Accounting for Telephone expense paid back to the church

[RLM]

Our church pays a set amount for our Pastor's cell phone usage and anything over that amount is paid back to the church.

For instance: Pastor is allowed $50 per month for monthly cell phone plan. Due to an unexpected trip out of state he uses the phone and accumulates and additional $50 in call charges. He then writes a check to the church for the overage.

I don't want the deposit to show up as 'income'. What would be the best way to transact this event?

[tborgal]

The way I do this is to go to Accounting> Fund Accounting> Enter Transactions> Enter Transactions. Enter a reference, I usually use 'DEPOSIT', then a description of the transaction. Then DB the bank account $50 and CR the telephone account used to pay the bill $50. This will not show up as income but will reduce the expense.

Hope this helps,

[RLM]

Thank you so much.