Early in Dec in prep for closing the year I noticed that even thought I am balancing with my bank, My income accounts were all out of wack.
Long story short, my secretary over the months had been occasionally writing checks to income accounts, that is, when entering an account number to post the check to, she would enter an income account instead of an expense account.
Why does PC allow this to happen with not even a warning dialog box??
Is there a safty feature I can "turn on" or some other work around to prevent accidental posting of expenses to income accounts??
Mike
Why am I Able to Write Checks to Income Accounts
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Matt
- Authorized Teaching Consultant
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- Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 4:04 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, AL
Mike,
PC+ does assume that the user has a basic understanding of accounting principles and fund accounting. As you have discovered, the system will allow you to input and post erroneous entries. PC+'s primary Fund Accounting edit is that the debits and credit amounts for the transaction agree.
There is no "safety" feature that you can turn on to prevent these types of errors. I would recommend running and reviewing the Journal Report in Fund Accounting on a periodic basis to identify transactions that have not been posted properly. Also, I would recommend that your secretary receive some training in double entry accounting and accounting principles.
I agree--a warning dialog box would be useful. A warning dialog box already exists if a user tries to debit one fund and credit another fund on the same transaction. I would think that some additional edits could be established in the system to warn against potentially abnormal entries--i.e. debits to an income account when the credit account is an asset and credits to expense accounts when the debit account is an asset.
Matt
PC+ does assume that the user has a basic understanding of accounting principles and fund accounting. As you have discovered, the system will allow you to input and post erroneous entries. PC+'s primary Fund Accounting edit is that the debits and credit amounts for the transaction agree.
There is no "safety" feature that you can turn on to prevent these types of errors. I would recommend running and reviewing the Journal Report in Fund Accounting on a periodic basis to identify transactions that have not been posted properly. Also, I would recommend that your secretary receive some training in double entry accounting and accounting principles.
I agree--a warning dialog box would be useful. A warning dialog box already exists if a user tries to debit one fund and credit another fund on the same transaction. I would think that some additional edits could be established in the system to warn against potentially abnormal entries--i.e. debits to an income account when the credit account is an asset and credits to expense accounts when the debit account is an asset.
Matt
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mccauleyjean
- Posts: 21
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- Location: Nature Coast UU Lecanto FL
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I find this posting very interesting. My church is new to PCP and I have been perusing the old postings to gain some insights into how this program works and to target problems others have encountered. I have had experience with other forums for software and have found them very helpful.
I find Matt’s response, “PC+ does assume that the user has a basic understanding of accounting principles and fund accounting” in direct contradiction to information on the “Brand new to PowerChurch Plus.” link on the website http://www.powerchurch.com/features/product/
“Church Management Made Easy
PowerChurch Plus helps you organize Membership, Contributions, Accounting and general Record Keeping, with one complete package – at one incredibly low price! PowerChurch Plus is powerful enough to keep track of all the details of a church, yet easy enough for everyone to use. With just a few clicks, you can access information about your members, their donations, or your church’s financial status.”
The web site says “easy enough for everyone to use.” No where does it say that “a basic understanding of accounting principles and fund accounting is necessary to use this software”. I understand that to use this program it is helpful to have a “basic understanding of accounting principles and fund accounting”. If the program is advertised as “easy enough for everyone to use,” then these “warning dialog boxes” should be incorporated into the program and/or the Maintenance Releases (MRs).
I find Matt’s response, “PC+ does assume that the user has a basic understanding of accounting principles and fund accounting” in direct contradiction to information on the “Brand new to PowerChurch Plus.” link on the website http://www.powerchurch.com/features/product/
“Church Management Made Easy
PowerChurch Plus helps you organize Membership, Contributions, Accounting and general Record Keeping, with one complete package – at one incredibly low price! PowerChurch Plus is powerful enough to keep track of all the details of a church, yet easy enough for everyone to use. With just a few clicks, you can access information about your members, their donations, or your church’s financial status.”
The web site says “easy enough for everyone to use.” No where does it say that “a basic understanding of accounting principles and fund accounting is necessary to use this software”. I understand that to use this program it is helpful to have a “basic understanding of accounting principles and fund accounting”. If the program is advertised as “easy enough for everyone to use,” then these “warning dialog boxes” should be incorporated into the program and/or the Maintenance Releases (MRs).
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Matt
- Authorized Teaching Consultant
- Posts: 733
- Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 4:04 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, AL
In defense of PC+, no accounting software can be made foolproof from every possible user error. Like most anything, a certain amount of knowledge and training of the user is assumed. I work daily with accounting software that cost millions of dollars to purchase that will allow a user to make the same type of error that Mike's secretary made without giving the user a warning message. While all programs can and should be improved it's hard to fault PC+ for not having certain edit warnings when software costing millions more doesn't have these edits either. One also needs to keep in mind that sometimes, what appears to be an "abnormal" entry does need to be posted, depending on the circumstances. So you do not want to restrict what you can do in the program too much. I contend that you will not find another program that is as easy to use and does as much as PC+ does for the money. The program is definitely easy enough for everyone to use and if the program is set up and used properly transactions will post seamlessly and correctly in the system.