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Find answers to common questions about TaxReceipt.app

What a run is

A run is the reusable container for one cycle of receipting. Behind the label, it bundles your three templates — the import mapping (how your CSV or Excel columns line up), the PDF template (the receipt layout), and the email template (the delivery message) — into a single configured workflow. Setting the run up once means every future batch of receipts inherits the same rules, so you're not re-deciding compliance and formatting each time you import.

The Run Setup wizard is where that configuration happens. Nothing is saved until you finish it, so backing out partway through never leaves a half-created, unnamed run cluttering your list.

Step 1: Run details and compliance

The first step is the substance of the setup. You give the run a name and then answer the questions that determine how its receipts are issued:

  • Test run toggle. Right at the top you can flip the run into Test run mode — a safe sandbox where receipts are watermarked, capped at 10, emailed only to you, and never charged. The test mode choice is made here in the wizard and gets locked in as soon as you import data — until then you can still change it by re-opening the run's setup wizard if needed. After that, the only way to convert from test to live is through "Finish testing & go live". See Test Runs for the full sandbox behaviour and how to later finish testing and go live.
  • Receipt fiscal year. The tax year the receipts are issued for.
  • Target country compliance. The country whose tax-receipt rules these receipts must follow, which controls the required fields and wording.
  • Donation type. Cash or in-kind — a run handles one type only, so cash and in-kind gifts go in separate runs. If you picked Canada, an extra CRA question asks whether donors received an advantage (a benefit in exchange for the gift), because that changes which fields the receipt must carry.
  • Compliance approvals. Optionally require another team member to review and approve a batch before it's distributed.

If your credit balance is zero, a banner here offers to allocate or purchase credits so generation isn't blocked later.

Step 2: Approvals setup (only if enabled)

This step appears only when you turned on compliance approvals in step 1. It either walks you through adding the team members who will act as approvers, or — once your team is ready — lets you configure exactly which workflow steps require sign-off. If you left approvals off, the wizard skips straight past it.

Step 3: Review the workflow

A short educational step that lays out the repeatable cycle every run follows: Import → Generate → Distribute, with an archive of past batches to fall back on. There's nothing to fill in here — it orients you before you start feeding real data through the run. For a deeper look at this cycle, see Understanding the Workflow.

Step 4: Default delivery

The last step sets how newly generated receipts are delivered by default:

  • Email when available, mail otherwise (recommended) — donors with an email address on file get an email receipt; donors without one are queued for physical mailing.
  • Mail everything — for paper-first charities, every receipt is queued for physical mailing regardless of any email on file.

This is only the default; you can still change how any individual receipt is delivered later. When you complete this step the run is saved.

After the wizard

Once the run exists, an advanced settings page shows its full configuration and the three linked templates, with a shortcut to re-run the wizard if you need to change something. From there you're ready to import your first batch — see Generating Your First Receipt.

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