ActBlue Fee Automation

ActBlue Fee Automation automatically tracks the processing fees ActBlue charges on your contributions and creates disbursement records in Campaign Deputy. If your committee files with the FEC, it can also create the required memo (itemization) entries on conduit contributions — no manual data entry needed.

Navigate to Settings > Integrations > ActBlue Settings.

Enter your ActBlue CSV API credentials (username and password). You can find these in your ActBlue dashboard. Once saved, the additional fee and compliance settings will appear.

Toggle Automatically Add ActBlue Fees on, then configure:

- Frequency — How often fee disbursements are created:

- Daily — One disbursement per day

- Weekly Deposit — One disbursement per weekly deposit cycle

- Monthly — One disbursement per calendar month

- Disbursement Code — The reporting code to assign to fee disbursements (e.g., "Processing Fees")

- Purpose Template — Customize the text that appears on the disbursement record. You can use merge tags:

- {{TransactionCount}} — Number of transactions in the period

- {{StartDate}} / {{EndDate}} — The date range

- {{TotalFees}} — The dollar amount of fees

Default: "ActBlue Fees for {{TransactionCount}} transactions ({{StartDate}} to {{EndDate}})"

If your committee files with the FEC, you can also enable FEC Memo Entries to automatically create itemization records on conduit contributions. This satisfies the FEC requirement to itemize the original earmarked contribution alongside the conduit memo entry.

Options include:

- Contribution Memo — Text on the main contribution (default: "Contribution Earmarked through ActBlue")

- ActBlue Itemization Memo — Text on the memo/itemization entry (default: "Contribution Earmarked conduit, via conduit check")

- Use Check Date as Itemization Date — Uses ActBlue's check date instead of the receipt date for the memo entry

- Use Receipt Date as Check Date — Overrides the check date with the receipt date

1. Campaign Deputy periodically downloads your paid contributions data from ActBlue's CSV API.

2. Contributions are imported and matched to your records.

3. If fee automation is enabled, fees from the imported contributions are summed for the configured period and a single disbursement record is created.

4. If FEC memo entries are enabled, itemization records are created on each matching contribution.

5. You receive an email notification when fees are processed, showing the period, transaction count, and total fees.

6. Duplicate protection is built in — the same period will never be processed twice, even if the import runs multiple times.

The Recent Fee Disbursements table at the bottom of the ActBlue Settings page shows your most recent automatically created fee disbursements, including the date range, transaction count, total fees, and when the record was created.

Q: What if I already entered fees manually for a period?

A: The system tracks which periods have been processed. It will not create duplicate disbursements for the same date range. However, it does not detect manually created disbursements — if you enable automation mid-cycle, review for overlap.

Q: Can I change the frequency after I've been using it?

A: Yes. The new frequency applies to future processing periods. Previously created disbursements are not affected.

Q: I don't file with the FEC. Can I still use fee automation?

A: Yes. Fee automation works for all accounts. The FEC memo entry options are only shown for FEC-filing committees.

Q: Where do the fee amounts come from?

A: Directly from ActBlue's paid contributions CSV export. The fee amount on each transaction is what ActBlue reported charging for that contribution.

Q: Will I be notified when fees are processed?

A: Yes. All users on the account receive an email notification with the processing details each time a fee disbursement is created.