[SOLVED] Contribution Type is not valid

[Dave Smith]

I am trying to import contributions and keep getting this error message at step 4 of the process: "Contribution Type is not valid: NWU – Union Dues".

I have experimented with deleting all the spaces in 'NWU – Union Dues' but it makes no difference.

Is there a limit to the length of the field?

Can anyone suggest a cause and, more importatnly, a solution?

Thanks.

Dave Smith

[Dave Smith]

I am pleased to say that I solved my own problem.

It seems that the use of the "-" in the contribution type was generating the problem. I replaced the "-" with ":" and that seems to have fixed the problem.

Hope this is helpful to others.

[JonGold]

I suspect the problem may have had to do with en-dashes being converted by Excel to em-dashes - I've certainly seen that before!  The fact that your example showed an em-dash hints at that.

Em-dash: –
En-dash: -