Tax season is here, and that means it’s time to prepare donation statements for your church! While this annual task might feel routine, it can be a meaningful touchpoint with the generous people who make your ministry possible. A well-organized statement process shows your donors you value their support and helps them navigate their own tax preparation.

We know this season can feel overwhelming, so here are eight essential tips to make the process smoother and help you finish strong.

1. Check for duplicate profiles

Sometimes donors accidentally create multiple profiles. Take a quick moment to review and merge any duplicate profiles. This ensures each donor receives a complete and accurate statement of their giving history.

2. Watch out for uncommitted cash and check batches

Uncommitted batches can hide donations from showing up on statements. Do a quick sweep to make sure everything’s been properly processed!

3. Include all donations, including nondeductible

All monetary donations through credit/debit card, ACH bank transfer, or cash and check will automatically be included on the statement. You can also choose whether to include qualified charitable donations (QCDs) and donor-advised funds (DAFs). 

Your statements will include the donations within your specified date range and can’t be filtered by specific funds, payment sources, payment methods, or membership types.

4. Pay close attention to the received dates

Donation dates matter more than you might think. For a donation to be included in this year’s statement, it must be received on or before December 31, 2025 for churches in the US and Canada. 

Bonus tip: You can manually set the received date for batched donations to fall on or before December 31. ACH and card donations, though, are automatically dated when initiated and can't be back-dated.

5. Send joint statements

Donors can receive joint statements if their profiles are linked. Just keep in mind that only two profiles can be joined, so it might not capture every household member.

6. Point donors to Church Center when statement download links expire

It might be a good idea to let your donors know that links to download their statements are only active for 14 days. After that time, donors can still access their statements but the original download link they were sent will redirect them to log into their Church Center profile to get their statement.

7. Edit or delete statements with mistakes

You may want to edit or delete a statement you realize has mistakes on it, like if you accidentally included a pledge progress or chose the wrong date range.

The good news is that you can! It just takes a few clicks. With the Edit Statement button you can change the statement date range, or delete the statement completely. Nothing is set in stone until the statement is sent out. 

If only the printed portion of a statement has been generated, you can edit that statement and then regenerate it. You’ll just want to click the Edit & Regenerate button on the print page, and then click Edit Statement in the top right corner.

8. Provide corrected statements easily

Sometimes there can be errors on statements—it happens! Rest assured that when you fix something, the correct statements are easily accessible to your donors. Here’s how, based on the country.

  • For U.S. churches. Your donors can simply download the most up-to-date statement directly from their Church Center profile!

  • For Canadian churches. Original statements can be downloaded in Church Center, but corrected statements have to be generated from the admin side of Giving, reference the original statement, and then sent outside of Giving.

We want you to feel supported with everything you need this statement season. Our support team is just a quick email away at support@planningcenter.com or through the ? in the toolbar. They’re ready to help you navigate any challenges that pop up. 

We wish you a merry Christmas, a happy New Year, and a smooth statement season!