AdventistGiving - Managing Local Offering Categories
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Before you begin adding or editing offering options, please read this.
NOTE: in the points below
A and B are not optional. They are AdventistGiving operating policies.
C and D are important because they will facilitate offering entry and mapping accuracy.
E and F are recommendations that will help with clarity, accuracy and simplicity.
- Your church’s AdventistGiving “envelope” options should only contain local offering choices. No tithe, or Conference Ministries, or ADRA. Those options are available to your donors in other sections of AdventistGiving. This is for your local church offerings only.
- AdventistGiving is to be used only for donations, with limited exceptions for things like Pathfinder dues. Things like transfers of funds from one church to another, event payments, rental payments or school tuition payments are not allowed.
- Only local funds that already exist in Jewel should be entered here, using the same name as is in Jewel. You will be mapping these accounts to your Jewel local accounts, so each one should have a Jewel equivalent.
- The “Donation Code” should match the Jewel “Account ID” of each Local Fund, making mapping easier and more accurate. You will find your Local Fund list under “Maintenance/Edit Accounts” in Jewel.
- There is no need to enter all of your Local Funds into Adventist Giving. Start with a few of the ones that are most commonly used, plus Church Budget. If your board requests that more funds be added later, it is easy to do.
- No abbreviations please. Anyone from anywhere can look at your envelope and donate to your church. Just because your board knows what C.S.I.P. means, doesn’t mean that anyone else will. Make it plain! And a short description can add to the clarity as well.
To manage your church's local offering categories in AdventistGiving
- Sign in to your AdventistGiving account and click on “Treasurer Portal.”
- Click on the “Offering Categories” tab that is underneath the name of your church.
To Set Up a New Local Fund in AdventistGiving To set up a new local fund in AdventistGiving, one that you already have in Jewel:
- Click on “Add New Category,” at the top of the already existing categories.
- A new box will appear, where you will enter:
- The “Category Name” should be identical to the "Account Name" in Jewel. Example: Church Budget or Community Services.
- The “Donation Code” should match the “ID” number of that exact local fund in Jewel. Find it in Jewel before you come here to set it up. Most of you will be using a 4-digit code, since that's what Jewel defaults to for Local Funds. That is fine.
- This “Description” will be visible to your donors, if you wish to add one. Not absolutely necessary unless it would add clarity.
- Once you have entered everything, click on “Add Offering Category.”
Important! If you need a new fund, don’t edit an existing fund. Create an entirely new one.
To Edit a Local Fund in AdventistGiving If you need to edit an offering option, such as correcting a donation code or inactivating an offering that goes against AdventistGiving policy or is no longer being used, here are instructions.
- To edit an offering option, find and click on its little
pencil icon. The “Edit Offering Category” box will appear and you can edit anything in it. Once you are done editing, make sure you click on “Save Offering Category” to leave.
Other Things To Do On This Page
- Having the correct “Donation code” numbers (the same as your Jewel ID numbers) entered here will make mapping a breeze. Take time to edit them if they are outdated.
- The trash can icons on the right side are the delete buttons. However, just as in Jewel, once someone has donated to an offering account, it can no longer be deleted. If the trash can is red, no donations have been made, so it can be deleted. Once someone has donated, the trash can turns gray and you will need to deactivate it if you want to make it invisible to your donors.
- The pencil icon is the “edit” button. You must click on it if you want to make changes.
- You can rearrange the order that your offering choices are presented to donors by dragging and dropping them, using the up/down arrow to the left of the name.
- You can inactivate offerings by unchecking on their “Active” box. For example, when a project is finished and you are no longer collecting offerings for it, click to remove the check from the box. This will remove it from your donor’s AdventistGiving options.
- If you need to re-activate a fund, re-check its “Active” box to make it reappear to your donors.
- The “Featured” accounts are displayed to your donors when they choose your church in AdventistGiving. Since only 10 can fit on the front of the envelope, choose carefully which ones to display. The rest will be there, but won’t be as readily available.
- After you are finished with your edits or entries, you must scroll down and click on “Save Changes.” If you don’t take this step, everything you did will be lost. You can “Save Changes” at intervals through the process, just to make sure you don’t lose anything.
Keeping your local envelope choices clean and clear will keep your donors happy and your donation receipts accurate. Clarity, accuracy and simplicity are always worth the effort!