>I am working with an organization, in Vancouver BC, and they asked how to
>enter payments and/or pledges into the eBase system but not allocate a
>receipt number for the payment record? (New one for me.)
>
>Having never been asked this before, I checked to ensure that the Receipt
>Number field was indeed a sequential number field and thus I am sure a new
>consecutive number is generated for each NEW payment record.
>
>Q: Is there a way to enter payments and or pledges so the next available
>receipt number is not used. Apparently this is the way this organization
>works and they refer to these transactions as 'Non-Receipt' payments.
It's good database design practice to include a sequential record
number in each file. This number happens to be called Receipt Number
in the payments file. You have obviously looked for some other
function this field serves, and I can't find one either. Looks like
it's only incidentally called Receipt Number. Seems to me you could
re-name this field and create a new field called Receipt Number to
which they would assign values to as required. It would be restricted
to unique values, but not required.
>I suggested that they just not generate the receipt for this transaction
>but they say this will not work for them.
One question you don't address - do they need to generate a
sequential set of numbers for _only_ those records for which they
require a receipt? I'm sure it's possible to automate that, either
with a script or an external receipts file, but it's not trivial.
>I know that general accounting practices means that a receipt number should
>be generated for each payment transaction and thus the receipt number is
>used to track payments, not just the generation of receipts or Thank You
>letters.
By keeping a sequential number field in the database, that function
is served, and the new field fulfills their requirement for a
different number
>
>Is there a solution for this, such as entering the payment as a
>contribution rather than as dues or purchase.
No, as delivered, ebase creates a unique record number for every
record created in the payments file, regardless of field values.
--
--
Dave Shaw H4 Consulting
tel: 206-954-7526 fax: 206-625-1338
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