What Should I Do About Bounced Contribution Checks?

It’s not uncommon for a donor’s contribution to be returned by the bank.  You should have already recorded the donation (date, check #, amount, and fund designation) in your membership database.

By all means, you don’t want to try and delete the transaction from your database.

Why not?

Well, if the donor reviews their contribution statement and compares it to their checkbook; their records may include the check that bounced.  Then, they’ll come back to you and asked why the check is missing from their giving statement.  Now, you have to go back through your records and figure out why its missing from the report.   You don’t have that kind of time to waste.

Keep the original entry in tact in your database.  You’ll want to record a separate entry in your database to show the check was returned.  Include the check #, the date the check was returned (per the bank advice or notice), and a comment like “NSF Check” or “Check returned due to closed account”.  Show the transaction as a negative amount, and apply it to the same contribution fund you recorded the original donation to.

This way, the donor’s contribution statement will include the original donation and an extra line item to show the deduction for the returned check.