Notice to non-developers: This post is about how some functionality in 4.2 will be implemented in code and in the database, with very minor changes to anything visible through a browser. If you're not a developer, it probably won't interest you.

Direct Debit, is easy, convenient and safe. It is the UK’s favourite way to make payments automatically, and there has been a Make It Happen for Direct Debit Integration.

We have a couple of customers who have been asking to be able to set-up recurring contributions against pledges. This seems to be a possibly contentious improvement so I'm looking for feedback on it.

We've just started a make it happen for UK direct debit integration - something that lots of UK non profits have been asking for and we are happy to provide :)

The fabulous Eileen will be carrying out the work and we are aiming to raise the total amount needed by August 15 in time for her trip to the UK so we can spend some time kick starting it all.

So if direct debit is important to you or your clients, please step up and help us reach the goal amount.

As part of the Google Grants program for non-profits, Google offers their Google Checkout service to qualifying non-profits at no-charge with no processing fees. Depending on the fees you would pay with a competing processor this represents an instant 3% jump in your organization's fundraising efforts just by using Google Checkout.

The only limitation has been recurring donations. To address this Google launched Google Subscriptions and now we need to get support into CiviCRM so we can enjoy a single free processing fee payment gateway.

A new Make it Happen iniative was launched to get this going in 4.1 or even 3.4 if we meet the campaign goal soon! A donation to this iniative will easily pay itself back by the savings in processing fees. This initiative is already 70% there with donations from Powered by Action and the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA):

    http://civicrm.org/mih#google

There have been a number of blog posts discussing the needs for improved accounting features in CiviCRM. The results and current specification is at the wiki at: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/Finance+and+Accounting

Its time to help to make-it-happen for CiviAccounts once the specifications on the wiki are streamlined and prioritized.   Dave has requested that all interested parties join this new CiviAccounts team.

Today at the Bristol Code sprint a few of us made a concerted effort on getting making Giftaid 'plug and play' for Civi.

Our starting point is code written by Millertech and our aim is to get it into a state that we can package it as a Drupal module.  Once we've done that, we're hopeful that we'll be able to package it for Joomla also.

I have shared the slides ( and video ) from my ignite session at CiviCon, which describes a case study of my use of CiviCRM for a synagogue, including invoicing and non-Western calendars. Everything is at my blog.

-Sarah

This is really a continuation of previous blogs on CiviCRM accounting integration. I now have some basic integration bewteen CiviCRM and Xero working and decided to do a screencast.

Screencasts are hardly my preferred medium - especially now that I've tried to make one but I thought it might be useful for people to see what a CiviCRM integration with the accounting package Xero would look like. The screencast doesn't show you any CiviCRM - just Xero and is more intended to give people an idea of what the day-to-day reality of it is.

The Physician Health Program of BC has a task that goes something like this: Their vendors, and even staff and board members, are not paid directly by them but by the provincial medical association (BCMA), so when invoices from vendors come in, they need to enter the information onto a special form and send that off to the BCMA for payment. Then they periodically send back a statement to reconcile against. Since all the vendors are contacts in CiviCRM already, it made sense to think about putting this in there too.