Sage Accounting Integration

The Sage integration lets your organization push donations and payments recorded in BetterUnite straight into your Sage accounting system, so your books stay current without hand-entering each gift. Donations remain in BetterUnite for reporting and donor management while a copy of each one is created in Sage.

Please read before you begin: a note about your Sage version. The Sage version this integration connects to may be an earlier release than the one your organization currently runs. Sage offers several products and API versions, and the fields, accounts, and transaction types available can differ between them. Before you turn on syncing, please work with the BetterUnite team so we can confirm that the connection maps correctly to your specific Sage version and chart of accounts. Skipping this step can send transactions to the wrong accounts or cause syncs to fail.

What the integration does

The Sage integration is a one-way sync from BetterUnite to Sage. When you sync a donation, BetterUnite:

• Finds or creates the donor as a customer contact in Sage.
• Creates the donation in Sage as a receipt or payment, posted to the accounts you have mapped.
• Optionally records the payment processing fee as a separate journal entry.

Nothing is pulled back from Sage into BetterUnite, and syncing does not change or remove the original donation in BetterUnite. Syncing is done on demand from the Sage setup page, so you stay in control of what is sent and when.

What syncs to Sage

Whether the BetterUnite platform tip and processing fees are included in the synced amount is controlled by options in your mapping, described below.

Before you begin

• You need a Sage account in the United States or North America region. The integration connects to Sage's North America service, so accounts in other regions are not supported.
• You must have Full Access permissions on your BetterUnite organization to reach the Sage setup and mapping pages.
• Have your Sage chart of accounts ready: know which income account donations should land in, which bank account they deposit to, and which accounts to use for processing fees.
• Connect with the BetterUnite team first to confirm your Sage version is mapped correctly, as noted at the top of this article.

Connecting your Sage account

1. In BetterUnite, go to Settings, then Integrations, and find Sage.
2. Click Manage to open the Sage setup page.
3. Click Connect with Sage. A Sage login window opens.
4. Sign in to Sage and click Allow to grant BetterUnite access.
5. You are returned to BetterUnite with the connection active.

BetterUnite stores the connection securely and refreshes it automatically. If the connection ever expires, the setup page will prompt you to reconnect. To disconnect, use Remove Connection on the same page.

Setting up your mapping

Mapping tells BetterUnite which Sage accounts and settings to use for each donation. You must complete the mapping before you can sync. When you open the mapping page, BetterUnite pulls your live lists from Sage, including payment methods, bank accounts, ledger accounts, and tax rates, so you are always choosing from your actual Sage setup.

Payment methods

Match each BetterUnite payment type (such as card, check, or cash) to a Sage payment method. A Default payment method is required and is used whenever a specific payment type has not been mapped.

Fundraiser accounting

Set the accounting details donations should use. You provide a required Default set of values, and you can override them for individual fundraisers (campaigns) as needed:

• Ledger account: the income account the donation is recorded against.
• Deposit account: the Sage bank account the funds are deposited to.
• Transaction type: whether donations post as an Other Receipt or a Customer Receipt.
• Tax rate: the Sage tax rate applied to the transaction.

Processing fees and tips

Choose how payment processing fees are handled:

• Fold fees into the donation amount, so the synced amount reflects what the donor paid, or
• Create a separate transaction for fees, which posts each fee as its own journal entry. If you choose this, you must also map a Debit account and a Credit account.

A separate option controls whether the BetterUnite platform tip is included in the synced donation amount.

When your mapping is complete, save it. BetterUnite checks that all required entries, including the defaults, are filled in before it lets you save.

Syncing donations

Once you are connected and your mapping is saved, the Sage setup page lists your fundraisers along with a count of how many of each fundraiser's donations have been synced, plus a section for general (non-fundraiser) donations.

1. Click View on a fundraiser to open its list of donations.
2. Review the donations and click Sync on each one you want to send to Sage.
3. BetterUnite creates the donor, the receipt or payment, and the fee entry (if enabled) in Sage, and records the result on the donation.

Syncing is done per donation, which gives you a chance to review each gift before it reaches your books.

Sync statuses and troubleshooting

Each donation shows its sync status so you always know what has reached Sage:

• Not synced: the donation has not been sent to Sage yet.
• In progress: the sync is running.
• Success: the donation was created in Sage.
• Error: the sync did not complete. The donation row shows the reason.
• Do not sync: you have marked the donation to be excluded, so it is skipped.

A common error is that BetterUnite could not confidently match the donor to a Sage customer. When that happens, the donation row lets you pick the correct Sage customer from a list, or choose to create a new customer, and then sync again.

Good to know

• Syncing is one directional. Changes you make in Sage are not sent back to BetterUnite.
• Donations are synced one at a time, on demand. There is no automatic or scheduled background sync, which keeps you in control of what posts to your books.
• The integration works with US and North America Sage accounts.
• Your mapping must be complete before any donation can sync. If accounts change in Sage, revisit your mapping so your selections stay valid.

Need help

Because Sage versions and charts of accounts vary, the BetterUnite team is glad to help you set up and validate your mapping. Reach out to us before your first sync so we can confirm the connection lines up with your Sage version, and contact us any time a donation does not sync the way you expect.