[Kathy Lyon]

I'm wondering if some of you would share your company's process with incoming mail. By that I mean, what department or person gets the mail first and opens the mail, sorts out checks for donations, etc., or does mail go directly to the finance department to remove checks and then the rest of the mail is sorted as addressed?

Thanks for your input!

[andrea.bbbs]

Our receptionist (age 93!) opens all the mail. She stamps the back of the checks with our deposit info, makes two copies of each check, runs two tapes totalling the stack, and gives me the checks, copies, tapes, and envelopes the checks came in. If letters come with the checks, she makes copies of those too. I process all in a batch, keep one copy of everything, print 3 copies of the batch report. I keep one, two go to Finance. I also run one copy of the Finance report - the page showing which campaigns everything went to, and that goes to Finance too.

Sometimes if there are only small checks or if she forgets, she leaves the checks in her drawer until she gets to it or until I mention it.

She sorts and date stamps the rest of the mail.

[Nina Williams]

Mail is opened by the person it is addressed to, or his exec. asst. I open all AF reply envelopes. All other checks are given to me. I stamp them, enter in RE. Three copies of the checks are made, one for me, one for finance and one to be attached to the thank you and filed in the donors file. I print two copies of the Cash Receipts Journal report and the Pledge Journal, one copy for me, one copy for finance. Checks, copies and reports are put in a special envelope and sent through inter office mail to Finance (they are in a different bldg). I then pull and custom interactive report for Finance that allows them to dump into their system. This is put in a shared file.

[Ali]

Our mail is sorted by our Finance Associate. She opens anything that looks like it might be a check. She stamps the backs and paperclips all the checks to their backup. Then they go to our receptionist who logs them in a check log (excel worksheet). She prints out the check log and gives everything back to the Finance Associate. The Finance Associate codes all the checks (appeal and fund). She makes copies of all the checks and backup which all goes in a big envelope that goes to the Contributions Coordinator for gift entry. The Finance Associate makes copies of all the checks on sheets of paper (three checks per sheet) which goes with the check log into a folder and gets filed. Then the checks go to the bank.

Typing it out makes it sound very complicated. I have a Visio of our process - will find it and share.

[Beth Grierson]

Short version:

Mail is received and sorted by our receptionist. He puts anything that looks like a check or payment in my mailbox.

I open the mail and stamp all checks for deposit. I send an email to key staff (ED, DD, event and major gift folks) noting any significant gifts, then hand the checks and their backup to our database coordinator who copies checks and prepares the deposit. The backup marials are given to a data entry assistant for entry into RE (batch totals are compared with deposit totals as a cross-check). Copies of the checks, the deposit slip and the batch report are given to finance. (our finance department has two part-time staffers, so having them directly involved with handling incoming mail isn't feasible)