Depositing checks

Do not deposit checks unless you are sure they:

• Are made out correctly, i.e., to "ASU Foundation - ASURA". The important thing is the "ASU Foundation" part. The office volunteers normally take care of this.
• Have been recorded fully in the membership database.

Make sure you have a cash bag and its key. 

• Checks are sent to the Foundation in a special locked cash bag.  Bags are provided by the Foundation. ASURA has 6 of them with associated keys. They may not all be available, since some may be en route to, at, or en route from the Foundation.
• The bags are kept by the person or group that is handling the deposits. 
• The Foundation returns bags to the ASURA office when they have removed the checks. A copy of the Deposit Summary form with deposit verification information completed by Foundation personnel will be returned with each bag.

Do not mix donation/renewal checks in the same batch as other checks, i.e., checks for event registration or from the Friends of the Phoenix Public Library.

If you are working with both kinds of checks, prepare two separate batches.

The purpose of the separation is to make it easy for the Financial Operations Manager to know which checks need to be entered into Quicken.

For each batch, assign an ASURA deposit number. The norm is to use a number that is one higher than you used for the last batch deposited.  Numbers are of the form Dnnnnn, but that is just a convention that can be changed if desired.

This is a reference number that is useful for  to tying together everything related to this deposit.

If you are not sure what the last number was -- you should be able to determine it from the Deposit Records folder within the Financial Records folder in Wild Apricot (you must be logged in and in Administrative view to use this link).

Create a temporary folder on your computer to store copies of each deposit and the deposit summary. This will be uploaded to Wild Apricot when you are done and used if there is a need to research what has been done.

Name the folder yyyymmddDepositsDnnnnn, where yyyymmdd is the current date and Dnnnnn is the ASURA deposit number assigned in the previous step. Example: 20230213DepositsD90668.

When you are done with this set of checks and have uploaded the folder and its contents to Wild Apricot, you can delete the folder from your computer.



 

Background

Once a year or so, probably near the start of the membership drive in May, it is a good idea to ask the Financial Operations Manager to make sure the ASU Foundation Request for deposit form that we are using is up to date. The latest form can be found in Workday, in the Apps menu - Finance Documents - Gift Administration. If there is a newer form, it should replace the one in our WA folder and these instructions should be updated as needed.

Preparation

Open the ASU Foundation Request for Deposit form. You must be logged in to Wild Apricot with administrative privileges to use this link. The form is stored in the ASURA Wild Apricot Files, in the Forms folder.

What to put on each form - renewal or donation

Leave everything not specifically mentioned below blank.

Donor Name - Enter the person's name. Enter Friends of the Phoenix Public Library if the check is from them.

Address -

• Leave blank if you will be attaching a document (not the check) that contains a readable address.
• Otherwise, look up the address in the membership database and either enter it on the form or use the Windows snipping tool to select the information under Profile on the Contact details tab and print that to attach. The address on the check should probably not be used, as it may differ from the one the member gave us for contact information. The address is needed so that the Foundation can properly acknowledge the gift.

Designation - Enter a line for each purpose that the donor has specified, but combine membership renewal and any optional donation to operations on the first line. The first line is pre-filled when you open the form. You can modify it if this is not a simple renewal. Each line should be one of the following, where $nn is the amount of the donation to that account:

Gift Deposit - Check the "Gift (no pledge)" box in the "Gift Deposit" section. Enter the total amount of the gift in the adjoining space.

Method of Payment - Click in the box next to "Check #" and enter the number from the check (just the number in the upper right, not the financial institution information).

Completed  - Enter your own name

Phone/Department - Enter phone/ASURA , where phone is your own phone number so that the Foundation could contact you directly with questions

Date - Enter the date you will be submitting the deposit.

What to put on each form - event registrations and other checks

Leave everything not specifically mentioned below blank.

Donor Name - Enter the name of the event registrant or person who signed the check. Enter Friends of the Phoenix Public Library if the check is from them.

Designation - The first line is pre-filled in when you open the form. Replace the information on that line depending on the purpose of the check:

Method of Payment - Click in the box next to "Check #" and enter the number from the check (just the number in the upper right, not the financial institution information).

Non-gift deposit - Check the "Non-gift deposit" box near the bottom of the form, enter the amount in the indicated area, and enter a reason in the box, e.g. "Registration for Spring Luncheon" or "Payment for donated books".

Completed  - Enter your own name

Phone/Department - Enter phone/ASURA , where phone is your own phone number so that the Foundation could contact you directly with questions

Date - Enter the date you will be submitting the deposit.

Saving and printing the form

Print the document and also save it as a PDF document to the folder you created on your computer for this batch, using a file name of name.pdf, where "name" is last or optionally lastfirst name of the person on the form.

Do not close the form unless this is the last of the batch. It is probably easier to modify the information on it for the next check you are processing than it is to start with a fresh form each time.

Attach the following to the printed request for deposit form:

If this is a membership renewal or other donation, the documents that came with the check. If none of the documents contains an address and you didn't enter it on the form, attach the information you printed from the membership database in the previous step.

If this is payment for an event, the documents that came with the check. If these do not include an invoice, print a copy of the receipt in Wild Apricot. To print the receipt:

• Navigate to the person's record.
• Click on "Financial transactions" in the upper right.
• Select the appropriate invoice from the list that appears. You should see the invoice with "Paid" stamped over it.
• In the lower right corner, click on "Settlement details". This will open the "Payment details" screen.
• Click on the "Preview & Print" button at the top. This reveals the payment receipt.
• Click on the Print button.

For all other checks, attach the correspondence that came with the check, if any.

The documents may be stapled together, but the check should probably be paper-clipped to the form and documents rather than stapled.

Complete a Foundation Deposit Summary Form for each batch of checks being sent. This form is stored in the ASURA Wild Apricot Files, in the Forms folder. You must be logged in to Wild Apricot with administrative privileges to get to it. Fill in only the following information:

• Enter the date you will submit the deposit and the cash bag number you are using at the top. 
• Enter your own name and phone as the Contact Person.
• Under ASUF Gifts, enter the total number of checks in the batch and the total value of all checks.
• In the area near the bottom of the form, again enter the total number of checks and the total value of the checks.

Print the completed form and also save it to the folder that contains copies of this set of deposits. You don't have to convert it to a PDF file to save it - Excel format is fine.

In the top right corner of the printed form, hand-write the ASURA deposit number that you have assigned to this batch.

Place the completed Deposit Summary Form and the sets of checks with their attachments in one of the cash bags and lock the bag, retaining the key. You should have access to the cash bags if you have been assigned the role of processing checks. The cash bags should be addressed to:   Cash Receipts, Mail Code 5005. The return address on them should be: ASURA, Mail Code 3308.

Give the closed and locked cash bag to an ASURA office volunteer for sending in campus mail.

Make sure you are logged in to Wild Apricot and in Administrative mode.

Upload the folder of file copies of forms (the folder named yyyymmddDeposits Dnnnnn) from your computer to the Deposit Records folder within the Financial Records folder. Be aware that when you drag the folder to Wild Apricot, it won't come with its contents. You have to select the contents on your computer and drag them into the uploaded folder.

See "Working with Wild Apricot files" if you need help with this procedure.

Now you can delete the folder of documents from your computer.

When the Foundation receives the cash bag, they will process the checks and stamp a copy of your Deposit Summary form with "Received" and their date.

Make a digital copy of this, name it DnnnnnProcessed, and add it to the folder for this batch on Wild Apricot.

The following cases require that you notify other volunteers so that they can do their jobs:

• If an optional donation is $100 or more, provide the donor's name, address, and amount of donation to the ASURA office volunteers. They will send a personal letter to the donor thanking them.
• If a batch contains non-donation checks, i.e., event registration fee checks, notify the Financial Operations Manager of the name of the batch folder on Wild Apricot that contains them. The Financial Operations Manager will enter the checks in the ASURA books.