A Donation Came In But Wasn't Recorded

Sometimes NP Ledger receives a donation notification from one of your connected platforms (like Stripe, PayPal, GiveButter, or DonorBox) but can't automatically record it in your books. When this happens, the donation shows up as Failed in your Recent Activity list.

The important thing to know: your money is safe. The donation is in your bank account (or on its way). It just hasn't been recorded in NP Ledger yet, which means your financial reports won't reflect it until the issue is fixed.

This page explains why this happens and how to fix it.

Suggested prompts:

• "A donation failed to record. What should I check first?"
• "Help me troubleshoot this webhook failure step by step."

1. Go to Organization > Donation Connections.
2. Scroll down to the Recent Activity section at the bottom of the page. This shows the last 20 donation notifications received from your connected platforms.
3. Look for any entries with a red "Failed" badge in the status column.

If you see a failed entry, that means NP Ledger received the donation notification but couldn't record it as a transaction. The sections below explain the most common reasons and how to resolve each one.

1. No deposit account or revenue account is selected

What happened: NP Ledger received the donation notification, but it doesn't know which bank account the money goes into or which revenue category to record it under. This usually happens right after you first connect a donation platform, before you've finished the setup.

How to fix it:

1. Go to Organization > Donation Connections.
2. Under "Where should donations be recorded?", check the two dropdowns:
3. Deposit Account — select the bank account where your donation platform sends payouts (for example, your main checking account).
4. Revenue Account — select the revenue category for donations (usually "Donation Revenue" or similar).
5. Click Save at the bottom of the page.

After saving, any future donations will be recorded automatically. See How to Record a Previously Failed Donation below for the donation that failed.

2. No accounting period covers the donation date

What happened: Every transaction in NP Ledger must fall within an accounting period (also called a fiscal year). If you received a donation on a date that isn't covered by any of your accounting periods, NP Ledger can't record it.

This often happens at the start of a new year when last year's period has ended but the new one hasn't been created yet.

How to fix it:

1. Go to Organization > Fiscal Years.
2. Check if there's an accounting period that covers today's date. You should see a list of your fiscal years with their start and end dates.
3. If the current date isn't covered, click Add Fiscal Year and create one. For most nonprofits, this is January 1 through December 31 of the current year (or July 1 through June 30 if you use a July fiscal year).
4. Click Save.

After creating the accounting period, see How to Record a Previously Failed Donation below.

3. The accounting period is closed

What happened: The accounting period that covers the donation date has been closed (locked). Closed periods prevent any new transactions from being added, which is normally a good thing — it protects your finalized records. But it also means automatic donations can't be recorded for dates in that period.

How to fix it:

This one depends on your situation:

• If the period was closed by mistake or you need to add a few more transactions, you can re-open it:
• Go to Organization > Fiscal Years.
• Find the closed period and click on it.
• Uncheck the "Locked" checkbox and save.

• Record the failed donation (see below), then close the period again when you're done.

• If the period should stay closed (for example, last year's books are final), you may need to record this donation manually in the current open period instead, using a Quick Entry. This is the right choice if the donation arrived after your books were closed.

Tip: If you're not sure whether to re-open a closed period, it's usually safer to record the donation in your current open period. The important thing is that it gets recorded somewhere.

4. No donation routing rule matches

What happened: NP Ledger uses donation routing rules to decide which fund should receive each donation. If you've set up routing rules but none of them match this particular donation, and you don't have a default fund set, the system can't figure out where to put it.

How to fix it:

1. Go to Organization > Donation Connections and scroll down to the Donation Routing Rules section (if you have any set up).
2. Check your rules to make sure they cover the types of donations you receive. For example, if you have a rule that only matches donations with a specific campaign name, other donations won't match.
3. Make sure you have a default fund. Even if you use routing rules, having a default fund set up acts as a safety net — any donation that doesn't match a specific rule will go to your default fund instead of failing.
4. Go to Organization > Settings and check that a default fund is selected.

After updating your rules or setting a default fund, see How to Record a Previously Failed Donation below.

After you've fixed the underlying issue (selected your accounts, created an accounting period, etc.), you can tell NP Ledger to try recording the donation again — right from the Donation Connections page.

1. Go to Organization > Donation Connections.
2. Scroll down to the Recent Activity section. Each failed donation has a details area that shows:
3. What went wrong — a plain-language explanation of the error
4. How to fix it — a link to the setting that needs to be updated
5. The donation details — the amount and donor name (when available)
6. Fix the underlying issue first using the "Fix this" link (for example, select a deposit account or create a fiscal year).
7. Click the "Record this donation" button next to the failed entry. NP Ledger will attempt to record it using your updated settings.
8. Check the result:
9. If it works, the status changes to Recorded (green) and the retry button disappears.
10. If something is still wrong, the status stays as Failed and the error message updates to show the new issue. Fix that issue and try again.

Tip: You can retry a failed donation as many times as needed. Each attempt is tracked, so you can see how many times a donation has been retried.

Note: The retry uses the original donation data that was received from your donation platform. If the donation details changed on the platform's side after the original notification, the recorded transaction will reflect the original data.

If you're looking at the Recent Activity list and aren't sure whether a failed donation has already been taken care of:

1. Check your recent transactions. Go to Transactions and look for a donation on or around the same date and amount as the failed entry. If you find a matching transaction, the donation has been recorded (either automatically after a fix, or manually by you).

2. Look at the status badge. In the Recent Activity list:

3. Recorded successfully (green badge) — this donation was automatically recorded in your books. Nothing to do.
4. Failed (red badge) — this donation has not been recorded yet. Follow the steps above to fix and record it.
5. Skipped (gray badge) — NP Ledger intentionally skipped this notification. This usually means it was a duplicate or a type of notification that doesn't need to be recorded (not a problem).

You can handle it yourself if: - The issue is one of the four common causes listed above (missing accounts, missing accounting period, closed period, or no routing rule match) - You just need to fill in a missing setting or create an accounting period

Consider asking for help if: - You've checked all four causes above and everything looks correct, but donations are still failing - The same donation keeps failing even after you've fixed the settings - You see error messages that don't match any of the causes described here - You're not sure which fund or account to select

Remember: A "Failed" donation just means it hasn't been recorded in your books yet. The money itself is safe — it's already in your bank account (or on its way from your donation platform). Once you fix the issue and record the donation, your books will be up to date.