Somewhere in a church, a club, a lodge and a school right now, someone is cross-referencing a bank statement against a spreadsheet, trying to work out whether the person who said they paid actually did. The charge was raised somewhere, the payment came in somewhere else, a correction was made in an email that nobody saved, and now the numbers do not agree. This is not a failure of organisation. It is what happens when the tools for raising charges, collecting payment and recording corrections are not the same tool.

This guide covers the part of that problem that Daviah addresses: raising charges in one step, recording card and offline payments in one place, keeping a clear trail when something is corrected, and producing the reports and exports that let the treasurer show their working. It also says plainly, for each kind, what Daviah does not yet solve — because knowing the limits is as useful as knowing what changes.

Raising the year's charges without going through the list one name at a time

Whether the amount is called giving, subscriptions, fees or dues, the first step is the same: someone has to tell the system what each person owes for the year. In most organisations this means opening a spreadsheet, finding last year's list, adjusting it, and then somehow getting those figures into whatever tool members use to pay — if one exists at all.

In Daviah the treasurer raises the year's charge for everyone in one step. The amount appears on each member's record and in their portal the moment it is raised. There is no second list to maintain, no separate tool to update, and no gap between 'what we said they owe' and 'what the system shows them.'

Card payments recorded the moment Stripe confirms them

A payment recorded before the money has actually moved is the start of a reconciliation problem. Daviah records a card payment only once Stripe confirms that the money moved — not when the member says they paid, not when the card was presented, but when the transaction is settled.

Card payments go directly to the organisation's own Stripe account. Daviah takes no cut of the money; the organisation pays Stripe's fees directly. That means the amount that lands in the bank is the amount in the record, with nothing withheld by a middleman.

Members pay from their portal on the organisation's own site — they sign in, see what they owe, and pay by card. The record updates immediately.

Cash, cheque and anything paid offline entered once, in order

Not every member pays by card, and in most organisations a significant share of payments still arrive as cash at the door or a cheque in the post. Recording these by hand and then separately updating a ledger is where discrepancies creep in.

Offline payments — cash, cheque or any other method — can be recorded directly against the member's record in the office. Each entry carries a receipt number that runs in sequence per year, so there is always a clear, ordered record of every payment that did not come through card.

Corrections that leave a trail

Corrections are inevitable: a charge raised at the wrong amount, a payment recorded twice, a waiver agreed for a member in difficulty. The problem is not that corrections happen — it is that they are usually made in ways that leave no record of what changed, who decided it, or why.

In Daviah, waiving, voiding and correcting charges is the treasurer's decision and is recorded with a reason in the audit trail. Changes to records are written to an append-only audit trail, which means the history cannot be quietly edited. Anyone reviewing the books later can see what was changed, when and what reason was given.

Reports and exports when someone asks for the numbers

At the end of the quarter, the year, or the audit, someone will ask for the numbers. Reports on dues are counted live from the records — not from a cached snapshot that may be a week old. Members, dues, payments and officers can all be exported to CSV, which means the figures can be handed to an accountant, a governing body or a reviewer in a format they can work with.

Exports continue to work even if an organisation's subscription lapses — records stay readable and CSV exports still run, so a change in subscription status does not mean losing access to the financial history.

For churches: giving records the treasurer can stand behind

For a church treasurer, the giving record is not just a financial document — it is the basis on which donors trust the church with their money, and it sits close to legal obligations around charitable giving. Online gifts not captured automatically, cash giving entered inconsistently across different people's notes, and corrections made informally over email are all sources of the kind of error that surfaces at the worst possible moment.

Daviah addresses the recording and reconciliation side of this: online giving recorded when Stripe confirms the money moved, offline giving — cash, cheque, envelope — entered in order with sequential receipt numbers, and any correction made with a reason in the audit trail. Reports and CSV exports give the treasurer a clear picture to work from and share with the denomination or a reviewer.

What Daviah does not yet do: it does not generate formal year-end giving statements to send to donors. That is a specific requirement for charitable giving compliance in many jurisdictions, and it is not addressed by the tools described here. The full guide for churches on this pain covers what is and is not solved.

For clubs: collecting subscriptions without losing the thread

A club treasurer's year is shaped by renewals: subscriptions falling due, some members paying promptly by card, others by bank transfer or cash at the meeting, a few not paying at all, and the secretary's list not quite matching the treasurer's list by the time the AGM arrives.

Daviah raises subscriptions for the whole membership in one step, records card payments when Stripe confirms them and offline payments with sequential receipts, and keeps corrections in the audit trail. The office can also send a message specifically to members with unpaid dues, which means the chasing can be targeted rather than sent to everyone.

What Daviah does not address: reconciling the records against the club's actual bank statement is not a feature — there is no bank import or statement reconciliation tool. Subscription amounts drifting over time are also not managed automatically. The full guide for clubs on this pain says this plainly.

For lodges: dues collection where the Secretary and Treasurer both see the same record

In a lodge, dues collection spans the Secretary and the Treasurer in ways that create room for the records to diverge. The Secretary knows who is a member in good standing; the Treasurer knows who has paid. When those records are kept in different places and compared only at the end of the year, inaccuracies in the total can affect what is reported to and remitted to the Jurisdiction.

Daviah keeps dues records in the same office that holds the membership records. Both officers sign in to the same system, and the dues record is part of the member record — not a separate file. Charges are raised in one step, card and offline payments are recorded against each member, and corrections go through the audit trail with a reason.

What Daviah does not address: there is no dedicated feature for Grand Lodge payment reconciliation, and no shared live dashboard that automatically flags when the Secretary's view and the Treasurer's view diverge. The full guide for lodges on this pain covers what is and is not answered.

For schools: fees raised and tracked without the manual ledger

For a bursar or school secretary at a small school, fee tracking is often a manual process: a spreadsheet of what each student owes, a separate note of what has been received, and a periodic effort to reconcile the two against the bank. Errors accumulate quietly until they become visible at exactly the wrong moment.

Daviah raises fees for the whole roll in one step, records card payments when Stripe confirms them and cash or cheque payments with sequential receipt numbers, and keeps any correction in the audit trail. Reports and CSV exports give the bursar the figures to present to the principal or board.

What Daviah does not yet do: there is no automated reminder or overdue notice sent to families when a fee is outstanding. Following up with parents who have not paid still requires the bursar to send a message manually through the office. The full guide for schools on this pain covers this gap directly.

Questions

Does Daviah connect to our bank account for reconciliation?

No. Daviah records charges and payments against each member's record, and exports those records to CSV. It does not import bank statements or reconcile against a live bank feed. If your process requires matching records against the bank account, that step remains outside the system.

What happens if we need to correct a charge that was entered incorrectly?

Waiving, voiding and correcting charges is done by the treasurer in the office. Each correction is recorded with a reason in the audit trail, which is append-only — the history of what changed and why cannot be silently removed.

Can members pay by card without the treasurer handling their card details?

Yes. Members pay from their portal on the organisation's own site. The card transaction goes through Stripe directly to the organisation's own Stripe account. The treasurer never sees or handles card details, and a payment is recorded in the office only once Stripe confirms the money moved.

Does Daviah generate year-end giving statements for church donors?

No. Daviah records giving and supports CSV export of payment records, but it does not generate or send the formal year-end giving statements that donors need for tax purposes. That remains a task outside the system for now.

Does Daviah send automatic reminders to members who have not paid?

Not automatically. The office can send a message specifically to members with unpaid dues, but that message is written and sent by a person — there is no automated reminder or overdue-notice job that runs without someone choosing to send it.

What plan do I need to use dues, fees and payment tracking?

The member records, dues tools, member portal and messaging all require the Website and Members plan, which is $79.99 a month or $819.99 a year. The free plan and the Website plan do not include these tools. A website pay or give button is available once a Stripe account is connected, and that does not require the full members plan.

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