Before you turn on pledge receipts for a giving process, send yourself or someone else a preview. The preview uses a real pledge, so you can confirm exactly how that donor’s receipt will look.
This article also explains when Rhythm prevents you from deleting an installment plan, what happens when a pledge’s installment schedule is cancelled or completed, and how to fix a save error that can happen when you turn Pledges off.
Preview a Pledge Receipt
- Open the giving process whose pledge receipt you want to check, at Fundraising & Gifts › Setup › Giving Processes.
- In the Pledge Receipts card, select Preview.
- Enter the identifier for an existing pledge in your account. You can copy it from the pledge’s options menu on its 360 screen.
- Enter the email address where you want the preview sent.
- Select Send Preview.
Result
Email preview sent successfully. appears, and the dialog closes.
Warning
The preview is not a mock-up. Rhythm sends a real email to the address you enter, using the selected pledge’s donor and amount details. Because Rhythm does not restrict where previews can be sent, check the address carefully and do not forward the preview to anyone who should not see that donor’s information.
Rhythm remembers the last pledge identifier and email address you used for a preview in this browser. The next time you open the preview dialog, those fields are already filled in.
Warning
The preview fills every merge field from the pledge you choose, including the next pledge payment date. In some cases, that field shows a date in the preview but is blank in the real receipt the donor receives after their own pledge is processed. Do not treat a date in the preview as a guarantee that the same field will be filled in on every delivered receipt. Write the surrounding sentence so it still reads sensibly if the date is missing.
Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pledge Receipts | On / Off | Off | Sends this email automatically whenever a pledge is fulfilled through the giving process. The card appears and can be edited only while Pledges is turned on for the same process. When you turn Pledges on, Rhythm also turns Pledge Receipts on. |
| Installment schedule status | Active / Cancelled / Completed | Active | Active keeps a pledge’s schedule in every billing run. Cancelled removes it from the current run and every future run. Completed appears after every installment has been billed and the schedule has nothing left to collect. |
Why You Can't Delete an Installment Plan
You cannot delete an installment plan while any pledge still uses that plan for its payment timing. Reports that reference this relationship label it "Organization." To retire a plan, first check whether any pledge still uses it, then either wait for those pledges to close out or leave the plan in place.
Cancelling One Pledge's Installment Schedule
Deleting a plan is different from cancelling one donor’s schedule on that plan. If one pledge needs to stop billing, such as when the donor asks to stop, change that pledge’s installment schedule to a Cancelled status. A cancelled schedule drops out of the current billing run and every run after it. Any payments already collected stay exactly as they were, and nothing already billed is undone.
Completed Installment Plans and Upfront Billing Are Not Recurring Gifts
After every installment on a schedule has been billed, its status becomes Completed. The schedule stops appearing in your current views because there is nothing left to collect. A completed installment plan is a different record from a recurring gift, and finishing one does not start the other.
If a donor wants to keep giving on a regular schedule after their pledge is fully paid, process a new order for them and turn on Make this a recurring gift instead of trying to extend the finished plan. Before you save the new recurring gift, check its next scheduled billing date so the donor is not charged again for the same period they already covered on the pledge.
A similar single-payment case happens when an installment plan is set to bill a pledge’s full amount in one upfront installment. If a donor pays later on that plan instead of paying immediately by card, you should see one invoice for the full pledge amount generated right away, left open, and visible on the donor’s Portal account. This pledge does not wait for more installments the way a multi-payment plan does. If you instead see a zero-amount invoice for a pledge set up this way, treat it as unexpected and check the pledge’s order in Collect.
Permissions
To preview a pledge receipt, you need the same Fundraising administrator access to Setup that you need to edit the giving process.
Validation and Errors
Warning
Turning Pledges on for a giving process also turns Pledge Receipts on. If you turn Pledges back off later, Pledge Receipts does not turn back off. The setting stays enabled underneath even though its card disappears from the editor. Saving the process at that point can fail with a validation error because Pledge Receipts is still enabled and there is no card left to edit it.
If this happens, turn Pledges back on, explicitly turn Pledge Receipts off, then turn Pledges off again and save. Turning Pledge Receipts off before you turn Pledges off keeps the two settings in step and lets the save go through.
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The preview dialog lists a missing value | The pledge identifier or destination address is empty | Fill in both boxes |
| "Unable to preview email" | The pledge identifier does not match a real pledge in your account | Copy the identifier again from the pledge’s options menu, and try again |
| An installment plan can't be deleted | A pledge still uses the plan for its payment timing | Leave the plan in place, or wait until no pledge uses it |
| Saving a giving process fails after you turn Pledges off | Pledge Receipts is still enabled from when Pledges was on | Turn Pledges back on, turn Pledge Receipts off, turn Pledges off again, then save |