Setting Up Automatic Gift Aid Claims
This feature is available on the Plus plan
This guide shows you how to set GiveTap up to submit your eligible Gift Aid claims to HMRC on a schedule, so you do not have to file them by hand. 100% of successful Gift Aid claims go to your charity, directly from HMRC.
Before you start
- You are signed in to the GiveTap charity dashboard as an admin.
- You are on the Plus plan or Silent Auction (Annual) plan.
- You are registered for Gift Aid with HMRC and can access HMRC Online Services / the Government Gateway.
- You have your HMRC details to hand: HMRC Reference Number, HMRC User ID (Government Gateway / Sender ID) and HMRC Password.
- You know your Authorised Official's details exactly as held by HMRC: title, forename, surname, post code and telephone number.
Steps
- From the side menu, open Gift Aid, then click the Settings tab (Gift Aid > Settings). This is the same settings page used for bulk claims.
- Under YOUR ORGANISATION'S DETAILS, fill in Organisation/Charity Name, then Charity Regulator (this must be CCEW, OSCR or CCNI), and Charity Registration Number.
Tip: Type these exactly as registered with HMRC. They are case-sensitive and do not allow spaces or special characters.
- Under HMRC SUBMISSION SETTINGS, enter your HMRC Reference Number (two letters followed by five numbers, for example AB12345), your HMRC User ID (your Government Gateway or Sender ID, up to 12 characters) and your HMRC Password (the password you use to sign in to government online services).
- Complete the AUTHORISED OFFICIAL block: Title, Forename, Surname, Post Code and Telephone.
Warning: The Authorised Official's details must match HMRC's records exactly, including capital letters. If the title, name, post code or telephone do not match, your claims will fail.
- Scroll to AUTOMATIC CLAIMS and turn on the 'Submit claims automatically' toggle, labelled Enabled. The scheduling options appear once it is on. Automatic claims submit your eligible donations (Unclaimed and Ready to claim) to HMRC. Donations marked Won't claim are excluded, and you will receive an email after each run.
- Choose a Frequency from Daily, Weekly or Monthly. If you pick Weekly, also choose a Day of week. If you pick Monthly, also choose a Day of month.
- Check the 'Next scheduled run' preview to confirm the date looks right for the schedule you chose.
- Click Save Changes to store both your HMRC details and your automatic claims schedule.
- Confirm the green success message 'Gift Aid settings updated successfully.' appears. The Last run and Next scheduled run details refresh to reflect what you saved.
- From time to time, come back to this page and check Last run and Next scheduled run to see how your schedule is doing. If a run fails, GiveTap does not retry it within that run; the next scheduled date is the next chance.
Warning: If three scheduled runs fail in a row, GiveTap pauses your schedule and emails your admins. You will see an 'Automatic claims paused' banner here.
If the schedule has been paused, open Past Claims to read the HMRC error, fix the cause (most often an Authorised Official detail that does not match HMRC), then return to this page and click Re-enable to restart automatic claims.
Your donors’ Gift Aid declaration wording is set separately, in Settings > Declarations.
You're done when…
- All YOUR ORGANISATION'S DETAILS, HMRC SUBMISSION SETTINGS and AUTHORISED OFFICIAL fields are filled in and accepted (no validation errors).
- The 'Submit claims automatically' toggle is on (Enabled) and a Frequency is selected, with a Day of week or Day of month where required.
- After clicking Save Changes, the message 'Gift Aid settings updated successfully.' appears.
- A 'Next scheduled run' date is shown, confirming the schedule is active.
- No 'Automatic claims paused' banner is showing; if it is, the cause has been fixed and Re-enable has been clicked.