One of my earliest posts was on entering donations into QuickBooks Online. I think that is my most viewed post to date. At the time, I was content with being able to enter in the donations and get some kind of report on how much people gave and to what funds. In the video, I acknowledge that I didn’t know exactly how to get a good statement out of QuickBooks. Well…four years later, here’s my solution: Don’t use QuickBooks to create your statements!
Before I go too far, the clients I’ve worked with don’t track pledges. Pledges might be a new wrinkle as you would use Invoices and Payments instead of Sales Receipts.
I first tried to just run a Statement for a donor, but it just gives me the date and amount. That technically works, but it’s nothing I would be proud about giving to a donor. So…if I can’t get a Giving Statement out of QuickBooks, what are my options?
Option #2: Integrate
This may be a good overall solution, but I’m not a tech guru. I tried to connect Mail Chimp to QuickBooks Online with limited success. I looked through the App section under Integrations, and there are some promising Apps. I’m just not interested in spending a lot of times to find one that will work…and is free.
If I was sending out monthly statement to donors, this would be the route I would likely go. But, because I’m only planning on sending statements maybe just four times per year, I went to Option #1.
Option #1: Export
This option is more of a personal preference. I like to build my workarounds in Excel usually. In this case, I build it in Microsoft Access. The link below will get you my database in a zip file. You’ll need to extract it.
In the video, I show exactly how to create the Giving Statements with the database. One thing I don’t think I cover well is, when you create your custom reports to export from QuickBooks Online, you should save the report so you can run it the right way every time. I would also put it in a group (e.g., Giving Statements).
I hope this helps!
Useful Links
- Donor Statement Access Database: https://jctaccounting.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/donor_statement.zip
- How to track Donations in QuickBooks: http://jctaccounting.com/2019/12/02/how-do-you-track-donations-in-quickbooks/