
the keyboard will cycle down the options for that field. Typing a letter followed by the ↓ key
will jump to the first item in the list starting with that letter. Press the ↑ key to go back up the
list. Alternatively clicking the mouse on the arrow will open a drop down list of the choices
available and you can click on the item required to select it.
Gift Aid minimises the amount of switching between mouse and keyboard by providing
keyboard shortcuts throughout the application.
Pressing the Alt key will modify the button labels to show one letter that is underlined.
Pressing Alt + the letter simultaneously is the equivalent of clicking the mouse on that button.
System Settings
Before entering donor and donations data it is a good idea to set up the system parameters to
meet your requirements. After logging in to Gift Aid click on the button with a picture of a
computer, labelled System, on the button bar at the top of the screen. The system form below
appears:

Tutorial 1 Gift Aid SQL
Modify the data to reflect that for your Church or charity. The top section is used for
reporting and generation of tax reclaims. The lower section is used when you print a Gift Aid
declaration to add a bank standing order form below the declaration.
Click on Save to save your changes.
User IDs and Passwords
If you wish to add or modify Gift Aid User Names and Passwords you should open the
System form and click on the Users button. The Users form is displayed:

Users can be allocated one of two levels of authority. A User ID with Administrator level has
full access to the application, but one with only User level cannot change System parameters
or User IDs. The default User ID of ‘Gift Aid’ has Administrator level. Do not forget your
Administrator level User ID and password!
Adding Donors
Before donations can be added you need to enter the donor details. After logging in to Gift
Aid you are presented with the donations form shown below:

2 Tutorial Gift Aid SQL
Initially there will be just one dummy entry in Donor Names and Addresses and the black
selection arrow 8 on the left will point to that donor. In order to amend this entry to a real
donor click on the Edit Donor button or press Alt + E together.
The Donor Names & Addresses form appears with the dummy donor data.

Modify the data to that of your first donor and save the record. It does not matter if you do
not complete all the fields now – you can always amend it later. However, the following fields
must contain data or the record cannot be saved – First Name, Surname, Address first line,
Post Code.
If the donor donates by numbered envelopes enter the number in the field provided as this will
make entering envelope donations much easier. Note that you can find the next available
envelope number by double clicking on the envelope number field.
The Salutation field is used to personalise Donor Thank You letters. Putting e.g. ‘Charles’ in
the field will result in a letter starting 'Dear Charles' rather than 'Dear Mr Jones'.
In order to reclaim tax from HMRC each donor must sign a valid declaration. Details of these
requirements are outside the scope of this tutorial, but you are able to record the type of
declaration and the date of signature in the donor record. Note that this information is not
used by Gift Aid when calculating tax recovery. Gift Aid relies on the Tax Claimable
check box being ticked for each donation.
In order that you can store non tax claimable donations within the Gift Aid system you can
uncheck the Taxpayer check box in the donor record. Donations for that donor will then be
added with the Tax Claimable check box unchecked. If the donor has paid a limited amount
of tax you can tick individual donations as Tax Claimable in the donation record.
When you have completed your changes click on Save or press Alt + S together. You are
returned to the Donations form. To add more donors click on Add Donor or press Alt + A
together.
Tutorial 3 Gift Aid SQL
Adding Donations
All donation transactions are started from the Donations form that is displayed immediately
after you have logged on to Gift Aid. If this form has been closed you can re-open it by
clicking on the Donations button (the left most button on the button bar).
Selecting a donor
Before a donation can be added the relevant donor has to be selected. The Donations form
opens with the first donor name in the list pre-selected. To select a donor you can use one of
two methods:
The slower method is to scroll through the list of donors by clicking and dragging
the button in the donor list scroll bar until the donor name is visible. Then Click on
the donor line so that the black selection arrow 8 on the left points to the donor
name.
A faster method makes use of the fact that when the Donations form opens the Select
Donor button is set as the default. Pressing the Enter key on the keyboard is the
equivalent of clicking on the default button. Alternatively pressing Alt + S together
will open the Select Donor dialogue regardless of which button is currently the
default.
You will be asked to enter the Donor’s Surname or Envelope Number. Entering a
valid envelope number will take you directly to that donor without knowing the
donor’s name. Entering the first few letters of a surname will take you to the nearest
name the application can find. If the donor selected is not the one you want either
click on the actual donor required or use the up ↑ or down ↓ arrows on the keyboard
to scroll through the list of Donors.
Adding the donation
When the correct donor is selected you can
Double click the selected Donor or
Click on Add New Donation or
Press Alt + N together.
The Add Donation form appears with the name of the selected donor (and their envelope
number if one exists) in the title bar:

The bulk of the fields already contain data. Gift Aid tries to minimise the amount of typing
needed.
Each time you run Gift Aid, the first time you open the Add Donation form the Date of
Donation will default to the system date taken from the calendar of your PC. Gift Aid will
then remember the last date you entered and use that as the default. For audit purposes this
4 Tutorial Gift Aid SQL
date should be either the date the money enters the charity’s bank or, in the case of envelopes,
the date the envelope was paid into the collection – not the date printed on the envelope.
The Fund field is a drop down list sorted alphabetically. Tab to this field and select the fund
for this donation. Clearly it will help if your fund names are chosen so that the most
frequently used fund appears at the top of the list. For details of how to enter or change Fund
Names see the reference section on Funds in the full Gift Aid manual.
The Fund field will only accept items from the drop down list, whereas the How Received
field will accept items from the drop down list or a typed entry.
Complete the rest of the fields including the amount donated and save the record.
When you add a series of donations for the same donor (e.g. entering a backlog of standing
orders), Gift Aid remembers the Fund, Amount Donated and How received fields and pre-fills
these in addition to the Date of Donation. You can, of course, change them before saving the
new record.
Amending a Donation
If you discover you have made a mistake entering a donation (for example you may have
keyed the wrong date or amount) correcting the error is straightforward.
From the Donations form select the Donor as described in the Adding Donations section on
the previous page. In the list of donations for that donor click on the offending donation. (If
you can’t see it you may need to scroll through the list of donations – they are sorted by date
with the most recent at the top of the list.
Select the field required by clicking on it or using the arrow keys and correct the error. A
‘Pencil’ icon will appear in the left margin of the record to show a change is on progress. Then
you must press the Tab key so that the ‘Pencil’ disappears to ensure the change is written to
the database.
Tutorial 5 Gift Aid SQL
Printing Declarations and Standing Order Forms
Before you can make a tax claim from HMRC you must have obtained a valid Declaration
from the taxpayer. Gift Aid combines the printing of a Declaration w