To effectively process Donations, each church should have at least three "fake" donor records. All three records can be set up as a Company on the Contacts page.

Default Contact

When a Donation is imported into MinistryPlatform and a Donor account cannot be automatically matched, this record is selected temporarily until a Donor record can be assigned and/or created. Alternate names might be Default Donor or Temporary Donor.

Unassigned

This record is used when a Donation cannot be assigned to a Donor. An example is a Donation by someone who uses starter checks that do not have pre-printed information on them and the signature line may not be legible. By using a specific record for these Donors, it is easier to correct them in the future.

Cash

A record used to permanently assign anonymous (loose plate) Donations.

These records can be called something slightly different to suit your church's culture. If you want to change them, a SPoC should first email Support to discuss the implications (for example, the need to update various configuration values in Stored Procedures with the ID number of the Default Contact).