---
title: How to enter donations
description: "It is very easy to book donations with ChurchTools. The only requirement is that you have defined at least one account as a donation account in your chart of accounts. ## 1. Define a donation account Navigate to the ***Master…"
url: "https://staging.churchtools.academy/en/help/churchtools-modules/donations/19-how-to-enter-donations/"
updated: "2026-07-28"
category: Finances / Donations
---

# How to enter donations

It is very easy to book donations with ChurchTools.

The only requirement is that you have defined at least one account as a donation account in your chart of accounts.

## 1. Define a donation account

Navigate to the ***Master data*** (2) in the ***Finance module*** (1), select ***Accounts*** (3) and open the ***edit menu*** (4) of the account you want to define as a donation account. There you ***define it as such*** (5) and ***save*** (6) your change.

Alternatively, you can create a completely [new account](https://staging.churchtools.academy/en/help/churchtools-modules/master-data-finance/19-how-to-set-up-an-account-chart/#2-toc-title) and define it as a donation account.  

**Note**

If you define an account as a donation account, you must select a person as donor for each transaction to this account. If you want to book anonymous donations (e.g. cash donations from the collection box), it is important that you **don't** define your account for these donations as a donation account.

![Screenshot Define a donation acount](https://staging.churchtools.academy/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image-362.png)

## 2. Enter a donation booking

To enter a donation, first open the transaction mask by clicking on the ***Enter transactions*** button.

[![Screenshot Enter a donation booking](https://staging.churchtools.academy/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Finances_transactions_enter-transaction.png)](https://staging.churchtools.academy/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Finances_transactions_enter-transaction.png)

**Note**

In this article, we only explain the special features for booking a donation. A detailed explanation of how to make transactions in the expert view can be found [here](https://staging.churchtools.academy/en/help/churchtools-modules/transactions/19-how-to-enter-transactions-using-expert-view/).

![Screenshot Enter transactions](https://staging.churchtools.academy/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image-363.png)

The fields (1) to (3) are explained in the instructions for the [expert view](https://staging.churchtools.academy/en/help/churchtools-modules/transactions/19-how-to-enter-transactions-using-expert-view/) of the booking mask.

As ***Offset account*** (4) you have to select an account which you have defined as donation account. Then the field ***Donor*** (6) appears in which you can search for the name of the person who has donated.

If the donation should or must be assigned to a specific purpose, you can select a ***Cost center*** for it, provided you have previously created a corresponding cost center in the ***Master data***. You can find out how to create cost centers [here](https://staging.churchtools.academy/en/help/churchtools-modules/master-data-finance/19-how-to-add-cost-centers/).

With the two ***sliders*** (7) and (8) you can set whether the donation comes from a married couple and whether the donors waive the reimbursement of their expenses or not.  

> **Couples donating**
> This function is only available if a spouse is entered for the donor in the Persons and Groups module.

> **Waiver of reimbursement of expenses**
> You can use this function if a person has incurred expenses for your church and waives the right to be reimbursed for them. The expenses can then be counted as a donation.

After you have entered the *Amount* (9), the *Transaction text* (10) is still missing, which is pre-filled with *Donation* by default to save you time. You can, of course, change the text yourself.

With ***Post and close*** or ***Post and create new*** (11) the transaction is booked and the booking mask is either closed or left open so that you can directly make the next (donation) booking.

## Read more

- [How to set up an account chart](https://staging.churchtools.academy/en/help/churchtools-modules/master-data-finance/19-how-to-set-up-an-account-chart/)
- [How to enter transactions using the expert view](https://staging.churchtools.academy/en/help/churchtools-modules/transactions/19-how-to-enter-transactions-using-expert-view/)
- [How to add cost centers](https://staging.churchtools.academy/en/help/churchtools-modules/master-data-finance/19-how-to-add-cost-centers/)