fundraising for a project that was paid for from General Fund

[BethanyLongview]

We recently began raising funds for a sound system, but had to go ahead and have it installed and paid for before a significant amount was raised. I have the contributions going to temporary restricted funds, but paid for it from the general fund. How do I accurately record this information? I'm stumped.

[NeilZ]

We recently began raising funds for a sound system, but had to go ahead and have it installed and paid for before a significant amount was raised. I have the contributions going to temporary restricted funds, but paid for it from the general fund. How do I accurately record this information? I'm stumped.

Are you needing to track how much comes in? There are a few ways of doing this:

1. Create a Contribution Fund that you can use to track these donations, and give donors credit. Downside, it sticks around for at least 5 to 7 years depending on what the IRS requires.

2. Create a Designation in Contributions, and use that designation to track the funds, you can then use the designated funds report to track the amount. Upside, you can turn off the designation once you no longer need to track donations.

3. Create a special Income Account in Funds Accounting to track the income. Again same downside as item 1.

My advice, you're putting the money back in the general fund, so there's really no need to separate it from normal offerings, so the easiest is create the Designation in Contributions.