Posting Transactions

[Donna Wright]

John, since I came from another system (not a church) let me rephrase, only because I want to make sure you and I are saying the same things.
I was told: You do not "post" or "input" tithes, offerings, etc, into the system until you are ready to close the month.
Are you saying that I can "input" the data at any time, and "post" (I am assumng this term is being used meaning that you tell the system to put this information in the proper places or accounts) on a regular basis (you appear to do this possibly weekly?)
Is what I am saying correct?
Thank you so much for taking the time to discuss this. I am at a loss with only the manual. Without this forum I would really be stuck!
Thanks again!
Donna

You can post the information after entering it.

You close the end-of-month at the end of each month.

It could be that someone create a process, whereby all transactions were left unposted until the end-of-month, so that all the posting and closing was done at the same time. That is not the most common way, but some do prefer to do that.

It's not that you can't post, it that they preferred not to.

The way we proceed is this:

After you enter the information in the Contributions Module, and, after running your reports such as Unposted Contributions, to check your work, you post the information in the Contributions Module. Typically, you will choose the option to make the information available to Fund Accounting.

Immediately, (unless you know you made an error, like you entered the incorrect date or something) you will post the information in Fund Accounting. That will update all of your Income and Expense reports, your Budget report, and your Balance Sheet.

After the end of the month, when you have gotten all the financial data entered for the month, you will close the end-of-month.

We post in Contributions and Fund Accounting on the same day we enter contributions (after checking for errors)

We post in Accounts Payable and Fund Accounting immediately after printing any checks (after checking for errors)

[JohnDMeyers]

Donna:

Once you post, it's like writing into a ledger. The only way to "change" a posted amount is to post a separate entry. The posted entry cannot be altered.

I don't want to influence your internal procedures.

It is possible to post after each transaction. Some accounting procedures are just as you said. They don't want anything posted until it's time to close.

I really don't know which way is more common. We post immediately after each transaction so that our reports are current throughout the month.

Maybe others can chime in here and tell you what they are doing.

[NeilZ]

John,

not everyone has access to both Contributions and Fund Accounting. My previous church we had a wall between income and payments. The Contributions Secretary took care of all offerings, tithes and gifts, and the Treasurer wrote the checks and handled the books.

The Contributions Secretary always posted after the deposit was verified at the bank. The Treasurer posted whenever she wanted to

[karlaj]

As soon as I enter the contributions, I print out an "unposted contributions" report, check my figures, then post. I post to contributions module only, then enter my deposit amount into Fund Acct after it's been verified by the bank. As far as Accounts payable and Fund Acct, I usually post weekly. (After printing out unposted transactions and checking my work) Like John said, this keeps everything updated if you need to look at a report.

[NeilZ]

As soon as I enter the contributions, I print out an "unposted contributions" report, check my figures, then post. I post to contributions module only, then enter my deposit amount into Fund Acct after it's been verified by the bank. As far as Accounts payable and Fund Acct, I usually post weekly. (After printing out unposted transactions and checking my work) Like John said, this keeps everything updated if you need to look at a report.

Why do you post only to Contributions?? If you post to Funds Accounting, everything will be posted to the correct accounts, and you can edit the unposted transaction if necessary before they're posted.

It does sound like you're doing another manual step you don't need to.

[Donna Wright]

The one thing I'm still not sure of: Can I input the information at any time? Also, what report would I use to "check" or "audit" that batch of the input.
dw

[karlaj]

Donna-you can go to "view unposted transactions" to see your work before you post it.

Neilz-Seems easier this way as we do something a little different at our church now. We take 25% of our regular offering and put in our building fund every Sunday. But actually when I started working at this church 9 years ago they posted to contributions module only and they weren't dealing with the 25% bldg fund issue. I often wondered why then, but wasn't as familiar with the program then. I assumed it was because of the cash in the offering plate that wasn't included in offering envelopes. Although I've read where you can enter it as loose change or something.

[Jeff]

You can have the program automatically handle the 25% to building as well. This way you won't have to manually calculate it or enter the transaction in Fund Accounting.

[JohnDMeyers]

Donna:

I'm not sure what you're referring to with the "batch" of inputs.

We allow the same person who enters the contributions to post them in Fund Accounting. NeilZ pointed out that some churches have internal controls that prohibit that.

We have internal controls, but they do not include that particular rule.

This is the routine at our church (and we have three multi-site services, two of which mail their information to our home location):

We enter the home service offering on Monday and post it in Contributions and Fund Accounting

On Wednesday or Thursday, we receive the information from the other sites, and the instructions are to have it entered within two days after receiving it. So, let's say another offering is entered on Thursday, and posted in Contributions and Fund Accounting, and again on Friday, and posted in Contributions and Fund Accounting.

I have them make sure that each time information is entered, it is posted all the way through to Fund Accounting.

I used this example to hopefully answer your concerns because I can't quite put my finger on what it is you are concerned about.

[rlcox]

We are in a small town and our deposits are put in the night drop. THe bank mails us back a copy of the deposit slip. That is when we post. It does happen that the counters and the financial secretary who enters the contributions into PC+ will miss something. So I have her wait until the bank has verified the total and then at that point, post contributions. Our posting usually takes place about 3 days after offerings have been deposited.

Laurie
Peabody UMC