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26.1. Entering Independent Expenditure Transactions

Steps to Enter Independent Expenditure Transactions

1. Open the legislator record of the candidate you are creating an independent expenditure for. Make sure that you open the legislator record and not a candidate campaign record. Note: The purpose of this step is to ensure you identify the correct legislator to link with disbursements. If you are certain about the legislator identity you may skip this step.
2.  If the candidate has a legislator record make sure that the District Information field is correct for the election that they are currently running for. There may be a situation where a sitting Representative in the House is running for Senate. The legislator record will likely contain their current position and not the position they are campaigning for. To update the District Information simply select Update. Note: If no legislator record exists for the candidate you will have to create one, click here for more information on how to create a new legislator record.
3. Next, open the record for the organization you are paying (or create a new record if necessary). 
4. Once within the Organization's record click the Add Disbursement button on the right side of the window to open a new disbursement transaction. This will open a Disbursement Details pop-up window.
5. Enter the date. Note: The date of the transaction should not be the date you are paying the vendor. The date for the transaction should be the date of the dissemination of this disbursement to the public. For instance, if you are purchasing Radio ads for a candidate that will be run on July 8, 2010 that is the date that should be entered in the disbursement screen.
6. Enter the amount in the Amount field.
7. Select the appropriate Committee and Account from the drop down menus.
8. Under the Type field select "Independent Expenditure"
9. For Sub-Type select "Payment"
10.  Select the correct Period. The Period field is VERY important. Because these reports are calculated by the election-cycle-to-date, and NOT per vendor it is important that you know which election (primary, general, run-off) you are attempting to affect.
11. In the Purpose field enter a description of what you are paying for (For example: radio (TV) airtime; video production; printing; postage.)
12. Click the Save and Close button at the top of the disbursement 
13. Once the disbursement transdaction has saved, click the Disbursements sub-file and open the exact same disbursement again. This will re-open the transaction and allow us to add more transaction information than was previously available.
14. Scroll to the bottom of the disbursement screen and find the Oppose and Support box.
15. Click the checkbox to indicate whether the disbursement you are paying for is to Support or Oppose the candidate. 
16. In the same Disbursement Details window, find the the Candidate Information sub-file. Click on the sub-file to open the Candidate Information drop-down menu.                                                                                              
17. Using the Last Name field, search for the candidate you are supporting or opposing with this transaction. 
18. The candidate should appear below the search button. On the left side is a tiny link button next to the corresponding Candidate. Click this.
19.  A pop-up window will appear telling you to "click save to finish linking the legislator." Click the OK button.
20. Scroll to the top of the Disbursement Details window and click Save and Close.
21. A new pop-up window will appear telling you that the records have successfully linked. Click the OK button.
22. Repeat this process for any other disbursement transaction that occurred during this time. Note: disbursements for independent expenditures related to opposing candidates in the same election are aggregated for 24- and 48-hour reporting. If expenditures related to different candidates in the same election (for instance, supporting one and opposing the other) are entered correctly expenditures for both candidates will aggregate properly on reports filed with the following steps here.
23. For FEC reports, if you need the Date of Disbursement or Obligation field to be populated, you'll need to expand the User Defined Fields section of the transaction, and enter the date into the FEC IE Payment Date field.