I am not sure if this is fundraising or accounts recievable...
We often run into this situation.
A donor sends us a wire transfer of $500 - the bank they use charges a $12 fee - so in reality we received $488.
In acknowledging the donor according to the IRS I need to acknowledge their donation of $500 however if I enter $500 then that will hit the general ledger when the donation received was really $488.
We can not use an appeal with the expense written in because the charge is not consistent (for one donation it may be 5 % but for another it is 3%)
What is the best way to enter this in iMIS?
Look at it form an Accounting perspective...
Try looking at this from a traditional "paper" accounting perspective. i.e. just like checks mailed in.
In the case of a check donation, you get the whole amount to enter and then are hit with monthly transaction/account holder fees. The only difference is that the fees are being taken out on the front-end, before the money goes into the account.
You could handle this one of two ways:
1) Put the full amount in through iMIS and deal with an AP transaction in your GL to decrease cash and represent the fees.
2) Put the full amount in as a contribution and then enter a negative cash entry for fees.
I still recommend #1, just because it represents what happens with other donations coming in through other payment methods (CC, Cash, checks, etc.). After all, you want to give credit of the full donation to the donor for both tax receipting and general "donor giving" tracking. The fees for the transaction are just that: fees, unrelated to the actual donation amount.
-K
Kevin Blouin - enSYNC Corp.