A school district mails one check for six field trips. A tour operator wires a single deposit to cover three dates next spring. In group sales the money and the reservations rarely line up one to one. Getting that one payment recorded correctly against several reservations in Altru takes some planning, and moving a payment after it’s posted takes more.
This guide covers both jobs: splitting one payment across several reservations, and re-applying a payment that landed on the wrong one. It also covers the habits that keep your group sales balances and your finance reconciliation in agreement.
Start with what Altru expects
Altru tracks balances per reservation. Each group sales reservation has its own price, its own amount paid, and its own balance due. A payment is recorded against a reservation, and that’s what makes the reservation show as paid, partially paid, or outstanding.
So “one check, many reservations” isn’t one payment as far as Altru is concerned. It’s several payment entries whose total equals the check. Whether your version of Altru lets you allocate a single payment across multiple reservations in one step, or makes you enter it on each reservation separately, depends on your configuration and on the payment workflow you use. If you’re unsure, run the test below in a sandbox or ask Blackbaud support before you try it on a live check.
Splitting one check across several reservations
- Get the allocation in writing first. Before anyone touches Altru, decide how much of the check goes to each reservation. Usually the payer tells you (“this covers the 4th, 9th, and 12th”). If they didn’t, pay off the earliest event dates first, and email the payer your allocation so there’s a record.
- Record a payment on each reservation for its share. Use the same payment method and the same check number (or wire reference) on every entry. The shared reference is what lets anyone, including you six months from now, tie the pieces back to one deposit.
- Use the same date, and the same batch if you work in batches. Keeping the entries together means the deposit total in Altru matches the bank deposit, which is what your finance team will reconcile against.
- Add a short note on each reservation. Something like “Part of check 10482, $2,400 total, split across 3 reservations” saves a phone call later.
- Check the totals before you close the batch. The sum of the entries should equal the check amount exactly. A penny off here turns into a reconciliation hunt at month end.
If the check is larger than all the balances combined, don’t park the extra on whichever reservation is open. Hold it until you know the payer’s intent: a deposit on a future visit, a donation, or a refund. Each of those is handled differently in Altru, and guessing makes extra work later.
Moving a payment to a different reservation
This is harder. Once a payment is recorded, and especially once it has been posted to your general ledger, you generally can’t simply move it from one reservation to another. The usual pattern is to undo it on the wrong reservation and record it again on the right one.
- Before posting: if the payment hasn’t been posted yet (or its batch is still open), correcting or deleting the entry and re-entering it on the right reservation is usually the cleanest fix. Confirm your security role allows this; many organizations restrict it.
- After posting: you’ll typically need a refund or reversal on the original reservation and a new payment on the correct one. Talk to whoever owns your GL before doing this. A reversal and new payment that net to zero is fine for the bank, but it can still show up in revenue reports for both dates, and finance may want it handled a specific way.
- When the reservations belong to different constituents: say a district paid for a reservation booked under a single school. Be careful. Moving money between constituent records affects giving and revenue history for both. Agree on whose record should carry the payment before you move anything.
Write down whatever process your team settles on, including who’s allowed to do each step. Payment corrections are the kind of task that gets done three different ways by three different people unless someone writes the steps down.
Preventing the mess in the first place
Most misapplied group payments come from the same few situations, so a little structure up front avoids most of them:
- Invoice per reservation, or show the breakdown. If a client gets one invoice for several visits, list each reservation and its balance on it. Payers tend to send the amounts you show them.
- Ask for a reservation number with every payment. Put it on invoices and in confirmation emails: “Please include your reservation number with payment.”
- Keep the organization and the contact straight. When a district office pays for a school’s visits, decide whether reservations live on the district, the school, or the teacher. Make that a rule, not a case-by-case call.
- Review open balances weekly. A query of group reservations with a balance due and an event date in the next two weeks catches the case where a payment went to the wrong reservation, because one shows overpaid and another shows unpaid.
Quick answers
Can one payment record cover several reservations?
Plan on entering a separate payment per reservation that all share one check number. If your Altru setup supports allocating a single payment across reservations, test it in a sandbox first and confirm the batch and reports come out the way finance expects.
What if the payer sends less than the total due?
Apply what they sent according to their instructions or your earliest-date rule, and leave the remaining balances open. Don’t spread a short payment evenly unless the payer asked you to. It makes every reservation look partially paid.
Who should approve moving a posted payment?
Whoever reconciles your deposits. If that person doesn’t know about the change, it will show up as an unexplained discrepancy.
