In order to collect and reconcile money received by EFT a batch must be created comprising the payments that we expect to collect (e.g. by direct debit) or be paid (e.g. by standing order).

You can create as many batches as you need - for example, if you collect Direct Debits twice a month you could run this on or around the 1st and 15th of each month. It will pick up all expected payments for the date range you specify.

To create a batch go to Financial | EFT on the EFT Batches tab press the 'Create Batch' button - you then enter

• The collection method 
• The month and year the money is expected to be received
• The range of collection day you are interested in - e.g. if you do 2 direct debits run a month you might have collection days 1 to 15 and 16 to 31 - Note still enter 31 as the last collection day even if the month you are collecting for has fewer than 31 days 
• Press 'Preview Batch' - Donorfy will display a total of the number of outstanding expected payments for the values you entered - if you are happy with the preview press Create Batch - this will do 2 things
• Create a batch of transactions which you can view and edit via Financial | Batched Transactions 
• If your collection method has an output file defined the file generated will appear in the list of available downloads on the EFT Batches Tab - Note EFT download files do not appear under Data Management | Downloads. You can import this file into your EFT software and send it to the banking institution that processes the payment collection for you

It is important to create your batch on a regular basis - We mark expected payments as failed if they haven't been created by the 7th of the month following the month they were due - e.g. 

• If a payment was due in June 2018
• On 7th July we'd mark it as failed if we haven't yet received it 

Updating Transactions in the Batch

Go to Financial | Batched Transactions - Donorfy creates a Batch of payments for each EFT collection you run - these are similar to batches you might create yourself e.g. for cheques but have some important differences.

When you open the batch you will see all the transactions that were selected - you can then

• Mark individual transactions as Paid or Not Paid by clicking on the red and green buttons under the Collection Status column
• You can use the Search field to find transactions - e.g. by a reference that appears on your bank statement
• The 'Mark all Transactions in Batch as Paid' and Mark all Transactions in Batch as Unpaid' will change the status of all transactions in the batch - even ones you have previously marked as paid or not paid - Note be careful not undo your previous work by pressing these buttons
• Use the column choose to include columns that help you find the transactions you are looking for, you can also sort by columns to help find transactions 

Typically for

• Direct debit batches you would mark all transactions as Paid and then find the ones that are not paid and change their status 
• Standing orders you would mark all as Not Paid then working with your bank statement find the transactions that have been paid

Posting the Batch

Once you have completed reconciling your batch you can post it using the Post Batch option from the Manage menu - this will

• Add transactions to the timelines of the constituents who have paid 
• Any transactions that are Not Paid will be removed from the batch and may be included in new batches if necessary

Deleting the Batch

From the manage menu, you can delete the batch - any expected payments in the batch can then be included in future batches - when you delete the batch any output file is not deleted you can delete this separately if you want.

Deleting Output Files

You can delete output files from the list of Available Downloads under EFT Batches in  Financial | EFT - note when you delete a download file the corresponding batch is not deleted - you can delete the batch separately if you want.

The EFT Process is a Professional-only feature. Essential subscribers, please contact us to find out more about upgrading.