Summary: This guide will walk you through the process of generating tax statements for your organization and various locations, as well as how to view, email, and print statements for your donors.
Important Timing: To ensure all giving for the previous year is included, tax statements should be generated no earlier than the 15th of January.
Before You Begin
- Tax-Deductibility: Only donations to funds that are marked as tax-deductible will be included in the statements.
- Merge Duplicates First: It is highly recommended to merge duplicate donor profiles before generating tax statements so that all of a donor's giving is consolidated onto a single statement. Merging profiles cannot be undone.
- Disclaimer: Tithely cannot provide accounting or legal advice.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Merging Duplicates in People
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Open the Merge tool: Navigate to People.
Select People from the left-hand menu and click the Stack icon (Merge Duplicates) in the upper right-hand corner. -
Select a Profile to Merge: Find duplicates.
Review the list of duplicate contacts. Choose the person you want to merge and click the blue duplicates button or arrow. Note: If duplicate profiles do not appear on this list, temporarily change their first and last names to be identical so the system flags them for merging. -
Choose the Primary Contact: Select primary.
Click the bubble to the left of the profile you want to make the primary contact. Any unique details from the duplicate profile will be moved to this primary profile. -
Merge the Profiles: Action cannot be undone.
Click the Merge Duplicates button.
Step 2: Generate Tax Statements
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Navigate to Tax Statements: Giving section.
Select Giving from the left-hand menu, then select Tax Statements. -
Select Statement Parameters: Date and Location.
Choose your desired Year and Locations. Note: If you select 'All Locations', only one logo will be used. If locations have different logos, you must generate statements for each location separately. -
Choose Statement Type: Individuals or Households.
Select whether you want to generate statements for Households or Individuals.- Households: Groups giving by household. The Primary Household donor's email is used. Anyone not in a household receives an individual statement. For an in-depth overview of using Households, click here.
- Individuals: Every donor receives a personal tax statement.
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Configure Statement Formatting: Customize options.
Under the "Other Options" section, check the box if you want to Hide the Memo from Description Details. Then, use the dropdown to select your local Time Zone for Date Formatting so donation dates reflect your local time. -
Start the Generation Process: Generate.
Customize your Cover Letter if desired, then click Generate Tax Statements. Enter your email address to receive a notification when the batch is finished (typically 1-10 minutes) and click Send Email. For an in-depth overview of this area, click here.
Step 3: View, Email, and Print Statements
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Open the Generated Statements: Access batch.
Navigate back to the Tax Statements area and select your recently generated batch date range from the Previous section. -
Send or Print All: Choose delivery method.
To send statements in bulk, select Print All (which opens a new tab to print all statements at once) or Send Tax Statements To All. If sending to all, you will be prompted to handle donors without email addresses. -
Print or Email Individually: Handle individual donors.
To handle statements one at a time, find the donor in the list. Click the print icon to open their specific statement, or click the paper airplane icon to immediately email it to them. Note: If you see a yellow triangle instead of a paper airplane, the email address is missing or invalid. Click the triangle to update it.
Troubleshooting & FAQs
- Why are two profiles for the same person not showing up in the merge list? If the system doesn't automatically flag them as duplicates, temporarily edit their profiles so the first and last names match exactly. The system will then identify them as duplicates and allow you to merge them.
- Why is a donor's email icon replaced by a yellow triangle? This means the donor's email address is missing or invalid. Simply click the yellow triangle to update their email address directly from this screen. The update will automatically save to their main profile in the People area.
- Can I run a statement for a past year? Yes, under the Previous section on the Tax Statements page, you can select the date range of any previously run tax statement batch to view, print, or email those past statements.