Case Study: Managing Gift Aid for Elim Pentecostal churches
Storing EIO declaration reference numbers
Each Giver with an active Gift Aid declaration is assigned a Declaration Reference Number (DRN) issued by the Elim International Office (EIO). To maintain each giver's DRN, which will be included in the claim data that you'll later export from ChurchSuite and send to EIO, add two Custom Fields. Navigate into the Giving module Settings:
On the Module Options tab, scroll down to the Custom Fields section and click Add custom field.
On the Add custom field pop-up, enter the field Name as "EIO Declaration Number - Enduring" and select the response Type "Single Sentence". Do not check the Required box.
Save the custom field and repeat this process to add a second custom field for "EIO Declaration Number - Single". You will now have two new custom fields:
You can use the column selector in the Givers section to show a column for each of these custom fields:
Now, when adding a new giver or editing an existing giver's profile, you can enter the DRN provided by EIO in the appropriate field. Enduring DRNs have an M prefix, and Single DRNs have an S prefix.
Maintaining Gift Aid declaration records
Follow the normal process of collecting a Gift Aid declaration from each new giver. Additionally, continue to follow the workflow for obtaining new declaration reference numbers from EIO. Once received, add the declaration reference number to the appropriate custom field for the giver.
For donations to show claimable in the Giving module (and be included in the claim files you'll produce from ChurchSuite and submit to EIO for a centralised claim), you must add Gift Aid Declarations against giver profiles in the Giving module. Our related support article on Managing Gift Aid declarations contains instructions on adding declaration details against a giver profile. Note the option to Add file if you wish to upload a scanned copy of a paper declaration against the the giver's declaration entry in ChurchSuite:
When adding declarations covering past donations, set the declaration to Start from the date from when Gift Aid can be claimed. For enduring declarations, you can leave the declaration End date empty. Later, if a giver asks you to stop claiming Gift Aid for any reason, you can add Edit the declaration entry and add the End date to ensure subsequent donations added after that date are not claimable.
Adding donations
Add donations to the Giving module following the methods explained in the related support article Adding and importing donations. When adding or editing a donation, the Gift Aid Auto-detect will highlight whether the donation will be claimable (because the giver has an active declaration present that covers the date and fund of the donation) or not claimable (because the giver does not have an active declaration covering the donation present in ChurchSuite). Where Gift Aid has already been claimed through another system, or where a giver has expressly asked you not to claim Gift Aid on a donation, change Auto-detect to Override so that no Gift Aid is claimable even if a valid declaration is present.
Submitting your Gift Aid data to EIO
To help manage the claim status of the donations you receive, you'll raise a claim in the Giving module and send it to EIO to be processed as part of the aggregated claims they centrally submit to HMRC. When you raise a claim in the Giving module, the Gift Aid status of the claimable donations in the claim will update from Not Claimed to Claimed. In this section, we explain the workflow for raising a claim in the Giving module and exporting a CSV format file of claim donations that you submit to EIO for central reclaim.
From the Claims section of the module, click Add claim and follow the instructions in our related support article, Reclaiming Gift Aid through ChurchSuite. Once the claim status passes the Finish Review stage, choose Download claim CSV from the More actions menu:
On the Download pop-up, set the options as follows: Select Custom format (not HMRC) and uncheck Aggregate donations by giver, as EIO needs a non-aggregated donation list, and ensure DRN custom fields and fund options are selected.
Click Download CSV to export the claim data to a CSV format file containing all the data that EIO need to reclaim Gift Aid from HMRC. The claim status updates to Completed, and the Gift Aid status of each donation in the claim updates to Claimed.
Finally, rename the claim CSV file to include your church name and Elim identifier. The file can now be sent securely to EIO for processing. Once processed by EIO, you'll receive a notification when the centrally aggregated claim has been approved and paid out.