BMT Tips and Tricks
General Recommendations
- You may want to keep the Platform open in another tab so you can do the following without leaving the Batch Manager Tool:
- Search for related Donor, Program, and so on details,
- Use tools like the Add/Edit Family Tool, and
- Run reports on these batches from the Batches page during or immediately after your data entry.
- You don't need to finalize each Batch one at a time. You can create all your Batches and do all your scanning first and then go back to each Batch and assign Donors, dollars, and so on, and then finalize. You can also split scanning, assigning, and finalizing duties among various volunteers and/or staff members.
Batch Composition
You can assemble multiple Batches into a single Deposit in MinistryPlatform for your bank. We recommend you divide your check and cash donations into Batches to save time in the Batch Manager Tool:
- Keep batches small enough to manage during counting and entry. Between 50 and 100 items is best.
- Group checks into batches with only one payment type (for example, checks).
- Group checks with a single designation into batches.
- Group checks with multiple designations, bill-pay checks, or mission trip donations into batches. These items require more scrutiny.
- Batch items by campus or service if your church reporting and reconciliation requirements call for this.
Navigation and Data Entry
Tab
Once you import your file and scan your checks, the Batch Manager Tool can find data entry without using a mouse. Tab to quickly navigate through the Donation details rows to assign Donors, dollars, and Designations.
In addition to navigating by tab, you can also control what fields you want to include in your "tab scope". Click the check box next to a column header to turn on or off tabbing for that column. For example, you can select just the Donor, Amount, and Program columns to limit your tabbing to these fields for each record (you can still access any field using a click of the mouse).
Column Selection (tab scope) retains between sessions until you clear the browser cache.
Expand and Collapse
To assist data entry and navigation, you can use View to expand and collapse the Donation rows to hide and show the images.
Sort
Additionally, click on a column header to sort the records by that column. For example, click on the Donor column to quickly sort all the records that need Donor assignment.
Zoom
With the Donation rows expanded so you can see the check image, click Zoom In on the check image to zoom into the check image where your cursor is. As you change fields, the zoom moves accordingly.