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Get Oriented to Your Finance Team

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You can locate your Finance Team by navigating to your church group on Faithlife.com and selecting Finances in the church group’s Admin sidebar.

Note: Alternatively, log into the main page at Faithlife.com and select your Finance Team from the left-hand sidebar.

Faithlife will direct you to your Finance Team, the private subgroup created when you first activated Giving. This private group keeps your church’s giving data secure and allows you to easily manage all donations given to your church.

The Admin sidebar of your Finance Team enables you to interact with donations given to your church. The remainder of this article will explain the options in this sidebar.

 

 

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Giving dashboard

The Dashboard displays your progress in setting up giving for your group and links out to helpful tools and resources.

The Faithlife Giving section features links to a video tour of Faithlife Giving, a progress wheel tracking your progress through the setup process, training videos, training articles, and the Launch Kit.

 

 

The Resources for Your Church Staff section features links to your dashboards from which you can set up your Faithlife Community, your church’s Site, and your media presentations in Proclaim. 

 

Finally, the Faithlife Equip section lists all of the helpful apps and discipleship resources included in the seamless Faithlife Equip platform along with links to more information. 

 

Giving overview

The Overview tab gives you all the basic giving information you need, right at your fingertips, and helps you visualize giving trends. Here, you can quickly view your total number of givers, how many of them are actively giving on a recurring basis, and how much you can expect each month in recurring gifts.

 

The dynamic graph displays gifts given to your church. Dragging your cursor over the available data provides a breakdown of giving by fund as well as data on the moving average for the selected period. You can adjust the data shown via the dropdown menu in the top right corner. Below the dynamic graph, you can also see a breakdown of giving by fund in a table format.

 

Next, the overview pie charts show the breakdown of giving by fund and by gift type for the selected period.

 

Finally, the campaign charts show the progress of your church group’s ongoing and recently ended campaigns. Progress is shown from the start of the campaign through the current date (or the campaign end date, whichever is earlier).

 

Gifts

The Gifts tab displays all donations given to your church group. From this page, you can easily export your giving data in a CSV file and import it into your church group’s accounting software like Quickbooks. Learn more about the gifts page.

 

On the Gifts tab you can:

 

1. Search: Enter a giver or fund name to locate a particular gift.

2. Export: Search for gifts or apply a filter (see number 4 below) and then click Export to download a CSV file of the gifts listed. Alternatively, you can select specific gifts to download by checking their boxes and clicking Export. Choose between Export by gift (i.e., keep single gifts together, even if the gift has multiple fund designations), Export by fund (i.e., split gifts by fund designation), or Quid Pro Quo Contributions (i.e., export data for any donations made in exchange for goods or services). 

3. Add: While all donations given through Faithlife Giving are recorded automatically, you can also add a Manual gift, Start a batch deposit, or Import gifts via the Add button. 

4. Show: Filter gifts by gift type (e.g., cash, in-kind) and time period using the dropdown menus. The time period filter provides predefined date ranges or allows you to input your desired date range.

5. Actions: Select gifts from the list by checking their boxes and clicking Actions to bulk add gifts to a batch deposit, change the giver, or delete the gifts.

6. Sort: By default, this page shows all gifts in chronological order, but you can also click the column headers to sort by date, giver, type, status, or amount. An arrow next to the column header indicates whether the column is sorted in ascending or descending order.

To get a better understanding of any particular donation, click it to examine its details. 

 

You can interact with any gift from the More options menu . Choose Print receipt to download and print a copy or save a PDF of the receipt. Resend receipt sends an email to the donor with a receipt attached. Select Edit to change the giver or to redistribute the gift to another fund(s). Click Issue refund to credit the charge back to the donor’s account.

 

Recurring gifts

Recurring gifts create predictability in your church's budget because you know when cash inflows will occur and how much they will be. Understanding your givers’ existing recurring gifts is the first step toward achieving this predictability, and encouraging other givers to set up recurring gifts furthers this aim. Learn more about how to set up a recurring gift and how to administer recurring gifts.

Note: Recurring gifts are included on the Gifts page, but non-scheduled gifts are not reported on the Recurring Gifts page.

The Recurring Gifts tab shows all of your church group's scheduled recurring gifts. 

 

On this page you'll find:

1. Search: Enter a giver or amount to locate a particular recurring gift.

2. Sort: By default, this page shows all recurring gifts in alphabetical order sorted by the giver's first name, but you can also click the column headers to adjust how the gifts are sorted. An arrow next to the column header indicates whether the column is sorted in ascending or descending order.

3. Export: To download this list of recurring gifts in a CSV file, click Export. You can use this information on scheduled recurring gifts to help estimate your cash inflows on your financial forecast.

4. Import: Click Import to import recurring gifts in a CSV file. You can import recurring gifts from your previous giving platform and then send a customized email series to givers, prompting them to provide a payment method in Faithlife Giving (see number 5 below). If givers miss a regularly-scheduled recurring gift during the transition, you can encourage them to make up the missed gift as well. Learn more about importing recurring gifts. 

5. Settings : These settings relate to an email series that will be sent by default to the givers of any imported recurring gifts. The emails invite your givers to provide their payment information. By clicking the Settings icon , you can disable these default emails or customize the messages. Learn more about customizing the emails for imported recurring gifts. 

To view the details of a specific recurring gift, click it to examine its details. 

 

Click Edit to adjust the fund allocation, change the amount or frequency, or delete the recurring gift. Givers can also edit their own recurring gifts.

 

Givers

The Givers tab displays everyone who has supported your church through Faithlife Giving. From this page, you can easily export your data in a CSV file, and analyze an individual’s giving history and trends. Learn more about the Givers page.

 

On the Givers page you can:

1. Search: Locate a specific giver by entering their name, email, or address.

2. Sort: By default, this page shows givers in alphabetical order by first name, but you can also click the column headers to sort by the data in that column. An arrow next to the column header indicates whether the column is sorted in ascending or descending order.

3. Export: Search for givers or apply a filter (see 4 below), and then click Export to download a CSV file of the listed givers. Alternatively, you can select specific givers to download by checking their boxes and clicking Export. Choose between Givers (i.e., shows gross gift amount of each giver) and Givers by fund (i.e., includes additional detail about the funds the givers supported, e.g., $100 to General Fund, $50 to Missions, etc.). 

4. Show: Filter gifts by type (e.g., First-time giver) or contact information (e.g., Has email) and time period using the dropdown menus. Identifying your first-time givers can be a great opportunity to invite them to engage with your church in other ways, such as inviting them to a newcomers lunch or to join a small group. Learn more about first-time givers.

5. Actions: Select givers from the list by checking their boxes and clicking Actions to bulk view their annual giving statements or create a communication.

 

Clicking a name provides a full giving history, giving trends, and activity log for that individual. You can also view the giver’s giving statements for predefined date ranges (e.g., Q3) or input a custom statement date range by clicking View Statement.

 

Deposits

The Deposits tab shows all deposits (both open and completed batches) that have been initiated by your church group’s finance team. It also shows the status of all completed deposits (i.e., rejected, pending, deposited). From this page, you can easily export information about your completed deposits in a CSV file and also view individual deposits in detail.

 

 

From here you can:

1. Open Batches: All open batches are listed at the top of the page. These batches have been started but not yet marked complete. Learn more about batch deposits.

2. Search: Locate a deposit by typing a deposit name, number of items, or amount.

3. Sort: Click the column headers to sort the deposits. An arrow next to the column header indicates whether the column is sorted in ascending or descending order.

4. Export: Download a CSV file of all completed deposits.

5. Start batch: Click here to start a new batch deposit.

6. Show: Filter deposits by type (e.g., batch)/status (e.g., pending) and time period.

 

Individual deposits often contain several gifts. In the Items column, you can find the number of gifts included in that deposit. To view the details of a deposit, select it from the list.

Note: Deposits should appear in your church’s bank account 2–3 banking days after a transaction has been made and will contain the prefix "EFT ACH MASTER GROUP FAITHLIFE."

 

Statements

From Statements, you can set Faithlife Giving to publish statements and notify givers quarterly, semiannually, and annually. In addition to the automated messages, however, you can also download or print giving statements for any giver. Learn more about giving statements.

 

On the Statements tab you'll find:

1. Search: Search for a specific statement.

2. Sort: Click the column headers to sort the statements. An arrow next to the column header indicates whether the column is sorted in ascending or descending order.

3. Settings : Customize your global statement settings, such as when to generate statements and/or email them to your givers. Learn more about customizing giving statements.

4. Show: Filter statements by statement period (e.g., Annual)/status (e.g., Published) and time period.

5. Actions: By checking the box next to a statement and clicking Actions, you can choose to send a test email to yourself, send an email to givers, view sent communication, and publish/unpublish statements depending on the statement's status.

Click any statement to view it in more detail or customize it. 

 

The default statement and email message are displayed at the top, and all of your givers who will receive those communications are shown in the table below. Any changes you make to the statement or email message will override your global statement defaults. 

You can view the giving statements by clicking Actions and selecting View Statements. Learn more about giving statements.

 

Share or embed your giving form

There are several ways to share your giving form. Each of these methods will bring donors to the same interface. The more access points you give to people, the easier it will be for donors to give to your ministry. 

 

 

Option 1 offers a direct link you can share with anyone or which you can use to create a QR code in custom Faithlife media. Option 2 lets you download a QR code to use in your own external media. With option 3, you can embed your giving form on any website with the unique embed script.

Note: Learn more about adding your Faithlife Giving form to your website.

 

Adjust giving settings

The Settings tab includes two subsections: Account and Giving. 

 

Account includes the information you provided Faithlife when you activated Giving (like your primary contact, organizational information, banking details, etc.). If you need to change this information, please contact Faithlife Giving support at 888-634-2038 or support@faithlife.com. From here you can also change your fiscal year start date and funding deposit type.

Giving includes additional options for your Finance Team.

 

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For more specific help, view the support articles below:

 

Next Article: Resources to Onboard Your Church

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