Planning Center Giving accounting, by fund.

Before you start

Planning Center Giving is open to a small group of churches first. If it isn't on for yours, its card in Apps says Coming soon. Choose Request app and we'll tell you when it opens.

To connect it you need a role in Imprest that can connect apps: owner, admin, accountant or bookkeeper. Changing how funds are classified needs accounting access.

On the Planning Center side, sign in as a Giving Administrator or Bookkeeper. Planning Center only lets those roles see every donation and download payout details. Giving needs to be fully set up in Planning Center, and its currency needs to match your books.

Connect and go live

1. In Imprest, open Apps, choose Add a connection, and pick Planning Center Giving.
2. Connect. Choose Connect Planning Center, sign in to Planning Center and allow Imprest to read your giving.
3. Start. Choose the date Imprest should start recording from, then say how your old books recorded cash and checks and how they recorded online gifts before that date. Choose Save and continue.
4. Your giving. For each fund, choose what kind of money it holds: Unrestricted, Donor-restricted, Pass-through or Payment. Say how gifts paid another way reach your books.
5. Payouts. Choose the bank under Payouts go to, say whether gifts are paid out through Planning Center Payments or a Stripe account the church owns, how often Planning Center pays out, and whether you take event payments in Registrations. Choose Save and continue.
6. Go live. Check the contributions already entered by hand since your start date, so none count twice. Choose Record opening entries, then Go live.

A start date years back adds a History tab. Each month is checked, and the months that tie out post in one background run that you can undo in one step.

How gifts land in your books

• Online gifts. Each day's online gifts are one entry through a Planning Center Clearing account. A gift split across funds is split the same way.
• Cash and checks. Each committed batch, or batch group, is its own entry through Undeposited Funds, so a Sunday batch is one deposit to match.
• Campuses. With two or more campuses, each entry carries the donor's campus.
• Refunds. A refund posts on the day it happened.
• Pledges. Pledges show on the Funds tab as memos and never post.
• In-kind gifts. They wait for your review, and a gift with no value shows Valuation needed.

Imprest never writes gifts or people back to Planning Center, and donors don't become customers. People and Registrations aren't synced; Registrations money is read from the payout report or from the church's Stripe account.

Record payouts

Planning Center has no payout feed, so you upload its payout detail report.

1. In Planning Center, download the payout detail report as a CSV. A month at a time is fine.
2. In Imprest, open the Payouts tab and choose Upload payout report.
3. Choose Record on each payout, then match it to its deposit on your bank feed.

Each payout moves the money from Planning Center Clearing to your bank. Registrations money posts to its own account, and a lost dispute or a failed-payment fee posts as an expense. Before a report arrives, a Planning Center deposit on your bank feed is explained from the gift records as a suggestion you can accept. Compare each report's totals with the bank deposit. Imprest stores each report with donor names and contact details removed.

If the church is paid out through its own Stripe account, you connect that account read-only instead. Its Stripe balance becomes an account in your books, each gift is matched to its Stripe line, and each payout is a transfer from that balance to your bank.

Day to day

Planning Center tells Imprest when donations and batches change, and Imprest also checks every 15 minutes. Refunds and pledges come in on that schedule. To check right away, choose Sync now on the Connection tab.

Entries wait on the Summaries tab. Choose Accept on an entry, or Accept all. To post entries without waiting for you, open Integration Settings and, under Posting, choose Post everything that's ready.

The Reconciliation tab compares each month's gifts by fund with your books, and Exceptions lists anything waiting on you, one line per cause.

Common problems

• Connect as a Giving Administrator or Bookkeeper. Sign in again with one of those roles in Planning Center.
• Giving isn't finished setting up in Planning Center yet. Finish Giving's setup there, then connect again.
• This company is already connected to a different Planning Center organization. Disconnect it first.
• Planning Center stopped accepting our connection, or your Giving role changed, or the connection was idle for more than 90 days. Choose Reconnect Planning Center. Your settings and history stay as they are.
• An entry is on hold. The Summaries tab names the reason, such as a fund not classified, a payment source not set up, or a fund split that doesn't add up. Most are fixed right there.
• A payout is waiting. The Payouts tab names why: the report disagrees with a gift, its gifts aren't in Imprest yet, or Registrations needs an account. A summary report isn't enough; upload the detail report.
• A check bounced. Record it yourself.

Disconnect

1. Open the Planning Center page in Apps and choose the Connection tab.
2. Choose Disconnect, then Disconnect again to confirm.

Imprest stops bringing in new gifts and batches, removes its webhooks and ends its access to your Planning Center account. Everything already in Imprest stays: posted entries, gifts waiting for review, your funds and your settings. You can still review and post what's there, and you can reconnect the same Planning Center organization at any time.