Form error messages and how to fix them
Updated
Find the message you see, then follow the fix. Most messages appear in a pop-up, usually under the title An error occurred. If your browser marks a field as empty, it is required. Fill it in and try again.
Create a receipt
| Message | Fix |
|---|---|
| Email address is required | Fill in Organization Email. |
| Authorized signature is required | Upload a signature or use Type to Sign. See Logo and signature. |
| Enter the appraiser's name and address. It is required for a gift valued by professional appraisal. | Fill in Appraiser's name and address on the gift-in-kind form, or choose a different valuation if the gift was not appraised. See Gift-in-kind receipts. |
| In-kind gifts require Fair Market Value, valuation method, and item description | Fill in all three. The value must be above $0 and the description 5 to 50 characters. See Gift-in-kind receipts. |
| Gifts with advantage require advantage amount and description | Fill in both. The amount must be above $0 and the description 5 to 50 characters. See Gift with advantage. |
| CRA prohibits tax receipts when the advantage exceeds 80% of the gift amount | The advantage is too large, so no receipt can be issued. Check the amounts. |
| Gift-in-Kind receipts require authentication and credits | Sign in and use credits or a pass. The Gift with Advantage message is the same. See Credits and passes. |
| Organization name must be 80 characters or fewer, or a similar message naming another field | The receipt is limited so the PDF fits on one page: organization name 80, location issued 40, donor name 50, donor address 100 in all, correction reason 100. The form fields stop you at the limit and show a counter. See Create a receipt. |
| Daily Limit Reached or Daily limit reached! | Today's free receipt for that registration number is used. See The free daily receipt. |
| Amount Exceeds Free Tier | The gift is over $10,000. Sign in and use credits. |
| You need N credits for this receipt type but only have M. | Buy more credits. |
On the French site these messages appear in French. The length-limit message above comes from the server and stays in English, but the form fields stop you at the limit before you see it.
Bulk
| Message | Fix |
|---|---|
| No Credits Available | Buy credits or a pass. |
| Maximum Rows Reached | Paste at most 100 rows. Use Upload a file for more. |
| Rows Limited by Credits | Without a pass, you can't have more rows than credits. |
| N rows need fixing before we can generate | The box under the grid lists each problem by the row number in the # column, such as Row 3: the gift date is missing. Fix those rows and generate again. Nothing is charged until every row is fine. See Paste rows for bulk receipts. |
| “...” could be day/month or month/day. Choose an order above, or type YYYY-MM-DD. | Click Day / Month / Year or Month / Day / Year in the box above the grid, or retype the date as YYYY-MM-DD. |
| Some pasted columns were left out | Your paste had more columns than the grid has from where you clicked. The extra columns on the right were ignored. |
| Generation Failed with An error occurred during bulk generation. | The server refused the batch for a reason the page could not name. Check your organization details, then try again. See Paste rows for bulk receipts. |
| Generating these receipts took too long, so nothing was charged... | Paste fewer rows, or upload a file. |
| 1 donor email address isn't valid (highlighted in red). Fix it or clear it. | Fix the red donor email cells or clear them. See Email receipts to donors. |
| This run needs N credits and you have M. | Buy credits or a pass, then start again. |
| Another upload is still generating. Wait for it to finish. | Only one upload runs at a time. |
| Authorized signature is required | Add your Authorized Signature. |
For the messages on the review table, see Prepare your spreadsheet.
Correct
| Message | Fix |
|---|---|
| Sign In Required | Sign in. Corrections need an account. |
| Original receipt number must contain only letters, numbers, spaces, dashes, and underscores | Remove other symbols from the number. It can be 50 characters at most. |
| Please provide a correction reason (minimum 10 characters) | Write at least 10 characters. The most is 100. |
| Complete required fields to preview | Fill in the fields listed. The preview button stays off until you do. This line is always in English. |
The other messages on Correct follow the language of the site.
If a message isn't here, try again. If it keeps happening, email hello@freecharityreceipts.ca with the message and the page.
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