Check Returned by bank

[JuliePastorMom]

A check was returned by the bank for not being filled out properly. It shouldn't have gone to bank in the first place, but I wasn't part of that, and the bank called us instead of sending it through and having it bounce. However, our financial secretary added it as a contribution before all this happened. Now I'm reconciling the statement, and it shows the adjusted deposit, while PowerChurch shows the full deposit. I'm not sure how to proceed, and because the financial secretary is new, I'm sure she doesn't know how either. Right now when I try to reconcile I'm off by the amount of that check. Thank you!

[sgbani]

If the check was a contribution to the church, then the finance secretary should find the contribution(s) that the check covers, and reverse it out (no correction). Then, when the post again, it should update fund accounting. Then, once you post in fund accounting, it should allow you to clear out that adjustment to account for the error.

OR

If you have separate installs of Powerchurch, where the contribution information updates fund accounting via file, then the contribution side still needs to be reversed, but then 'update only the contributions module'.

On the fund accounting side, that check was (if I assume correctly) part of a larger deposit / contribution entry that was imported.
If that is a case, an error correcting entry in fund accounting to credit the account it was deposited into, and debit the income account(s) it is attributed to. That will allow you to reconcile.

Not sure how your church processes contributions in terms of timeline of entry-to-posting, but we never post the contributions until they are fully settled and reconciled against the bank, and therefore reconciled using the unposted fund report on the contribution module side. This way, we can ensure that checks which are deposited clear and are not returned. We once had a check properly addressed to the church, but was returned for fund availability issues. Since none of our contributions were posted, the error was corrected long before posting, and thus the reconciliation on the fund accounting side never had a problem.

[JuliePastorMom]

Thank you. When she reverses the contribution, she should post it as of the same day as originally, is that correct? Because if she uses a June date, it won't show up in the May reconciliation report.

[sgbani]

Thank you. When she reverses the contribution, she should post it as of the same day as originally, is that correct? Because if she uses a June date, it won't show up in the May reconciliation report.

Correct, the posting of the reversed contribution should be done to the original date, or at least same working month, in particular posting to fund accounting should have a date in the month you are working in, because then you can reconcile.
Again, only reversing the contribution (NOT a 'reverse and correct').

In all cases, be sure everyone does backups before doing such corrections / posting, in case unintended errors occur. I've had contribution corrections go awry for what I thought was no good reason, and being able to restore helps.