Pastors' Salary, Etc. Categories

[chandrespickett]

In the past, our church has done manual payroll processing and entered our pastors' salaries in as expenses only when posting transactions. Each pastor has his own lines in the budget: Pastor 1 Salary, Pastor 2 Salary, Pastor 3 Salary, and so on for Housing, Medical, and Retirement. When we pay items from each category, we categorize the transaction appropriately. I'm working toward tracking everything in PowerChurch, setting up direct deposit, etc.

In reading the manual, it mentions tracking all salaries in a single expense line. I assume that's not required, but what's the flip side of that? In setting up payroll, do I need to create three times as many funding categories so each pastor has their own? At the very least, we do need to track medical expenses separately, because we essentially serve as an in-house HSA, where they may have a balance of money to spend at any point during the year for medical expenses.

I'm searching too generically, apparently, because the forums keep kicking out my searches. I'd appreciate any help in knowing how to set this up. Thanks so much!

Chandres

[chandrespickett]

Additionally, when I get to the Liability page for health insurance and retirement, we don't have those set up as liabilities; they're listed as expenses. Ideally, I'd fix that so printing W-2s next year is simpler. How do I change the way they're currently set up from Expenses to Liabilities?

[NeilZ]

In the past, our church has done manual payroll processing and entered our pastors' salaries in as expenses only when posting transactions. Each pastor has his own lines in the budget: Pastor 1 Salary, Pastor 2 Salary, Pastor 3 Salary, and so on for Housing, Medical, and Retirement. When we pay items from each category, we categorize the transaction appropriately. I'm working toward tracking everything in PowerChurch, setting up direct deposit, etc.

In reading the manual, it mentions tracking all salaries in a single expense line. I assume that's not required, but what's the flip side of that? In setting up payroll, do I need to create three times as many funding categories so each pastor has their own? At the very least, we do need to track medical expenses separately, because we essentially serve as an in-house HSA, where they may have a balance of money to spend at any point during the year for medical expenses.

I'm searching too generically, apparently, because the forums keep kicking out my searches. I'd appreciate any help in knowing how to set this up. Thanks so much!

Chandres

I think you're reading too much into the manual. Each pastor can have his own set of expense items. When you setup accounting from scratch PCPlus will actually create two sets of expenses for salaries, one for the senior pastor, and another for an assistant/associate as defaults. So you will have separate expense lines for each pastor, however, what they do advise is if you want to aggregate housing/medical/retirement by totaling those budget lines for each pastor into one expense line, its perfectly OK to do so.

However, in Payroll if you have separate expense lines for each pastor, you will have to create separate PAY ITEMS for each pastor as the Pay Items are used to attach the salary/housing/medical/retirement to the proper expense account.

So if you have 3 pastors, and each has a salary/housing/medical/retirement expense, then you need to have four pay items per pastor. This is actually not that bad, as you only set this up once per pastor and you need not touch them again, other than to adjust what taxes may apply to the item, etc.

Additionally, when I get to the Liability page for health insurance and retirement, we don't have those set up as liabilities; they're listed as expenses. Ideally, I'd fix that so printing W-2s next year is simpler. How do I change the way they're currently set up from Expenses to Liabilities?

If you look at the PAY ITEM for Employer Liability, you will see that these items have an expense account and a liability account. This is so that when you run payroll, the system will expense the proper account, and put it in a liability account which is to be paid later. If you use the same health plan, you will only need to use one liability account, same with retirement, as you can pay any invoice/dues out of that one account for all the pastors. Again, if you have a separate expense item for each pastor, you'll need to create three separate pay items but (as mentioned), only one liability account.

In reality, health & retirement expenses are a good area in which you can consolidate all three pastor's budgets. Just budget for all three for one line. However, its up to you.

Hope this helps.

[chandrespickett]

In the past, our church has done manual payroll processing and entered our pastors' salaries in as expenses only when posting transactions. Each pastor has his own lines in the budget: Pastor 1 Salary, Pastor 2 Salary, Pastor 3 Salary, and so on for Housing, Medical, and Retirement. When we pay items from each category, we categorize the transaction appropriately. I'm working toward tracking everything in PowerChurch, setting up direct deposit, etc.

In reading the manual, it mentions tracking all salaries in a single expense line. I assume that's not required, but what's the flip side of that? In setting up payroll, do I need to create three times as many funding categories so each pastor has their own? At the very least, we do need to track medical expenses separately, because we essentially serve as an in-house HSA, where they may have a balance of money to spend at any point during the year for medical expenses.

I'm searching too generically, apparently, because the forums keep kicking out my searches. I'd appreciate any help in knowing how to set this up. Thanks so much!

Chandres

I think you're reading too much into the manual. Each pastor can have his own set of expense items. When you setup accounting from scratch PCPlus will actually create two sets of expenses for salaries, one for the senior pastor, and another for an assistant/associate as defaults. So you will have separate expense lines for each pastor, however, what they do advise is if you want to aggregate housing/medical/retirement by totaling those budget lines for each pastor into one expense line, its perfectly OK to do so.

However, in Payroll if you have separate expense lines for each pastor, you will have to create separate PAY ITEMS for each pastor as the Pay Items are used to attach the salary/housing/medical/retirement to the proper expense account.

So if you have 3 pastors, and each has a salary/housing/medical/retirement expense, then you need to have four pay items per pastor. This is actually not that bad, as you only set this up once per pastor and you need not touch them again, other than to adjust what taxes may apply to the item, etc.

Additionally, when I get to the Liability page for health insurance and retirement, we don't have those set up as liabilities; they're listed as expenses. Ideally, I'd fix that so printing W-2s next year is simpler. How do I change the way they're currently set up from Expenses to Liabilities?

If you look at the PAY ITEM for Employer Liability, you will see that these items have an expense account and a liability account. This is so that when you run payroll, the system will expense the proper account, and put it in a liability account which is to be paid later. If you use the same health plan, you will only need to use one liability account, same with retirement, as you can pay any invoice/dues out of that one account for all the pastors. Again, if you have a separate expense item for each pastor, you'll need to create three separate pay items but (as mentioned), only one liability account.

In reality, health & retirement expenses are a good area in which you can consolidate all three pastor's budgets. Just budget for all three for one line. However, its up to you.

Hope this helps.

The retirement part makes sense. Even though they all contribute to different places, it's the same each month and in full, so that sounds simple enough. For medical, all three pastors use different medical sharing programs and have extra funds held from their paychecks to act as an HSA, since they're no longer allowed to contribute to an actual HSA. I need to be able to track what they have left in those funds to use to pay toward their medical expenses. How would I do that?

Thank you for the fast response!

[NeilZ]

The retirement part makes sense. Even though they all contribute to different places, it's the same each month and in full, so that sounds simple enough. For medical, all three pastors use different medical sharing programs and have extra funds held from their paychecks to act as an HSA, since they're no longer allowed to contribute to an actual HSA. I need to be able to track what they have left in those funds to use to pay toward their medical expenses. How would I do that?

Thank you for the fast response!

In which case you should setup individual "HSA" liability accounts for each pastor, with individual pay items to point to each individual liability account. You can then use the Funds Accounting Cash Management Report to see how much is in each liability account.

Make sense ??