Errors in Equity

[davidbwood]

I am a new user to PowerChurch and have apparently made some mistakes in setting up the accounts. Our church tracks a number of different temporarily restricted funds. Most of these funds will first use the donations for expenses and if there is not sufficient money in that equity account the balance will be paid from our "general fund"/tithes and general offerings. The issue I'm having in reviewing the "Changes in Equity" report is that some of these equity accounts appear to be posting properly but others do not - for example we have a fund we collect to pay off our mortgage early. We do a special offering quartly but some members donate to this fund weekly so each month we pay whatever was collected over and above the regular mortgage payment toward the payoff this equity account is posting accurately to what I've paid this month
Mortgage Pay Down 3210 - 1427.00(beg.bal.) - 12378.00(income) - (11190.17)(release) - 0.00(expenses) - 2614.83 (ending bal.)

But others are not for example our missions fund - we sent our normal support of $900 out this month but the "Changes in Equity" report double dips the amount.

Begining Balance Income Release from Rest. Expenses Ending Balance
3221 World Missions 3141.34(beg. bal.) - 980.05(income) - (900.00)(rel from rest.) - (900.00)(expenses) - 2321.39 (ending bal.) we took in 80.05 more than we spent this month and yet my ending balance is lower

The journal report shows the entries as follows:

01-1110 Primary Checking 13030.34(Cr)
01-5211 Church Mortgage 13030.34(Db)
01-4803 Mortgage Pay Down - Release restricted - 11190.17(Db)
01-4999 Released from restriction - Release restricted - 11190.17(Cr)

01-1110 Primary Checking - 900.00(Cr)
01-6110 World Missions - 900.00(Db)
01-4809-103 World Missions - Release restricted - 900.00 (Db)
01-4999 Released from restriction - Release restricted - 900.00(Cr)

01-6110 World Missions closes to 01-3221 World Missions Equity and 01-5211 Church Mortgage closes to 01-3110 Unristricted Net Assest which I suspect has something to do with it but closing the World Missions Expense to 01-3110 hasn't given accurate results either.

Where am I going wrong? Thank you so much in advance for you help.
God bless,
Dave Wood

[Jeff]

When using release accounts, all expense accounts should close to the unresticted equity account. That is what is causing the problem with your World Missions account.

which I suspect has something to do with it but closing the World Missions Expense to 01-3110 hasn't given accurate results either.

What was the problem? There might be another issue to resolve.

[JohnDMeyers]

Your expense accounts should all close to unrestricted net assets.

Go to Fund Accounting / Setup / Maintain Chart of Accounts
make sure that
01-5211-000 closes to 01-3110-000
01-6110-000 closes to 01-3110-000

Once you make these changes in the Chart of Accounts, rerun your Changes in Equity report. PowerChurch will automatically rearrange things. That may solve all issues. If not, let me know.

Just in general, remember that restrictions are on income, not expenses. All expense account should close to unrestricted net assets. You may want to check all of your expense account for this.

[davidbwood]

Jeff and John - thank you both very much! I have adjusted all expense accounts to close to 3110 and that has fixed the equity issue though I do have a couple of adjusting entries to make releasing funds that were just expensed and not released on other transactions.