(4 min read)
Understanding how to view and update the settlement or deposit status of your contributions is a crucial follow-up step for tracking your transactions to make sure that you’ve received all the contributions intended for your organization and that you have an accurate record for all of your donors.
When a payment needs to be refunded or changed after it has settled, you will also need to make sure you are properly entering any adjustments or refunds to ensure that your accounting records match the transactions in your database.
Read our success guide for accounting reconciliation
Understanding the settlement status
Most fundraising programs have a variety of payment processors or ways that contributions come to them. Some of these methods, like the integration with Paragon Payment Solutions, will automatically update your records once they settle, while other payment vendors or methods may need to be manually marked as settled or deposited in your contribution records.
Changes in the settlement status can be tracked:
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on the contribution details page
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on the Contributions Report
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using search criteria in Create a List
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using the View Audit Trail on the contribution details page
Since the Settlement Status will tell you when and if the transaction was approved, it can be helpful to understand how the settlement status is determined for each payment type.
Tracking the settlement status for preferred payment methods
One of the advantages of using our preferred payment vendors for handling contributions is that your records will be automatically updated with the results once the payment is processed. You can easily see when payments have settled, or catch any payments that fail for any reason. Any contributions processed by our preferred payment vendors will be assigned a Settlement Batch if provided by the payment vendor. You cannot edit this batch or manually populate it on contributions where it is not provided.
Since our system does not have access to your bank’s deposit information, we use the Settlement Date and Batch to track when the payment was approved by the vendor. Bank deposits usually happen a day or two after the transaction is settled by the vendor. Check with your vendor on their exact schedule for transferring the funds to your bank account.
Paragon and Apple Pay
The payment status on contributions processed via Paragon or Apple Pay is not directly editable since they are automatically updated by the system.
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New contributions will first appear in your database with a pending status
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Credit card and Apple Pay contributions are typically settled the night after they are made, so the status will be updated the following morning to show whether it was settled or declined
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EFT contributions are typically settled five business days after they are made. There is no Settlement Batch assigned for these types of transactions.
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Bulk edits of the status are not available
Read more about requesting a Paragon gateway
PayPal
The payment status on contributions processed via PayPal is not directly editable since they are automatically updated by the system.
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New contributions will first appear in your database with a pending status
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PayPal contributions are typically settled the night after they are made, so the status will be updated the following morning to show whether it was settled or declined
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Bulk edits of the status are not available
Stripe
The payment status on contributions processed via Stripe is not directly editable since they are automatically updated by the system.
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Stripe contributions are typically settled the night after they are made, so the status will be updated the following morning to show whether it was settled or declined
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Bulk edits of status are not available
Any contributions processed prior to January 2022 will not receive updated settlement information. These contributions will remain in a pending status until they are updated manually. You will be able to bulk update the status ONLY on these older transactions.
Vantiv (Worldpay)
Contributions processed via Vantiv (also known as Worldpay) will not show updated settlement information.
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New contributions will first appear in your database with a Pending status
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The status on a contribution made using Vantiv will not change unless you manually update it
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The status will always be manually editable
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You will be able to do bulk edits of the status
Updating the settlement status for other payment methods
For non-integrated payment methods like check, cash, money order, and so on, you will need to manually update your contribution records once you’ve deposited them to your bank or otherwise settled the payments.
The easiest way to do this is by creating a Contribution Report with the contributions you want to update and then using Report Actions > Bulk Edit. Once in Bulk Edit, you can select the mapping for Edit Contribution > Settlement Status > Settled (or Deposited).
Read more about bulk editing contributions
Tracking the payment status for recurring commitments
In the case of recurring commitments, the automated process will submit new transactions to your payment processor on each scheduled contribution date. While you can track the settlement status of each contribution the same way you do your one-time contributions, there is an automatic retry process for recurring commitments that occurs if a particular payment does not go through.
We have developed several reports and other tools you can use to track these types of payments and to catch any failing payments before the commitment lapses.
Read more about tracking payments on recurring commitments
Adding refunds and adjustments
Contributions that were refunded or adjusted through a preferred payment vendor will automatically update the settlement status:
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Refunds will enter the platform as Pending and then be updated to Settled or Declined later
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Refund settlement data is not editable but can be tracked on the contribution details page using View Audit Trail and will be searchable and appear in reports
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Refunds issued before January 2022 will not include settlement data
Contributions processed by our preferred payment vendors will also be assigned a Settlement Date and an Adjustment Settlement Batch if provided by the payment vendor. The settlement batch will not exist on refunds for EFT contributions.
Refunds not processed by our preferred payment vendors - and all other adjustments - will have no status field or any of the other settlement data points.
Read more about adjustments in EveryAction
Read more about refunds in NGP
Tracking settlement status in reports
The easiest way to track the status of most transactions is by using the Reconciliation Report. You can Group by > Status to see which transactions have already been settled and which are pending.
Read more about how to use the Reconciliation Report
