How to handle giving transactions with insufficient funds

Sometimes, a giving transaction may not be successfully processed by the donor's bank even though it has already been recorded. This article provides guidance on handling giving transactions that don't clear the donor's bank, even after a giving transaction has already been entered.

There are at least 2 different options you can choose, described below.

  1. Zero out the giving transaction and list it as anonymous.

    • Change the giving transaction to anonymous and put a note in the notes field about the contributor and the NSF. Then create another anonymous giving transaction with a negative amount. This will balance out the 2 contributions. This will keep the original giving transaction batch matching the deposit to the bank. The balancing giving transaction could be entered into its own batch and have accounting match the entry from your bank. 
    • This method will keep the giving transaction from showing on the donors' contribution statement at the end of the year. 
  2. Zero out the contribution with a negative giving transaction. 

    • Keep the person's name on the original giving transaction and then record a negative giving transaction for all the same information so it will balance the two records to 0. This will show on their end-of-year tax statement if you use the Itemized Listing option vs. the Funds Summary option. 

Both the above options will require some Journal Entry work to be done in accounting. The
same options can be employed for online giving transactions as well. The notes would be really important in the case of an NSF online giving transaction.