User Support Forum

I asked the question about multiple checking accounts, how to set them up. I'm still confused. How do I code the different line items so that it deducts from one checking account or the other one?

Example:
Our Budget checking account is for all budgeted items and is broken down into the different committees: Worship, Administration, etc.
The other checking account is for pass through and other designated giving: special offerings, youth programs, piano fund, etc.
The Elders require that we keep seperate accounts at different banks so that money is not spent incorrectly.

When I do the 'accounting step up' do I concentrate on just one checking account and add the other one later? In the chart of accounts, how do you tell which expenditure is coming from which checking account?
When I print the month end reports for the Session, do they print each checking account on different pages, so the Elders won't get confused?
I'm not going to start using the accounting until January, but I'm practicing using the demo program, so I have plenty of time to try to understand this.

I think part of my problem is the wording, I took accounting a long time ago but since then have sort of developed my own terms for things so trying to go back to the correct terms has become confusing as well. I also came into this church bookkeeping where everyone is set in the way it has always been done, so if I try to introduce anything new, they get very upset. So, I'm trying to make the program fit our way of doing things instead of letting this program do the work for me.

I know that one of these days the light will come on and then I'll feel just plain dumb. I just want to be able to use this program to its fullest.

Thanks in advance for all the help.

When you're doing the Accounting Setup Assistant, you have the opportunity to enter all your checking accounts at that point. You can also add an account later if you'd like.

The important concept here is the 4-digit major account number is what determines uniqueness of an account. Since you have three different accounts at the bank (two checking and one money market), you'll have three different accounts. For instance, you could use 1110, 1120, and 1130 (depending on how you want to list your money market account). These are repositories for money. That's where it sits when it comes in, and where it comes from when it goes out. If you reference one of those accounts in a transaction, that's how PowerChurch knows that was the accounts used. You can include these accounts in any number of funds you may specify.

When you're talking about budgets, those are assigned to the income or expense accounts, not to an asset account (which a checking account would be). Basically, the checking account is a big pot, and you put restrictions on what hands are reaching into that pot - not the pot itself.

Does that make any more sense?

Thanks for the reply.
Does it make any more sense? I'll let you know after I've had a chance to read and digest it.
Thanks again for your help.

You can easily tell which expenditure came from which account by running the journal report.

If your Elders want to see all the checks written from each account for the month on a separate report you can easily do this by running an Account Activity report for each account.

Hope this helps.