Clarify use of 3000-level Fund Balance GL accts

[UUUSOffice]

I am fairly new (4 months in) and just realizing the extent of the things that were done in quirky ways in the past. One thing is the use of 3000 level accounts for transactions that -- I believe -- should have been entered using income, expense, or transfer account numbers (especially transfers, which were not being used at all).

Could one or more of you terrific experts make a statement I can quote to other users about the proper use of 3000 level, Fund Balance GL accounts? Because it's my impression that you would *almost never* make a journal entry directly into these. Am I wrong?

Thank you!
Sandy in Orlando

[NeilZ]

I am fairly new (4 months in) and just realizing the extent of the things that were done in quirky ways in the past. One thing is the use of 3000 level accounts for transactions that -- I believe -- should have been entered using income, expense, or transfer account numbers (especially transfers, which were not being used at all).

Could one or more of you terrific experts make a statement I can quote to other users about the proper use of 3000 level, Fund Balance GL accounts? Because it's my impression that you would *almost never* make a journal entry directly into these. Am I wrong?

Thank you!
Sandy in Orlando

You are right. 3000 level accounts are normally adjusted by the program itself. It is a VERY RARE case where you directly access a 3000 level account. Normally this is when you are added a new asset or adjusting the starting balance of an asset account.

Income should be entered as income, normally from the Contributions module to an income (4000 level) account; expenses should be entered as an expense, normally from Accounts Payable using an expense account (5000 level). If this is NOT being done, then you are violationing all rules of accounting.

Transfer accounts are normally used if you're moving funds from one Accounting Fund (such as a separate building fund) to another (such as operations). Again, the system will then adjust what needs to be adjusted. With the latest v11.5 MR, the PCPlus manual is now included as a PDF, I suggest reading about Transfer Accounts on page 226 of the manual for more info.

[UUUSOffice]

Thank you so much, Nell!!!! You are such a blessing to this community of users.

I did read all the documentation on this, including the excellent instruction regarding transfers, but I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was missing that would explain why a Powerchurch consultant had the church make all their transfers (operating to savings, operating to capital) using 3000 level accounts. Consequently, none of these transfers (and there are a bunch of them) are appearing on any Income/Expense statements for any of the funds, which sure messes up the bottom line on those reports. Why in the world would an accounting consultant have the church treasurer not utilize transfer accounts? I am scratching my head.

I have added all the 9000 level accounts to do this correctly going forward, but here's my follow up question -- is there a good reason to go back and correct these for the prior fiscal year? I'm just part-time and have a million other duties, but I care a lot about accounting being correct.

Or should I just say, well, I got here for this fiscal year (July 1) and from here on in, I vouch for what is entered?

[NeilZ]

Thank you so much, Nell!!!! You are such a blessing to this community of users.

I did read all the documentation on this, including the excellent instruction regarding transfers, but I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was missing that would explain why a Powerchurch consultant had the church make all their transfers (operating to savings, operating to capital) using 3000 level accounts. Consequently, none of these transfers (and there are a bunch of them) are appearing on any Income/Expense statements for any of the funds, which sure messes up the bottom line on those reports. Why in the world would an accounting consultant have the church treasurer not utilize transfer accounts? I am scratching my head.

I have added all the 9000 level accounts to do this correctly going forward, but here's my follow up question -- is there a good reason to go back and correct these for the prior fiscal year? I'm just part-time and have a million other duties, but I care a lot about accounting being correct.

Or should I just say, well, I got here for this fiscal year (July 1) and from here on in, I vouch for what is entered?

Here's a few questions:
1. are the accounts in question all under the same accounting fund, or are they separate accounting funds (01-ops, 02-Capital, 03-Savings) ??
2. When was this advice given, and what version of Powerchurch was in use at the time?

[UUUSOffice]

The advice was given during our Fiscal Year 7/1/15 to 6/30/15. We use the most current version of Powerchurch, 11.5 at least (now 11.55).

These are all separate funds, of which we have four:
01: Operating
02: Designated (Including Savings Acct., which I'd like to split out but that's another story)
03: Capital
B1: Endowment

[NeilZ]

The advice was given during our Fiscal Year 7/1/15 to 6/30/15. We use the most current version of Powerchurch, 11.5 at least (now 11.55).

These are all separate funds, of which we have four:
01: Operating
02: Designated (Including Savings Acct., which I'd like to split out but that's another story)
03: Capital
B1: Endowment

I do not understand that reasoning, as transfer accounts were available at that time. It may have been needed to address previous issues. I've always used transfer accounts to move funds about our different accounting funds, even though they're all kept in the same checking account. I've asked the Powerchurch staff to take a look at this thread, maybe they have better insights.

[UUUSOffice]

Thank you! If nothing else, at least I know I have a valid understanding going forward.

I'm still wondering if I can just let it be for last year. I look forward to any thoughts from the PC team!

[Zorak]

We generally recommend that people only directly affect the 3000 accounts when making balance adjustments, like when adding a new account or fixing out of balance issues.

The end result is the same, the money moved from one fund to another in a balanced way, but it would be better to use transfer accounts when money is actually just being transferred from one fund to another.