Manage Transactions
How to view your transactions
Transaction Reports is the record of all activity submitted from your fundraising forms.
Recurring payments processed on the 15th of the month are also recorded in Transaction Reports.
The Control Panel displays transactions in real time.
To view your transactions, click Reports > Transaction Reports from the top navigation bar. Or, from the Main Menu page, in the Manage Transactions section, click Transaction Reports.
From Transaction Reports you may:
- view the day's or the month's transactions,
- create a report with custom dates,
- see detailed transaction information,
- and download transactions to a CSV file.
Understanding the transaction summary page
Transaction ID
As you review the summary list of your transactions, you will see a Transaction ID number. The Transaction ID number is preceded with "GD" (general donation), "EV" (event), or "ME" (membership).
Click the Transaction ID number to open the transaction detail page. On the transaction detail page, you will find donor contact information, amount and recurring frequency, payment information and any other information the donor entered into the form, such as gift dedication, employer match or custom fields.
Form Name
If you have multiple fundraising forms you may choose to see transactions from all forms or refine the search by a specific form. To view only transactions for a specific form, use the "My Forms" drop down list at the top of the custom search fields and select the form name.
A form nickname should have been assigned in the Form Builder page at the time the form was created. That name is displayed in the Form Name column.
For additional information on form names, please read the related help guide section Form Components > Form Basics.
Method
The Method column displays the payment method used for the transaction, either ECheck, or the credit/debit card type. Credit/debit card types are abbreviated: V for Visa, MC for Mastercard, Dscv for Discover, and AmEx for American Express.
Amount
The Amount column displays the total amount charged for the transaction. This amount will include the "cover the fee" amount if the donor opted to cover the processing fee.
Recurs
A one-time donation or payment will have nothing in this column. If a donation or membership recurs, this column will be populated.
The initial recurring payment record will display the frequency of "Active Monthly", "Active Quarterly", or "Active Annually". If a recurring payment has been canceled, then the initial recurring payment record will display "Inactive".
After a recurring payment is created, each subsequent time the recurring payment is processed, the Recurs column will display "RM" (recurs monthly), "RQ" (recurs quarterly), or "RA" (recurs annually) to indicate that this transaction is for a recurring payment.
Status
The Status column indicates whether the transaction was successfully processed or the reason for failure. Transactions with a status of "Approved" are the only ones that have been successfully processed.
There are two types of failed transactions: ones that were rejected by the donor's card issuer and ones that are rejected by GiveDirect. A transaction rejected by the donor's card issuer will display a status of Declined. A transaction can be declined for many reasons. GiveDirect will reject transactions that fail to meet our security tests for correct billing zip code and/or card security code.
For more information on the different types of declined transations, see the section on Payment Error Messages.
Other status types that you might see in the Status column are: Credit (a refunded transaction), Void (a transaction that is reversed before it settles), Chargeback and Returned Check.
Processing refunds
Charities may process their own refunds.
From the transaction summary page, click the Refund link next to the Approved status.
On the next screen, enter the amount to be refunded and click the "Issue A Refund" button. Please let your donor know to allow up to 10 business days to see the refund reflected in their statement. This time line is determined by the banking system, not GiveDirect.
Note: A refund may be processed up to six months following the date of transaction.
Download or print transactions
At the top and bottom of the transaction summary page are buttons to print or to download transactions.
The Print button will print the transaction summary page.
The Download button will export the transaction details for the selected report into a spreadsheet format (CSV file). You can import the records into an in-house database or donor records system. All data collected on your forms can be included in the download.
Read the section Download Transactions for more information on exporting your transactions.
Transaction search results
The Control Panel is capable of displaying 5,000 records at a time in the transaction summary page. If your search request finds more than 5,000 records, even though you will not see them on the screen, all records may be downloaded into an Excel CSV file.
Quick reports
You can quickly pull a date-based transaction report using the One Click Reports.
Use the One Click Reports drop down list and select a transaction report type:
- Today's Transactions
- Yesterday's Transactions
- This Month's Transactions
- Last Month's Transactions
If the quick reports do not fit your requirements, use the custom search fields on the left to produce a completely custom report.
Create a custom report
In the Custom Search Fields panel, you will find several fields available to create a custom report, such as first and last name, transaction ID number, the last four digits of the card number, or date range. These fields may be used alone or in combination with other search fields.
Selecting transactions for specific fundraising forms
If your charity has more than one fundraising form, you may either create a report for all transactions and all forms, or refine the search by specific form(s). To create a report for a specific form, use the "My Forms" drop down list at the top of the custom search fields and select the form(s) you wish to include in the report. To retrieve a list of all transactions, regardless of form, leave the My Forms drop down list blank.
Date range search
You can refine any search using the date range search fields (Start Date and End Date). A common use for the date range search fields is to limit search results for an annual campaign. For example, if you run an event or a particular fundraising appeal every year, you will use a single fundraising form for the appeal and will create a report for the appeal each year using the date range search fields to limit the results. This way, you can see the results just for this year's appeal, or last year's appeal, etc.
Sorting transaction report results
You will find sorting options for your transaction report at the bottom of the custom search fields panel. You may select up to two sort options. This may be done before or after the search is performed by clicking "Go."
Sorting options will revert to the default upon logout.
How to empty the custom search fields
Use the Reset button next to the Search button at the top of the custom search fields panel to clear or empty all the custom search fields. To empty only the date range fields, use the "x" button next to the Start Date and End Date fields.
