Candidate In-Kind Contributions
Candidate in-kind contributions require a receipt, a corresponding disbursement, and a vendor record. This guide walks you through the full process, from creating the receipt to generating your report.
Before You Begin:
- Your candidate committee account must be linked to the candidate's congressional committee.
- You must have a Candidate Donor record linked to this account. This is the donor you'll use when creating the receipt.
If you don't see a linked candidate donor, visit Contacts to confirm the record exists and is associated with your committee before proceeding.
1. Create the Receipt.
Navigate to Create Receipt from the Dashboard or the Transactions menu.
- Select your Candidate Donor as the donor on the receipt.
- Enter the contribution amount. If the amount exceeds the itemization threshold, it will appear as an itemized entry on your report.
- Set the Payment Method to In-Kind Contribution.
- Memo Text is required for all in-kind contributions. Describe the nature of the contribution.
- Select Candidate Contributions as the contribution type. This links the entry to Schedule A, Line 11(d).
- Select the appropriate Period and Cycle.
2. Configure the Corresponding In-Kind Disbursement.
Because this is an in-kind contribution, a Corresponding In-Kind Disbursement section will automatically appear on the receipt form.
- Select the disbursement type (e.g., Another Federal Operating Expenditure).
- The Purpose field is required. Enter a description of what the disbursement covers.
- Select the Period and Cycle again for the disbursement.
You don't need to create this disbursement separately. Warchest handles the receipt and its corresponding disbursement together in one form.
3. Save and Add a Vendor.
You can't assign a vendor until the receipt and disbursement have been saved. Click Save to Add Vendor.
- After saving, you'll be redirected into the Edit form for this transaction.
- In the Assign Vendor section, select the vendor who provided the in-kind goods or services and set the amount.
This creates a child memo disbursement entry, which is how the FEC expects unpaid vendor contributions to appear in your report.
4. Review Your Linked Transactions.
After assigning the vendor, click the Review button. Warchest will show you a preview of all linked transactions:
- Schedule A entry: The in-kind receipt, including committee details, candidate donor information, and period/cycle data.
- Schedule B entry: The corresponding in-kind disbursement.
- Memo entry: The vendor payment record. This also appears in the report.
- Save the transaction when everything looks correct.
5. Generate Your Report.
Navigate to Form Manager and generate the appropriate form for the period you selected (e.g., Q1). Your candidate in-kind contribution will appear across Schedules A and B with the memo vendor entry.
Troubleshooting: "Missing Child Disbursements" Error
If you save the receipt and disbursement but do not assign a vendor, Warchest will flag a data validation error: Missing Child Disbursements.
You'll see this error in two places:
- On the transaction itself in the Transactions view
- In the Filing Errors tab under Form Manager
To fix it: Open the receipt, navigate to the Assign Vendor section, add the vendor and amount, and save. The error will clear automatically once the vendor record is in place.