A commitment is what a household has agreed to give for a dues year. It is the number the rest of the dues page measures against.
Setting one
From the Dues page, find the household and set its amount. Households with nothing recorded yet are shown with a prompt, so your list of outstanding conversations is visible rather than hidden.
You can also set a commitment from the household’s own page, under its dues section.
What you set
Fiscal year. Which dues year this commitment is for. The picker offers every year this household has already committed to, plus last year, this year, and next year, so you can catch up or work ahead.
Amount. The default comes from your congregation’s dues model, and you can change it for this household. See Choosing a dues model.
Due date. Pre-filled from your congregation’s annual due date, and adjustable per household.
Notes. Anything worth recording about the arrangement.
Waivers
Set the amount to zero for a full waiver. A zero commitment counts as satisfied and never shows as owing or overdue.
This is better than leaving the commitment blank. Blank means “we have not discussed this yet”. Zero means “we discussed it and the answer is nothing”, which is a different fact, and one you want recorded next year when someone asks.
The status
Status is worked out from the amount, what has been paid, and the due date. You never set it by hand.
Under a voluntary model, Unpaid shows as Open and nothing is ever Overdue.
The change trail
Every change to a commitment is recorded: when it was set, when it was adjusted and from what to what, and when it was removed. Each entry records who made the change.
This exists because commitments are the subject of awkward conversations. When a family says they agreed to a different amount, or a board member asks why a household’s dues dropped, the answer is on the record rather than in somebody’s memory.
The name of whoever made the change is kept even if that person’s account is later removed, so history does not develop gaps when staff move on.
Changing a commitment
Edit it the same way you set it. The previous amount and the new one are both recorded.
If a household’s circumstances change mid-year, adjust the commitment rather than working around it with an offsetting payment. The trail then reads the way the story actually went.
Removing a commitment
You can remove one entirely, and it is recorded as a removal.
Payments already linked to it are not deleted. The money was still received, and it stays in your ledger. It simply stops counting toward a commitment that no longer exists.
That does mean removing a commitment can leave payments that are no longer counted anywhere in your dues totals. If you remove one for a household that has already paid, check the ledger afterwards and relink or refile those payments.
Overpayment
If a household pays more than it committed, the extra is kept in your totals rather than trimmed away. Collected figures reflect the money that actually arrived, so they reconcile against a bank statement.
Outstanding never goes below zero across the congregation, so one household’s generosity does not disguise another’s arrears. 