Batch Entry of Contributions and Membership Payments

Overview
=========
Provide a streamlined interface for data entry of batches of contributions and membership payments. A simple batching concept will be introduced to provide verification of count and totals. The feature will use a grid-style input form with the columns controlled by reserved profiles. This will allow sites to add contact, contribution or membership fields to the grid (e.g. add custom contribution fields, add or exclude premium fields etc.). Optional fields can also be removed from the grid by disabling or deleting them in the associated profile. There will be a separate flow / input grid for batch entry of contributions vs. membership signup / renewal payments. This will help reduce the number of columns required for each type of input.

Basic Workflow
============
1. Create a New Batch
Users add a new batch by entering the following: batch type-contributions or memberships (required), batch name (required), description (optional), number of items (optional), batch total amount (optional). A default unique batch name is provided ("Batch N" + open date). The batch open date is assigned automatically.

2. Enter Contributions or Memberships (check, cash, EFT)
For each row, you can select an existing contact using the auto-complete widget OR create a new contact (using the pop-up New Contact profile form). If contact information such as phone number or email address are included in the grid profile - those values will be populated for an existing contact and can be updated as needed in the row. Support for the following contribution elements is included:

• selecting or creating a contact for soft credit
• selecting a premium
• requesting a receipt to be sent

Copy value to all cells in a column "widget" will be available in column headers.

Rows will be saved to a cache as they are recorded to prevent data loss. A running count and total for the batch will be displayed on the screen. Users can enter all transactions for the batch in one session, or simply log-out and complete input at a later time by returning to the Batch listing.


3. Verify Batch Totals / Close Batch
When all transactions are entered, the user clicks "Close Batch". If a transaction count and total have been recorded for the batch, the user will be alerted when closing if the count or total don't match. In this case, they can return to the batch's transactions to check for input errors, missing and or duplicate transactions. Or they can override the entered count and total (in which case the batch values are updated to match the transactions in the batch).

Contribution and membership records are created when the batch is Closed (prior to this, all data is saved in a cached "blob" of data). Receipt sending, and associated activity record creation should also occur at this time. Activity record(s) should be created as with normal back-office forms. One activity for each row in contribution batch, 2 for each row in membership batch (contribution activity + membership signup or renewal activity).

Additional Functionality
=================
Working with Existing Batches
Users can return to an open batch to continue adding or editing transactions in the batch. For open batches, they can also edit name and description of batches, modify the expected number of transactions, and batch total. Batches may only be deleted if they have 0 transactions assigned to them.

Batches page should include a simple search form allowing users to find batches by status and create date ranges. By default, batches page sets Status to Open (so that only Open batches are shown when pages is loaded).

Search / Reporting / Export
The batch name should be added to the Contribution Detail report as a column and as a filter. Batch name also is added as a filter in Find Contributions and the Contributions pane in Advanced Search. Batch name is included in "standard" contribution export columns, and can be added for "select columns to export" flow.