How to modify existing recurring contributions

[SarahG (FountainTribe)]

I have a number of records in the table civicrm_contribution_recur that we set up to process for a fixed number of installments via Authorize.net.   

In many cases, one or two transactions were processed as scheduled. But then something in real-life came up that required that we cancel the future scheduled transactions.  I did this by logging into my authorize.net account directly ( outside of CiviCRM) and cancelling the future schedule.

How can I clean up the recurring contribution data in CiviCRM, so that it does not work like I am still waiting on those payments?

In other cases, the notification never came from Authorize.net that a future payment was completed as expected.   How can I manually update the "recurring payment" record in CiviCRM, so that CiviCRM knows the transaction went through?

The recurring payments were setup by someone submitting a "CiviContribute" form in the self-service area, as well as by staff in the back-office area.

[Donald Lobo]

recurrring contributions are not fully developed. i.e. they currently dont have a web based UI to edit etc.

u'll need to goto the DB and set the status to cancelled

would be great if you can convince your client to help fund better recurring contribution functionality

lobo

[SarahG (FountainTribe)]

Another idea  I had thought about (Also suggested by Eileen):

Create a Plegde for every recurring contribution, then the pledge UI can be used to handle any real-life messiness.  It would also simplify workflow for the staff.

Any reason the pledge table was not used to store recurring contribution schedules?

[Donald Lobo]

couple of reasons:

1. recurring contributions came before pledges (i think)

2. from an accounting perspective, at least one community member told us that they are tracked and accounted for in different manner (at least in the US)

lobo

[SarahG (FountainTribe)]

Perhaps this can be sorted as part of a CiviAccounts phase 2, but here is my situation:

My client prefers to use pledges for everything that they call an obligation, as the UI piece for making changes, and reviewing what is still pending/owed, and related reports meets their needs.     However, there is a serious limitation with pledges in that the donor can not automate their pledge payments on a credit card.  The only way for pledge payments to be made, is for the person to visit the website each month and make a pledge payment, or mail in a check each month, or phone the office/bookeeper and give their card number over the phone each month.

So if the person wants to give $1200, broken up into automated monthly payments on their credit card the only way to put this in the system is as a recurring contribution.   But the bookkeeper at my client still wants their usual reports to reflect the balance owed on the $1200.

Any suggestions?

[SarahG (FountainTribe)]

FYI: My original idea was to create some custom reports that include both pledges and recurring contributions, with both displayed as "obligations" on the bookkeeping report.   I was planning to calculate the balance of a recurring contribution by looking at the "contribution_recur" table and calculating the total based on amount  * number of installments.

But I noticed in my research that this table contains several recurring contributions that were canceled using the Authorize.net website.  Since I did not want those canceled recurring contributions to be part of my new report, I was looking for a way to clean up the table.

Now I am trying to decide the best approach.

[jakecivi]

Old thread.. but did you ever decide what to do?