Imported Contribution Mapping

With any contribution, it's important to know where the money is coming from and what the money is going towards. In the ChMS, contributions must be tied to a family record - so your parish knows where the money came from - and to a fund - so your parish can know what the money is going towards.

This article explains how the ChMS takes data from your online giving import files and attempts to match those online giving contributions to the correct family records and funds within the ChMS.

IN THIS ARTICLE:

Mapping Imported Contributions to Families
Mapping Imported Contributions to Funds

Mapping Imported Contributions to Families

First, eC ChMS will check the import file for ChMS Family IDs, attempting to find matches.

2: If the ChMS cannot match on Family ID, it will look through the import file and attempt to match based on System Family ID.; (The System Family ID field is found within the Administrative tab of the Family Record. This is information the user would have to enter to indicate to eC ChMS that an ID number from another system should connect with this particular family's ChMS Family ID.)
3: Next, eC ChMS will search the email address in the import file to see if those email addresses match the Family Email in the Family Records. As eC ChMS often does not find Family IDs or System Family IDs in the import file, Family Email is frequently where it matches contributions.
4: If the email addresses in the import file do not match the Family Email in eC ChMS, the system will then look for the email addresses within the Member Email fields.
5: Should eC ChMS not be able to match based on email address, it will then look for matches using the Budget Number.

Important Note: If someone donates online with a third party giving provider and their system does not have (what eC ChMS calls) a Budget Number associated with this donor, their files often put "N/A" in the column rather than leaving it blank. If any Family Records in your database have a Budget Number of N/A, this may cause imported contributions to be incorrectly mapped to those Family Records based on Budget Number. Please do not use N/A as a Budget Number within your database. If you encounter incorrectly mapped contributions, please reach out to [email protected].

If none of the previous criteria result in a match, eC ChMS will then attempt to match based on Family First Name and Family Last Name. When searching on Family First Name and Family Last Name, eC ChMS will only map contributions to the Family Record if it finds an exact match.

For example, eC ChMS will not map contributions from Carrie Smith onto Caroline Smith's Family Record nor will it map contributions from Ken & Sally Jones to Ken and Sally Jones' Family Record.

If eC ChMS is still unable to match a contribution after searching all the criteria above, the contribution appear under the Unknown Family tab in Funds > Pending Imports. Please follow these instructions to map these Unknown Families to the correct family record: How to Clear Pending Imports.

If you experience any issues with contributions not mapping to family records as expected, please reach out to [email protected].

Mapping Imported Contributions to Funds

The first time the ChMS recognizes a new fund in your import file, those contributions will appear under the Unknown Fund tab in Funds > Pending Imports. Please follow these instructions to map these Unknown Funds to the correct funds: How to Clear Pending Imports.

Important Note: Exactly matching the names of your ChMS funds with those in your online giving platform will not impact fund mapping. You will still need to clear Unknown Funds from Pending Imports the first time contributions to a new fund are imported, regardless of whether the Fund Description matches the name of a ChMS fund.

After clearing a fund from Pending Imports, the ChMS creates "external fund mapping" on the back end of the database so it knows which fund to send these kinds of contributions to during future imports. If you experience any issues with fund mapping, please reach out to [email protected].