Utility Tax Refund

[ngaham]

Hey Neil,
Our church received a tax refund on our utilities this week. The total refund is for $3514.68 and it is split as such:
891.32 - Gas Company
438.11 - Phone / Internet Company
253.47 - Water Company
1931.78 - Electric Company

I know that this is not income and I should decrease the expense accounts, however my concern is that these refunds stretch back to 2014, long before we used PowerChurch Software. I want to enter this correctly, just wanted to get your guidance on it.

[NeilZ]

Hey Neil,
Our church received a tax refund on our utilities this week. The total refund is for $3514.68 and it is split as such:
891.32 - Gas Company
438.11 - Phone / Internet Company
253.47 - Water Company
1931.78 - Electric Company

I know that this is not income and I should decrease the expense accounts, however my concern is that these refunds stretch back to 2014, long before we used PowerChurch Software. I want to enter this correctly, just wanted to get your guidance on it.

FWIW .. if there are any refunds that cover 2017 or 2018, you should create those transactions and post them as they do affect the end of year costs for 2017, and the total costs for 2018.

The amounts for 2016 and prior however are problematic. It may just be easier for those years to declare the funds as miscellaneous income and leave it at that; or just DB checking and CR the net assets to show the increase.

Again, I am not an accountant, but considering that you were not using Powerchurch back then, even if you adjusted your records (in whatever form you used) for those years, you'd still have to reflect the funds in Powerchurch today.

Whatever you decide, make a Powerchurch backup of the accounting files so you can revert if necessary.