A leading CRM provider has said that HMRC should finish the job it started by introducing an online gift aid filing portal, and create a universal template to enable all charities and CRM systems to be integrated with it.

Following the announcement late last month of the details of the online gift aid system, to be introduced in April 2013, civilsociety.co.uk found that all leading CRM providers to the charity market are intending to provide the update required to comply with online gift aid filing for free to their existing clients. However, there remains some concern about the costs to charities which have bespoke systems, and which may have to employ developers to write the upgrade.

HMRC has said that it will allow charities to file gift aid claims using the old system “for the foreseeable future” and has not yet set a date for paper forms to be withdrawn. However, as individual CRM companies all work to develop updates to their products so that charities using them can upload their gift aid claims to the government’s Charities Portal - a system which all agree will eventually make it quicker and easier for charities to claim back gift aid - some CRM suppliers have complained that they are duplicating each other’s work.

'Government has done half the job'

Charles Bagnall, product manager at Iris NFP, said that it is possible that one programme be written which would be able to work across all CRM systems, from commercial to bespoke systems. 

While Bagnall commended HMRC for committing resource and consulting with the CRM sector on this incoming system, he suggested that it could be done more efficiently.

“Government has done half the job,” Bagnall told civilsociety.co.uk. 

Bagnall said that government could create a programme which would work across all flat files, enabling all charities to upload gift aid claims direct from their existing databases. He said HMRC should provide a template that will work universally “if government want to get the benefit of their investment”. Without this investment from a central source he warned that take-up of the new system may be very slow.

Bagnall’s call received support from elsewhere in the CRM sector.

John Bird, head of ThankQ, said: “The duplication of effort will make it harder for suppliers to get this out to charities.”

Bird told civilsociety.co.uk: "Although I have been impressed with HMRC’s level of consultation with suppliers (there is a Charity Software Developers group that have met twice now) we only received the detailed specifications in the last few weeks and test services are only just coming online.”

However Azadi Sheridan, Blackbaud’s product manager for CRM products, said: “It’s not that complex a change … We’ve had time to prepare and put effort into it.”

Robin Fisk of ASI Europe said the government body deserved credit. “HMRC – who are not renowned for their technology foresight – have at least provided a clear, modern interface for us to use,” he said. “It’s not rocket science to make an existing gift aid claim send the appropriate information there instead of printing it out.”

HMRC response

HMRC said that it was producing a portal form that will be free to use, and that: "Whilst there is a limit on the number of individual gift aid donations that can be listed through this form it has been designed to cover the majority of charities."

The department said that those charities that do not already use external software as part of their claim process will need to either buy software from a software supplier or build their own software package that will work with HMRC's online system.

It added that: "HMRC does not (as a matter of policy) produce software packages because we have committed to allow a space for software developers to produce their own products. However, HMRC are working with developers so that they are aware of what they need to do to ensure that their products are compatible with the new online filing service for charities."