Building Fund

[northside]

What is the best way to handle "building fund" donations? We have been in a remodeling process so all the fund given were used to finish and pay off the loan, but now I do not have any more bills to pay and I am assuming I will need the money to roll over to next year to stay in the "building fund".

[NeilZ]

What is the best way to handle "building fund" donations? We have been in a remodeling process so all the fund given were used to finish and pay off the loan, but now I do not have any more bills to pay and I am assuming I will need the money to roll over to next year to stay in the "building fund".

How are you currently handling the funds? Are they in a separate accounting fund? Are they in a restricted account under Operations?

[northside]

The lady before me had it set to go to misc. income and they didn't keep it separate, but I told the church treasurer that we need to separate the building fund money. I wasn't sure what type of account to put it in. I was assuming it needs to roll over to the new year. I wasn't sure how other churches handle this.

[NeilZ]

The lady before me had it set to go to misc. income and they didn't keep it separate, but I told the church treasurer that we need to separate the building fund money. I wasn't sure what type of account to put it in. I was assuming it needs to roll over to the new year. I wasn't sure how other churches handle this.

If you want to keep the funds separate, but available, and you want to keep them under the operations fund, I would create a Donor Restricted set of accounts (income, equity, release) using the Maintain List of Donor Restrictions function . You would then need to create a transaction under Funds Accounting to transfer the amount of funds from Unrestricted Net Assets (equity) to the Temp Restricted Net Assets account you would setup under the donor restriction.

This keeps the funds available, but the current funds won't show up in the income and expense account for next year until released. Any income coming in for the Building Fund next year will be listed under Temp Restricted Income.

However, the full amount of funds under the temp restriction will show up on the Cash Management report, which shows all the assets, liabilities, and equity that the checking account balance covers.

Now, the alternative would be to create a new Accounting Fund for the building. It would use the same checking account, but it would have its own income and expense accounts. This can be good in some ways, but it can be confusing in others.

Its good as all expenses that would be paid for by the Building Fund would be consolidated under one set of accounts.

However, it may confuse some who do not understand the separation of the funds.

[northside]

If I set up the building fund as a separate accounting fund. How do I transfer the money correctly in there?
It is in a misc. income account (4210) right now. Thanks!

[NeilZ]

If I set up the building fund as a separate accounting fund. How do I transfer the money correctly in there?
It is in a misc. income account (4210) right now. Thanks!

It can be as easy as crediting the checking account in operations and debiting the checking account in the building fund.

The income account really doesn't matter, its still considered unrestricted income since that's not a temp restricted income account.

I can be more precise once you make a decision.