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Transferring Payments

You may need to transfer payments. You can do this by changing the payee, changing the beneficiary, or converting a payment into a donation.

Update the Payee

You may need to update the payee if you accidentally assigned the payment to the wrong person when using the Add a Payment Tool. Not a problem! Follow these steps.
  1. In the navigation menu, click Products & Payments > Payments.
  2. Open the Payment record.
  3. Click Edit Record.
  4. Change the contact to the correct payee.
  5. Click Save.
  6. Use the jump link to jump to the Payment Detail record(s), and make any edits, if needed.
  7. Use the jump link to jump to the Invoice Detail record(s), and make any edits, if needed.
  8. Use the jump link to jump to the Invoice record, and make any edits, if needed.
  9. Click Save.

Update the Beneficiary

  • The person receiving the gift must already have an invoice and paid the deposit.
Occasionally, you may need to update a beneficiary when one person pays a deposit for an event then decides to cancel, but they want to apply their deposit to another person.
  1. In the navigation menu, click Products & Payments > Payments.
  2. Open the Payment record of the person no longer attending.
  3. Click the Payment Detail tab.
  4. Open the record that you want to transfer to another person's invoice.
  5. Click Edit Record.
  6. In the Invoice Detail drop-down list, select the Invoice Detail record of the person who benefits from the gift.
  7. Click Save.
Don't forget to set the Event Participant record of the person no longer attending to Cancelled and update their invoice to reflect that you don't expect future payment from this person.
Note: For this change, you may need to make a journal entry in your accounting system if the payment originally credited a different income account than the one the event used.

Convert a Payment into a Donation

A registrant may request that the church keep their payment for a canceled event as a donation. There are a few steps you'll need to complete to do this: issue a refund in MinistryPlatform (not actually refunding money, but treating the records as though you are), and add the donations through the Batch Manager Tool (BMT).

Update Invoice & Invoice Detail Records

Update these records so the original registrant won't get confused if they look at the My Giving widget so it won't look like they owe what they requested to become a donation.
Update the Invoice Record
  1. In the navigation menu, click Products & Payments > Invoices.
  2. Open the related Invoice record.
  3. Click Edit Record.
  4. Update the Invoice Total to 0.00.
  5. Update the Invoice Status to Cancelled.
  6. Click Save.
Update the Invoice Detail Record
  1. In the navigation menu, click Products & Payments > All Invoice Detail.
  2. Open the related Invoice Detail record.
  3. Click Edit Record.
  4. Update the Line Total to 0.00.
  5. Click Save.

Reverse the Payment

We recommend using the Copy/Reverse Payment Tool to reverse any payments.
  1. In the navigation menu, click Products & Payments > Payments.
  2. Open the payment or select payments to reverse.
  3. From the Tools menu, select Copy/Reverse Payment.
  4. Review the summary information to be sure you have the correct payments selected.
  5. Set the date. It defaults to the current date, but you can click the calendar icon to change it.
  6. Select to reverse the payment amounts.
  7. Enter a name for the batch. It defaults to "[Date] Reversal", but you can change it if needed.
  8. Select whether to mark the payment records as "Processed".
  9. Click Copy Payments.
  10. Close the tool.

You've copied the payment(s) and, if selected, created a reversing entry for each payment. If selected, the payment records are marked as Processed in the Platform.

You can then export the payment if you also export the donation for general ledger records. If you make a manual journal entry, then mark the payment exported.

Tip: It may help to also add a note to those payments indicating they've been moved over to donations.

Add the Donation with the BMT

Transfer a donation using the Batch Manager Tool.

Note: If you did not export both the refunded payment and new donation to your general ledger, you must add a manual journal entry to address these. Also, if you have separate processing accounts for donations and payments, you likely can't move the payment records. Internally note or track the transfer as needed for reconciliation purposes.
  1. Using the Batch Manager Tool, create a new batch.
  2. At the bottom, click Add to create a new donation.
  3. Add the donor name, amount, and appropriate distribution information.
  4. Use the payment type of the original donation.
  5. Add a note that this donation was transferred from a payment.
  6. Finalize the batch.
  7. Put the batch in its own deposit.
  8. If you exported the deducted payment, export the batch. Otherwise, edit the deposit, mark it exported, and adjust the general ledger appropriately with a manual entry.

When all these steps are complete, you created a new donation and credited a negative Payment or Payment Detail record.