Church school

[ndgaab]

Hey,
Our church runs a church school that ties to our general fund. What would be the proper way to set this up in PowerChurch? Just establish an income, expense, and equity account?

[NeilZ]

Hey,
Our church runs a church school that ties to our general fund. What would be the proper way to set this up in PowerChurch? Just establish an income, expense, and equity account?

The income & expense accounts definitely, but not sure you'd need the equity unless the income is temporarily restricted. You say its 'tied' to the general fund, in what way ?? Could you be more specific?

[ndgaab]

The school doesn't have its own checking account. I guess I used the wrong terms. It is operated out of the church checking account.
As I said, I'm new to this. My question is this. If I create just an income and expense account, the money would just sit in the income account? I thought I had to create a equity account to basically "hold" the money. Basically, income comes from tuition and fundraisers. Expenses are school books, teacher pay, supplies, equipment.

[NeilZ]

The school doesn't have its own checking account. I guess I used the wrong terms. It is operated out of the church checking account.
As I said, I'm new to this. My question is this. If I create just an income and expense account, the money would just sit in the income account? I thought I had to create a equity account to basically "hold" the money. Basically, income comes from tuition and fundraisers. Expenses are school books, teacher pay, supplies, equipment.

Is the school supposed to be self-sufficient that its income covers its expenses?

If so, you want to create a NEW Accounting FUND for the school. Just as the operating fund is usually 01 (program default), you can create a new account fund CS for church school. It would use the same checking account, but have its own set of accounts with its own Income & Expense report (you would have to filter the report to only select the fund you want to see).

Both funds would use the same checking account (normally 1110-000) just one would be used as 01-1110-000, and the other CS-1110-000 when paying bills, etc.

Since its the same account, the bank reconciliation is the same as it would be now, however, now you have a clear separation between what is church operations funds, and school funds.

[ndgaab]

Supposed to be, yes. But, it is not.

[NeilZ]

Supposed to be, yes. But, it is not.

Well, you can still create the separate fund, but what this will do is have a better visibility of how much the church is spending to support the school.

What you would do is transfer funds from the 01 to the CS as needed. This would show up on the Inc/Exp reports as transfers, and thus the church board would then be able to exactly see if the school is a going concern, or not.

[ndgaab]

I haven't set up a live version yet, just been playing in the demo. So, if I understand correctly, create another accounting fund for the school. So I would have a "General fund" and a CS Fund?

[NeilZ]

I haven't set up a live version yet, just been playing in the demo. So, if I understand correctly, create another accounting fund for the school. So I would have a "General fund" and a CS Fund?

Yep ... use the same checking account for both funds.

This way you can also have separate payroll and other expenses.