User Support Forum

We have 2 bank accounts. Each one is at a different bank. The main account contains all our deposits and is the general fund. This account supplies money to the other account which is the debit account. We have debit cards for members to use, when there is a debit charge I enter it to the fund, which also has a debit bank account and a checking account. The problem is the fund debit account has no money in it. It all comes out of the general fund debit account. Messing up my checking balances in each debit and checking account. Please Help.

TyGbtgfA# wrote:We have 2 bank accounts. Each one is at a different bank. The main account contains all our deposits and is the general fund. This account supplies money to the other account which is the debit account. We have debit cards for members to use, when there is a debit charge I enter it to the fund, which also has a debit bank account and a checking account. The problem is the fund debit account has no money in it. It all comes out of the general fund debit account. Messing up my checking balances in each debit and checking account. Please Help.

I can only speculate how you transfer funds from one bank to the other, and how you enter expense transactions. Could you explain how you enter a purchase?


**** personal opinion ****

I would have suggested that instead of creating another bank account, you create a corporate credit card account. Thus each person who needed to charge purchases for the church would have to apply for the card. This does two things.

1. It makes the person responsible for all purchases.
2. If makes sure that the church isn't paying for personal purchases because all the receipts would have to be turned in, and each item on the receipt would need to have an expense line item to debit against.

***** end of opinion ****

If you could get back with how you actually process funds transfers and purchases, it would help.

Thank You NeilZ for responding to my post. Transfering funds from one bank to another is the easy part. I just write a check from the general fund and deposit it into the other account. The way I enter a purchase is where the problem begins. For example, the Women's Ministry uses the debit card to purchase items for a community outreach. I credit the women's debit card account(which has no money in it) and debit department expenses. Then at the end of the month, the women's debit card account has a negative balance so I transfer funds from the general fund debit account to the women's ministry fund debit. This takes it out of the general fund debit account and zero's out the women's fund debit account. This is where the problem comes in I don't know how to take it out of the women's fund checking account.

TyGbtgfA# wrote:Thank You NeilZ for responding to my post. Transfering funds from one bank to another is the easy part. I just write a check from the general fund and deposit it into the other account. The way I enter a purchase is where the problem begins. For example, the Women's Ministry uses the debit card to purchase items for a community outreach. I credit the women's debit card account(which has no money in it) and debit department expenses. Then at the end of the month, the women's debit card account has a negative balance so I transfer funds from the general fund debit account to the women's ministry fund debit. This takes it out of the general fund debit account and zero's out the women's fund debit account. This is where the problem comes in I don't know how to take it out of the women's fund checking account.

Wow ... I have to say that's very convoluted.

That said, I have a few more questions:

Why is the 'Women's Debit Account' separate from the 'General Fund' Debit Account?
Why can't you just write a check from the Women's Checking Account? Or is this one of those 'territorial' things where the women's ministry must control its own checking account?

We have 10 different funds. The pastor wants each fund to be self-supporting. The women's ministry account is separate from the general fund because it is its own fund. I can't write a check from the wm checking account, because they used the debit card.

TyGbtgfA# wrote:We have 10 different funds. The pastor wants each fund to be self-supporting. The women's ministry account is separate from the general fund because it is its own fund. I can't write a check from the wm checking account, because they used the debit card.

The relationships between all these funds are so hard to understand. FWIW .. while the pastor wants each fund to be self-supporting, he's not the one who has to figure out how to balance the books. That said please give me more information when answering the following;

You have an account that uses a debit card, and it has a bank account that is attached to it. However, you say that it not the primary account. You have to transfer money from the primary account to cover the purchases using the debit card in the other account.

Then you say that the checking account used with the debit card has no money!! Is the account being overdrawn? Are there funds in that account that are not used to keep the account open?

You have a woman's fund, where does this money come from? Does it receive contributions? Is it a separate accounting fund?? If not, is this fund restricted under operations? How do you account for any balance in this fund??

I have to admit, this is the first I've seen something like this. Normally, if a ministry is supported by funds from the operating fund, it has a yearly budget, and it has expense accounts for that ministry under the operating fund.

Yes, this is very hard to understand. It would really help if you could provide us with examples of actual accounting entries (include the actual account number-e.g. 01-1110-000, account name, amount, and whether the account is being debited or credited) for the following transactions:

1). Women's ministry uses the debit card to purchase items for a community outreach.

2). Transfer funds from the general fund debit account to the women's ministry fund debit.

Also, can you tell us what the actual account numbers (e.g. 01-1110-000) and account names are for the accounts referred to in the following sentences in your original post:

1). The "main account" referred to in the sentence "The main account contains all our deposits and is the general fund".

2). The "other account" referred to in the sentence "This account supplies money to the other account which is the debit account".

3). The "debit bank account" referred to in the sentence "We have debit cards for members to use, when there is a debit charge I enter it to the fund, which also has a debit bank account and a checking account".

4). The "checking account" referred to in the sentence "We have debit cards for members to use, when there is a debit charge I enter it to the fund, which also has a debit bank account and a checking account".

5). The "fund debit account" referred to in the sentence "The problem is the fund debit account has no money in it".

6). The "general fund debit account" referred to in the sentence "It all comes out of the general fund debit account".

7). The "each debit and checking account" referred to in the sentence "Messing up my checking balances in each debit and checking account". If this is referring to multiple accounts, please list the account number and name for all of the accounts.