Refund from over payment to a vendor

[AWELCtreas]

There was much confusion by the previous treasurer over payments made to the vendor for our pastor's VEBA. Payments were missed and then made up with the result that too much was sent in. We've had a change of treasurers since as the treasurer's job was not the best use of the previous officeholder's talents. The church has received a couple of check refunds of over payments that had been made to the vendor. Those checks have been deposited by the financial secretary. How should these refund transactions be recorded in PC Plus v 11.55? My role in this has been to help straighten out the books and consult with the replacement treasurer to assist him as he is a complete novice in accounting procedures.

[NeilZ]

There was much confusion by the previous treasurer over payments made to the vendor for our pastor's VEBA. Payments were missed and then made up with the result that too much was sent in. We've had a change of treasurers since as the treasurer's job was not the best use of the previous officeholder's talents. The church has received a couple of check refunds of over payments that had been made to the vendor. Those checks have been deposited by the financial secretary. How should these refund transactions be recorded in PC Plus v 11.55? My role in this has been to help straighten out the books and consult with the replacement treasurer to assist him as he is a complete novice in accounting procedures.

Assuming the following: Checking 01-1110-000, and the expense account for the VEBA is 01-5120-000, and the refund is $200.00


The transaction should be as follows entered in Funds Accounting.

01-1110-000 DB 200.00 - Checking
01-5120-000 CR 200.00 - VEBA Expense

What you're doing is this:

1. Returning the funds back to the checking account.
2. Reducing the expense account to reflect that the funds were not used, thus reducing the overall expenses for the congregation.

When you enter the transaction, enter as much information as you can in the note section of the transaction to give an audit trail.

As usual, make a backup of the accounting files using the Powerchurch Backup Utility prior to doing any action, so you can restore to the start in case the results were not what was expected.

[AWELCtreas]

Thanks Neil. That is what I thought but I wanted to make sure