Capwiz·XC PACbuilder eNews



PACbuilder eNews Spring 2007 FEC / Industry News ... FEC Requires PACs to Provide Additional Detail on "Purpose of Disbursements": On January 9, 2007, the FEC issued a Statement of Policy containing a list of acceptable and unacceptable descriptions of disbursements that may be included by PACs on their FEC reports. Below are some examples of the descriptions that FEC has approved: "Door-to-Door Get-Out-the-Vote," "Get-Out-the-Vote Phone Calls," and "Driving Voters to the Polls" instead of the less descriptive "GOTV" or "GOTV Expenses." "Consultant-Media," "Consultant-Fundraising,""Consultant-Get-Out-the-Vote," "Consultant-Legal," or "Consultant-Polling" instead of the more general "Consultant-Political." "Catering Cost" instead of "Fundraising Expense" or "Event Expense." "Media" for a disbursement to a television or radio communication company rather than "Generic Campaign Activity." This Statement of Policy—and the accompanying list of descriptions—is available at the FEC Website: www.fec.gov/law/policy/purposeofdisbursement/notice_2006-23.pdf Please note that this policy will not affect the vast majority of corporate or trade/membership association PACs whose only disbursements are for candidate contributions and it should still be reported as such. ... Five legislative recommendations were sent by FEC to Congress and The President for consideration: The first recommendation calls for mandatory electronic filing of campaign finance reports for all Senate candidates The second recommendation asks Congress to expand the prohibitions on fraudulent misrepresentation of campaign authority to encompass all persons purporting to act on behalf of candidates or political organizations. A third recommendation is to add the FEC to the list of agencies authorized to issue immunity orders under Title 18 with the permission of the Attorney General enabling the Commission to be more flexible in pursuing information in enforcement investigations. The fourth recommendation is to require political committees to include FEC identification numbers on contribution checks sent to other political committees and to disclose the identification numbers of other political committees when itemizing contributions from them and contributions to them on reports filed with the Commission. The final recommendation is that Congress increases certain Pre-BCRA registration and reporting thresholds relating to actions by individuals and small organizations involved in political campaigns. Increasing the threshold would ease registration and reporting burdens on individuals and small organizations that are not aware of reporting requirements. The raise would also bring the thresholds to more realistic current levels in light of the inflation experienced in the past 30 years. An FEC document describing the proposals is available at http://www.fec.gov/agenda/2007/mtgdoc07-28.pdf. ... Leadership PACs are not required under current law to disclose the identification of the candidates or officeholders with whom the committees are associated in their statements of organization or when filing their FEC report. The Leadership PAC Disclosure ACT, H.R. 237 introduced by Rep. Walter Jones Jr. (R-NC) would require the leadership PACs to include this information in their filings and statements of organization. This measure will eliminate the notion that Members of Congress are not willing to fully disclose their political fundraising and spending, and would bring about complete transparency in the campaign finance system. (The list of Leadership PACs is now available in PACbuilder). ... FEC's New Policy Guidance on Internal Controls and Embezzlement FEC has recently issued guidance to PACs regarding internal controls they should consider to minimize reporting errors arising from misappropriation of the committee funds or assets by an employee. This new policy creates a "safe harbor" for committees that file inaccurate disclosure reports as a result of an employee's embezzlement of committee funds if the committee adopts certain precautionary safeguards and follows certain post-discovery steps identified by FEC. In order to be completely protected under the safe harbor, a PAC must adopt each of the following internal controls as part of its regular operating procedure: All bank accounts are opened in the name of the committee, never an individual, using the committee’s Employer Identification Number, not an individual’s Social Security Number. Bank statements are reviewed for unauthorized transactions and reconciled to the accounting records each month. Further, bank records are reconciled to disclosure reports prior to filing. The reconciliations are done by someone other than a check signer or an individual responsible for handling the committee’s accounting. Checks in excess of $1000 are authorized in writing and/or signed by two individuals. Further, all wire transfers are authorized in writing by two individuals. The individuals who may authorize disbursements or sign checks should be identified in writing in the committee’s internal policies. An individual who does not handle the committee’s accounting or have banking authority receives incoming checks and monitors all other incoming receipts. This individual makes a list of all committee receipts and places a restrictive endorsement, such as: "For Deposit Only to the Account of the Payee’’ on all checks. If a committee has a petty cash fund, use an "imprest" system with one custodian. The imprest fund involves replenishing petty cash only when properly approved vouchers and/or petty cash log entries are presented justifying all expenditures. In addition to these preventative measures, the political committee must notify both the FEC and relevant law enforcement officials of the misappropriation as soon as it is discovered in order to qualify for the safe harbor. Finally, the PAC must file reports to correct any reporting errors due to the misappropriation. This guidance is available at http://www.fec.gov/law/policy/guidance/internal_controls_polcmtes_07.pdf

PAC Best Practices / PACbuilder Tips The following PACbuilder tips provide a swift response to commonly asked questions: How can I change my password? You can change your password by selecting "Change My Password" from the File menu or by going to "Users", also located in the File menu, and editing your user information. Enter the new password and then repeat. Click Save. How can I add a New User to PACbuilder? To Add a new user to the database, click the Add User button located in the top right of the Users List table. An Edit User window appears. This window consists of two sections: the user information and the access information. The user information consists of fields for the name of the user, title, telephone numbers, address, and user name and password. Those users with the Users access privilege can modify user name and passwords at a later date. In fact, each username begins with full access to the program. You need to assign Restrictions to each username if you would like to limit access. How do I globally remove or add codes? The Batch Add/Remove Codes function allows a user to add or delete a single or multiple codes from the Main Codes field. This function is found under the Tools/Batch Add/Remove Tools drop-down menu. How do I print a check from PACbuilder? Under Reports/Financial Reports/Disbursement Reports, choose Disbursement Check sheet from the Select Report drop down button. Either select a date range of checks to print and choose the order for printing by adding "Check" under "Choose Order" field drop down button, or print a single check by using the "Check" field option to fill in the check number you wish to print. This is only for printing a single check at a time. How do I reissue a check that was reported to FEC but never reached a Candidate Committee? Enter a negative, Non-Memoed disbursement for the same amount and the same type and this reporting period date (i.e. today's date) - with the purpose Voided Check. Then, enter the reissue as a new disbursement. No need to file an amendment for a reissue. How do I enter an In-kind Contribution to a candidate? Create a new record for the vendor if it is not currently in the database (i.e. Kinkos, Marriott Hotel) On the vendor record, enter the disbursement as type "B - Contribution to Federal Candidate" Enter "IK" in the Code1 field Enter the ContactID of the candidate in the Link field to associate the contribution to the said candidate Enter In Kind- Postage or In Kind – Catering in the Purpose field The entry will be shown on Schedule B, Line 23 of the FEC report Does PACbuilder have a reminder feature? To create a reminder use the Notes tab on a contact record. Click on "Add Item" when the Notes page opens, and enter the date of the reminder in the Date field, and the text into the Note field. The member may be used if applicable (multi-candidate tracking). The Type of Reminder should be "R". Where do I find the Missing Employment- Occupation report? Under Reports/financial Reports/contribution Reports, choose the Missing Emp-Occ Report. This report is useful in listing all contribution records with blank occupation or employer which is a requirement for your federal compliance reporting. How do I merge duplicate records? The "Combine Duplicates" feature under Tools enables you to use several fields to match duplicate contacts. When your duplicate list is generated, only 2 records can be combined at a time. One contact record has to be the Primary contact and the other is the Secondary. All related records (contributions, disbursements, notes, etc.) will be added to the Primary contact. Any additional information not in the Primary record will also be added. You can set which contact is the Primary and which the Secondary. All related records for the 2 contacts can be reviewed prior to combining. Enterprise News NewLobbyLaw.com Launched to Help Navigate New Lobby Law Provisions NewLobbyLaw.com was launched today by Knowlegis, E-Advocates, and Capitol Advantage to provide their customers, government relations professionals, and the public with a central online location for information on lobbying reform legislation and new ethics rules. The site is free and features raw information related to lobby reform. "We wanted to provide a portal site that offers basic, accurate data related to lobby reform and the new ethics rules," said Brad Fitch, CEO and co-founder of Knowlegis. "The site’s managers will be selective in the material uploaded. Many of the resources currently available offer material for members, staff, and lobbyists. This site will exclusively cater to those in the government relations community who have to comply with the new standards," he said. The developers of NewLobbyLaw.com will not create original content and will only include material produced by the Congress, legal experts, or other sources deemed useful to government relations professionals. "Our business is about helping our customers do the right thing as it relates to interacting with elected officials. NewLobbyLaw.com acts as this resource for our customers, as they attempt to be compliant to the new and sometimes confusing aspects of the new laws," said Sherry Stanley Whitworth, CEO, Capitol Advantage. The site also will include an e-newsletter, allowing users to be notified of new data being added to the site. Current offerings on the site include: Senate-passed lobby reform legislation House-passed lobby reform legislation New House rules related to gifts to House Members New House rules related to travel with Members Selected articles that offer clear guidance on how to interpret the new House rules NewLobbyLaw.com’s data is researched and selected by Knowlegis; E-Advocates built the site; and Capitol Advantage’s CapwizXC tool manages the e-newsletter. Capwiz·XC Mail Manager Tool--ECRM Did you know that Capwiz·XC has an outbound e-mail (ECRM) tool that allows users to communicate with members in their Capwiz·XC User Database and effectively monitor the success of their campaigns? With CapwizXC Mail Manager you will be able to: Create and send e-mails and newsletters to your entire database or drill down and target your message to a smaller segment of your mailing list Study open rates and maintain your mailing lists with advanced delivery reports Add an attachment to your e-mail Choose from among 20 pre-existing e-mail templates or add a custom template so all e-mails have your organization's branding Merge any custom field into your e-mail subject line or message body, including recipient names, addresses, districts, and elected official names Influence Legislation: Town Hall Meeting Alerts Knowlegis subscribers enjoy access to the only database available with upcoming Town Hall Meetings. That is powerful information! Combine Knowlegis with Capwiz·XC, an award-winning online advocacy tool from Capitol Advantage, and easily notify your activists about upcoming Town Hall Meetings in their local area. With just a few clicks of the mouse your organization is represented at Town Hall Meetings across the country! Achieve legislative success by mobilizing and preparing your supporters to attend local Town Hall Meetings. Combining Knowlegis with Capwiz·XC will enable you to: Target key advocates to be notified of upcoming congressional town hall meetings. Identify which town hall meetings and Members of Congress are ideal for advocate outreach. Notify supporters via e-mail alerts inviting them to attend town hall meetings. Track feedback of attendees on their congressional outreach. If you’d like more information on this topic in general, you may want to read "10 Strategies for Using Congressional Town Hall Meetings to Advance Your Legislative Agenda." To learn more about Town Hall Meeting Alerts contact us at 703-289-4670. Have you ordered your Congress At Your Fingertips Congressional Directories? Our award-winning guide to Congress makes the perfect PAC donor thank you, membership gift, or conference giveaway. For more information visit our Web site for ordering, pricing and personalizing options. Hurry they're going fast! www.capitoladvantage.com/publishing PAC Jeopardy Answer A political committee established or financially supported by a corporation or labor organization; popularly called a political action committee. E-mail the correct question to mkordestani@capitoladvantage.com. The first three people with the correct question will receive a Starbucks gift card. Question to last edition's PAC Jeopardy Answer: What is In-Kind Contribution? *Winners: Shannon Frack of Printing Industries of America, Carla Lochiatto of ASAE, and Mira Schainker of Arts Action Fund.*


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