Tax Receipts
The giving module can generate, send, and manage a tax acknowledgement receipt automatically. This feature is broadly configurable and includes a design tool for creating a receipt document that fits your brand and legal requirements.
Tax receipts are generated for each payment -- this is so we are actively acknowledging cash in tied out to a payment transaction.
How it works
A donor makes and receives the confirmation email as they always have. That part is unchanged.
If this feature is activated and the gift qualifies for receipting based on your rules for receipt generation, within 20 minutes the donor will receive a second email notifying them that their official receipt is available.
That email contains three pieces of information (along with copy of your choosing):
A custom url for that receipt embeded behind a call to action button.
Donor's last name as entered on pledge.
An auto-generated PIN to activate the download.
The PDF is immediately served to the user if the link hasn't expired and a valid PIN is submitted on the download form. We use the second factor of a PIN to protect donor information in transit. PINs can be regenerated (as can links) by the donor from the same interface if either factor is invalid or expired.
Admin/Pledge Management Features
Scroll down to the payment schedule on a pledge. If the tax receipting service is enabled, you'll see a Tax Receipt button next to each completed payment record. Receipts are generated per Gift Payment, not one per designation nor per pledge. Each actual transaction will result in a new receipt.
Opening the dialog will present you with a list of all receipts that have been generated for the pledge. Once a receipt is generated it is immutable. You can resend and void, but not alter them. This is to ensure that a receipt with a given receipt number does not materially change - ever. We don't want the Canadian Revenue Agency coming after us - or you!
Clicking on either "Original" or "Duplicate" on each row will open the PDF.
Clicking "email" will give you a form to send the donor a login email just like they would have received automatically for the first receipt on the payment. The difference here is that you can add a personalized message; we know clients like to use this space to confirm a donor's request for a resend and provide some proof that this is a legitimate link and not a phishing attempt.
Duplicate will create an exact copy of the PDF except that it will have a DUPLICATE watermark diagonally across it. Duplicates can be emailed to the donor.
Void will take the originally stored PDF, put a VOID watermark across it and replace the file in storage. There is no reversal for this action and voided receipts CANNOT be emailed.
Generating a new receipt
If the donor's intentions have materially changed or other circumstances demand it, you can generate a new receipt to reflect them. A material change could be a spelling correction or address change for the donor. The first drop-down lets you select whether you plan on immediately emailing the receipt to the donor. If you select this option, the form will expand to allow you to add additional information. You can change the email address you are sending to if it is different from the one on the pledge and, again, you can add a personal message. All sends/resends of receipts are dutifully recorded in the contact history section.
The last option will give you more options post generation:
You can have the system "Just email it" which will close the dialog immediately after the process completes.
You can have the system open the PDF in a pop-up window so that you can take a look at it.
If you were not emailing it and only need the PDF generated without looking at it, then you can select "Just keep it in cold storage and dismiss the window"
Configuration
Giving > Settings has a section specifically dedicated to tax receipt configuration including the receipt designer tool.
Universal: Rules
Auto send for corporate gifts This is a global setting for all paths which sets whether a gift from a company should receive a tax receipt. If unchecked, the gift will not qualify for a receipt. The status of this setting is captured at the time of the gift. This prevents an unexpected number of receipts to be generated should you change this setting at some point in the future.
Auto send for schedule types controls whether one time, recurring, installment, and/or perpetual gifts should be receipted. This is also a global setting and cannot be changed for an individual schedule type. Much like the flag for corporate gifts, if a certain schedule type is not checked here, then a gift using that schedule type will not qualify for a receipt. The eligibility of a gift for a tax receipt is captured at the time of the initial gift; this prevents an unexpected number of receipts to be generated should you change this setting at some point in the future.
Universal: Email Settings
Email Subject Can use
{{firstName}}and{{lastName}}merge tags.Email Sender Address The address that will appear as the from address. To ensure deliverability, this address MUST be from the domain configured for email sending purposes. The domain will appear as help text under the text input field.
Email Sender Name Generally the department that the email is coming from.
Email Reply To This will be the address that replies and send errors are sent to.
Email BCC If you would like a copy of all tax emails sent, specify an address here
System Email Template The general skinning for the email comes from a system template. Please create one for this purpose and select it from this setting.
Email Body Blurb HTML This is a standard intro to the HTML part of the tax receipt email. It will be injected along with instruction at the {{body}} tag in the system template specified above. Please include the salutation and what they should do with the receipt. The system will provide the URL and the additional challenge information for them to initiate the download. Can use {{firstName}} and {{lastName}} merge tags.
Email Body Blurb Text Body We will a text body part into the email with tax receipt pickup instructions. Please include the salutation and what they should do with the receipt. The system will provide the URL and the additional challenge information for them to initiate the download. Can use {{firstName}} and {{lastName}} merge tags.
Universal: Portal Settings
Portal Blurb This is the welcome message after a donor clicks their email link to pick up their receipt.
Portal Expired Link Blurb This is the message a donor will receive if they try to navigate to a link that has expired. A button will be presented to reissue the link.
Portal Reissue Alert This message will appear above the login form right after a successful reissue to the donor.
Per Path: Configuration
You may not want to send receipts for gifts collected via certain paths. Good news: you can do that! A single checkbox at the path level governs this:
Send Tax Receipt Automatically This is the setting for enabling tax receipts on the path. This must be turned on or NO receipts will be generated for pledges collected via this path.
Reporting
You can pull reports on tax receipts from Giving > Reports > top bar "Tax Receipts" by date range. You can also selectively export bundles of PDFs in ZIP form from that same interface if needed.
API
Three resources are available to you to retrieve receipt information. Note the presigned URLs are valid for 2-10 minutes (depending on resource) from the moment you request the data from the API, so if you want to grab a PDF via script, grab it immediately. We do this to ensure the security and privacy of the generated PDFs. Miss the window? Re-fetch the data and use the updated signed URLs instead.
/giving/giftpaymentsreceipts - takes from and to parameters, returns array of presigned URLs to retrieve actual PDFs along with relevant metadata
/giving/giftpayments - includes the most recent generated receipt for each payment
/giving/giftpayments/cancelled - includes the most recent generated receipt for each payment
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