When an online gift clears, the automation fills the charity's tax receipt template with the donor's details and the next serial number, saves the PDF to Google Drive, emails it with a thank-you note and logs it in a Google Sheets register.
Typical results
≈5 hrs/mo
Bookkeeper time on receipts saved
0
Skipped or duplicate receipt numbers
Under 1 min
To find and resend a past receipt
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Receipts are usually issued in a batch at the end of the week or month. The bookkeeper copies each donor's name, ID number and amount from the payment page into a template, numbers it by hand and emails it. Donors wait days, serial numbers get skipped or doubled, and resend requests mean digging through old email.
Before and after
Bookkeeper hours on receipts per month
−83%Receipt numbering errors per month
−100%Minutes to find and resend a past receipt
−93%The automation
When a donation clears on the online payment page, Make picks up the payment record with the donor's name, ID number, amount and campaign. It fills the charity's receipt template with the next serial number, saves the PDF in the donor's folder in Google Drive and emails it with a short thank-you note. Each receipt is written to a Google Sheets register with its number, payment reference and send time, so a copy can be resent in seconds.
How it works
- 01
Gift clears on the payment page
The payment provider confirms the donation and passes the donor's name, ID number, amount and campaign to Make.
- 02
Receipt filled from the template
The charity's tax receipt template is filled in with the next serial number from the register, so numbers never skip or repeat.
- 03
PDF saved to the donor's folder
The receipt is saved as a PDF in the donor's folder in Google Drive, named by receipt number and date.
- 04
Emailed with a thank-you
The donor gets the PDF by email with a short thank-you note tied to the campaign they gave to.
- 05
Logged for month-end matching
The Google Sheets register records the receipt number, payment reference and send time for the bookkeeper's reconciliation.
Starts from
- Cleared online donation
- Tax receipt template
Delivers
- Numbered PDF receipt
- Thank-you email to donor
- Receipt register row
The impact
Donors receive their receipt within about two minutes of giving, while the gift is still fresh in their mind. The bookkeeper saves roughly 5 hours a month of copying and numbering, the serial sequence has no gaps or duplicates, and month-end matching of receipts to payments takes minutes instead of an afternoon.
Questions about this automation
Which payment pages does it work with?
Any donation page or payment provider that sends a notification when a payment clears, or that Make can check on a schedule. Common setups use the charity's existing card processor or donation platform. Offline gifts, such as bank transfers, can be added by entering them in a short form that feeds the same flow.
How are receipt numbers kept in sequence?
The next number comes from the register itself, and each run reserves it before the PDF is built, so two gifts arriving together never share a number. If a receipt has to be cancelled, it is marked void in the register and a replacement is issued under a new number, keeping the audit trail intact.
What does the charity need to get started?
Access to the payment provider, the current receipt template with the fields the tax authority requires, a Google Drive folder and the last receipt number issued. Simple automations like this are usually live within days, and a few test gifts confirm the numbering and email wording before real donors see it.