The last remaining form types which take payments, join and renew, now make interim transactions on the bank account that takes payment. This means that, when the real transaction arrives from the bank, Cameo can usually automatically reconcile the subscriptions and donations these transactions represent.

Background

Interim transactions are bank statement lines with ready-made attributions which a form (that knows how a payment should be attributed) adds to an account when a payment is made.

Then, when the real statement line arrives from the bank, where possible Cameo either:

  • matches the real transaction with the interim one and reconciles it using its attributions, or
  • offers it as one possibility for manual attribution

Cameo only automatically attributes transactions you turn on the tick box to that effect in organisation settings → bank accounts. This only works if they properly quote back the reference given to the bank at the time of the transaction on their statement line.

Join and Renew forms

These two form types now support interim transactions and automatic reconciliation.

The forms attribute (both to the member record and the book-keeping account for subscriptions, if set up) the fee for the relevant membership type to subscriptions. Any excess is credited to donations.

The references quoted to the bank (and hopefully returned back to you) now look something like this for join:

-A12B3C- New 1234

The first number is the interim transaction identifier and the second is the membership number. Renew is similar, but says Rnw instead of New. If these do not meet your needs, you can change them in the form settings. However, we deliberately keep them terse because clearing banks limit references to 18 characters. They also only allow a very limited character set. Other payment providers are not so strict. However, we need to accommodate the lowest common denominator, which, as usual, are the dinosaurs of banking.

Donation tag

A setting () on the step where a donation is solicited in both forms lets you select a tag to identify which book-keeping account any donation should be assigned to. With manual reconciliation, you could choose the account, but automatic reconciliation needs to identify the relevant account.

If this is not set then the first account labelled as accepting donations is selected. In there isn’t one, or you aren’t using book-keeping accounts at all, then the donation is not assigned to any book-keeping account.

The booking form also now includes this same setting. In this way you can assign bookings arising out of a booking to a separate account if you wish.