A school district mails a check for its spring field trips. The memo line reads “Lincoln Elem, 4th grade, invoice 2 of 3, PO 88123.” Someone records the payment against the group sales reservation in Altru, and three months later the district’s accounts payable office calls to ask which trips that check covered. Unless that memo text made it into Altru somewhere, you’re digging through a deposit envelope to answer.
Group sales payments carry more context than most transactions: purchase order numbers, partial payment notes, which of several reservations a single check is meant to cover, who at the school actually cut it. Here’s how to think about capturing that information in Altru, where it’s reasonable to put it, and how to get it back out when someone asks.
First, find out what your payment screen actually stores
Altru’s payment forms record the basics: amount, payment method, and method-specific details such as a check number or card information. Whether there’s a free-text memo or reference field on the payment itself, and whether it’s exposed when you apply a payment to a group sales reservation, is something to confirm in your own database rather than assume. Payment screens differ by context (daily sales, advance sales, group sales, revenue entry, batches), and a field that appears in one place may not appear in another.
The fastest way to settle it:
- In a sandbox or training environment, record a test check payment on a group sales reservation and look at every field the form offers.
- Open the resulting revenue record and see which of those values were saved and are visible afterward.
- Check whether the same fields are available in queries. A field that’s saved but not queryable is only half useful, since you’ll want to report on it later.
If you can’t find a place for memo text on the payment, ask Blackbaud support directly whether one exists for group sales payments in your version. That’s a quick question, and it’s better than building a workaround for a field you already have.
Where the memo can live if the payment has no field for it
If there’s no dedicated memo field, you still have reasonable options. The goal is to pick one place and use it every time, so nobody has to check three spots.
Notes on the group sales reservation
The reservation is usually the best home for payment context, because it’s the record staff open when a group calls. A short, dated note such as “3/14 check #4417, $1,250, PO 88123, covers deposit only” tells the next person exactly what happened. The downside is that it’s attached to the reservation, not the payment, so if one check covers several reservations you’ll need a note on each.
Notes on the organizer’s or organization’s constituent record
For schools and organizations that book repeatedly, a note on the constituent record builds a running payment history that survives from one year to the next. This works well for recurring purchase order numbers or billing contacts. It’s less useful for answering “what did this specific check pay for.”
The check number itself
If your payment form captures a check number, use it consistently. It’s often the single most useful identifier when an accounts payable office calls, because it’s what they have on their side. Pair it with a reservation note and you can usually reconstruct the rest.
Your deposit or batch paperwork
Some finance teams keep check copies or a deposit log outside Altru. That’s fine as a backup, but don’t let it be the only record. Front-of-house and group sales staff rarely have access to it, and it doesn’t show up when someone opens the reservation.
Agree on a format
Free-text notes get messy fast when five people write them five ways. A simple, written convention helps more than any field:
- Date received
- Payment method and check number
- Amount
- PO or invoice number, if the payer provided one
- What the payment covers (deposit, balance, specific reservation numbers if one check covers several)
- Your initials
Keep the order the same every time. Consistent notes are easier to read at a glance and much easier to search or pull into a query.
Getting the information back out
The test of any approach is whether you can answer a payer’s question in a couple of minutes. Before you settle on a method, try building a query that returns group sales reservations with their payments and whichever note or field you chose. If the notes you’re writing can’t be returned by a query, you’ll be opening records one at a time every time finance or a school asks for a reconciliation.
It’s also worth showing the convention to whoever reconciles deposits. They’re the ones most likely to need the memo details, and they may have a strong preference about where those details go.
Quick answers
Should I put the PO number in the payment amount description or constituent name fields?
No. Overloading fields meant for something else breaks reports and acknowledgments. Use a note or a field intended for reference text.
One check pays for three reservations. Where does the memo go?
Add the same note to each reservation, and include the other reservation numbers in it so anyone opening one can find the rest.
