Getting Started with ActBlue Federal Compliance

In this article

• Getting Started

• Get to Know the Compliance Tool

• Create and Manage Transactions

• Manage Your Donors and Payees

• Generate Compliance Reports

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Getting Started

Welcome to ActBlue Federal Compliance! We built this feature to streamline and simplify FEC reporting and compliance. We’e thrilled to have you as one of our users.

This tool will help you build a transactional database that serves as a single source of truth for your reporting, ensure your data is valid and ready to be reported, help you manage your donors and payees (and ensure they’re staying below contribution thresholds), and generate compliant reporting for the FEC Form 3, Schedule A, and Schedule B.

If you have any additional questions that are not covered in this support guide, please contact our support team using the email address you use to access your ActBlue account. We’ll be more than happy to assist you!

Important notes on this tool

This tool, while valuable to your compliance workflows, is still just a tool. It does not automate the filing process or replace your responsibility to ensure accurate and compliant reporting.

Your responsibilities:

• You remain solely responsible for the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of all reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC)
• You must review all information generated by this tool before filing.
• You should always consult official FEC guidance, regulations, and instructions when preparing your reports. Find resources and guidance here.
• You are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable federal campaign finance laws.

Tool limitations:

• This tool does not provide legal advice or guarantee compliance.
• Federal election law is complex and subject to change. Always verify that you are following current FEC requirements.
• The tool's suggestions and validations are intended to help identify potential issues, but may not catch all errors or compliance concerns.
• In the event of any conflict between this tool's guidance and official FEC regulations or guidance, FEC authority always supersedes. Official FEC resources are available at fec.gov.

Supported Reporting

The compliance tool currently supports the following federal candidate committee reports:

• FEC Form 3: Cover Page, Summary Page, and Detailed Summary Page.
• FEC Schedule A: Itemized receipts (contributions in).
• FEC Schedule B: Itemized disbursements (expenditures out).

Both are exported as CSVs and formatted to FECFile standards for direct upload to the FEC's filing platform. E-filing support is coming soon!

Quarterly and regular report cadences are supported. Amendments, pre-election reports, post-election reports, and special election reports are not yet supported and will be added in a future release.

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Get to Know the Compliance Tool

Log in to your account

Upon signing up for the compliance tool, you will receive an email with an access link.

From here, you can sign in with either your email address or with your ActBlue login credentials.

Your Compliance Homepage

When you first log in, you will land on your compliance homepage. Here, you’ll find a comprehensive picture of your campaign finance data.

Our compliance tool will automatically import all contributions and expenditures made via ActBlue. You will also be able to manually enter or import transactions into the system. The records table on your Homepage lets you view and manage all of your contributions and expenditures in one place.

The records table includes the following columns:

• Date: The date the transaction occurred (paid date).
• Type: The transaction type (contribution or expenditure).
• Source or Payee: For contributions, this is the contributor, whether it’s an individual or a PAC. For expenditures, this is the payee.
• Source Type: The payee or contributor type: an individual, the candidate themself, a PAC, and so on. This determines the required fields for your reporting, the contributor or payee’s contribution threshold, and how the contributor or payee will be reported to the FEC.
• Memos: This denotes the number of non-transactional line items associated with the contribution or expenditure. This is most commonly used for itemizing transactions, such as credit card payments.
• Last edited: The date when the record was last modified
• Creation source: Whether the record was automatically imported from ActBlue or manually entered by a user.

For each transaction in the records table, you can:

• View details and access all transaction information.
• Edit and modify the transaction.
• Delete and remove the record.

Your Compliance Settings

On your Settings page, you can manage key information about your campaign.

To adjust this information, go to the upper right-hand corner of your Homepage and click “Settings.” You will be able to view and update the following information about your committee:

• Committee ID: The FEC ID associated with the committee you will be filing for.
• Candidate Name: The name of the candidate as you want it to appear on your FEC reports.
• Address: The address associated with your committee.
• Election Information: The office, state, primary date, and election dates associated with your committee, which will determine how your report is filed.
• Committee Name: The committee’s legal name.
• Treasurer: The name of the official treasurer associated with your committee.

Managing users

To add or remove users to ActBlue Compliance, navigate to the “People” page on your ActBlue fundraising dashboard. From there, you should be able to assign compliance roles and permissions.

Access to Compliance must always be explicitly granted, and each role is granted independently. That means that while a user needs to have access to fundraising to be added to a Compliance account, their role in fundraising does not determine their role in Compliance.

There are three Compliance roles available:

• Admin - can generate and file FEC reports and manage users

• Data entry - can perform data entry and manage records, but cannot file reports or manage users.

• Read only - can view data and reports, but cannot edit records, manage users, or file reports.

Assign the role that makes the most sense for each user on your account!

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Create and Manage Transcations

Understand Transaction, Source, and Payee Types

Transactions in the compliance tool fall into two categories: contributions (money in) and expenditures (money out). Every transaction has a source or payee: The person or organization the money came from or went to.

The source/payee type is a crucial piece of information for reporting. It determines how the contribution or expenditure appears on your Schedule A or Schedule B FEC form, which fields you will be required to fill out for that transaction, what contribution limits apply, and how the line item appears in your FEC report. Selecting the wrong type can result in inaccurate reporting, so it's important to carefully consider each transaction.

Here are the types of sources/payees you will encounter:

• Candidate

• Candidate Committee

• Individual

• Organization Non-PAC

• Other Political Committee

• PAC

• Party Committee

Be sure to review FEC documentation to determine when to use each type. If you're not sure which type applies to a given contributor or payee, err on the side of asking.

Manually Enter Transactions

Our compliance tool will automatically import all contributions and expenditures made via ActBlue. If you have transactions from outside of ActBlue that you wish to include in your reports, you can manually enter contributions and expenditures made outside of ActBlue to keep all of your financial information in one place.

To create a transaction manually, click the Create dropdown in the top-right corner of your Compliance Homepage. Then select Contribution or Expenditure.

The form is split into two sections:

• Transaction Information. This is where you'll input details about the transaction itself: amount, date, and source or payee type. You'll also see a “Public Notes” field — any text you enter here will appear as memo text on that line item in your FEC report, so it's a good place to include any notes relevant to your filing.

• Donor or Payee Information. The fields here vary depending on the source or payee type you selected. Individuals require more information (name, address, employer, occupation) than organizations or PACs. Required fields are marked — make sure everything is filled out before saving.

Once a transaction is created, you can view, edit, or delete it from the Homepage or from the Contributions or Expenditures tabs. To edit, click “Details →” for that transaction and make your changes. Source type can be changed after the fact, but switching types may unlock new required fields. Be sure to fill those in before saving.

Upload Transactions in Bulk

If you have a lot of transaction data from outside ActBlue to import at once, you can upload a CSV instead of entering transactions one by one.

Note: In this version of the tool, this functionality is only available for off-platform contributions from individuals. Contributions and expenditures from other sources (e.g., a PAC) must be entered individually. We plan to expand this functionality in future versions.

To upload, click the Import button in the upper right-hand corner of your Homepage. Or navigate to the Imports tab in the top navigation bar. Download the CSV template, fill it out with your transaction data, and upload the file.

A few things to know before you import:

• After uploading, the Imports page will show the status of your import. If any rows have errors, you'll see the specific reason for each failure and be prompted to correct errors.
• To fix errors: Review the error message per row, correct the data directly in the error correction view, and save. Your corrected rows will be added to your transaction list. Transactions are not created until all errors are addressed.

If your import keeps failing after corrections, reach out to our team — we're happy to help troubleshoot!

Create Memos

Memos are non-transactional line items attached to a contribution or expenditure. They're used to add detail to a transaction — for example, to itemize a credit card payment across multiple sub-expenses, or to document a note required for your FEC report.

To attach a memo to a transaction, navigate to the details page for that contribution or expenditure. From there, you'll see the option to add a memo. Fill out the memo form and click Save. The memo will be attached to the parent transaction and will appear directly below it in your report.

Memos are also created automatically for your ActBlue contributions. Each ActBlue contribution generates two rows in your Schedule A: a primary row with your donor's information, and a memo row identifying ActBlue as the conduit PAC. This is required by FEC rules for earmarked contributions, so be sure to include those rows in your filing. See How is my ActBlue data reported? for more information.

Your ActBlue Transaction Pipeline

ActBlue contributions, fees and refunds will be piped in automatically every Tuesday at 2 am ET. This means that whatever contributions and refunds are included in your Monday disbursement will be logged in the compliance tool the next day. For every disbursement you receive, an expenditure representing the total fees paid to ActBlue will also be created.

So, if you receive $100 from 5 contributions, pay $10 towards a refund, and owe $3.95 in fees, we will create 5 contribution records with their partner ActBlue memo, a single $10 expenditure to represent the $10 refund, and a single $3.95 expenditure representing the amount paid in fees.

If you ever need this data backfilled or for the pipeline to run early, please reach out to your account manager.

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Manage Your Donors and Payees

Navigate Your Contacts

The Contacts page is a central directory of every donor and payee associated with your committee. You can view it by clicking the Contacts tab in the top navigation bar.

Every time a transaction is created — whether through the manual form, a CSV import, or the ActBlue pipeline — the tool resolves the source or payee into a new or existing contact record by automatically deduplicating based on name and address. In the Contacts table, you’ll see the following information:

The contact record accumulates aggregate totals over time, which is how the tool tracks contribution limits and flags potential violations. You can use the “Threshold Violations” filter to view only those donors who have passed their threshold. In this version, the tool looks for donors who have passed the threshold for both the primary and the general election ($7,000).

Contact Details

Click View Profile on any contact to open their detail page. This gives you a full picture of your relationship with that donor or payee.

At the top of the contact page, you'll see a transaction summary with three key figures:

• Total contributed: The aggregate amount this contact has contributed to your committee.
• Total paid: The aggregate amount your committee has paid to this contact (for payees)
• Threshold status: How close this contact is to the applicable contribution limit, or whether they've already exceeded it. This indicator changes based on where the contact stands relative to the threshold for both the primary and general.

Below the summary, you'll see a table of every line item associated with this contact. Each row includes:

Identify Threshold Violations

The compliance tool identifies unique donors using their name and address. Two transactions with the same name and address are attributed to the same contact and counted toward a shared aggregate total. Nicknames, address changes, or slight name variations may result in separate contact records — so if you notice a donor's total looks unexpectedly low, it's worth checking whether they appear as duplicate contacts.

Threshold violations are based on the total amount a donor can give across the primary and general elections: $7,000. That will be broken down into primary and general thresholds in future work.

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Generate Compliance Reports

Note: This tool does not replace FEC guidance. The reporting logic described here reflects how Compliance by ActBlue interprets and applies FEC rules. In any case where this tool's output, guidance, or documentation conflicts with official FEC regulations or instructions, FEC authority always governs. Official resources are available at fec.gov.

Supported Reporting

The compliance tool currently supports the following federal candidate committee reports:

• FEC Form 3 – Cover Page, Summary Page, and Detailed Summary Page.
• FEC Schedule A — Itemized receipts (contributions in).
• FEC Schedule B — Itemized disbursements (expenditures out).

Both are exported as CSVs and formatted to FECFile standards for direct upload to the FEC's filing platform. E-filing support is coming soon!

Quarterly and regular report cadences are supported. Amendments, pre-election reports, post-election reports, and special election reports are not yet supported and will be added in a future release.

Reporting Homepage and Report Management

Navigate to the Reporting tab to access your reporting homepage.

From here you can:

• View your reporting schedule. This includes all required filing dates for the current year, with a prompt to generate whichever report falls within the current window.
• Generate a new report, either from the reporting schedule prompt or the "Create New Report" button in the top right corner.
• Access draft and filed reports. All reports generated through the compliance tool appear in the "Drafts & Filed Reports" section. Click "View" to open a report's detail page

Generate a Compliance Report

Reports are generated as separate CSV files: One for your Form 3 toplines, one for Schedule A (itemized receipts) and one for Schedule B (itemized disbursements). The Schedule A and B files are formatted to FECFile standards for direct upload to the FEC's filing platform.

Reports are automatically generated from your transaction records and the committee information on your Settings page. Here's how each schedule works.

FEC Form 3

FEC Form 3 is your committee's financial summary — the cover page and topline figures that frame your Schedule A and Schedule B data for the FEC. It includes three components: the Cover Page, the Summary Page, and the Detailed Summary Page.

Form 3 is automatically calculated from the transaction records in your compliance tool and the committee information on your Settings page. When you generate a report, the tool computes all financial totals — receipts, disbursements, refunds, and running cash balances — directly from your data. You do not need to enter any summary figures manually, with one exception: cash on hand at the beginning of the reporting period, which you will be prompted to enter when you create a new report. All three components are exported together as a single CSV file.

Form 3 is only as accurate as the data behind it. Before filing, review the following:

• Cash on hand. Confirm the opening balance you entered is correct. This figure cascades into your closing balance and every subsequent report's opening balance — an error here will compound over time.
• Always verify that your Committee information, election district, and treasurer information are correctly entered in your Settings before generating your report.
• Date signed. The treasurer signature date is not pre-filled. You must enter it before submitting to the FEC.
• Unsupported transaction types. Certain transaction types are not yet supported by the compliance tool and will appear as $0 on your Form 3. If any of the following apply to your committee, you will need to enter those figures manually before filing:

• Loans made by the candidate (Line 13a)
• All other loans (Line 13b)Loan repayments (Lines 19a–19c)
• Transfers from authorized committees (Line 12)
• Offsets to operating expenditures (Line 14)
• Other receipts (Line 15)
• Other disbursements (Line 21)

When in doubt, cross-reference your Form 3 output against your records and consult FEC guidance before filing.

Schedule A: Itemized Receipts

The compliance tool generates an itemized Schedule A report of all contributions reported as paid during the period covered by the report.

Contributions are attributed to the active election period by default. When a donor reaches the per-election contribution limit ($3,500 for the 2025 – 2026 cycle), subsequent contributions are automatically attributed to the next applicable election — for example, once a donor maxes out their primary contributions, their next donation defaults to the general. If you do not win your primary, ensure you review for potential threshold violations in the Contacts tab before generating your report.

Contributions are categorized by source type as assigned at the time of record creation:

Other receipt types — transfers, loans, offsets, and other receipts — are not yet supported and will be added in a future release.

The cycle aggregate and period aggregate for each donor are calculated from all transactions in the tool. Any text entered in the Public Notes field on a transaction will appear as memo text on that line item in the report. Memo line items attached to a transaction appear directly below the parent line item.

Schedule B — Itemized Disbursements

The Compliance Tool generates an itemized Schedule B report of all expenditures reported as paid during the time period covered by the report.

Expenditures are attributed to the active election period by default: Pre-primary payments go to the primary, and post-primary payments go to the general, unless you've marked a lost primary in your Settings.

All expenditure line items are reported based on the payee type, category, and purpose assigned at the time of record creation.

ActBlue Data Reporting

ActBlue contributions appear on Schedule A. ActBlue fees and refunds will appear on Schedule B.

Schedule A: ActBlue Contributions

Because contributions flow through ActBlue as a conduit, each contribution generates two line items on your Schedule A.

Primary line item: Contains the individual donor's information, including:

• Donor name, address, employer, and occupation.
• Cycle and period aggregate totals.
• Paid date (the date the contribution was processed by ActBlue).
• Gross contribution amount before fees.
• Memo text: "Earmarked through ActBlue."

Memo line item: Identifies ActBlue as the conduit PAC, including:

• ActBlue name, FEC ID, and address.
• The disbursement amount and the date ActBlue processed the disbursement.
• Memo text: "Note: Above contribution earmarked through this organization."

Both rows are required by FEC rules for earmarked contributions and must be included in your filing.

Schedule B: ActBlue Fees and Refunds

Fees will be reported as a disbursement for each ActBlue check received, offset against the gross amount reported on Schedule A. They'll appear under Category 001 – Administrative/Salary/Overhead Expenses, with the purpose "ActBlue Fees: [paid date]."

Note: The paid date defaults to ActBlue's disbursement date. If you'd prefer to use the deposit date for easier reconciliation, you can edit the line item before generating your report.

Each refund processed through ActBlue is reported as a disbursement. Only refunds of previously disbursed contributions are included. They appear under Category 010 – Refunds of Contributions, with the purpose "Refund of contribution from [refund date]," and include the donor's information, aggregate totals, refund amount, and refund date.

Understanding Source and Payee Types

The source or payee type you assign at the time of record creation determines how a transaction is reported on Schedule A or Schedule B, which fields are required for reporting, what contribution limits apply, and which line the record maps to in your report. Selecting the wrong type will result in inaccurate reporting.

When in doubt, always check with the FEC.