Importing from online banking

[Heidilr1]

Question to try to save some data entry time: We pay most of our bills with online banking. Is there a way to import those payments into Powerchurch, rather than having to key each payment into Powerchurch separately? The time that would save would be wonderful!

[NeilZ]

Question to try to save some data entry time: We pay most of our bills with online banking. Is there a way to import those payments into Powerchurch, rather than having to key each payment into Powerchurch separately? The time that would save would be wonderful!

Not at this time.

That said, if you're tracking your bills in the Account Payable modules anyway, nothing says that you can't use that to do the entries, then print a 'check' using the system. I know a few churches that do it that way. They pay their bills online, however, they do maintain the bills/invoices in Powerchurch.

They just go online to enter the checks.

[Heidilr1]

Neil - I found a forum post in 11/10 where you talk about downloading into a certain format that powerchurch would recognize (ASCII, tab ...). Does this work?

I haven't figured out the benefits of the accounts payable module yet - still new to Powerchurch.

[NeilZ]

Neil - I found a forum post in 11/10 where you talk about downloading into a certain format that powerchurch would recognize (ASCII, tab ...). Does this work?

I haven't figured out the benefits of the accounts payable module yet - still new to Powerchurch.

The import can be only used to import Contributions data and Payroll data, nothing else.

Accounts Payable is basically a place where you can enter your bills/invoices, then setup the proper accounts to debit/credit when paying them.

Say you get a bill from the electric company. If this is the first time you are entering a bill from the electric company, you would add the vendor which covers your account number, and their billing address. You would enter the bill, then debit the proper expense account, then credit the proper checking account. Then you enter another bill, or print checks. You would then post the transactions to Funds Accounting (much as you do with Contributions).

Once you Post Transactions in Funds Accounting, the system will reflect the paid bills, and the all the accounts will be updated.

[Heidilr1]

Would this save time? Seems like I'm still inputting the bills, just at a different time (when I receive them instead of when I pay them).

[NeilZ]

Would this save time? Seems like I'm still inputting the bills, just at a different time (when I receive them instead of when I pay them).

It will in many ways, once you have the electric company setup as a vendor with the proper accounts for expense and checking setup, you can then just call up the vendor when you get the bill, and the system will enter the accounts data for you.

[Heidilr1]

One more question about A/P. Since I use online banking, I'll be using the Maintain Manual Checks & Repeating Payments tabs. But do I set up my debits and credits on the vendor records? If that is correct, can I only do 1 debit & 1 credit? I have some expenses I split between several accounts and don't see how to do that. Thanks,

[tborgal]

You will not be able to put more than one debit line in the vendor record. On the vendors that you are splitting to different expense accounts just leave that field blank. You can fill in the checking account however. If you are using more than one fund to pay the vendor from you can leave this field blank as well. Then when the manual check screen is accessed you can split the expense among as many accounts as you wish.

[Heidilr1]

When I have a bill that does not have tax, the maintain manual checks screen will not let me move down to the account section. Why and how do I fix this?

[NeilZ]

When I have a bill that does not have tax, the maintain manual checks screen will not let me move down to the account section. Why and how do I fix this?

Not sure what you're seeing, as there isn't a place for tax on the Accounts Payable Maintain Manual Checks screen.

This is the screen you're seeing,right:

ap_manual.jpg

[Heidilr1]

Yes, but once I put the $$ amt. of the pmt in, it asks how much was tax. If I put 0, it doesn't let me tab down to the account section to record my acct. expense info.

[NeilZ]

Yes, but once I put the $$ amt. of the pmt in, it asks how much was tax. If I put 0, it doesn't let me tab down to the account section to record my acct. expense info.

Are you in Canada ?? Or perhaps you inadvertently have the system setup as if you were in Canada, or a state where you can reclaim sales taxes paid. Someone may have entered a percentage in the Accounting Setup under Preferences.


I just added some numbers here:

ap_setup.jpg

And I got the tax dialogue that you must be seeing.

[NeilZ]

FWIW ... I tried to do a manual invoice & check, and when it asked for a tax, I left the amount at zero, and typed in 'no tax' in the memo block, and it allowed me to head down to the accounts section.

So that's a workaround if you are in one of those tax refund states.

[Zaina]

If you leave it at 0.00 but click ok it should move down to the account fields as well. I tested this all the way back to version 8.