Balances Matching Bank Statements

[narnol02]

So I recently took over doing the books this past year and have a few questions. I am running Windows 10 with Power Church Plus v.11. I've been able to reconcile the books each month and it balances out to 0.00 like it should.

My question is that when I print my balance sheet the total amount in checking and savings don't actually add up to what the bank statement says.

Second question is when I print my Accounting Fund Balances report I'm assuming the total for all of these accounts should equal the total in Checking and Savings. They don't. Also am I wrong to assume the 'Savings Fund' is the Savings account balance?¿

The previous person who actually setup Power Church Plus is somewhat helpful but I don't think he knows all the ins and outs. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Zorak]

There are several factors that make the Reconcile Bank Accounts screen not agree with Balance Sheet or other reports. The Reconcile Bank Accounts screen limits the list of transactions to exclude anything dated after the bank statement date. In theory, you could post a transaction dated today and apply it to last month's business. That transaction would be in the calculations on last month's Balance Sheet, but would not show in the Reconcile Bank Accounts screen unless you uncheck that option that reads "Only show items dated before statement date".  

There are also transactions in the database that are only used by the reconciliation process. These can either be starting balance entries from years (and versions) ago when things were done differently in the accounting system in PowerChurch Plus, or it could be transactions that were part of the setup process, a listing of outstanding checks or deposits as of the time accounting was first set up.
 
The important part of the Reconcile Bank Accounts process is to get the "To Balance" down to $0.

[narnol02]

So the to balance does always go to $0.00.

Should my 'Balance Sheet' report though match the bank statement balance?

Also regarding the Fund Account Balances, shouldn't that total equal the balance as well if it has the same ending date? My Funding Account Balance total is more then what is actually in the bank account.

[NeilZ]

So the to balance does always go to $0.00.

Should my 'Balance Sheet' report though match the bank statement balance?

Also regarding the Fund Account Balances, shouldn't that total equal the balance as well if it has the same ending date? My Funding Account Balance total is more then what is actually in the bank account.

Again ... not really ... your bank statement have a closure date that is not the end of the month and/or not show transactions that have cleared. The Balance Sheet report is always to the end of the selected month and contains all posted transactions . Example: Bank statement may close on a Friday. Your Balance Sheet closes on the end of the month which is Saturday, and will probably have transactions that were written on Friday and Saturday.

Again, how are you SURE that your account has more funds than in the bank on a day to day basis, or are you only using the Bank Statement.

Your Powerchurch account could show more funds if any deposits were posted to your account in Powerchurch, but have not yet cleared the bank.

Frankly, if at the end of the month, your bank statement reconciliation's to balance amount is ZERO, you're account is fine.

[narnol02]

So I'm looking at year end for 2021 and it's well past when anything else should be processed. Bank statement is end of month December 31st so it does match end of month/year in Power Church Plus.

What I'm assuming I need to do for the Fund accounts is to deduct from the fund account without deducting from the actual balance in Power Church. Is that possible to do?

Edit: I was able to find what is going on with the Balance Sheet. It doesn't match cause there are some outstanding transactions not reconciled. At some point this obviously got messed up but I'm not sure how to fix it as when I reconcile this month it balanced to zero. Do I need to void out the old checks waiting to be reconciled? And what about the contributions that haven't been reconciled?

[NeilZ]

So I'm looking at year end for 2021 and it's well past when anything else should be processed. Bank statement is end of month December 31st so it does match end of month/year in Power Church Plus.

What I'm assuming I need to do for the Fund accounts is to deduct from the fund account without deducting from the actual balance in Power Church. Is that possible to do?

Edit: I was able to find what is going on with the Balance Sheet. It doesn't match cause there are some outstanding transactions not reconciled. At some point this obviously got messed up but I'm not sure how to fix it as when I reconcile this month it balanced to zero. Do I need to void out the old checks waiting to be reconciled? And what about the contributions that haven't been reconciled?

You are overthinking this. Are these outstanding transactions showing up in the reconciliation as unreconciled from last year? How old are they? Were they entered in error or just not cashed? There are so many different reasons why they're still there.

As far as contributions not reconciled, what do you mean, are they not on the bank statement? Are they from THIS month and not LAST month?

I can tell you this. The church I am currently at started using Powerchurch last December. The Balance Sheet has never equaled what the bank balance shows even from the beginning. Again, this is due to stuff like a Sunday happening on the end of the month and not being deposited by the bank until Monday morning. Checks written and posted on a Friday of the month, and still outstanding as the bank knows nothing of these since they haven't cleared.

Tell you what ... run the Trial Balance report. Include unposted transactions, when it appears, go to the last page. Are they all zeros? Yes?? You're good, the system is correct. The bank statement is off as they don't have all the transactions cleared yet.

[narnol02]

So yes I looked back over things and spoke with the previous treasurer and talked through it and it makes sense. I know what you guys are trying to explain now.

The other item though is the fund accounts are wrong. We think it's cause money was spent out of Power Church but wasn't used from the fund account. Is there a way to deduct money from a Fund Account without effecting the balance of the checking account?¿

[NeilZ]

So yes I looked back over things and spoke with the previous treasurer and talked through it and it makes sense. I know what you guys are trying to explain now.

The other item though is the fund accounts are wrong. We think it's cause money was spent out of Power Church but wasn't used from the fund account. Is there a way to deduct money from a Fund Account without effecting the balance of the checking account?¿

Um ... how do you think money was spend if a check wasn't written? When you write a check, Powerchurch will adjust the Fund Balance to reflect the spending.

Please explain how you think this happened?

[narnol02]

The reason I think this has happened is because the Fund Account Balance is showing $41,646.24 but the Checking and Savings total balance is only $34,123.90.

[NeilZ]

The reason I think this has happened is because the Fund Account Balance is showing $41,646.24 but the Checking and Savings total balance is only $34,123.90.

I'd run a Account Close To report to see if any other asset account is closing to the main unrestricted fund balance account.