Core Concepts

Introduction

Dryad Receipting turns gifts recorded in Salesforce into official donation receipts (and thank-you acknowledgments), produces them as .pdf files, and delivers them by email or mail. The main pieces fit together like this:

1. Set up once. Receipt Settings hold the charity's details, receipt numbering, rules and defaults. Receipt Templates define what the receipt .pdf looks like. If you issue receipts for more than one registered charity, each extra charity is an Account used as a Receipting Account.
2. Record donor preferences. On each donor's Account you can choose how they receive receipts (email or mail), how often (one per gift, or consolidated), the language, and whether they should be receipted at all.
3. Record gifts. Gifts are recorded as Gift Transactions. Recurring and pledged gifts also belong to a Gift Commitment. Formula fields on these records work out, at all times, whether each gift can be receipted (its eligibility status), how much can be receipted, and which template to use.
4. Create receipts. Receipts are created from a single gift, from a list view, through the Batch Receipts screen, or by a scheduled job (see Ways to Create, Email and Print Receipts). Each one becomes a Receipt record. Values are copied from the gift to the receipt using Receipt Field Mappings. A Receipt Assignment links the receipt to each gift it covers. If a gift already had a receipt, the old one is voided and replaced.
5. Create the .pdf. The app fills the receipt template with the receipt's values and saves the result as a file attached to the receipt.
6. Deliver. Receipts are emailed (through Salesforce email, or through Dryad Mailer using Amazon SES) or printed. For printing, many .pdfs can be merged into one file. The receipt's Delivery Status shows what still needs to happen.
7. Track the work. Every batch job writes a Batch Receipt Log so you can follow its progress and see any errors.

Receipt Types

Every receipt is one of three types (stored in the Receipt's Receipt Type field):

• Single Receipt: an official tax receipt for one gift.
• Consolidated Receipt: one official tax receipt that covers several gifts from the same donor. Examples are all the monthly gifts of a recurring donation, or all the gifts of a donor who prefers one receipt a year.
• Acknowledgment: a thank-you letter that is not a tax receipt. A gift gets an acknowledgment instead of a receipt when "Acknowledgments Only" is chosen as the Do Not Receipt Reason on the gift, on its gift commitment, or on the donor's account. Acknowledgments use their own templates and their own numbering. The minimum amount and donor address rules don't apply to them.

On gifts, the Receipt Type formula shows either "Donation" or "Acknowledgment". Whether a donation becomes a single or a consolidated receipt is decided separately (see Single or Consolidated).

Single or Consolidated

A gift transaction is receipted as part of a consolidated receipt when either:

• it belongs to a recurring gift commitment (one with a schedule), or
• the donor's Receipt Occurrence is set to "Consolidated", unless the gift was paid as an "Asset" or "In-Kind". Those gifts are always receipted on their own.

Otherwise the gift gets its own single receipt. Gifts waiting to be consolidated show the status "Eligible for Consolidated". When consolidated receipts are created, the gifts are grouped by donor (or by gift commitment), and the receipt shows the date range of the gifts it covers.

Eligibility Statuses

The Receipt Status formula on each gift transaction tells you whether it can be receipted, and if not, why. Receipt creation only picks up gifts whose status starts with "Eligible". The checks run in this order, and the first one that applies wins:

Status	When It Applies
Receipted / Voided	The gift already has a receipt (its Last Receipt). The status matches that receipt. A gift with an External Receipt # also counts as "Receipted".
Ineligible - Do not receipt	Do Not Receipt is ticked on the gift or on the donor's account, and the reason isn't "Acknowledgments Only".
Ineligible - Transaction is not paid	The gift's Status isn't "Paid".
Ineligible - No receipt template	No receipt template could be found for the gift (see Defaults and Overrides).
Ineligible - Advantage	The donor's advantage is more than 80% of the eligible amount, or the advantage's value can't be determined (see Amounts and Tax Rules).
Ineligible - Receipt amount is below minimum	The receiptable amount is below the Minimum Receipt Amount in Receipt Settings. This doesn't apply to acknowledgments or to gifts that will be consolidated. For those, the total of the consolidated receipt is checked instead.
Ineligible - Donor address incomplete	Only when Enable All CRA Rules is on: the donor's street, city, province or postal code is missing. This doesn't apply to acknowledgments.
Eligible for Consolidated	The gift is ready to be receipted as part of a consolidated receipt.
Eligible	The gift is ready for its own single receipt.

Gift commitments have a simpler Receipt Status of their own (Do Not Receipt, the status of the last receipt, missing template, incomplete donor address, or "Eligible"). The paid and amount checks are applied to the commitment's individual gift transactions.

Amounts and Tax Rules

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) rules decide how much of a gift can be receipted. The app applies them with formula fields on the gift transaction:

• Eligible amount: the Receipt Eligible Amount if you entered one, otherwise the gift's Current Amount.
• Advantage: anything of value the donor received in return, such as a dinner or event ticket.
• 80% rule: if the advantage is worth more than 80% of the eligible amount, no tax receipt can be issued ("Ineligible - Advantage").
• Nominal advantages: if the advantage is worth no more than $75 or 10% of the eligible amount, whichever is less, it is treated as nominal and is not subtracted.
• Receiptable amount: the eligible amount minus the advantage (unless it's nominal). This is the amount printed on the receipt.
• Minimum amount: receipts aren't issued below the Minimum Receipt Amount in Receipt Settings (see Eligibility Statuses).

Defaults and Overrides

Several things about a receipt (which template to use, which email template, which charity issues it) can be set at three levels. The most specific one wins:

1. The gift itself: fields on the Gift Transaction such as Receipt Template, Email Template Id and Receipting Account.
2. The Receipting Account: if the gift names a Receipting Account (an Account representing another registered charity), that account's templates, logo, signature and charity details are used.
3. Receipt Settings: the organization-wide defaults, used when nothing more specific is set.

Gift commitments pass their settings down. When a new gift transaction is created for a gift commitment, the commitment's Do Not Receipt details, Email Template Id, Receipt Template and Receipting Account are copied onto it.

Language. The English or French template is chosen from the Receipt Language on the donor's Account. Gift Transactions and Gift Commitments don't have their own language.

The Receipting Accounts and English and French Receipts articles cover these two levels in detail.

Charity details from a Receipting Account. For the charity's name, registration #, address, phone and website, a Receipting Account's values replace the defaults completely (a blank value stays blank). For the logo, signature, authorized name and title, and sender email, a blank value on the Receipting Account falls back to Receipt Settings.

Receipt Numbers

Each receipt gets a number (its Receipt #) when it's created. The number can't be changed afterwards.

• Receipts use the Receipt Prefix and Next Receipt # from Receipt Settings. You can pad the number to a fixed length (for example, 000123) with Receipt # Length and Receipt # Padding.
• Receipts from a Receipting Account that has its own Receipt Next # use that account's prefix and counter instead (without padding).
• Acknowledgments always use the separate Acknowledgment Prefix and Next Acknowledgment # from Receipt Settings.

The counters go up by one for each new receipt.

Voids and Replacements

A receipt is never edited after it's issued. Instead:

• Voiding. A receipt can be voided with the Void Receipt button. Its status becomes "Voided" and the voided date is recorded. Templates can print "VOID" on voided receipts.
• Replacing. If you create a new receipt for a gift that already has one, the old receipt is automatically voided and linked to the new one (Receipt Replaced By). The new receipt is marked as a "Replacement Receipt" and stores the old receipt's number, so it can print "This cancels and replaces receipt …".
• Receipts from another system. If a gift was receipted before you used Dryad Receipting, enter the old number in the gift's External Receipt #. The gift then counts as already receipted. If it's ever receipted again, the new receipt says which old receipt it replaces.

The Voids, Replacements and Reissues article covers each step in detail.

Delivery Status

The receipt's Receipt Delivery Status is calculated from its other fields and shows the next step:

• N/A: the receipt is voided.
• Creating .pdf File: the .pdf hasn't been created yet.
• To be Emailed: the donor prefers email, and the receipt has an email address and an email template.
• To be Printed: any other receipt that hasn't been sent yet, including email receipts that are missing an address or email template.
• Emailed, Printed, Emailed & Printed: the receipt has been delivered.

The batch email and print screens use this status to choose which receipts to process.

What Gets Copied to a Receipt

When a receipt is created, values are copied from the gift onto the receipt. This includes the donor's name and address, the amounts, and the chosen templates. Later changes to the gift or the donor don't change receipts that were already issued. The list of copied fields is controlled by Receipt Field Mappings. A standard set is installed with the app, and admins can add more.

The charity details on a receipt (name, address, registration #, logo, signature) work differently. They are formulas that always show the current values from Receipt Settings or the Receipting Account. A .pdf that was already created keeps the details it was created with, but if the .pdf is created again, it uses the current values.

Templates and Merge Fields

A receipt template is a page layout with placeholders, called merge fields, such as {!dryad__Receipt__c.dryad__Donor_Name__c}. When the .pdf is created, each placeholder is replaced with the value from the receipt. The template editor offers every receipt field as a merge field, apart from a few internal ones.

To make templates easier to build, the Receipt has some fields that exist only to be printed:

• Formatted dates (for example Receipt Issue Date as text) show dates in the Date Format chosen in Receipt Settings.
• Text blocks (Advantage Text, Replacement Text, Voided Text) contain a complete, ready-made sentence when it applies, and are blank otherwise. You can place them in a template without any extra logic.

Batch Jobs and Logs

Large jobs (creating many receipts, creating .pdfs, merging, emailing, printing) run in the background. Each job creates a Batch Receipt Log that shows what it's doing, how far it has got, and any errors. Records touched by a job are stamped with the log's ID, which is how the app later finds "the receipts from this batch" (for example, to print them).

When you create, email or merge receipts from Batch Receipts, the last screen follows the job's log with progress rings. The Finish button is blocked until the job completes. If you leave the page, the job still finishes in the background, and its log shows when it's done. Batch Receipts runs only one job of each kind at a time: while receipts are being created, emailed or merged, starting the same action again asks you to wait. Receipt Settings > App Utilities > Create Missing .pdfs shows the same kind of progress ring for its job, and so does the Create Preview Report button on the Batch Receipts screens for creating receipts (see Enable Preview Report in the Receipt Settings article).

The Batch Receipt Logs and Background Jobs article explains the logs in detail, and Large Volumes and Limits covers planning large runs.

Emailing: Salesforce or Dryad Mailer

Receipts can be emailed in two ways, chosen in Receipt Settings (Send Emails Using):

• Salesforce: emails are sent by Salesforce from an organization-wide email address. A daily email limit applies.
• Dryad Mailer (Amazon SES): emails are sent through Amazon's email service. The app records each send as an Email with one Email Recipient per receipt. As Amazon reports what happened (delivered, opened, bounced), it creates Email Events and updates the recipient.