Frequently Asked Questions

What is MaaserManager.com?
What is the cost to use this service?
How do I sign up?
How do I know that my personal information will stay private?
What is the point of this service, why not use Mint.com or Quickbooks or Microsoft Money?
What is "closing out a year" and "carryover"?
What are categories?
How does MaaserManager calculate the amount of maaser owed?
There seems to be a mistake - who's right?
What are pledges?
What are recurring records?


What is MaaserManager.com?
MaaserManager.com is a free software service accessible from any computer or mobile device including iPhones, iPads, Android Phones, Blackberries, and all desktops and laptops. This service allows you to keep track of your income (including recurring income), deductions and expenses, and charitable disbursements. You can enter the income and tzedaka records at any time, from any device. The software will keep track of all entries, and always will present you with up-to-date values of how much Maaser is owed, and how much has been given.

What is the cost to use this service?
MaaserManager is, absolutely free of charge. Although we may introduce premium paid features in the future, there will never be a charge for the service on a basic level.

How do I sign up?
Sign up on the signup page.

How do I know that my personal information will stay private?
There are several layers of protection and security in place in order to ensure the privacy of our users:
1) You are never identified by name. All of you account information is stored either under a username of your choice, or an email address. We never ask for your personal information.
2) Our website uses site-wide 128-bit HTTPS security, ensuring the integrity of your data.

What is the point of this service, why not use Mint.com or Quickbooks or Microsoft Money?
MaaserManager.com clearly presents you with an accurate log of your charitable donations, including descriptions and recipients, all on one page. This can save much of the time spent sifting through financial records to find the specific Tzedaka record you may be looking for. All relevant crucial numbers (i.e. amount owed and amount given) are calculated and displayed immediately, eliminating the need for manual calculations and the filtering of unrelated records. Your income is offset by deductions; expenses that you can enter to offset your income. This means that the sum calculated as income will accurately reflect your Maaser obligation. Additionally, MaaserManager.com lets you close out your Maaser year (usually done at the end of legal year, or on Rosh Hashana). MaaserManager.com plans to add more Tzedaka-centric features according to our user feedback. Please make use of the 'Feature Request' section to let us know your ideas on how we can improve this service.

What is "closing out a year" and a "carryover"?
Since most people calculate their Maaser obligation for only one year at a time, closing out a year lets you reset the income and tzedaka values to zero, ensuring that the information you see is for the current year only. You can close out a year whenever you like, although you may find that the most convenient time is at the end of a legal year (i.e. Dec 31st 2012) or on Erev Rosh Hashana.
All of your information from the previous year remains saved in the system, and only the total amounts for 'Amount Owed' and 'Amount Given' will be reset. Any monies owed to Maaser, or credits for overpayments of Maaser will be transferred to the new year's account, labeled as a "carryover" from the previous year.

What are categories?
Categories are simply for your records only, and help you keep track of income and Tzedaka. The graph on the dashboard will show you how much tzedaka was given in each category, so you know exactly how much of your money goes to what type of tzedaka.

How does MaaserManager calculate the amount of maaser owed?
The system calculates the amount of maaser owed by adding up the income, subtracting the deductions, and further subtracting tzedaka already given. The system will then calculate 10% of that sum.

There seems to be a mistake - who's right?
In general, the system is hard coded and will not err. If you think there may be a mistake in calculations, please Contact Us. We welcome all user input.

What are "pledges'?
The "pledges" area is a place to keep records of donations that you plan to give, or are considering giving. These records do not affect any calculations, and are for your convenience only. If you do end up realizing a pledge, you can turn the pledge into a Tzedaka record by simply selecting the "Give" button. This will not automatically commit Tzedaka record just yet, until you select the "Save button. This is so that you can still change the amount, or any other information regarding the Tzedaka record, before saving it.

What are recurring records?
If you have a periodic recurring income (of the same amount), you can set the amount and source just once, and opt how often you would like it to recur. For example, you can create a repeating income record for your bi-weekly salary, and the system will automatically create a new record every 2 weeks. You can make recurring records for Tzedaka as well. For example, if you send a monthly check to a specific organization, you can create a recurring monthly record, which will automatically be created each month on the day you had specified.