Accounting Date

Accounting Date in Spektrix is a flexible date field that recognizes when income is received. When processing a transaction, the date can be manually adjusted to a date that may be different from the current date (Date Transaction Confirmed).

In this article, we’ll take a look at what an Accounting Date is and how to change it on a transaction. We’ll cover key considerations to keep in mind before you change a transaction’s Accounting Date and how to correct Accounting Date errors in confirmed Orders. We'll also look at how to use the Accounting Date metric in Reports and Segmentation.

What is Accounting Date?

There are two dates stored against a transaction in Spektrix:

the Date Transaction Confirmed, which reflects the date a transaction is processed (entered into the Spektrix system).
the Accounting Date, the date when payment should be accounted for.

The Order History highlighting the Date Transaction Confirmed and the Accounting Date.

By default, when you process a transaction, the Date Transaction Confirmed and the Accounting Date are the same date.

While Date Transaction Confirmed can’t be changed, Accounting Date can be manually adjusted to a date in the past or future when the payment is actually received.

The Order History highlighting the Date Transaction Confirmed and the Accounting Date. The two dates are different.

Most of the time, you won’t need to change the Accounting Date on your transactions, however, changing the Accounting Date can be useful for the following reasons:

To backdate a check/cheque donation after it is received in the mail
To split a gift over multiple years to reflect when you expect to receive the funds
To retain the original sale date when you edit an Order

A Donation made by check may be received and processed by your organization on April 3. However, the check is dated for March 30. You would like to record the Donation made for the month of March.

Date of processing the check April 3

Date marked on the check March 30

By default, the Accounting Date and Date Transaction Confirmed will be April 3, the date you process the check into the system. Using the Accounting Date field, you can adjust the Accounting Date to March 30.

Date Transaction Confirmed April 3

Default Accounting Date April 3

Adjusted Accounting Date March 30

When reporting on this transaction, the Date Transaction Confirmed will be April 3 while the Accounting Date will be March 30.

Date Transaction Confirmed (as reported) April 3

Accounting Date (as reported) March 30

Standard Reports, such as the Payments and Activities Report or the Donations Analysis Report, will report this Donation for March 30, and you are able to segment on the Customer as having donated on March 30.

Additionally, you can run Reports like a Cashier Report to see transactions of the day, and using a custom Criteria Set with Date Transaction Confirmed, you can see this Donation entered in Spektrix on April 3.

Example of a standard Criteria Set with Accounting Date:

Example of a custom Criteria Set with Date Transaction Confirmed:

TIP: Changing the Accounting Date is optional. Manually inputting an Accounting Date is only required when you want to record the Accounting Date as different from the Date Transaction Confirmed.

If you want to start using Accounting Date, your organization will need to decide how and when you’ll use the feature to ensure a consistent approach.

Make sure you read this article to learn about the implications and considerations around using Accounting Date. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.

Considerations for Changing the Accounting Date on a Transaction

Changing the Accounting Date on a transaction can have certain limitations and implications. We recommend that you read through the following information before getting started.

You can only update the Accounting Date during a transaction.
Accounting Date is stored against each transaction within an Order and applies to all items in a transaction, including items, returns and payments.
Correcting Accounting Date errors is possible after a transaction is confirmed, but steps must be followed to ensure that the payment is accounted for on the correct date.
For online orders, the Accounting Date is set when the transaction begins. Date Transaction Confirmed is when the Order is confirmed.
Accounting Date cannot be set by customers online, but Spektrix Users can update this field in the Sales or Opportunities Interfaces.
You can restrict changing the Accounting Date to Sales or Opportunities Administrators only, where their credentials are required to complete the action.
You cannot edit the Accounting Date for transactions which contain card or Chip and PIN payments through the Sales or Opportunities Interfaces.
It is not possible to update the Accounting Date of any transactions made online.

WARNING: The Accounting Date must match the Date Transaction Confirmed for any card or Chip and PIN payments for accurate financial reconciliation. We recommend that you advise your online customers to start and complete their transactions on the same day.

A Chip transaction with an Accounting Date that can't be changed. A tooltip reads:

Reporting

When Reporting on Order Items and Payments, Accounting Date is the default date field for most Standard Reports. Date Transaction Confirmed can also be reported on separately or in addition to Accounting Date.

TIP: When reporting, be aware of whether you are using Accounting Date or Date Transaction Confirmed in your Criteria Sets. Using the same date range, each of these metrics can produce different results.

Using both the Accounting Date and Date Transaction Confirmed date metrics and comparing the output can be helpful for your organization’s reconciliation processes.

For example, a Donation that has been backdated may not show up in a daily Payments and Activities Report using the Accounting Date metric in a Criteria Set. However, the Donation may show up when using the Date Transaction Confirmed metric instead. If the Donation was processed today but backdated for two months ago, a Report run with the Accounting Date of Today won’t show the Donation. If the same Report is run with a Date Transaction Confirmed of Today, it will.

When reconciling payments, you can use the Accounting Date Audit Report to cross-reference any transactions where the two dates don’t match. The Report can be filtered by either date metric, and will output both metrics for each transaction item.

Gift Aid (UK only)

For organizations in the UK who use Spektrix to track and claim Gift Aid, there are a number of further considerations.

You will need to consider how Gift Aid declarations are added and maintained on the customer record, and how to take Accounting Date into account when making a Gift Aid claim.

When Gift Aid Declarations are recorded, Donors can choose the dates that they wish the declaration to apply to. Whenever “today” is referenced, today will refer to the real time date.
If you are recording a Gift Aid Declaration while processing a backdated Donation, in order for the Donation to be claimable, the Gift Aid Declaration must include the Accounting Date.

For example, if you are processing a Donation in Spektrix on July 6th, but would like to backdate the Donation to June 30th, in order to claim the Gift Aid, the Customer’s Gift Aid Declaration must include June 30th. They shouldn’t select dates that start “today” but rather a date in the past that includes June 30th.

For more information, read Tracking Gift Aid and Recording Declarations (UK).

When claiming Gift Aid through Spektrix, Spektrix will prepare your claim based on Donations with an Accounting Date that falls within the time period you have selected. You can also preview claims based on Accounting Date.

For more information, read Claiming Gift Aid (UK).

Fundraising Tools and Accounting Date

Accounting Date is especially helpful for Fundraising teams as adjusting the Accounting Date can accurately reflect when Donations are made, allowing for proper acknowledgement of contributions.

Accounting Date works with Spektrix’s other Opportunities tools, including Campaigns and Pledges.

TIP: In order to use the following features in the Opportunities Interface, you must have the Opportunities User role on your User Account. If you don’t have this, ask the Administrator in your organization.

Campaigns

Accounting Date works in conjunction with the financial year Campaign structure so that you can input data into Spektrix more accurately. This is useful for forecasting and tracking your progress towards your targets.

For example, Donations made in December can arrive by mail in January of the following year. Using the Accounting Date, you can correctly attribute these Donations to the previous fiscal year.

Ensuring this data is correct is key for accurate acknowledgments, renewals, and Order histories. Changing the Accounting Date allows you to specify the exact date when money was received or should be accounted for, for recognition, tax benefits or accounting purposes.

For more information, read Introduction to Campaigns and Campaign Structures.

Pledges

If you use the Pledges feature in Spektrix, the following date fields work together to report on Pledges:

Pledge Date: Set when a pledge is recorded. For example, a Donor pledges a Donation across five installments in October.
Pledge Installment Date: Set when a pledge is recorded and is the expected date for receiving Pledge Installments. For example, payouts begin January of the following year and on every 1st of the month until May.
Date Transaction Confirmed: Used to record when a Pledge Payment is processed in Spektrix. For example, the first payment is received via wire transfer on January 7th and input into Spektrix on that day.
Accounting Date: Used to record when Pledge Payments should be recognized as received. For example, when the payment is processed in Spektrix on January 7th, the accounting date can be adjusted to January 1st to fulfill the first pledge on the first installment date.

For more information on Pledges, read Pledges and Legacies.

How to Restrict Accounting Date Editing in User Permissions

The Accounting Date of a transaction can be adjusted by Sales Users, Sales Administrators, Opportunities Users and Opportunities Administrators.

TIP: If you don’t have these roles on your User Account, contact the Administrator in your organization.

You can choose to restrict the ability to edit Accounting Date to only those users with the Sales Administrator and/or Opportunities Administrator role.

To do this, you’ll need the Settings Administrator permission on your User Account to make this change in the Settings Interface.

TIP: To access the Settings Interface, you’ll need the Settings Administrator Role. If you don’t have this Role, ask the Settings Administrator in your organisation to add this Role to your User Account.

Navigate to the Settings Interface > Users > User Roles > General Actions
Click the switch next to Edit Accounting Date:

How to edit the Accounting Date during a Transaction

When you're processing a transaction, you’ll see Accounting Date under the Customer information in the Basket/Cart.

By default, the Accounting Date field will be the date that you started the transaction.

REMINDER: Accounting Date applies to all Items in the Basket/Cart.

To adjust the Accounting Date:

Click the blue pencil icon next to the date:
Click on the calendar icon to select the date that you want to account for the transaction:

REMINDER: It is not possible to adjust the Accounting Date on a transaction with a card or Chip and PIN payment. This is because the Accounting Date must match the Transaction Confirmed Date of any card or Chip and PIN payments in a transaction for accurate financial reconciliation. We also recommend that you advise your online customers to start and complete their transactions on the same day.
Once you've selected the new Accounting Date, click Save:
If editing the Accounting Date is restricted to only Sales or Opportunities Administrators, you will be required to enter an Administrator’s credentials to save the new Accounting Date. You don’t need to be logged into the Administrator’s account to adjust Accounting Date. Log in with the Administrator's Username and Password. Click Authorise to save the new Accounting Date:
Complete and confirm the transaction.

How to view and search for the Accounting Date

You can view the Accounting Date for transactions you've already processed in several places in Spektrix. You can also use the Accounting Date to search for Orders.

In the example below, we will show a Transaction confirmed on January 11, 2024 with an Accounting Date of December 29, 2023.

The Order History in a Customer Record will show both the Date Transaction Confirmed and the Accounting Date in the Sales Interface and Opportunities Interface:
When searching for an Order, you can use the Order Date from and to fields in the Order search criteria.

This will search for Orders with both the Accounting Date and Date Transaction Confirmed within the range you set.

The quick view of returned results will only display Date Transaction Confirmed.
In the Donations tab in the Orders section of a Customer Record, the quick view of the Donation will display the Accounting Date.
In the Donor timeline in the Opportunities Interface,the Donation will appear in the timeline with its Accounting Date.

Click into the Order to see the Order History and the Date Transaction Confirmed.

How to change the Accounting Date of Existing Orders

There may be times where you’ll need to update the Accounting Date in an existing Order. For example, when exchanging Funds or correcting an Accounting Date error.

WARNING: For UK organizations, be aware of processing duplicate Gift Aid Claims. A reprocessed donation with a new date or fund is considered as a new donation by the system so any previously claimed gift aid on the original donation must be opted out in this transaction. For more information, read Exchanging Gift Aid Donations.

How to Exchange a Donation

When exchanging a Donation for reasons such as switching Funds, you’ll need to adjust the Accounting Date back to its original date. This is because when you update the Fund information, the new transaction will default to the current date. If you don’t adjust the accounting date back to its original date this could have implications such as it being recorded in multiple financial years.

To exchange a Donation, follow the steps below:

Begin by returning the Donation.
In the Basket/Cart of the Returned Donation, change the Accounting Date to the original transaction’s Accounting Date.
Add the new Donation. Make sure you have selected the correct Fund and to add any recognitions or tributes and soft credits. For UK organizations, if the Donation has already had Gift Aid claimed on it, opt out of declaring Gift Aid.
Confirm the transaction.

Following these steps will result in the new Donation retaining the original Accounting Date.

How to Correct Accounting Date Errors

If you need to correct the Accounting Date on a transaction that has been confirmed, follow the steps in this section.

In order to change the Accounting Date on an item you've already processed, you’ll need to fully return and then re-purchase that item. You cannot exchange the item when correcting the Accounting Date error, as exchanging items will not record any payments and therefore the payment will still retain the wrong Accounting Date. This process will consist of two transactions.

TIP: We recommend setting up a Custom Payment Type and Custom Refund Type called, for example, “Accounting Date Error Adjustment (Refund)” and “Accounting Date Error Adjustment (Payment).”

These Custom Payment and Refund Types will allow you to track more accurately when and where Accounting Date changes have been made.

For example, let's say you've processed a donation in 2024 that was intended for the previous financial year in 2023. Your transaction may look something like the below:

The Order History of a Donation with its Accounting Date changed.

In this example, a Donation was processed on January 17, 2024, with an already adjusted Accounting Date for January 1, 2024. However, the Donation was meant to be accounted for the previous financial year with a date of December 31, 2023.

In order to change the Accounting Date for the Donation from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2023, you will need to return the Donation first then reprocess the Donation and correct the Accounting Date.

Begin by returning the Donation.
In the Basket/Cart of the Returned Donation, change the Accounting Date to the original incorrect Accounting Date. In this example, we will adjust the Accounting Date from the date of transaction January 17, 2024 to January 1, 2024.
Refund the Donation. You can use a Custom Refund Type if you have one set up.
Confirm the first transaction.
Search and open the Order.
Click the blue Basket/Cart button to Edit the Order.
Enter the correct Accounting Date. In this example, we will adjust the Accounting Date from the date of transaction January 17, 2024 to December 31, 2023.
Add the new Donation. Make sure you have selected the correct Fund and add any recognitions or tributes and soft credits.
For UK organizations, if the Donation has already had Gift Aid claimed on it, opt out of declaring Gift Aid.
Add the Payment. You can use a Custom Payment Type if you have one set up.
Confirm the second transaction.

Below is a video to show this process:

In this example, the Donation should now pull into Reports under the new Accounting Date of December 31, 2023.

Reporting and Segmentation with Accounting Date

The Accounting Date metric is available to include in a Criteria Set, Output or to calculate other metrics in Reporting and Segmentation.

Accounting Date is available in Criteria Sets for these Report Types:

Accounting
Analysis
Soft Credits

Accounting Date is also used to calculate these metrics in Criteria Sets in these respective Report Types:

Purchase Date in Membership Reports
Campaign Items Date in Campaigns Reports

Accounting Date is available to Output in these Report Types:

Accounting
Analysis
Mailing ROI
Soft Credits
Sales

Accounting Date is available in these Segment Types for Customer Lists and Auto Tags:

Purchasing
Soft Credits

Accounting Date is also used to calculate these metrics in Reports and Customer Lists:

Average Days Booked in Advance
Weeks Since Last Order
Date Returned
Days Booked in Advance
Advance Sale

Standard Reports

Standard Reports will use Accounting Date for the By Date/By Transaction Date criteria set and for the Date/Transaction Date output.

These Reports include, but are not limited to:

How to Check Accounting Date against Date Transaction Confirmed

To check the details of specific transactions where the Accounting Date does not match the Date Transaction Confirmed you can run the Accounting Date Audit Report.

The Accounting Date Audit Report enables users to review transactions where the Accounting Date differs from the Date Transaction Confirmed (listed in this report as Transaction Date). This may help you spot unintended accounting discrepancies, and ensure payments are being processed correctly.

Example of an Accounting Date Audit Report.

Key Takeaways and Further Reading

When working with the Accounting Date field, always remember:

There are two dates stored against a transaction, the Date Transaction Confirmed and the Accounting Date. By default, Date Transaction Confirmed and Accounting Date are the same date.
Date Transaction Confirmed reflects the date a transaction is processed in Spektrix. This date can’t be changed. Accounting Date can be manually adjusted to backdate or future date when a payment should be accounted for.
Changing the Accounting Date is optional and manually inputting an Accounting Date is only required when you want to record the Accounting Date as different from the Date Transaction Confirmed. Changing the Accounting Date affects all items in the transaction.
You can change the Accounting Date in the Sales or Opportunities Interface at the time of the transaction. This action can be restricted to only Sales or Opportunities Administrators.
You can’t change the Accounting Date during an online transaction or for card or Chip and PIN payments. The Accounting Date must match the Date Transaction Confirmed for any card or Chip and PIN payments for accurate financial reconciliation.
To correct an Accounting Date error on an existing Order, you must fully return and then re-purchase the item, processing two transactions.
You can use the Accounting Date metric in Criteria Sets for Reports. For Standard Reports, By Date or By Transaction Date Standard Criteria Sets use the Accounting Date metric. You can create Custom Criteria Sets using Date Transaction Confirmed metric.
You can output the Accounting Date metric in Reports.
The Accounting Date Audit Report checks transactions with Accounting Dates that differ from the Date Transaction Confirmed.
You can use the Accounting Date metric in Purchasing and Soft Credit segments.

To continue learning about accounting and reporting in Spektrix, you may be interested in reading the following articles: