Creating and reconciling pledges

A pledge is a forward-looking commitment to give — it is not a payment itself. This article explains the two ways pledges are created in infoodle (manually by an administrator, or automatically via a form submission), and how those pledges are then reconciled to actual transactions.

Before you start

Permissions required

You need the Manage Pledges permission to create or edit pledges. Contact your administrator if you don't see these options.

How pledges are created

Pledges can be created in two ways:

1. Manually — added directly to a contact's profile by an administrator.
2. Via a form submission — created automatically when a donor submits a form that includes a recurring payment field.

Manually adding a pledge

To add a pledge directly to a contact's record:

1. Open the contact's profile page.
2. Select the Finance tab.
3. Select the Pledges tab.
4. Click Add.

Fill in the pledge details and save. infoodle will generate a schedule of planned payment occurrences based on the start date, frequency, and amount you enter.

Pledges created via a form submission

When a donor completes a form that includes a recurring period field, infoodle automatically creates a pledge when the form is submitted. The pledge schedule depends on the frequency and start date the donor selected.

What happens on submission

Depending on the payment method on the form, one of the following flows applies.

Non-payment gateway (e.g. automatic payment, cheque, cash)

• An email notification is sent to the donor and any configured Notify contacts.
• The form is not marked as paid.
• A pledge is created based on the schedule the donor selected:

Note: Tracking data (account code, campaign, etc.) is not added to the pledge at this point — it is added when the form is approved.

Payment gateway (e.g. Stripe, GoCardless/ezidebit)

• An email notification is sent to the donor and any configured Notify contacts.
• A pledge is created on the same schedule as above.
• The payment history on the form records each stage: Request (when the donor is sent to the payment gateway), Token (when the gateway returns a token), and Paid or Scheduled depending on the gateway.

Approving a form

Transactions cannot be created from a form pledge until the form has been approved. Approval connects the form — and its associated pledge — to a specific contact.

When you approve a form, infoodle will:

• Link any emails sent to the chosen contact (visible to the approving user or the selected group).
• Connect the pledge to the chosen contact.
• Check whether pledge data already exists; if it doesn't, it creates it — leaving any already-scheduled or paid pledge occurrences intact.

Once approved, the Add Transaction and Reconcile processes can see the form and pledge data and use it to create transactions.

Note: You need the Manage Pledges permission to approve a form that includes a recurring period field.

Editing a form before approval

You can change the amount, account code, and tracking data on a form before it is approved. After making changes, click Save changes — the recurring payment field will refresh to show the updated details. Review these carefully before approving, as this is the data that will be used to create transactions.

Note: Changing the start/end dates or amounts after submission will not affect any occurrences that have already been scheduled or paid.

Disconnecting a form from a contact

If you approved a form against the wrong contact, you can select Disconnect to remove the link. This does not remove the pledge or any transactions — those remain with the original contact.

If you then re-approve the form to a new contact, the entire pledge and its associated records are transferred to the new contact. Any transactions already created remain with the original contact.

Reconciling a pledge to a transaction

Pledge occurrences are matched to actual transactions through the Add Transaction or Reconcile screens — not through a collective or Xero import on its own.

Matching a pledge in Add Transaction

1. Open Add Transaction and search for the contact by name.
2. If a date is entered, infoodle uses that date to filter available pledges. Otherwise, today's date is used.
3. The screen shows pledge occurrences within 50 days before and 14 days after the supplied date, with a status of Scheduled or Planned. Paid or deleted occurrences are not shown.
4. Select Match next to the relevant pledge occurrence.

What Match does:

• Creates a transaction for the contact using the account code, campaign, tracking data, and payment method from the pledge.
• Uses the amount and date from the specific pledge occurrence.
• Marks that occurrence as Paid on the transaction date.
• Links the occurrence to the matching transaction.

The transaction data comes from the pledge, not from how the record was reconciled in Xero. Where Xero tracking and infoodle tracking differ, both are shown on screen for comparison.

Receipting

• Who to receipt (individual or organisation) is taken from the Reconcile screen settings.
• When to receipt (one-off or combined) is also taken from the Reconcile screen settings.

Managing an existing pledge