Best way to fix incorrect beginning balance?

[eyemeansit]

It's September 2010. I'm setting up PowerChurch for the first time, wanting to include all transactions back to January 1, 2010. In the setup process, it asks for a beginning balance for the main (general fund) account. It says something like "from your books, NOT from your bank statement!" Well, since I'm no accountant, and since those keeping the checkbook register are not known for accuracy, I entered the bank's number here, thinking I could go back and fix it later if incorrect.

After entering contributions and checks for January, I discovered that my beginning balance was exactly $350 over what I should have entered, due to two checks that cleared in early January, but really belong to 2009's books. So what is the best way to fix this? I'd like to do it in a way that it doesn't show up in financial reports if possible. PLEASE don't tell me to "Restart Accounting." Thanks!

[Zorak]

Go to Accounting > Fund Accounting > Enter Transactions

Enter a transaction for January 2010 that does the following (your account numbers may vary)

01-1110-000 Checking (credit) 350.00
01-3110-000 Unrestricted Net Assets (debit) 350.00

Once this is posted, that $350 will have disappeared off the books, with no income, expense, or any other account balance affected. It will show up in the checks and other subtractions on your bank reconciliation process, when you mark it as cleared, you should be able to reconcile to zero if you don't have any other problems.

[eyemeansit]

I did just as you said, except I created a level 6 account under Unrestricted Net Assets, as 01-3111-000, debiting 350 there, and crediting 350 to General Fund. Problem solved, I think! Anyway, I got it to reconcile with the bank statement. On to February! Thanks!

[Kerry]

I inherited a mess of Power Church problems with the main one being the PC financial statements are thousands of dollars more than the actual bank statement. I am now trying to reconcile the bank statement as of 12/31/2011 and make a fresh start for January. I tried the solution as listed but have came up with a negative -74,771.47 in unrestricted net assets.
Bank statement 53,478.03
Power Church general fund checking 110,326
There is also excess amounts in the unrestricted net assets in 2 other funds.
Please help!

[NeilZ]

I inherited a mess of Power Church problems with the main one being the PC financial statements are thousands of dollars more than the actual bank statement. I am now trying to reconcile the bank statement as of 12/31/2011 and make a fresh start for January. I tried the solution as listed but have came up with a negative -74,771.47 in unrestricted net assets.
Bank statement 53,478.03
Power Church general fund checking 110,326
There is also excess amounts in the unrestricted net assets in 2 other funds.
Please help!

Kerry,

I would make a fresh start, a NEW start. Do a backup of the existing mess, then Restart Accounting, I'd do it now when you only have a month's worth of work to catch up to. Use the end of December bank balance as the start, and work from there. The Accounting Wizard will help you walk through the setup. I would, however, have a Chart of Accounts preplanned, so all you need to do is add to or delete what the system initially creates as a COA.

It doesn't sound like the previous bookkeeper/treasurer had any clue about how to keep the system updated, and trying to fix that mess will be frustrating and probably will not look any better.

[LincolnFaith]

I'm going to tag onto this one since the first answer seems close to what I need to happen with mine. I have a difference of a few hundred dollars between the "adjusted bank balance" and the "account 1200 balance" (checking) after doing the bank account reconciliation. The "account 1200 checking" amount is correct with the actual balance in the checking account, after doing a manual reconciliation. I need to do a similar thing by raising the "adjusted bank balance" by that amount to match the checking balance. I don't have an unrestricted net assets as mentioned above, just the basic accounts suggested by PowerChurch from many years ago.

[JohnDMeyers]

Kerry:

I second Neilz's advice. Better to his the Restart Accounting button.

You are looking at gazillions-of-volunteer-hours to straighten it out otherwise.

[Roy MacLean]

I seem to be dancing around the same tree on this one. Our church was using QuickBooks and bought PC+. The volunteer help had so much crud in it, I decided to wait until the end of the year before transferring everything over to PC+. That meant I only had two amounts to transfer over to PC+ - the General Account, and the Deacons Account.

I have good figures to transfer over to PC+. The question is...how? I set up all the accounts I need with a zero balance and I'm on a calendar year. I've also been writing checks as needed...but have not POSTED them until I get the balances transferred over.

How I do dat?

[JohnDMeyers]

When you start up PowerChurch, you can enter all the beginning balances (probably 12/31/11 would be fine, seeings how it is only Feb).

Enter any outstanding checks and deposits as of 12/31/11.

Once you're setup, enter all the checks you wrote in 2012 using Accounts Payable module, and write them as a "Manual Check", meaning as a book entry, only.

When you need to print a check with PowerChurch, set it up in Accounts Payable as an Open Invoice, not a Manual Check.

Let me know how it goes, and feel free to ask questions.

[Roy MacLean]

When you start up PowerChurch, you can enter all the beginning balances (probably 12/31/11 would be fine, seeings how it is only Feb).

Enter any outstanding checks and deposits as of 12/31/11.

Once you're setup, enter all the checks you wrote in 2012 using Accounts Payable module, and write them as a "Manual Check", meaning as a book entry, only.

When you need to print a check with PowerChurch, set it up in Accounts Payable as an Open Invoice, not a Manual Check.

Let me know how it goes, and feel free to ask questions.

John, your instructions make no sense to me, and not being the sharpest picket on the fence line, allow me to me try again. I closed out QuickBooks for December 31, 2011. I have a good number for the General Fund, a good number for the Deacon's Fund, and one outstanding check written on 12/29/2011 that had not cleared the General Fund as of 12/31.

I have all the expense accounts set up that I need with "0" balances. If I needed a check, I wrote it as a manual check AND HAVE NOT POSTED ANY OF THEM. If you were me, and you had this set of circumstances in front of you, how would you proceed

[NeilZ]

My two cents ... restart with the Accounting Wizard ... then follow the wizard as it asks you for the information to setup the accounts. Then enter the bills in Accounts Payable, and use manual checks to pay them.

I'd first get a printout of how your have your COA setup first, so you can duplicate it in the wizard. I believe it will allow you to create additional funds too .. haven't tested it in a while.

[Roy MacLean]

Zorek's second message in this thread gives me an idea how to solve my problem. Would doing this make sense

Debit General Fund (good number)
Credit Unrestricted Net (good number)

Debit Deacon's Fund (other good number)
Credit Unrestricted Net (other good number)

Enter outstanding check as a manual check.

Your thoughts, please

[Roy MacLean]

For Neil:

If I read the instructions correctly, what you are suggesting would cause me to re-enter all my expense accounts...which is JUST what I don't want to do, because that's considerable work. In addition, I would have to copy then re-enter ALL the manual checks enterred, and I don't want to do that, either.

[JohnDMeyers]

Roy:

Your transactions look correct. As Neil suggested, you can enter them all (including the outstanding check) by using the Accounting Setup Wizard when you first install PowerChurch.

PowerChurch will have most of the common accounts in the Chart of Accounts. I think Neil was suggesting to add any *extra* accounts that you may have, rather than start from scratch.

[NeilZ]

Roy:

Your transactions look correct. As Neil suggested, you can enter them all (including the outstanding check) by using the Accounting Setup Wizard when you first install PowerChurch.

PowerChurch will have most of the common accounts in the Chart of Accounts. I think Neil was suggesting to add any *extra* accounts that you may have, rather than start from scratch.

Well .. I did say start from scratch, didn't realize that he was entering the checks in PCPlus ...