Author: Benjamin Katz

  • About Super PACs

    Applies To: Federal Election Commission

    Super PACs are independent expenditure-only political committees that may receive unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labor unions, and other political action committees for the purpose of financing independent expenditures and other independent political activity. These committees are not limited on what contributions they can receive or spend, but they cannot give directly to candidates or regular PACs.

    A Super PAC becomes a political committee once its contributions or expenditures exceed $1,000 in a calendar year. After the committee crosses that threshold, it must register within 10 days, using the Statement of Organization, Form 1. A PAC may register and begin reporting before it exceeds the $1,000 threshold.

    If you need to remove limit warnings from your account, change your Committee Type on your filer record to Super PAC.

  • Ninja Forms Integration Setup

    Ninja Forms is an Integration we have made available to all ISP clients. While it is not meant to be used for donations, it is quite adept at creating forms for things like Volunteer signup.

    To install, go to Integrations, then Add/Remove Integrations. It will be listed. Once the installation is completed, You will need to view the Integration (under the menu of the same name) to get the Account Name and API key so you can complete the setup inside your Ninja Forms Account.

  • Different Options for FEC Form 3X Filing

    Applies To: Federal Election Commission

    Sometimes there is confusion about the different filing schedules for different Form 3x filers. The options for filing have to do with the size and activity of the committee. Typically, a filer will declare if they will be a monthly or quarterly filer at the conception of the committee. If they decide to change how frequently they’re going to file, they will file a Form 99 using the Filing Frequency Change Notice report period. Form 3x filers can file in two ways:

    • Monthly – this is usually party committees or PACs with a high volume of transactions.
    • Quarterly – this is usually party committees or PACs that do not have a lot of transactions. Quarterly filers that have little to no activity can also opt to file semi-annually (mid-year and end-year).

    Both monthly and quarterly filers need to file the Pre-General and Post-General reports, but monthly filers do not have to file the Pre-Primary reports.

  • WA C4 (PDC) Line by Line

    Applies To: Washington

    The WA C4 (PDC) report is the Full Report of Receipts and Expenditures. This report, along with its attached schedules, summarizes the campaign’s financial activity and shows itemized expenditures for a specific period.

    Reports are Due:

    • 10th of each month to cover preceding calendar month
    • 21 and 7 days before an election in which the campaign participates.
    • 10th of first month after the election in which the campaign participated.

    Report Generation Screen

    Amended

    • When Amending a report, Amendment Number is which amendment this report is. For example, if you have already filed 2 amendments, Amendment Number would be 3.

    End of Previous Cycle Date

    • This is only found on the Candidate and Ballot Measure C4 Reports
    • WA election cycles end Dec 31 after the Gen Election. This field will always be 12/31/xxxx.

    Autofill Missing Work City/State

    • By checking this box, any individual without a Work City/State will pull the Primary City/State instead.
    • NOTE: Work City/State does not pull for occupation Not Employed, N/A, Unemployed, Retired, Student, Homemaker, or Volunteer as per the PDC guidance.

    Schedule A 

    Line 1 – Contributions And Other Cash Receipts Reported On The C3

    • This is a summary list of all deposits in the period

    Line 3 – Expenditures (Cash And Credit Transaction Detail)

    • Transaction Types: Accrued Expense Payment, Expense, Loan Received Repayment, Refunded Contribution, Support/Oppose Memo
    • Any of these transaction types that are $200 or under will be totaled together and pulled to the first line.
    • If an Expense has split(s) and/or Support/Oppose Memo(s), the whole/parent entity will itemize multiple times – once for each split and/or Support/Oppose memo. The split or Support/Oppose Memo information will be in the “Purpose of expense and/or description” column.
    • If an Accrued Expense has splits, the Accrued Expense Payment amount will be applied to the splits using the FIFO (First In, First Out) Method. As with standard expense splits, the parent entity will itemize multiple times – once for each split. The split information will be in the “Purpose of expense and/or description” column.

    Schedule B

    Line 1 – Inkind Contributions Received

    • Transaction Types: Accrued Expense Balance Reduction, Inkind Contribution, Loan Received Balance Reduction
    • If an Inkind Contribution has split(s), the whole/parent entity will itemize multiple times – once for each split. The split information will be in the “Purpose of expense and/or description” column.

    Line 2 – Pledges Received But Not Yet Paid

    • Transaction Types: Enforceable Pledge

    Line 3 – Orders Placed, Debts And Obligations

    • Transaction Types: Accrued Expense, Loan Made
    • If an Accrued Expense has split(s), the whole/parent entity will itemize multiple times – once for each split. The split information will be in the “Purpose of expense and/or description” column.

    Schedule C

    Refunded Contributions appear 3 times on Sch C. Please see How Are Refunded Contributions Reported on the C4 Report? for additional information.

    Line 1 – Contributions And Receipts

    • Transaction Types: Enforceable Pledge (Reversed), Inkind Contribution (Reversed), Loan Received (Reversed), Loan Received Guarantee (Reversed), Monetary Contribution (Reversed), Other Income (Reversed), Refunded Contribution, Refunded Expense (Reversed)
    • If any of the above transactions has split(s), the whole/parent entity will itemize multiple times – once for each split. The split information will be in the “Purpose of expense and/or description” column.

    Line 2 – Expenditures

    • Transaction Types: Accrued Expense (Reversed),  Accrued Expense Payment (Reversed),  Expenses (Reversed), Loan Made (Reversed),  Loan Received Repayment (Reversed), Refunded Contribution, Refunded Contribution (Reversed), Support/Oppose Memo (Reversed)
    • If any of the above transactions has split(s), the whole/parent entity will itemize multiple times – once for each split. The split information will be in the “Purpose of expense and/or description” column.

    Line 3 – Refunds From Vendors

    • Transaction Types: Refunded Expense
    • If any Refunded Expense has split(s), the whole/parent entity will itemize multiple times – once for each split. The split information will be in the “Purpose of expense and/or description” column.   

    Schedule L

    Line 1 – Inkind Loan Received

    • Transaction Types: Accrued Expense
    • This Line is only found on the Candidate Report.
    • This Line is considered Inkind Loans, or Accrued Expenses associated with the Candidate that have been outstanding for more than 21 days.
    • This Line is for new Inkind Loans in the reporting period.

    Line 2 – Loan Payments

    • Transaction Types: Accrued Expense Payment (Candidate Report Only), Loan Received Repayment
    • Accrued Expense Payments only pull to this line on the Candidate Report, and only if the original Accrued Expense was associated with the Candidate, and the original Accrued Expense was outstanding for more than 21 days – a payment on an Inkind Loan.
    • Accrued Expense Balance Reductions need the tag Forgiven in order for everything to calculate correctly.

    Line 3 – Loans Forgiven

    • Transaction Types: Accrued Expense Balance Reduction (Candidate Report Only), Loan Received Balance Reduction
    • Accrued Expense Balance Reductions only pulls to this line on the Candidate Report, and only if the original Accrued Expense was associated with the Candidate, and the original Accrued Expense was outstanding for more than 21 days – balance reduction of an Inkind Loan.

    Line 4 – Loans Still Owed

    • Transaction Types: Accrued Expense (Candidate Report Only), Loan Received
    • This line is for outstanding Inkind Loans or Loans Received.
  • What Is External ID Tracking?

    The External Data Sources tool tracks ID Numbers and other
    identifiers from external software programs and data sources. This tool
    will add a new section to Individual and Organization records where you
    can add more details.

    • External IDs must be unique per external system.
    • External IDs will work with quick searches. 
    • We can also build quick imports that will bring in external IDs. Email us for more information on this.
  • Do I Need an Ein and How Do I Apply for One?

    Applies To: Internal Revenue Service

    Political organizations are not required to get an Employee Identification Number (EIN). However, if the organization is employing staff or in the 10DLC process for verified text messaging, you may need an EIN. 

    For more information and how to apply for an EIN, you can visit the IRS site and apply for one online.

  • How Are Refunded Contributions Reported on the C4 Report?

    Applies To: Washington

    If you have refunded contributions in your database, these will pull to Schedule C on the WA C4 report. They will show in three different places on the report:

    1. Schedule A3 as an Expense
    2. Schedule C2 as a Reversed Expense
    3. Schedule C1 as a Reversed Contribution
  • How Do I Enter Non-itemized Transactions for My TX Reports?

    Applies To: Texas
    Texas requires manual entry of unitemized transactions for the reports that accept unitemized transactions, specific to the schedule and report. 

    Which TX Reports require manual entry of unitemized transactions?

    When you select the report to generate, you’ll see a list of the schedules in the sidebar on the right side of the page that could potentially have unitemized amounts.

    How do I enter unitemized transaction amounts?

    First, log into the TEC system, start your report, and follow these steps:  

    1. Select Committee Activity
    2. Respond to the prompts, then click Upload my Report Information from File in TEC Approved Format
    3. Follow the instructions
    Next, click Worksheet Summary and take the following steps:

    1. If you have Loan data (SchE) and Other Income data (SchK), click Start next to the appropriate Schedule to manually enter the information as found on the generated PDF
    2. After all the Loan data or Other Income data is entered -OR- if you have no additional data to enter, click Report Totals toward the top-center of the page.
    3. On the Schedule Subtotals page, confirm the itemized totals as per your uploaded data in the Report Itemized column
    4. Under User Entered Lump Sum Totals, enter the unitemized amounts as found on the first page on the PDF
    5. After you’ve entered all the unitemized amounts, click on Next under the list of schedule totals
    6. On the Report Totals page, enter the amounts found on Lines 5 & 6 under Section 15 of the Cover Pages on the generated PDF
    At this point, click Save, then click Check My Report For Errors. Use the TEC [Preview Report PDF] and save the automatically generated PDF as a reference. Click File Now Online when you’re ready to file the report.
  • What Are the Tabs on the Dashboard?

    When you log into your database and arrive on the Dashboard, at the top of the page is a row of tabs. Below each tab are pages you can navigate to. Click on the drop-down arrow to the right of the tab name to view the available pages.

    If you do not see any tabs at all, most likely the browser view or scaling has increased, which causes the tab names to disappear and move into a dropdown list in the top right of the screen. If this happens, you’ll see three stacked horizontal lines where the tabs will be listed. To get the tab names back on screen, decrease the browser view until they reappear.

    The pages below each tab are grouped by similar actions or purpose. For example, the Accounting tab contains pages that are relevant to accounting practices available in ISP, while the Reports tab will be where you can generate and export reports, including Compliance reports.

    If you manage multiple databases as part of a Firm, you’ll see a Consultant Tools menu in the bottom right corner of the screen. Here are pages that allow for various data flow between databases options or bulk database actions. You can also view the Firm details.

  • What Is the Soft Credits Tool?

    The Soft Credits tool allows you to track groups of ambassadors that help you raise money. After adding the tool to your database, when adding a Monetary Contribution, you’ll see a section near the bottom to add a Soft Credit. Here is where you’d enter the name of the individual you want to credit for the donation.