One of my donors overcontributed to the PAC! What do I do?

Keeping your large donors from contributing more than the $5,000 maximum can be a challenge because contributors want to max out at exactly $5,000. If they contribute by credit card, it’s not a problem. If, however, they contribute by recurring payroll deductions, the bi-weekly or monthly split never works out to exactly $5,000 for the year. They will either be $0.08 under $5k or $0.06 over the limit.

 

PASS Receipt Analysts and Compliance Managers are monitoring your large donors to ensure they stay within the limits.

 

Toward the end of the year, they will suggest you ask the payroll department to manually adjust the deduction amount for the last pay date. The downside of this approach is that someone has to remember to ask Payroll to restore the deduction back to the original amount after January 1.

 

The PASS Receipts team is also paying attention to any payroll dates that may fall on January 1, which typically means they get pushed back to December 31 because of the holiday. This can cause an overage because the individual would have received 27 pay checks in one year. Don’t worry. PASS’ Receipts team can alert you to this at the start of the year as we track actual pay period dates for our clients.

 

Many payroll systems can place a $5000 cap on PAC contributions. Systems with this capability will not only adjust the contribution on that last pay date as needed, they will also resume taking the original amount on the first pay date of the new year. Does your payroll system have this functionality? Talk to your Payroll department to find out.

 

To add to your peace of mind, PASS’ epacInfo software has reports that show Year to Date contributions for all contributors as well as reports that will show a payroll variance from one pay period to the next. Keeping a close eye on donation changes is important to monitoring your PAC income and making sure deductions are not inadvertently stopped after the start of a new year or other change.

 

Tracking PAC receipts is an important step in maintaining donor compliance and monitoring the health of your PAC. PASS can help! Contact your Compliance Manager to get more information on  the PASS process for keeping your contributions compliant. And, if you would like to know more about epacInfo reports that allow you to track your receipt information, please reach out to your Compliance Manager and learn reporting options to get the data you need with just a couple of clicks. PASS will keep your PAC on track!

Is Your PAC Losing Money?

Has this ever happened to you? You finished a PAC solicitation and your projected new revenue figures were impressive. Sadly, that revenue never materializes because payroll deductions were either not started or were set up with the wrong amounts.

 

PASS’ epacInfo® software offers payroll comparison reports. This helps ensure all new deductions start at the correct amount. PASS will also program a report with new and updated enrollments and send it directly to your payroll department.

 

The new enrollments are uploaded to your payroll system, reducing the chance of mistakes.

 

Many clients depend on PASS to prepare and send new or updated pledge information to their payroll teams. In 2024, PASS sent out 1,800 enrollment reports, that’s 150 reports per month.

 

Additionally, epacInfo® offers enrollment comparison reports to identify PAC pledges that haven’t started. With epacInfo®, you can report deduction mistakes to your payroll team. This powerful tool helps you easily track new and updated PAC contributions.

 

The process is straightforward. PASS works directly with your payroll team to discuss file specifications, formats, and schedules. On the scheduled date, you and your payroll team will receive the customized file. Files are send via password-protected email or through our Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).

 

The PASS IT team will work closely with you to customize solutions that meet your company’s unique needs. Don’t let your fundraising efforts go to waste! Contact PASS to automate your enrollment process and ask about which epacInfo® reports are available to track your PAC activity.

Why Does PASS have a Team Dedicated to Receipts Processing?

At PASS, we understand the importance of personalized support when it comes to PAC administration and compliance. That’s why our clients work closely with a dedicated Compliance Manager (CM) for day-to-day guidance. What’s even better? Each Compliance Manager is backed by a specialized member of our Receipts Analysis team, ensuring top-notch support every step of the way.

 

Our team of receipts professionals are dedicated to processing PAC receipts

and making sure all PAC contributions comply with

federal and state campaign finance laws.

 

Additionally, the team makes sure all the funds that should have been deposited in the PAC bank account were deposited in the PAC bank account, and they follow up with Payroll departments as needed to track down missing funds or funding overages.

 

To make sure client data is safe and is imported correctly, the Receipts Manager receives the payroll data from the client via secure transmission. The Receipt Manager uploads the payroll data to epacInfo®, PASS’ PAC management software, following a documented procedure. Once the data is imported and verified, the file is audited by a Quality Assurance Manager using a documented process that is detailed in an audit report. The audit report accompanies the notice to the CM that the data is available to be used for compliance reporting. Following the data import, Clients can also view their payroll information and use the management reporting module in epacInfo® to run analytics and create internal PAC reports.

 

Separating the receipt process from the compliance reporting function allows for greater attention to detail to help ensure PAC data is 100% correct when filing reports with federal and state election law agencies. The PASS team is always looking for ways to make sure client data is accurate and compliant with campaign finance laws. For more information about how we process and keep your data safe and ensure accuracy, contact PASS today!

Is Your PAC Data Accurate, Up-to-Date, and Secure?

The old axiom, “garbage in, garbage out,” which became popular in the early days of computing, still holds true today. Especially with data related to your Political Action Committee (PAC).

 

PASS’ primary responsibility is ensuring that quality PAC data is imported to keep your PAC information accurate, up to date, and safe.

 

PASS uses client data to prepare and file federal and state election law reports. We apply a quality assurance approach to ensure that data is transferred and processed accurately the first time around. Quality Assurance relies on a client’s IT department along with PASS’ Receipt Analyst (RA) and Quality Assurance Manager (QA). Each is responsible for a unique part of the process.

 

The IT department is responsible for ensuring that the data is encrypted and secure when the data files are sent to PASS. The RA is responsible for decrypting and uploading the raw data into epacInfo® − PASS’ comprehensive data management and reporting tool. Once the team uploads the data into epacInfo®, the QA Manager must then review the processed data to ensure the information matches the data entered into epacInfo®.

 

Our goal is to enter the data accurately the first time around, and the quality measures PASS has in place give the team the opportunity to identify errors before a Federal, State, or Local report is filed. Errors such as an individual overcontributing to the PAC or the PAC overcontributing to a campaign. Trust the experts at PASS to keep your PAC on track by applying our 40+ years of campaign finance compliance and process experience to your PAC administration. For information about PASS’ processes and what goes into keeping your data accurate, up-to-date, and safe, contact your Compliance Manager. If you would like additional information on adding PASS as a trusted PAC partner, contact Mary O’Reilly at 703-476-3070.