Our payment/contribution portal contains an area to designate someone to be notified about a contribution. That has been in place for years. In order to send that acknowledgment letter, the administrator had to pick a name (or names) from a drop-down list. With this enhancement, though, we now offer the ability to search names on contributions, rather than choosing from a pick-list.
Yes, the ability to search names on contributions. The new search box is right above the pick-list. Enter any portion of the last name of the person to be notified; pause one second; and the pick-list will be reduced to only those names that match what was entered.
Here’s a video that shows, first, someone entering a contribution. And, then, the back-office point of view.
This shopping cart tutorial provides instruction on how to set up and use the ShalomCloud shopping cart.
First, a couple of ground rules. If you don’t see the menu options for the cart, we’ll need to set a certain flag. Also, using the shopping cart depends on your organization using the services of our preferred card and ACH provider. The reason will become apparent as you read on — our shopping cart is integrated with the membership and financial aspect of ShalomCloud.
Another ground rule — the shopping cart is appropriate for any fixed-priced items — including zero. In other words, where the visitor chooses an amount to pay, that would go under contributions.
First, setting up the cart. Under the Configuration menu, you’ll see a selection named “Items.” An item has a name, a description, a price, and a quantity available. Also, there is a date after which the item appears for purchase. In other words, before that date, the item won’t appear in the cart. Then, on the flip side, you would archive the item once it is longer for sale. For example, a Shabbat dinner from last Friday.
Finally, there is a field to designate what category to which the funds post.
When someone makes a purchase, then, the system subtracts the quantity purchased from the available count; and posts the monies to the category glued to that item.
To see what people have bought, you’d go to Queries -> Purchases. Here, you can ask for purchases, using any combination of four fields:
Any portion of the family code of the purchaser
Any portion of the item name
Purchased on or after
Purchased on or before.
As with all our queries, you can then download the results.
Last thing — in the video, you’ll see what the cart looks like from the visitor’s perspective. It’s a typical shopping cart paradigm. It has buttons to adjust quantities; to clear the cart; to continue shopping; and, finally, to check out.
When the user completes the purchase, a few things happen:
The purchaser receives an immediate email
Administrators so flagged receive an email about the purchase
If the system recognizes the email or cell phone that the visitor entered, it posts the money to that family.
If the system does not recognize the email or cell phone, it creates the family automatically.
In the video, you’ll see some options when producing the tax letters. For example, you may choose to show payment sources — check number, card last-four-digits, etc.
Another option is whether you want to include all payments, or only those to categories marked as deductible.
