Why these exist
CRA rules dictate a specific set of fields an official donation receipt must carry — organization name and charity registration number, receipt number, donation date and amount, a statement that it's an official receipt for income tax purposes, and the place of issuance and signature of an authorized individual. Getting every one of those right by hand, for every combination of gift type, is easy to get wrong once. Every organization gets four ready-made CRA-aligned templates out of the box so you don't have to design a compliant layout from scratch — pick the variant that matches the gift and go.
The four variants
The four system templates split along two independent choices: whether the gift was cash or property, and whether the donor received anything back in exchange.
- Cash, no advantage — a straightforward cash gift where nothing was given in return.
- Cash, with advantage — a cash gift where the donor received something of value in exchange (a gala dinner ticket, for example). This variant adds the advantage description, advantage amount, and computed eligible amount to the receipt.
- In-kind, no advantage — a gift of property rather than cash. Because CRA in-kind receipts need to substantiate fair market value, this variant carries appraiser fields — appraiser name, appraiser address, appraisal date, and fair market value — alongside the property description.
- In-kind, with advantage — property gifts where the donor also received an advantage, combining the appraiser fields above with the advantage description, advantage amount, and eligible amount.
A run handles one gift type only, so the wizard's donation-type and advantage questions determine which of the four variants applies to a given run.
Advantage variants and the eligible amount
The two "with advantage" variants are the only ones that print an eligible amount, because that's the only case where the eligible amount differs from the gift amount. Rather than being typed in, the eligible amount is computed automatically from the gift amount and the advantage amount and pulled onto the receipt — so the printed figure always matches the math behind it. See Advantage & Eligible Amount Calculation for how that calculation works and which import fields feed it.
Organization data, filled in automatically
All four templates pull the same organization-level details automatically at generation time — your organization's name, address, charity registration number, logo, signature, and place of issue — so you're not re-entering them per receipt. Keep your Organization Settings accurate to ensure these details are correct on every receipt.
English, French, and bilingual
Each of the four variants is available in English, French, and a bilingual layout, so you can match the template to your donor base — pick English or French for a single-language donor list, or bilingual if your donors are a mix of both. The template's language also controls how amounts and dates are formatted on the receipt. See Multilingual Receipts for the full breakdown of language choice and formatting.
Related
- Advantage & Eligible Amount Calculation — how the eligible amount on the advantage variants is calculated
- Multilingual Receipts — choosing English, French, or bilingual for a run
- PDF Templates — designing your own template or uploading a fillable PDF instead