A school books a field trip for 60 students, sends a check for the full quote, and then 48 kids show up. The teacher says, “Keep the difference, it’s a gift.” Now you have a group sales order that is overpaid, money that is really a donation, and a deposit that has to balance. The goal is to record all of that against one payment, not refund the money and ask the school to write a second check.
Here is how to think about it in Altru, what to try first, and the fallbacks when the one-payment route isn’t available in your setup.
First, confirm it really is a gift
Before you touch the record, get the donor’s intent in writing. An email from the group leader saying “please keep the remaining balance as a donation” is enough. Save it as an attachment or note on the constituent record. Two details matter:
- Who the donor is. Whoever the payment came from should get the credit. If the school district’s check paid for the trip, the gift belongs to the school or district, not the teacher who sent the email. If a parent paid by card, it’s the parent. Get this wrong and your acknowledgment and giving history are wrong too.
- Whether anything was received in exchange. If the extra amount is truly left over, with no added program or upgrade, it is normally a straight contribution. If it covered something the group got, it isn’t a gift. When in doubt, ask your finance office before you record it as a donation.
The cleanest approach: split the payment when you record it
The easiest fix is to never let the order become overpaid at all. When the check or card payment comes in, apply the amount actually due to the group sales order and apply the rest to a donation, all within the same payment. Then you have:
- One payment that matches the check or card charge, so the deposit reconciles.
- A group sales order paid in full, with no balance or credit hanging off it.
- A donation on the payer’s record that shows up in giving history, acknowledgment processes, and revenue reports.
Whether you can add a donation application while paying a group sales order depends on how your Altru environment and group sales payment workflow are set up, and it can behave differently between the front desk and back-office payment entry. I’d rather not guess at the exact screens. Test it in your sandbox or training environment with a small fake order: pay it with more than the balance, try adding a donation to the same payment, then check the payment, the order, and the donation revenue to confirm each one landed where you expect. If you can’t find the option, ask Blackbaud support whether it’s supported in your version.
When the money is already posted as an overpayment
The more common situation is that the overpayment is discovered after the fact: the payment went in for the original quote, the order was later reduced for the smaller headcount, and now the order shows a credit. You have a few options, roughly in order of preference.
1. Edit or reapply the existing payment
If the payment hasn’t been posted to your general ledger yet, you may be able to adjust its applications so that part goes to the order and part goes to a donation. Once revenue is posted, edits are usually restricted or create adjustments, so work with whoever handles your GL posting before changing anything. This keeps the single-transaction record, which is what you want.
2. Refund and take a new donation
Refund the overpaid amount on the group sales order, then record a new donation for the same amount from the same constituent. For a check, this is often a paper exercise with no money leaving the building, but your finance team has to agree on how it’s documented. It’s two transactions instead of one, and it shows a refund in your reports that never actually went back to the payer. Note on both records why they’re linked.
Be careful with card payments here. Actually refunding the card and charging it again for the donation means two processor transactions and two sets of fees, and you need the payer’s permission to charge the card a second time. Many organizations avoid that and use option 1 or a finance-approved journal entry instead.
3. Have finance reclassify it
Some organizations leave Altru alone and let the finance office reclassify the amount from earned revenue to contributed revenue in the accounting system. That gets the books right, but the donation won’t appear in Altru giving history or trigger an acknowledgment. If you go this way, record the gift intent in a note so development staff know it happened, and send the thank-you letter by hand.
Don’t skip the acknowledgment
Whichever route you take, the donor still needs a thank-you, and possibly a tax receipt. If the donation lives in Altru as its own revenue, your normal acknowledgment process should pick it up. If it doesn’t, put a reminder on the record so it isn’t forgotten. School groups and corporate outings often turn into repeat bookings, and a quick note thanking the group for the gift helps with that.
Make it a written procedure
Overpayments on group sales happen every season, mostly from headcount changes. Agree once with finance and development on:
- Who decides whether an overpayment becomes a donation, and what written confirmation is required.
- Which method your team uses (split payment, edit before posting, or refund plus new donation).
- Which designation or fund these gifts go to, so they’re consistent in reports.
- Who sends the acknowledgment.
A simple query of group sales orders with a credit balance, run monthly, catches the ones nobody followed up on. Each one needs a decision: refund it, or confirm it as a gift and record it.
Quick answers
Can I just leave the overpayment sitting on the order?
You can, but it shows up as a credit balance and inflates earned revenue for something the group never received. It also never counts as a gift, so the donor gets no acknowledgment.
Should the donation be dated the day of the original payment or the day the group confirmed the gift?
Ask your finance office. Many use the date the money was received, but if that crosses a fiscal year boundary, get a clear decision before you record it.
