Preparing source files before a reporting engagement intake

When a client uploads incomplete files, the first week of a four-week engagement disappears to follow-up emails. Here is the intake checklist we send at contract signing, and the mistakes that cause the most delays.

Required files for an annual report engagement

CRM export: Full giving history for the fiscal year, including donor ID, gift date, amount, fund designation, campaign code, and payment method. CSV or Excel. Export from the system directly — do not copy-paste from filtered views.

Bank reconciliation report: Monthly or quarterly, showing deposit dates and amounts. Must cover the same date range as the CRM export.

Campaign list: Spreadsheet with campaign name, start date, end date, and goal amount if applicable.

Major donor threshold definition: Written statement of the gift amount your organization uses to classify major donors. Different organizations use KRW 1 million, KRW 3 million, or KRW 5 million — we need your definition, not ours.

Restricted fund chart of accounts: List of restricted fund categories with brief descriptions of restriction terms.

Optional but helpful

Prior-year report (even if internally produced), volunteer hour logs for phone-a-thons, and expense summaries for cost-per-dollar-raised calculations.

Three mistakes that delay delivery

Filtered CRM exports: Exporting only "completed" gifts when your finance team includes pending pledges in their totals. Export everything and let us filter consistently.

Mixed fiscal year dates: CRM configured to calendar year while finance uses a March fiscal year end. Confirm the date range before uploading.

Password-protected files without sharing the password: Our secure upload link accepts encrypted files, but we need the password in a separate channel (phone or SMS, not the same upload).

File naming convention

We recommend: ORGNAME_CRM_FY2024.csv, ORGNAME_BANK_FY2024.xlsx, etc. Consistent naming reduces misfiled uploads when your team sends multiple revisions.

What happens after upload

We acknowledge receipt within one business day and send a data completeness checklist within three. Missing items are flagged before reconciliation begins — not after charts are drafted.