Setting up online giving

Before money can move

Online giving opens once the parish priest has been verified. Until then, nothing on the page can be changed. It's also part of Parish Pro. On another plan the give form stays hidden on your public pages, but you can still add the bank account ahead of time.

The treasurer or the parish priest sets it up.

Connect the parish bank account

1. Under Bank, choose the parish's bank.
2. Type the Account number.
3. Press Check account. The bank tells us whose account it is.
4. Check that the name shown is the parish's own, then press Use this account.

From then on, gifts made on your website are paid into that account. The money never sits with EcclesiaOne.

To change the account later, press Change bank account and go through the same steps. The parish priest and the diocese finance office are told about every change, and the old and new accounts stay in the parish's record of changes.

Card fees

Paystack takes its card fee from each gift before it reaches the parish. On the give page, a giver can add the fee to their gift. The box shows the exact amount, so the parish gets the whole gift.

Where gifts go in the books

Each online gift goes into the parish books on the day it's paid. Under Finance, on the Funds tab, the Where online gifts post panel shows which income account and which fund each kind of gift goes to. Keep the list of funds short and clear, such as general offering, building and missions.

When Paystack pays out to the parish, the payout goes into the books against the bank account you chose under Payouts go into. It matches the line on your bank statement, with the card fees beside it. On Parish Pro this happens by itself. First add the bank account on the Bank tab of Finance, then choose it on the Online giving page.

Who can stop a regular gift

Givers pause, change and stop their own regular gifts. From the console, only the parish priest and one other person he names under Who can stop a giver's regular gift can stop someone's gift. Every stop is recorded and the giver gets an email.

Test it

Make a small real gift yourself from your parish website. Check that the payment goes through, a receipt arrives by email, and the gift shows on the Online giving page.

Find the gifts

The Online giving page has two tabs. Gifts lists each gift with the giver, what it was for, the amount and the date. Regular givers lists the regular gifts. The same gifts are in the books under Giving and money.

New to the console? There's a short guided tour of the parish tools. It starts by itself the first time you open the console, and the "Take a quick tour" button in the corner replays it whenever you like.