Accounting Date

Accounting Date in Spektrix helps improve reporting on and recognizing income on the date it is received, not just when it is processed into your Spektrix system. The Accounting Date field allows you to set the date you want the income accounted for when processing transactions, and works in conjunction with your existing Orders and Reports.

In this article, we'll cover:

• Introduction to Accounting Date
• Fundraising and Accounting Date
• Considerations for using Accounting Date
• Using Accounting Date
• Adjusting the Accounting Date during a Transaction
• Viewing and Searching the Accounting Date
• Editing the Accounting Date in Existing Orders
• Reporting and Segmentation with Accounting Date

TIP: In order to view, edit, segment by and report on Accounting Date, you will need to contact Spektrix Support to turn on the feature if it had not been turned on during your Implementation Phase. Once it is on, you'll be able to change the Accounting Date for any new transactions you process as well as edit the Accounting Date on existing orders.

Introduction to Accounting Date

Accounting Date is a flexible date field in Spektrix that helps improve on reporting on and recognizing income as it is received and not just when the transaction is confirmed in Spektrix.

Adjusting Accounting Dates is often useful for Donations but can be used for all item types including Tickets and Memberships.

For example, Accounting Date can be useful in:

• Backdating a donation if you're processing it after it was received
• Splitting a gift over multiple years to reflect when you expect to receive the funds
• Backdating a ticket sale when you're editing an order to retain the original sale date

Accounting Date is stored against each transaction within an Order and applies to all items in a transaction including items, returns, and payments.

For each transaction, Accounting Date and Date Transaction Confirmed exist as two separate date fields, but by default, are the same date as the Transaction Confirmed Date.

While the Date Transaction Confirmed cannot be changed, the Accounting Date can be edited to reflect the date that you want items and payments in a transaction to be accounted for. Accounting Date can be reported on separately or in addition to the Date Transaction Confirmed.

• For example, a Donation made by check/cheque may be received and processed by your organization on April 3. However, the check/cheque is dated for March 30 and you would like to record the Donation made for the month of March.

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

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

Fundraising 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 to add more specificity at the transaction level.

Campaigns can attribute income to the correct financial year for projection, targeting or allocation. Using 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.

This is key for accurate acknowledgments, renewals, and Order histories. Because Campaigns let you forecast and track progress, you should continue to maintain the financial year structure and use it alongside Accounting Date. This ensures all of your income is recorded correctly. For more information, read Introduction to Campaigns and Campaign Structures.

Pledges

Accounting Date can be used to “future date” expected pledge installments.

If you use the Pledges feature in Spektrix, the following date fields work together with Pledges:

• Pledge Date: Set when a pledge is recorded
• Pledge Installment Date: Set when a pledge is recorded and is the expected date for receiving Pledge Installments
• Accounting Date: Used to record when Pledge Payments should be recognized as received
• Date Transaction Confirmed: Used to record when a Pledge Payment is processed in Spektrix

For more information on Pledges, read Pledges and Legacies.

Considerations for using Accounting Date

Before using Accounting Date, it's important to decide how it will be used across your organization. Consider the following:

• Whether you'll use it to reflect the date income was accrued or the date it was paid to you.
• Which Users you want to have access to edit Accounting Date.
• Which Reports and Customer Lists you might need to update to reflect Accounting Date. Many Standard Reports will update automatically when Accounting Date is turned on in your system while Custom Reports will need to be updated manually. In-depth information and considerations can be found in Reporting and Segmentation with Accounting Date.
• For organizations in the UK, you'll 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. For more information, read Tracking Gift Aid and Recording Declarations (UK).

If you want any advice or consultation on any of these areas for consideration, please contact Support.

Using Accounting Date

Once Accounting Date has been turned on in your system, the Accounting Date of a transaction can be adjusted in the Sales Interface by Sales Users and Sales Administrators or in the Opportunities Interface by Opportunities Users and Opportunities Administrators.

TIP: If you don’t have these roles or permissions 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. You’ll need the Settings Administrator permission on your User Account to make this change.

To do so, navigate to the Settings Interface > Users > User Roles > General Actions and click the switch next to Edit Accounting Date to toggle this on:

Adjusting the Accounting Date during a Transaction

You'll see Accounting Date whenever you're processing a transaction either in the Sales Interface or Opportunities Interface, under the Customer information in the Basket/Cart. The Accounting Date field will default to the date that you started the transaction.

REMINDER: A new Accounting Date will apply to all items in the Basket/Cart.

To adjust the Accounting Date, click the blue pencil icon next to the date and select the date that you want to account for the transaction:

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 do not need to be logged into the Administrator’s account to adjust Accounting Date.

WARNING: You cannot 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.

Viewing and Searching the Accounting Date

You can view and search using the Accounting Date for transactions you've already processed in several places.

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

• A Customer's order history in both the Sales Interface and Opportunities Interface: The Order History will show both the Date Transaction Confirmed and the Accounting Date.

• Donor timeline in the Opportunities Interface: The Donation will appear in the timeline with its Accounting Date only. Clicking into the order will display the Order History that also contains the Date Transaction Confirmed.

• Order search: These date fields will look at both the Accounting Date and Date Transaction Confirmed. The quick view of returned results will only display Date Transaction Confirmed.

• Donations tab in the Orders section of a Customer Record: The quick view of the Donation will display only the Accounting Date.

Editing the Accounting Date in 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.

Exchanging a Donation

When exchanging a Donation for reasons such as switching Funds, be sure to adjust the Accounting Date of the new transaction as this new transaction will default to the current date.

Correcting Accounting Date Errors

If you need to correct the Accounting Date on a transaction that has been confirmed, you will need to follow these steps.

Because Accounting Date lives at the transaction level, this means that in order to change it on an item you've already processed, you will need to return and re-purchase that item. 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 these Accounting Date changes have been made.

For example, imagine 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:

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.

1. Begin by returning the Donation.
2. 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.
3. Refund the Donation. You can use a Custom Refund Type.
4. Confirm the first transaction.
5. Search and open the Order and click the blue Basket/Cart button to Edit the Order.
6. 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.
7. Add the Donation. Be sure to add any recognitions or tributes and soft credits. For UK organizations, opt out of declaring Gift Aid.
8. Add the Payment. You can use a Custom Payment Type.
9. 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

As mentioned in the considerations, Accounting Date will affect how your data is pulled into Reports and Segments. It's important to consider when you should use Accounting Date versus Date Transaction Confirmed.

Changes to Standard Reports

The following Standard Reports will update its By Date criteria and Date output to Accounting Date:

• Average Price Tracker
• Accounting Date Audit
• Event Sales Comparison
• All Payment & Activities reports
• ROI by Mailings
• Donation Conversion Analysis
• Donation Analysis
• Donations Report
• All Event Sales Movement Reports
• Membership Activity Reports

Updating Custom Reports

Custom Reports that are already in your system won’t be automatically updated to use Accounting Date. Please request an edit to any existing reports that you would like to start using Accounting Date.

Accounting Date Metric in Reports and Segments

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

Accounting Date is available as a Criteria for these Report Types:

• Accounting
• Analysis
• Soft Credits

Accounting Date is also used to calculate these metrics for Criteria in these respective Report Types (these Reports will not report on Date Transaction Confirmed when Accounting Date is turned on):

• 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

Checking Accounting Dates against Transaction Dates

You may wish to check the details of specific transactions where the Accounting Date does not match the Transaction Date. For this, you should run the Accounting Date Audit Report.

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

Further Reading

You now have the information to adjust Accounting Dates on transactions.

Take a look at more articles on Managing Donations and Donor Pipeline and Stewardship:

• Processing Donations
• Donation Recognitions and Tributes
• Soft Crediting Orders
• Tracking Gift Aid and Recording Declarations (UK)