Church and preschool acct'ing together

bookkeeper-sheila · Post by **bookkeeper-sheila** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:53 pm

Just wondering if any other churches out there have a preschool and could share an overview of how the meshing of the accounting works within PC+ (we are on version 9).

Our preschool is a ministry of our church, using the same FEI#, so one of the acct fund names is set apart for the preschool. This way we can run financial reports for the director, and the church council can see an overview of the "books" through the summary reports of the church.

We run the tuition and other charges through the accounts receivable module, but it has been suggested that maybe the pledging/contribution module would be more efficient.

I am having a problem getting my mind around pledges working like items on an invoice, and running payments through as a contribution rather than as a payment. It would also be problematic to get all the parents on board with the new terminology and statement reporting.

Any feedback or insight into how your preschool's books are organized would be most helpful as I determine whether I should "re-create the wheel" and start this fall with a new set of bookkeeping procedures. Thanks for listening!

JohnDMeyers · Post by **JohnDMeyers** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 9:06 am

We run a homeschooling enrichment program, and we "bill" the tuition through the Accounts Receivable module.

In my opinion, the Accounts Receivable module is better suited for this than the Contributions / Pledge system is.

If, for no other reason, the Accounts Receivable module "speaks" the language of billing, past-due bills, credit memos, customers, etc. This makes it easier to understand.

I suppose the Contribution / Pledge system could deliver all the functionality needed to do the same thing, but it is not a perfect fit. It doesn't speak the language of billing. (for example, maintain pledges, fund numbers, pledge projections).

All these things could be made to work, but why not use the module that's designed for it. It will make life much easier.

bookkeeper-sheila · Post by **bookkeeper-sheila** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 9:16 am

Thanks for your input, John! My hope is that a newer version of PC+ (11?) will update the A/R module, so it could have more functionality than it does now.

NeilZ · Post by **NeilZ** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 9:43 am

bookkeeper-sheila wrote:Thanks for your input, John! My hope is that a newer version of PC+ (11?) will update the A/R module, so it could have more functionality than it does now.

Sheila,

what exactly would you be looking for ??

bookkeeper-sheila · Post by **bookkeeper-sheila** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:01 am

I put a long post under the wishlist for 11...but the main issue is that I'd like it to run similar to A/P & contribution modules: recurring transactions, some reporting changes, memo lines/blocks for more information, and year-end reporting (for child-tax credits...similar to the contribution module).

I have considered taking this year to learn the custom reporting or report maker stuff...right now I just pull the data as a custom report and dump it into excel to manipulate. The ideal would be that I could do less manipulating and set up a report to print straight from PC+ (like creating a statement with invoice specifics, rather than just the number of the invoice).

It would be nice to record the check numbers of payments received (like in the contribution module), for a communication trail between parent and bookkeeper, should a payment be missing/not posted.

The pledging module suggestion just doesn't seem to fix these issues, but creates a whole new set of problems to overcome tin order to make the preschool's bookkeeping run more efficiently through the church's books as a ministry.