Official Receipts

Introduction

Every resident of Ontario who makes one or more donations to a political party must receive Official Receipts for all donations he or she made to an election campaign, to a by-election campaign or any other donations made during the calendar year. (Not all donations made during an election or by-election campaign, such as monthly donations, need to be classified as campaign donations. Official Receipts qualify the donor to a refundable income tax credit according as described in the Political Tax Credit page.

The Elections Finances Act was amended effective January 1, 2017 to limit contributions to a Political Party to $1200 per year. This amount and the tax credit factors are increased every year based on the Consumer Price Index. As of 2021 the limit was$3300.

Electronic Database

The Election Finances Act requires that any party running candidates in over 50% of Electoral Districts (EDs) during a General Election must implement an electronic database for recording donations and issuing Official Receipts, not just for the Party, but for Electoral District Associations (EDAs) and for candidates. The donations are deposited in the respective EDA and Candidate Campaign accounts, but must be recorded on the Party's DB. The Party's Chief Financial Officer (Treasurer) is responsible for issuing the Official Receipts for the EDAs and Candidates as well as for the Party.

In the 2014 General Election The Party ran candidates in 74 of the 107 EDs. The Party obtained and installed an add-on to CiviCRM (the DB being used by the Party to keep track of contacts and contributions) designed to print Charitable Receipts. It was modified to meet the specific requirements of the Act. The Party demonstrated the system to representatives of Elections Ontario in September 2015 and it was approved in October 2015. It was used to generate Official Receipts for the Party for contributions made in 2015. None of our EDAs received any contributions in 2015, nor did our candidates in by-elections.

In 2016 the Party ran an active campaign in the September 1 by-election called for Scarborough-Rouge River. Elections Ontario advised that the "Contribution Type ID" must be 31 for donations to the campaign. A new Campaign Page was created in CRM with a Page Name of "Scarborough-Rouge River By-election." The Treasurer was able to select all contributions with this Page Name to update the Contribution Type ID to 31 and to produce individual Official Receipts for each donation. (Hopefully in future we will be able to have such campaign pages insert the correct codes.)

When a by-election or general election is called, the Party can create a "Campaign Page" which supporters may access to contribute to the Party's campaign fund. If an EDA wishes to solicit funds for their local campaign, than a campaign page may be created for the EDA. Campaign Pages for the Party or EDAs should not be activated or accessible to the public until the writ is dropped. The EDA may either set up their own PayPal account to receive donations, or make an agreement with the Party to have the funds transferred to the EDA's bank account. (as of 2016, none of our EDAs are active.)

Similar arrangements can be made if a candidate plans to solicit donations for his or her election campaign from family and friends. A candidate must not accept any donations until he or she is registered with Elections Ontario. Therefore the Campaign Page for a candidate must not be activated until the date the candidate is registered or the date the writ is issued, whichever is later.

Each Campaign Page must have a unique name. For example, "Barrie Libertarian EDA Election Campaign", or "John Doe Election Campaign."

In the past a bank account has not been opened for most candidates, and any one who wants to donate to a particular candidate's campaign has been advised to make a contribution to the Party and indicate the candidate's name on the memo line (or "Special Instructions" field to be added on the Campaign Page). Most candidate expenses are paid by the Party and transferred to the candidate's campaign when reporting to Elections Ontario.

If an EDA or candidate accepts cheques and deposits such donations directly into their bank account, each donations must be recorded on CRM. This can be done by the Party Treasurer on advice from the CFO for the EDA or candidate, or we may be able to establish CRM pages for the CFOs to enter donations directly into CRM for their respective EDA or Candidate.

Notes from DB Evaluation Tool

The Database Evaluation Tool is the document issued by Elections Ontario to evaluate the Party's system for recording donations and issuing Official Receipts for income tax purposes. The following notes are taken from the last column of this document. The numbers in parentheses are the ID # (first column) in this document. Technical details such as the name of the tables containing the relevant data are not included here. Text in square brackets [like this] add to or replace text in the document notes.

• After querying for one or more contributions in the system, tax receipts can be generated for a single contribution, or multiple contributions in batch. (41)
• The contribution information that was used to create the tax receipt is recorded in a separate table in the electronic database. A PDF copy of the tax receipt(s) is also generated at run time, for archival purposes, and an extra copy of generated receipts can be sent to an archival email address. (42)
• For an aggregated tax receipt, contribution information for each contribution record is also stored in a separate table. (43)
• The electronic database records the Drupal User ID of the user who is generating the tax receipt. (44)
• Multiple contributions received in a single year from a contributor can be aggregated into a single tax receipt. (46)
• A sequential number is used to identify each tax receipt record in the database. A unique identifier is also assigned to each tax receipt record, which provides the ability to distinguish between duplicate copies generated after the initial receipt. (47)
• Items 48 through 58 describe the contents of the Official Receipt. See sample here. (The address has been removed for privacy reasons.)
• Tax receipts can be manually marked as “lost” in the electronic database, then re-generated as a duplicate copy. (59)
• Tax receipts can be re-issued, with the newly generated tax receipt marked as a “duplicate” of the originally issued receipt. (60)
• After querying for one or more contributions in the system, individual contributions can be selected (click “View”) to see their associated tax receipt. If a receipt exists, the status can be changed to “Cancelled”, and checking “Cancel and Re-issue” will re-issue the receipt with a notice indicating that the new receipt replaces the cancelled receipt. (61, 63)
• [To generate a Cancellation Notice] Use Mail Merge Template: NoticeOfCancellationOfTaxReceipt, CiviCRM: CDN Tax Receipts: Reports > Contribution Reports > New Contribution Report. (62)
• [Receipts can be] Emailed ... to contributors ... using the contributor’s email address on their CiviCRM record. (65)
• Access to generate [Official Receipts and] reports is managed through Drupal user roles. (66)
• Reports can be generated in CiviCRM and exported, or saved for later use. (67)
• The “Tax Receipts - Receipts Issued” report [conforms to Elections Ontario requirements (see item for details)]. After generating the report, minimal changes will be required to the output to conform to the requirements of the EO technical specification. (68)
• Using the Contribution Summary report, contributors whose contributions totaled more than $100 can be identified, then added to a Group. All donations for contributors in this Group can then be exported to CSV format. (69) [See this item for details of how to do this.]

Advice from Elections Ontario

On Fri, Aug 21, 2015 at 3:49 PM, Nanette San Juan (Compliance Review Officer) <Nanette.SanJuan@elections.on.ca> wrote:

I just want to clarify one of the action items from the database evaluation this morning. For aggregated tax receipts for the party and constituency associations, a “Received date” of December 31st is acceptable.

For a candidates’ campaign, you must issue a tax receipt for each contribution (do not aggregate) which will show the “Received Date” (or Acceptance Date) for the contribution.

Advice from Phillip Richard

Phillip Richard was the Party Member who modified the CDN Charitable Tax Receipts Addon and CRM to meet Elections Ontario Requirements.

• Current Version: CiviCRM 4.4 LTS (long term support), Drupal 7 - CiviCRM 4.4 must be maintained to support CDNTaxReceipts module
• As stated in the letter from EO, material changes to the system require prior approval. This would include but is not limited to adding custom fields (ie. don't do it)
• In the Administer > CiviContribute > CDN Tax Receipts screen, do not setup in-kind receipts. This feature is already handled in the tax receipts module.
• Before issuing tax receipts, a signature image is required. The same screen above is used to upload the image.
• There has been talk of a modified logo - this would have to be tested with the tax receipt in the same screen as above. Not sure if this modification would require approval from Elections Ontario - whoever works on this will want to check that.
• Additional Financial Types have been added for each constituency association. Do not modify the description field of any financial type in CiviCRM (especially in-kind), these reflect what is shown on the tax receipt.

Preparation

Notes:

• Official Receipts for In-Kind donations must be produced before Monetary contributions. Once a Receipt is issued, it will not be issued again. It may be cancelled and (optionally) re-issued.
• An Official Receipt WILL be issued for contributions with Financial Type = "Event Fees". Note that as of January 2017 "Event Fees" for Party business meetings (e.g. Conventions and Annual General Meetings) were NOT to be considered as donations. This has since been revoked. Event Fees are treated as donations.
• Before printing any Receipts, it is a good idea to ensure Receipts will be issued for all valid donations and only valid donations. It is a good practice to reconcile the accounting records (e.g. Quicken) with CRM on a regular basis. The accounting system should be able to list by date and total all deposits to the chequing account, all transfers from PayPal to the chequing account, and all donations of Goods and Services. It may help to list "Other Income" as well, in the event out-of-province amounts were recorded as donations.
• New Treasurer - The name and signature of the new Treasurer must be updated in CRM before any Official Receipts are produced. Go to <Administer - CiviContribute - CDN Tax Receipts>. The mailing address and Party Logo may also be updated on this page.

Reconciliation Procedure

This is a revised (simplified?) procedure used for 2017 and later years. The following procedures may need to be updated for CRM Version 8 and subsequent upgrades. 

1. In CRM, click on <Donations - Find Donations> and search for all "Completed" donations in the "Previous Year." If doing a mid-year reconcilliation, specify the appropriate "From" and "To" dates. 
2. Export all selected records using the "Donation Reconciliation" Saved Field Mapping.
3. Open the downloaded file. Make the Header row bold and Freeze it <Alt-W F F>.
4. Check for blank "Contribution Type ID" and correct the CRM Record.
5. If the previous year included an election or by-election delete wrong "Contribution Type ID" (e.g. 17 for items not treated as donations).
6. If the Total Amount of the found records is the same as the Accounting total, it may not be necessary to go further.
7. Sort the file by Financial Type and delete all rows with "Other Income" in this column.
8. Sort file by Province. If any records have other than ON, locate the donations in CRM and change the Financial Type to "Other Income." Note that these donations Must be limited to the Membership Fee (or $25?) and should be included in the Real Time Disclosure process.
9. Take the sum of all donations. If this does not match the accounting records, split the records into groups for comparison to the records in the Accounting list. (Make sure the Accounting report includes donations from Delayed Donations (i.e. late arriving donations).
   1. Sort the donation records by Receive Date and then by Payment Instrument. This will separate deposits to the Chequing Account and donations made through Stripe.
   2. Get the total for "Other" (In Kind) donations, "Cash" and "Cheque" (deposited offline to chequing) donations, and for "Credit Card" (PayPal) donations and compare each to the accounting totals.
   3. Where a total does not agree, compare the details to the details from the accounting system. (The accounting system should have separate entries for each deposit of of cash and cheques, each transfer of funds from PayPal, and each contribution of Goods and Service.)
   4. If the deposits to the chequing account do not agree, you will need to sort the Deposits by date to combine any cash donations with the cheques deposited on the same date. Compare the total of donations deposited on the same date to the deposit transaction. if it doesn't match, compare it to the documentation for the deposit. If a donation is missing check the donor's record on CRM.
   5. Use the PayPal transfer documentation to accumulate the total for contributions in each transfer. This should identify missing or extra records.
   6. Make the required corrections to CRM and/or the accounting records.
   7. When the records are in balance, recreate the CRM list of donations and/or the Accounting list for audit purposes.

The following in the procedure used for 2016 Receipts.

1. Check that there are no Donation records from any province other than Ontario. Supporters outside of Ontario may only pay a membership fee ($10). Such records should be identified as "Other Income". Such records should be identified when funds are transferred from the Stripe Account to the chequing account, or when preparing Real Time Disclosure files for Elections Ontario.
2. Reconcile the total donations for the year (or campaign) recorded on CRM agrees with the total to be reported to Elections Ontario in the AR-10 Annual Report (or CR-10 Campaign Report). This can be accomplished if accounting software (such as Quicken) is used and reconciled with the bank statements. The accounting software should be able to separate "In Kind" donations from "Monetary" donations. It will also help (in the case of a discrepancy) if it can also separate donations by source (e.g. Stripe, Credit Cards, Cheques).
3. If the total of the donations selected does not match the accounting records, look for donations with an amount in the "Non-deductible" field,
4. The "Contribution Type ID" is the key for selecting donations to be receipted. Elections Ontario will advise what code to use at the start of each year and each by-election or general election. The default value for "Contribution Type ID" must be updated at the start of each year. Unfortunately PayPal subscription donations do not use the current code. To ensure all contributions have the correct code -
   1. Search for "Financial Type" = "Donations", Completed in the Previous Year with "Contribution Type ID" less than the code for the previous year. If preparing to produce Official Receipts for a Campaign, search for "Financial Type" = "Campaign Contributions" instead.
   2. If any are found, select all and choose "Batch Update Donations Via Profile."
   3. Select "Donation Updates."
   4. Change "Contribution Type ID" in the first record to the appropriate code, and click the Copy Icon (two pages) in the heading. This will copy the "Contribution Type ID" from the first record to all remaining records.
   5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on [Update Donations].

1. Repeat the above process for "Financial Type" = "Member Dues" and "Financial Type" = "Contribution to Party (In Kind)".
2. Repeat the above process for "Financial Type" = "Event Fees" and "Contribution Type ID" = 33. Since these are not contributions, follow the above steps to blank the "Contribution Type ID".
3. Similarly for "Financial Type" = "Other".

Produce Receipts for Campaign Contributions

A separate Official Receipt must be issued for each donor who made donations during an election campaign. Each by-election and general election will have a unique "Contribution Type ID." This must be used to distinguish campaign donations. If there are Campaign Pages for one or more EDAs and/or Candidates, each must have a unique Page Name. The combination of Contribution Type ID and Page Name can be used to create Official Receipts for each campaign. The Page Name is printed on the Official Receipt as the Source for the donation.

1. 1. Select <Donations - Find Donations> from the menu.
2. Select Donation Status = "Completed"
3. Specify the Contribution Type ID for the year or campaign.
4. Click on [Search].
5. Check the "Total Amount" and "# Completed Donations" are the expected values.
6. To print "Election Campaign Contribution" as the Source on donations made during the campaign period;
   1. Check the box to select all records on the page. (The Update procedure will only process 50 records at a time.)
   2. Select "Batch Update Donations Via Profile" and click [Go]
   3. Select "Change SOURCE in Donations" and click [Continue >>]
   4. In the first record, change the description to "Election Campaign Donation" under "Donation Source" and click the 'copy icon' beside the heading to copy the new source description to all records.
   5. Scroll to the bottom (confirming all records have the new Source) and click on [Update Donations].
   6. Click [Done] to return to the list of donations.
   7. Uncheck the box to deselect the records on that page.
   8. If this is not the last page, go the next page, select all the records on that page and repeat this process.
7. Select All Records and select Action "Issue Tax Receipts (Combined Receipt Total Contributed)" and click [Go].
8. As a test, check the box "Run in preview mode?" and click [Issue Tax Receipts]. This will generate a PDF with all receipts marked "Preview Copy."
9. If the PDF looks good, uncheck the Preview box and click [Issue Tax Receipts].
10. CRM will create the Receipts and email them to the Donor with a Copy sent to cfo@ontariolibertarian.ca. It will also create a PDF of Official Receipts for donors with no email. These must be printed and mailed to the Donor with a covering letter.

This procedure should produce separate receipts for both monetary and non-monetary (Goods and Services or In Kind) donations. This has not been tested.

Produce Receipts for Annual Goods and Services Contributions

Donations of Goods and Services are entered with Financial Type = "Contribution to Party (In Kind)" and Payment Method = "Other." The Source field describes the nature of the goods or services provided and is printed on the Official Receipt. As a result, separate Receipts must be issued for each donation of Goods and Services. Since Monetary Receipts are to be aggregated for all contributions made by a donor except for Goods and Services, these must be produced first.

1. Select <Donations - Find Donations> from the menu.
2. Select Donation Status = "Completed" and Donation Dates = "Previous Year."
3. Select Financial Type = "Contribution to Party (In-kind)."
4. (NOT REQ'D?? (Specify the Contribution Type ID for the year in the Additional Donation Details (Elections Ontario).
5. Click on [Search].
6. Check the list is valid. Compare the total to the total on the accounting records to ensure all donations will get a receipt.
7. Select All Records and select Action = "Issue Tax Receipts (Separate Receipts for each donation)" from the drop down list. This will take you to the Issue Tax Receipts Page.
8. Check that the number of receipts to be issued is reasonable. It should be equal to the number of In-Kind donations unless one or more have ben issued previously.
9. As a test, check the box "Run in preview mode?" and click [Issue Tax Receipts]. This will generate a PDF with all receipts marked "Preview Copy."
10. If the PDF looks good, uncheck the Preview box and click [Issue Tax Receipts].
11. Save the PDF file in the appropriate folder with an appropriate name (se.g. C:\OLP\Official Receipts\yyyy In-Kind.pdf - where yyyy is the year of the contributions).

Produce Receipts for Monetary Contributions - Annual

The procedure to produce Official Receipts after the end of the year for monetary contributions is similar to the procedure to produce receipts for Goods and Services except that we will issue 'aggregate' receipts that report the total of all monetary contributions received from the donor during the calendar year for which a receipt has not already been issued.

Given that the amount over $399 only gets a 50% tax credit compared to the 75% received on the first $399, and that Official Receipts can be shared with a spouse, it is advantageous to such donors if the Party splits their donations among two receipts. If it is a single donation, then it should be recorded as two donations adding up to the actual donation. View each donation and click on the "Tax Receipt" button.

A couple of our donors contribute more than $400 a year by monthly subscriptions. Issuing two Receipts can be done by selecting only donations from the first half of the year for such individuals and printing them first using the "aggregate" option. Printing the second Receipt immediately after makes it easier to keep track of them and send them together.

If there are more than a few donors who have contributed over $399, this process may be simplified if a "Group" can be created for them. Search for all the donations made this period by this Group. Select donations that add up to something near $400 for each donor, and select the "Create Aggregate Receipts" Action. Select the same Group again and select the "Create Aggregate Receipts" Action again. This time it will produce the second Receipt for the rest of the donations.

Procedure

1. Select <Donations - Find Donations> from the menu.
2. Select Date Received = "Previous calendar year and Donation Status = "Completed"
3. NOT REQUIRED - Specify the Contribution Type ID for the year or campaign.
4. Select Financial Type = "Donation", "Event Fee" and "Member Dues".
5. Click on [Search].
6. Check the list is valid; Total should equal the total of all donations for the year.
7. Select All Records and select "Issue Tax Receipts (Combined Receipt ..." from the drop down list.
8. Click [Go].
9. As a test, check the box "Run in preview mode?" and click [Issue Tax Receipts]. This will generate a PDF with all receipts marked "Preview Copy."
10. If the PDF looks good, uncheck the Preview box and click [Issue Tax Receipts].
11. CRM will ask for a place to save the PDF of Official Receipts. Specify a folder and a suitable file name (e.g. C:\OLP\Members\Receipts Monetary 2015.pdf).

Distribute Receipts to Donors

The final step is to email or mail Official Receipts to the donors.

• For Election Campaigns, an Official Receipt must be created for each donation. These can be created as the donations are received and recorded on CRM, once a week, once a month, or at the end of the campaign period. (For donors without an Email ID it is probably best to create and mail them at the end of the campaign period.)
• For annual donations (i.e. outside a campaign period), Official Receipts can be prepared in January or February of the following year.

Create Individual PDFs by Donor

The above processes will have created two or more PDFs containing multiple Official Receipts. The objective is to create one PDF for each donor. This requires a program that can edit PDFs. If one is not available, then the free Adobe Reader can be used to "Print" individual Receipts to a PDF, one page at a time. Each new PDF should be named with the last name and first initial of the donor (e.g. Smith J.pdf).

Start with the file containing the most Receipts. Then process the next file, creating PDFs named with the donor's last name, initial and a suffix of '1' (e.g. Smith J 1.pdf). Similarly for each additional file, using the next higher suffix.

If possible, combine all the PDFs for one donor into one PDF.

CRM has an Action "Print or email Official Receipts" which needs to be tested and documented. Meanwhile the following less automated procedures can be used. Using CRM to send the Receipts provides a copy of the receipts sent and a record of when it was sent on CRM.

Mailed Receipts

The Official Receipts are designed to fit in a standard #10 window envelope with the address displayed in the window.

The Receipt(s) for a donor should be printed and inserted into an envelope. A cover letter should be included. Ideally it will thank the donor for their donation and tell them how to claim the tax credit and how much it will be. The bottom third of the letter should include a Donor coupon, to encourage the donor to donate at least the tax credit.

In order to provide a copy of the Receipts and the dates mailed, create a Note on each donor's record;

1. Enter "Mailed Official Receipt" in the Subject box.
2. Enter the date it was mailed in the Note box.
3. Click on [Choose File] button and select the PDF for this donor.
4. Repeat the above if there is more than one PDF for this donor.
5. Save the Note.

Emailed Receipts

CRM contains an email template named "Official Receipts." From a list of Receipt PDFs;

1. Select a Donor in CRM.
2. Click the [Action] button
3. Click "Send an email."
4. In the 'Use Template' box, select "Official Receipts."
5. Modify the body of the email if necessary (e.g. delete the sentence starting with "Your spouse ..." if there is only one Receipt.)
6. Scroll down and click on the "Attachment(s)" bar.
7. Click on [Choose File] button and select the PDF for this donor.
8. Repeat the above if there is more than one PDF for this donor.
9. Click on [Send Email].

The Activities log for the donor will include an entry for the email, indicating the date sent. The Activities log for the person sending the Receipts will list all emails sent. (If printed Receipts are sent using CRM, they should also show up on the Activities logs.)

Cancel and Reissue Receipts

Occasionally it will be necessary to re-issue a Receipt. The donor may have lost the original Receipt or it may have been issued in the wrong name. Or it may be necessary to cancel a Receipt (e.g. the donor does not live in Ontario or has asked for the donation to be split into two Receipts).

1. Locate the PDF for the original Receipt to be cancelled or replaced and rename it with a suffix of "Lost" or "Cancelled".
2. Use the <Donations - Find Donations> menu option.
3. Enter the last name and select "Previous Year" in the Date Range
4. View the donation for which a receipt is to be re-issued. If the Receipt was an aggregate Receipt, you need only view any one of the donations included.
5. Confirm that this is the correct donation and click on the [Tax Receipt] button.
6. Confirm again that this is the correct Receipt.
   1. To re-issue a lost Receipt, select "Lost" in the "Change Status" box, check the box for "Cancel and Re-Issue Current Tax Receipt?" and click on the button [Re-issue Tax Receipt/Change Status].
   2. To re-issue a Receipt for any other reason, select "Cancelled" in the "Change Status" box, check the box for "Cancel and Re-Issue Current Tax Receipt?" and click on the button [Re-issue Tax Receipt/Change Status].
   3. To Cancel the Receipt without issuing a new one, select "Cancelled" in the "Change Status" box and click on the button [Re-issue Tax Receipt/Change Status].
7. If the Receipt is being re-issued, save it as above and send it to the donor. This Receipt will have a note printed on it indicating it is a replacement for the original receipt.

Note: If the Receipt is to be re-issued to a different name and/or address or for a different amount, cancel the original receipt before changing the details, then issue a new Receipt for the donation(s). It may be possible to change the details before doing a Cancel and Re-issue, but this would need to be tested.

Elections Ontario Reporting

In accordance with Section 25.1 (1) of the Election Finances Act, registered parties using the electronic database must file with the Chief Electoral Officer the following reports:

1. a “Tax Receipt Summary” Report that must:
   1. list all contributions received by tax receipt number. The report must include tax receipts issued* for the registered political party, its registered constituency associations and its registered candidates; and
   2. be generated by the registered political party and submitted to Elections Ontario accompanying the Political Party’s financial statements. This report will be provided in lieu of the copies of the hard copy tax receipts.
2. a “List of Contributors Whose Contributions Totaled More than $100” Report that must be generated by the registered political party and submitted to Elections Ontario accompanying the Political Party’s financial statements. This should be a separate report which accompanies the financial statements provided by the registered political party its registered constituency associations and its registered candidates.

*this includes the records for any issued receipts which were subsequently cancelled, lost, or voided

Elections Ontario has created a checklist to assist parties in adhering to the Elections Ontario's Contribution Reporting Technical Specifications – these files are attached for your reference. Parties are required to submit the files electronically to a dedicated Elections Ontario email address (electfin@elections.on.ca). Elections Ontario has also established a "portal" which allows political entities to upload files.

For further information please consult the CFO Handbook for Political Parties.

Financial Statements for campaigns must be submitted to Elections Ontario six months after Polling Day by the Party (CR-4), each EDA (CR-3) and each Candidate (CR-1). Annual Financial Statements must be submitted by May 31 of the following year by the Party (AR-10) and each EDA (AR-1). Two spreadsheets must be created from CRM to support each of these returns;

1. a list of all Official Receipts issued, cancelled and re-issued. (See the list for 2015 as an example.)
2. a list of all donors who contributed more than $100.00. (See the list for 2015 as an example.)

It may be possible to generate both of these lists from a single spreadsheet, however the following procedures extract different data from CRM for each list.

List of Receipts Issued, Cancelled and Re-issued

The Treasurer must submit a list of all Official Receipts issued, cancelled or re-issued to Elections Ontario in a file in either CSV (Comma Separated Value) or Pipe Delimited format. Here are the Technical Specifications for this list.

Rob Brooks created the query that will produce the report. Modify the year, startdate, enddate and contributionid in the following URL and click on it to generate the Tax Receipt Summary.

http://www.ontariolibertarian.ca/utilities/eoreports/trsummary.php?year=2018&startdate=2018-01-01&enddate=2019-01-0&contributionid=35

Donors of over $100.00

The first step is to extract all monetary donations for the period from CRM. Do NOT include non-monetary ("In Kind") donations.

1. Select <Donations - Find Donations> from the menu.
2. Select Donation Status = "Completed"
3. Specify the Contribution Type ID for the year or campaign.
4. Click on [Search]. The results will include records with "Other" in the Payment Instrument column. These are In Kind donations.
5. Check the list is valid and the total matches the Accounting records. If not, follow the Reconciliation Procedure to find the discrepancy.
6. Select All Records and select "Export Donations" from the drop down list.
7. Click [Go].
8. Click on (Select Fields for export) and select "Schedule 2" from the drop down list.
9. Confirm it contains Contribution Type ID, Last Name, First Name, Organization Name, [the Primary Street Address, City and Postal Code] and from the Donation record the Total Amount, Financial Type, Received Date and Receipt Date, and Sort Name.
10. Click on [Export]. This will download a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file. Open it in Excel (or your favourite spreadsheet program).
11. Sum the Total Amount (donations) column and confirm it matches the Total Donations (including Good & Services).
12. Delete all records with "Other" in the "Payment Instrument" column and confirm that the total matches the Accounting total for monetary contributions. If not, find the discrepancy before proceeding.

The next step is to combine all donations from each donor.

1. The last column of data should be the Donation ID column. Put headings of "Aggregate Contribution Amount" and "Last" in the next two columns.
2. Sort the data by Received Date and then Sort Name.
3. In the second row of the "Aggregate Contribution Amount" column, enter the following formula - =IF(F2=F1, G1+E2,E2) where Column F is the Sort Name and column G is the Aggregate Contribution Amount
4. In the second row of the next column ("Last"), enter the following formula - =IF(F3=F2,0,1)
5. Select these two cells and copy them to the rest of the rows.
6. Select these two columns and Copy them.
7. Do a <Paste Special Values> into these same two columns to change the formulas to fixed values.
8. Delete the Date columns and the Donation ID column.

This should give a spreadsheet that accumulates multiple donations from a donor and with a 1 in the last column of the last donation from a donor. Each donation but the last one from a donor should have a zero in the Last column. The third step is to select all donors with an "Aggregate Contribution Amount" over $100.00

1. Sort the spreadsheet by the "Last" column.
2. Delete all rows with a zero in the "Last" column. This will leave only one record for each donor with the total donations for the period.
3. Sort the spreadsheet by the "Donation" column.
4. Delete all rows with a Donation value of 100.00 or less.
5. Sort the spreadsheet by "Sort Name."

The final step is to match the format required by Elections Ontario. Make any changes required to match the sample list for 2015.

1. Add columns with constant information; Party ID (15), Contributor ID, Political Entity Type (P), and Political Entity (Ontario Libertarian Party).
2. Copy Headings from the sample.
3. Change the "Contribution Type ID" heading to "Contribution Period ID."

Archive of Official Receipts

As CRM generates each Official Receipt it sends the PDF as an attachment to an email to taxreceiptarchive@ontariolibertarian.ca. This can be very useful if the procedure to generate receipts fails part way through. It does not produce the PDF with all receipts until the process is finishing, as happened while creating the 2017 receipts.

If you need to recover an Official Receipt for a donor:

• Locate the donor and the donation record.
• If the [Tax Receipt] button has a red maple leaf (meaning a receipt has been issued), click on it.
• Copy the receipt number. (This will be used to search the archive for a copy of the specific Official Receipt.)
• Log on to cPanel) with Username liberta2.
• Click on "EMail Accounts" and locate taxreceiptarchive@ontariolibertarian.ca
• Click on [More] (right side of screen) and select "Access Webmail." (This will open a new tab or window.)
• Click on one of the three applications for reading the Email.
• Paste the Receipt Number into the Search box and press Enter. This will locate the required email.
• Select or open the email. The Attachment will be a PDF containing the Official Receipt.
• Open and/or Download the PDF to the appropriate folder on your computer.
• Send it to the donor using the above procedure for distributing Official Receipts.