Author: Benjamin Katz

Some transactions in ISP can carry a debt, such as Loan Received or Accrued Expenses, for example. These types of transactions are found on the Balances page under the Accounting tab.

On this page are dropdowns that help specify the results you see.

• Filer: If you have multiple filers in your database, you can use this dropdown to determine the results for the filer or results for all filers combined.
• Filter: This dropdown helps narrow down results based on both transaction type and whether the debt is outstanding or not. In this dropdown you’ll see options for Loan Received, Accrued Expenses, Pledges, and Targets.

Depending on the transaction type, you’ll have different options available to you in the hot dog menus. For example, for outstanding loans, you’ll see options for different payments, reductions, and repayments. One option for all transaction types is to delete the transaction.

At the bottom of the screen you can add a new transaction or navigate to related pages, such as Undeposited Funds, the Register, or Non-Monetary Transactions.

Getting Data Out of Netfile

There are two ways you can get your data from Netfile.

1. Contact Netfile and request a full export as part of the shutdown. This will be in a large zip file and contains all the information we need. Once you’ve received this zip file and assuming you qualify for support coverage, send your data to support@ispolitical.com. We will import your data for you.
2. Manually export the data from Netfile using the following steps:
   1. Log in to your Netfile Campaign Filer account.
   2. Hover over Transactions and select View/Edit/Delete Transactions.
   3. Click Export Transactions to Excel at the top right of the All Transactions table. Note that these steps can be done for Entities as well, but Transactions contain all of the necessary Entity information.

Getting Data Out of NGP

There are two ways you can get your data from NGP.

1. Contact NGP and request that they provide an export of your data. This is preferred because the data they provide will contain links between transactions that can help ensure the imported data matches your prior filings. You can request that they shut your account down and provide the data via the Additional Feedback section here.
2. Manually export the data from NGP. This method isn’t ideal because the data won’t contain all the linking info for things like subvendors. No linking info is fine for prior reports, but additional manual entry may be needed for current reports or amendments.

   Start by opening the Create A List tool and running a search without selecting any options. This should return a search result containing all records. Click Export on the My List screen and select Standard Text Export from the Export drop-down menu. If you have the option to customize which fields to include, we recommend including all fields.

   To export Contributions and Disbursements, go to the Report Manager tool and select the report you want. For Contributions, select Contribution Report. Check the date range to make sure it includes the full history. Make sure to also click on Edit Columns and the columns you think you will need (we recommend all). When ready, click Export As and select the file format. We recommend .csv or Excel, but any standard options should be fine. For Disbursements, repeat this process with the appropriate report(s) as needed until you have all your data.

Getting the Data Into ISP

Assuming you qualify for full support coverage, send your exported NGP data to support@ispolitical.com. We will import your data for you.

If you need to send emails en masse from ISP, you can use one of the integration options listed below. If you need to send emails one at a time, you can use our Quick Emails tool. 

Mailchimp

The Mailchimp integration in ISP allows you to create and update Mailchimp audiences using saved searches in ISP.

Mailchimp has different pricing options, including a free plan. The free plan only allows one audience, and different plans have different numbers of allowable audiences.

For more info, click here.

Constant Contact

The Constant Contact integration will add or update your list of subscribers in Constant Contact based on new additions to your ISP database. Your subscribers in Constant Contact will also change after edits are made to existing entities in ISP.

There are three different plan options: Lite, Standard, and Professional. Pricing may increase depending on how many contacts you have.

For more information, click here.

PDI Emails

The PDI Emails integration is only available to democrats. If you don’t see this integration as an option, please contact support@ispolitical.com. This integration allows you to send broadcast emails using Advanced Search in ISP.

PDI charges $1 for every 1,000 emails sent. This billing gets tacked on to your normal ISP billing, and then we forward that money to PDI.

For more information, click here.

The PDI Email integration allows you to send emails en masse from within ISP. PDI charges $1 for every 1,000 emails sent. This billing will be added on to your normal ISP billing, and then we forward that money to PDI.

How do I add the PDI Email integration in ISP?

Under the Integrations tab, select Add/Remove Integrations and scroll down through the Available section until you see Email: PDI Email. Click on it to install it. Note that this integration is only available to democrats. If you don’t see it, contact support@ispolitical.com so we can ensure your account is correctly indicated as democratic.

How does the integration work?

After you’ve installed the integration, click the Tools menu, then click Broadcast Emails. On this page, click the Add Email Template option in the bottom left and create your email template. 

Emails are sent through Advanced Search. Once you’ve created your template, navigate to the Add/Search menu, then click Advanced Search. Using Advanced Search, you need to devise a recipe to isolate the individuals you want to email. After running your search and getting the desired results, select Exports & Actions at the bottom, then select Send Broadcast Email. From here, you can select the template you previously created and send the email to everyone in your list. 

Any emails sent will automatically be logged as Communications on the individual’s or organization’s record. 

On the Integrations> PDI Emails page, you can set a forward address to receive emails from people who respond to your email.

How do I deal with my emails going straight to spam?

Unfortunately, broadcast emails going into spam is out of our control. There are many factors that cause this, and it’s nearly impossible to predict. If you’re having trouble with emails going to spam, you may need to try one of our other broadcast email integrations, like Mailchimp or Constant Contact.

This report is used to find donors that qualify for San Francisco’s public financing program. If you don’t see this report as an option on the Compliance Reports page, navigate to your filer record and set your Jurisdiction Description to San Francisco.

There are three versions of the report:

• Likely Qualifying – looks for donors who have an aggregate total of $10 or more and have a primary address city of San Francisco
• Potentially Qualifying – looks for donors who have an aggregate total of $10 or more and have a primary address state of CA
• Both Likely & Potentially Qualifying

We list each contributor only once on PDF and e-file. We also use the aggregate amount of contributions as the amount.

When you navigate to the Print Checks page underneath the Accounting menu, you’ll notice an orange Adjust Check Formatting button in the footer. Clicking this button allows you to move various elements of your checks in increments of 1/8th of an inch. Here is what you can move:

• Check Number
• Amount
• Text Amount (you can also hide the dollar sign)
• Date
• Address
• Notes
• Bank Info
• Payee Name
• Account/Routing
• Signature Line

First, export a list of donations via a Financial Transactions Report.

1. On the Financial Reports page, click on the Report field drop-down menu
2. From this menu, select Transactions
3. Under the Display section header, click in the Columns box
4. Make sure to include Date, Amount, Name Parts, and Reportable Address columns. These columns will help with matching the contributions to their refunds later.
5. Click on the Generate button
6. Click on the white Print | Export button
7. Export to Excel

You can use this generated list to work from and figure out the refund amount needed.

Second, select the Quick Import format for Other Transactions.

1. From the Dashboard, navigate to Tools and then Quick Imports
2. On the Quick Import page, click on the Format field drop-down menu
3. From this menu, select Other Transactions
4. Scroll to the bottom-right of the screen and click on Download Template

Third, copy and paste your data into the Other Transactions template. You can add a compliance note as well, which may be required. Make sure to indicate “Check” in the Transaction Method column of the template. This should bring all of the Refunded Contributions back in as checks, and thus, they can be printed as checks.

Fourth,

1. From the Dashboard, navigate to Tools and then Quick Imports
2. On the Quick Import page, click on the Format field drop-down menu
3. From this menu, select Other Transactions
4. Click on the Transaction Type drop-down menu
5. From this menu, select Refunded Contribution
6. Select your File (i.e., your completed Other Transactions template)
7. Click on the Upload File button

This will create the Refunded Contributions in bulk. However, the refunded contributions will not be linked to the originals, which should be acceptable in most situations.

Previously Generated Reports

You can access your entire history of generated Compliance reports to review, regenerate or submit reports when you are ready.

The Generated Reports page shows compliance reports that have been generated over time. Using the three filter tabs at the top of the page, you can see three different views of your report history: all reports that have been generated, reports that have been saved for filing but haven’t been filed yet, and view reports that have been marked as filed. Please be sure to mark any filed reports as filed.

The hot dog menu to the right provides options to assist you in interacting with the report and providing information should you need support about the report.

Hot Dog Menu Options in Previously Generated Reports:

– Adjust & Regenerate – Repopulates the report generator with identical parameters, so that you can run the same report again or change them as needed.
– Download (Options can include PDF, e-filing, Excel)
– View Parameters – view options selected on Compliance Report Generator to create the report
– Copy Parameters – useful when alerting ISP Support to a problem, to easily paste selected options into an email or document

If you are in the process of generating a report, you will see an item in the Previously Generated history that shows you the current progress of the report as it’s generating.

Can I delete reports from Previously Generated?

Reports cannot be deleted from your report generation history. We don’t allow this because the report history is a system log and critical to some functions of your ISP account. We made this feature available to clients because of the frequency with which access to report history was requested.  
If a filed report that was not marked as filed were to be mistakenly deleted, you would not be able to amend that report later. Furthermore, if you generate a new version of an older report and have differences without the old one to compare it to, it would be challenging to find the cause.

• Select the Candidate’s Individual record for the transaction Entity
• Click Specify Split and select the vendor record in the Entity field
• Amount should match the amount of the main transaction

1. Navigate to the Candidate record of the individual who paid for the expenses (i.e., the person the committee is writing the check to)
2. In the Transactions section, click to add a transaction and select Accrued Expense as the Type
3. Add the details of the transaction in the appropriate fields
4. Just under the Tags dropdown, click the Specify Splits button
5. In the Entity field, enter the vendor or store where the money was spent, as well as the Amount and any other relevant details

1. Enter the reimbursement amount to the Candidate as an Expense, with the vendors paid entered as Splits
2. If the advance was not and will not be fully reimbursed, create the difference as an Accrued Expense Balance Reduction with the Tag: Forgiven

1. Enter the reimbursable amount to the individual as an Accrued Expense, with the vendors paid as splits
2. When reimbursement is issued to the individual, record this as an Accrued Expense Payment