Daylight Research : Contribution Features

When you click the Contribute icon, the Explorer window shows all of your existing collection batches in the left pane. In logical order, your church is listed under the collection batch node and the members of your church are shown. In the accompanying illustration, the People node is selected in order to begin recording contributions for your members. The red arrows show you which collection batch and which church you are currently working with. Daylight Explorer™ also lets you collect for your sunday school classes if you so choose. And, if you wish, it lets you record contributions and pledges from families as well as individual members.

If you want to record a contribution, in the upper portion of the right pane, you double-click the record of the person that is making the contribution.

When you double-click the record of the person making a contribution, the New Contribution dialog comes up. The giver's name as well as other pertinent data are entered for you. Amounts specifically designated to funds can be entered easily without special wizards. Also, you can configure your program up so that contribution amounts are remembered between counting sessions. This way, if the current contribution of any member is the same as his or her last contribution, you don't do any typing. You just visually check to make sure that everything is right, click the Add Contribution button and go on to the next one.

When you click the Add Contribution button, the new contribution is added to the list of contributions for the current collection batch. This list is found in the lower part of the right-hand pane.

Should the need arise, you can send an e-mail message to any of your members without interrupting your workflow. Just right-click your member's record and click the Send E-mail menu.

You can easily delete a contribution by right-clicking and selecting the Delete menu. If you need to change a contribution, just double-click it, edit the fields and click the OK button when you are finished.

The Loose Contribution dialog makes counting loose change easy.

With just a few clicks, you can create a detailed collection batch report. Note that you can optionally include each contributor's phone number and/or e-mail address in your report.

Wherever you are in Daylight Explorer™, you can always create a table of the data that you are viewing. In the accompanying illustration, we have created a table showing all of the contributions in the current collection batch. Making a table is easy and very flexible.

If you want to establish a strict audit trail whenever money is being handled, you have the option of requiring a separate Batch Login whenever a user clicks the Contribute icon.