Entering a Weekly Offering or Fundraiser with Batch Gift Entry

Batch Gift Entry is the fastest way to record a stack of cash and checks — Sunday's offering, a fundraiser's proceeds, or any pile of gifts that will go to the bank as one deposit. You enter every gift in a spreadsheet-style grid, and GoodBooks records each one as an individual donation and groups them into a single deposit batch that matches your deposit slip.

Availability: Foundation plan and up. Who can use it: anyone with ledger editing permission.

Opening Batch Gift Entry

From the left menu, go to Donations → Batch Gift Entry. You'll also find a Batch Gift Entry button at the top of the Donations page and the Deposit Batches page.

Step 1 — Fill in the batch details (top of the page)

Step 2 — Enter the gifts

Each row is one gift:

1. Giver — start typing a name (or an envelope number, if your plan includes giving envelopes) and pick the person from the list.
2. Giver not in GoodBooks yet? Type their name and choose ➕ Add "…" as new donor at the bottom of the list — the contact is created on the spot and you keep moving.
3. Loose plate cash, or a giver who doesn't want to be tracked? Check the small anonymous box under the Giver field instead — no donor is linked, but the gift still counts toward campaigns and the deposit.
4. Amount — the gift amount.
5. Method — Check, Cash, or another payment method. Defaults to Check.
6. Check # — optional, for check gifts.
7. Campaign — where the gift is designated. Pre-filled with your Default Campaign. If one gift needs to go to more than one campaign, use the split link — see Splitting a Gift Between Campaigns.
8. Note — optional memo on the individual gift.

Keyboard tips

• Press Enter to jump to the next field, just like Tab in a spreadsheet.
• Press Enter in a name search list to select the highlighted giver.
• Press Enter on the last field of the last row and a fresh row is added automatically — you can enter an entire offering without touching the mouse.
• Blank rows are ignored, so don't worry about leftover empty lines.

Step 3 — Check the totals

Below the grid you'll see a running count and total, plus a breakdown by payment method (e.g. Checks: $1,240.00 (17) · Cash: $215.00 (9)). Compare these against your count sheet before saving — the total should equal your deposit slip.

Step 4 — Save

Click Record Gifts & Create Deposit Batch. GoodBooks will:

1. Record each row as an individual donation (visible on the donor's record, receipts, statements, and pledge tracking like any other gift), and
2. Create one pending deposit batch containing all of them, then take you to that batch's page.

If anything on the grid needs attention (a giver that wasn't selected from the list, a split that doesn't add up), you'll get a message telling you which row to fix — nothing is saved until the whole batch is valid, so you'll never end up with half an offering recorded.

Step 5 — After the bank run

Nothing hits your accounting ledger until the batch is marked deposited. Once the money is physically at the bank, open the batch (Donations → Deposit Batches) and click Mark as Deposited. That creates the journal entry — one deposit in your checkbook register that matches the bank statement to the penny. Details in Understanding Deposit Batches.

Good to know

• A batch can hold up to 200 gifts. Bigger event? Just enter multiple batches.
• Online card gifts (Stripe) are not entered here — they're deposited automatically when the card processor pays out.
• Made a mistake after saving? While the batch is still pending you can remove a gift from the batch or delete the batch entirely; the donations can then be edited or deleted individually.