I am SO confused!!!!!!

[peabodyumc]

I am new to PC+ and have my membership module pretty well set up. I am trying to have this ready to go live on January 1. I have another program that I thought was a good investment and after 2 1/2 years of working with it our reports still take much finagling to come out correctly month after month. So we "interviewed" PC+ and went with it. Because of all the problems I had with Church Pro I want to make sure I set up the accounting module correctly.

Right now I have one checking acct for the general operating of the church. I previously had a savings acct but the other program couldn't handle what I wanted to do so I put all the money in the checking acct. In my checking acct. I have the general fund and then there are entities that have raised their own money or receive money from one source or another which includes our chancel choir, a scholarship fund, and one of our committees.

I also maintain control of the youth checking acct. and the youth savings acct which are two separate bank accts. We are currently setting up financial guidelines for our church (small town church still thinking they are in the more safer 50's). We have a flower fund and a memorial fund (both savings accts.) which will possibly find their way to my hands (I am church treasurer).

I have looked at the topics and read through the book and am still slightly confused. I so want this to be set up correctly so I don't have to explain myself around the reports I show my Ad. Council.

The way I see it so far is that I only need one FUnd - 01 General. Then under that I have UMC checking (currently 01-1110) and Youth checking (01-1120) and Youth savings (01-1210). If the flower and memorial accts make their way to me they would be added to become, at this point, 01-1220 and 01-1230.

Do I understand this to be the way I should do this? Currently the youth funds are dormant as our youth program is in transition. But it would be conceivable that should we get back to having an active youth group those accts would start showing activity. Should they be set up as Fund 02? If that is the case would I want my youth checking to go from the current 01-1120 to 02-1120? Do I understand correctly that if my general fund checking is 01-1110 and my youth fund checking is 02-1110 it is actually the same acct?

I am sorry this is so long -- just want to be able to understand what I need to do. I feel so dumb -- I have had 3 semesters of college acct., worked in a bank for a year and was our family grocery store's bookkeeper for 15 years. However, I have never had to set the whole thing up from scratch except in Church Pro and I obviously didn't do something right with it!! Thanks for any and all help!

Laurie

[Zaphod]

For someone who claims to be completely confused, you sure are on the right track!

The way I see it so far is that I only need one FUnd - 01 General. Then under that I have UMC checking (currently 01-1110) and Youth checking (01-1120) and Youth savings (01-1210). If the flower and memorial accts make their way to me they would be added to become, at this point, 01-1220 and 01-1230.

This sounds completely appropriate to me. If you have separate accounts at the bank, the 4-digit major account (1110) needs to be different. You've got the checking accounts in the 11xx area and the savings accounts in the 12xx area. That looks fine too.

Currently the youth funds are dormant as our youth program is in transition. But it would be conceivable that should we get back to having an active youth group those accts would start showing activity. Should they be set up as Fund 02? If that is the case would I want my youth checking to go from the current 01-1120 to 02-1120?

If you want to use a separate fund, you can. It sounds like this is a perfectly reasonable scenario. It's entirely up to you. It sounds like you really do have a handle on the concept, whether you think you do or not.

Do I understand correctly that if my general fund checking is 01-1110 and my youth fund checking is 02-1110 it is actually the same acct?

That's exactly right. They are subdivisions of the same bank account.

The setup you've proposed will allow you to do all the things you seem to need to do, regardless of whether or not you create a second fund. A second fund will give you another level of detail for the youth activity. There are a few accounting-heavy folks floating around the boards, so hopefullly they can chime in with tips and suggestions.

[peabodyumc]

Well thanks for the confirmation that I kind of know what is going on! But that is just the beginning. I KNOW there will be more questions!! BTW, we don't have an association pastor, youth pastor, music minister, etc. We have a pastor, secretary and a custodian. Is there no way to get rid of all those accounts for the other employees? I saw that during set-up the delete button is grayed out and the instructions say some things can't be deleted but I assumed that meant Fed payroll taxes !

Laurie

[Matt]

Laurie,

As long as nothing has posted to them, you can delete these accounts. Even if they were greyed out during the setup. However, you have to wait until you have finished the setup before you can delete them.

Having said that, use caution before deleting these accounts, as several of them are used in the default item codes set up in the Payroll module. Be sure to run the Account Dependencies Report in Fund Accounting to see all the places the accounts are used before you delete any of them.