Balance Sheet doesn't balance

[southwood]

My balance sheet is out by $400.00 - we think it is related to setup but not sure. Has anyone encountered this and is there a "trick" to get it to balance. It has been carried through many years.

[JohnDMeyers]

If you mean that your Balance Sheets Assets don't equal your Liabilities-plus-equity, it's usually because you made a transaction that Debited one fund and Credited another.

Like this:

CR 01-1110-000 checking $400.00
DB 02-5580-000 expense $400.00

In this case, both Fund 01 and Fund 02 will have balance sheets where the Assets don't equal the Liabilities-plus-equity, and both will be off by $400.

Check to see if you have any other funds that are off in this manner.

If so, check year-ending balanaces and see when the last time was when they were in balance.

Then, search for the actual transaction that was made. You will need to decide what transaction to make to correct it based on when the original transaction was made, and whether or not you can find it.

[beas]

A clue would be to run a consolidated balance sheet. If it balances, then it's likely that what John said is correct since this report accounts for all funds. If it's still off, then it is possible it was set up incorrectly. Is there any way of telling if they checked for balance when they set it up?

[JohnDMeyers]

It's interesting that if you have only one fund, you gave it the number "50" instead of "01".

It depends on how long you have been using PowerChurch, and how long your balance sheet hasn't come out right.

If you just started using PowerChurch, you may have made an incorrect entry at the beginning.

If you have been using PowerChurch for sometime, go back in time and see if there was a time when the balance sheet came out even. Depending on how far back that was will determine what the best way to correct it is.

Things to look for:

1) your beginning balance (when you started using PowerChurch)
2) run an account activity on your equity account(s) and see if you directly made a change, and why.

----

I just had another thought. If you can find a time when the balance sheet came out equal, run an account activity on ALL accounts, and look for $54.00. Let me know if you find something.

[NeilZ]

Maybe I wasn't clear in my explanation... We have lots of funds and fund #50 is out of balance. We have been using Powerchurch for 2 years now. I know this discrepancy happened in April 2009. I see the $54 transaction. It was a $54 check written out of this account.

The operating fund is 01. If we write a check out of a fund we have always credited account 1110 in whatever fund the check comes out of. Then we debit the same fund's expense account. I'm wondering if we have been doing something wrong when writing a check out of a fund other than the 01 operating fund.

In this case it was credit 50-1110 for $54 and debit 50-8623 for $54. When we write a check out of the operating fund we credit 01-1110 and debit 01-expense account.

I hope that is a little more clear. I appreciate you trying to help me.

If account 1110 is he same checking account used in all the different funds, then there shouldn't be a problem with this. However, if fund 50 was using a different checking account back then, but you still credited the 1110 account, that could account for the issue.

That said, since its been over 2 years since this occurred, it may be easier to just figure out a correcting transaction to account for the $54.

[Zaina]

We wrote a check out of this fund crediting the 50-1110 account and debiting the 50-8623 (expense) account. We write these kinds of checks all the time and I can't figure out why this balance sheet is off. If anyone can help me figure this out, I would be so grateful.

That transaction shouldn't have caused an imbalance. You are correct that you would always want the debit and the credit to be to the same fund. Have you run a balance sheet prior to April 2009 to see for sure it was that month the imbalance occurred. Could the $54 transaction be the exact same amount as a coincidence?

[JohnDMeyers]

I have a feeling you are going to find some common amounts that they are off.

[Zaina]

To keep a fund balanced, you have to have a debit and a credit in the same fund. That is why a transfer transaction from one fund to another is a four line transaction with a debit AND a credit in each fund. Often when multiple funds are out of balance, we find that it is because there was/were transaction(s) made that 'crossed funds'. Meaning there is a debit using one fund number and a credit using a different fund number.

Example could be something like:
CR 01 account
DB 02 account

Or some other combination that doesn't have a debit AND a credit in each and every fund listed.

This throws both funds out of balance. It sounds like you might find there have been transactions where this scenario has occurred.

[NeilZ]

Good to hear ...

[beas]

Yay!