A school group pays with a district voucher. A guest hands over a partner-attraction pass. A board member pays by internal transfer. In Altru, each of those means the cashier skips the big Cash, Check and Credit card choices, opens the “other” option, and scrolls a list looking for the right label. Do that a few dozen times a day and the obvious question comes up: can we just add a button for the payment types we actually use?
Here’s the short answer, followed by what you can control and how to make the “other” path quick enough that staff stop working around it.
The short answer
As far as we know, Altru doesn’t let you add your own top-level buttons to the daily sales payment screen. The main payment methods are built into the product, and anything else goes through a single “other” option backed by a list your administrators maintain. We haven’t found a supported way to turn one of those list entries into its own button.
Blackbaud does change the product over time, so don’t take our word as final. Check the current Altru release notes and the payment screen in your own environment. If you have a sandbox, look there before you promise anything to front-line staff. If the answer still isn’t clear, ask Blackbaud support directly whether custom payment buttons are available or planned.
What you can control: the list behind “other”
The extra step is fixed, but what happens after it is mostly up to you. Additional payment methods are usually kept in an administrator-managed code table. How that list is set up decides whether the extra step takes two seconds or twenty.
Cut the list down
Long-running Altru databases pick up payment methods nobody uses anymore: a partner program that ended, a test value, three spellings of “voucher.” Pull a revenue query on payment method for the last twelve months and see what’s actually in use. Inactivate anything that hasn’t appeared in a year rather than deleting it, so historical transactions keep their labels.
Name entries so they’re easy to scan
Cashiers scan for the first word. “Voucher – School District” and “Voucher – Library Pass” group together and are easy to find. “SD Voucher” and “Lib Pass” look like random codes to a seasonal hire. If the list sorts alphabetically in your version, you can use the naming to put the most common entries near the top.
Decide what really counts as a payment
Some entries on the “other” list aren’t payments. A comp ticket, a reciprocal-membership admission, or a staff guest pass usually reflects a price or discount decision, not money coming in. Recording them as a discount or a separate price type instead of a payment method shortens the list and gives finance cleaner revenue reports. Talk to whoever reconciles your deposits before you change this, because it affects how those transactions show up at month end.
Make the extra step faster at the desk
When the software can’t change, a little process work goes a long way:
- Post a cheat sheet at each register. List the four or five “other” methods your desk sees most, spelled exactly as they appear in Altru, and note what proof to collect for each (voucher number, partner card, approval initials).
- Put it in onboarding. New staff should process one of each common non-cash payment in training, not for the first time with a line out the door.
- Use the reference or comment field the same way every time. If a voucher has a number, decide where it goes and stick to it. A consistent field is much easier to query at reconciliation than free text scattered across notes.
- Move predictable cases off the desk. School and group visits that will be paid by voucher or invoice can often be handled ahead of time in group sales or advance sales, so the front desk only checks the group in.
Don’t forget the reconciliation side
Each payment method you add is another line someone has to reconcile. Before adding a new one, ask three questions:
- Does finance need to see this money separately, or is it just a variation of something already on the list?
- Is there an outside party (a school district, a partner attraction, a grant) that will be invoiced or reported to based on this method?
- Will someone actually review it at day-end close, or will it pile up unreviewed?
If the answer to all three is no, you probably don’t need a new payment method. A note on an existing one will do. Keeping the list short is also the most practical way to make the “other” step faster.
If you still want a dedicated button
Write up the case for Blackbaud in operational terms: which payment types, roughly how often your desk uses them, and what the extra steps cost at the register. Concrete examples from your own transaction data carry more weight than “it would be nice.” In the meantime, a trimmed, well-named list plus a cheat sheet will get you most of the speed a button would give.
Quick answers
Can I rename the built-in Cash, Check, or Credit card options?
We wouldn’t count on it. Those are core payment types that reporting and deposit processing depend on. Leave them alone and do your customizing in the “other” list.
Will inactivating an old payment method break past transactions?
Inactivating generally hides a value from new entries but keeps it on existing records. Deleting is riskier and may be blocked if the value is in use. Test in a sandbox if you’re unsure.
