New fund setup questions

[bayparktreasurer]

We are a small church and currently have a single General Fund for all our transactions. We have a separate bank account for a building fund that we started a couple of years ago but just have it as a separate account under the general fund.

We would like to create a separate fund for this to make budgeting and reporting clearer and easier.

I'm confused though as to what accounts I should or shouldn't copy over when adding the second fund. Should I copy over all the level 1 and 2 accounts or just the ones that specifically pertain to the building fund? As we're in Canada we have a GST receivable account as we can claim a portion of the GST paid so should I copy that account over and have it active in both funds? If so, how do I see the total receivable from both funds combined? The building fund is a savings account so all transactions go through the General Fund chequing account and then I just transfer monies in or out as required. I understand I don't need to create a restricted income account as that's what the fund is essentially doing.

I hope this makes some sense. Any help would be appreciated.

Ray

[NeilZ]

We are a small church and currently have a single General Fund for all our transactions. We have a separate bank account for a building fund that we started a couple of years ago but just have it as a separate account under the general fund.

We would like to create a separate fund for this to make budgeting and reporting clearer and easier.

I'm confused though as to what accounts I should or shouldn't copy over when adding the second fund. Should I copy over all the level 1 and 2 accounts or just the ones that specifically pertain to the building fund?

Just copy over the accounts you need. FWIW you're going to have to transfer the funds from one account to the other. You can do it very easily but the transfer accounts need to be turned on, and setup in each fund. If you're going to be paying building costs/mortgage/etc you should have any accounts pertaining to that in the new fund, and inactive them in fund 01.

As we're in Canada we have a GST receivable account as we can claim a portion of the GST paid so should I copy that account over and have it active in both funds? If so, how do I see the total receivable from both funds combined?

Yes, you should make sure that that account is 'checked' when you're selecting what accounts to bring over. If you want to see whats come in from both accounts, you can run an account activity report, and just select the account number. The system will then pull data from both funds.

The building fund is a savings account so all transactions go through the General Fund chequing account and then I just transfer monies in or out as required. I understand I don't need to create a restricted income account as that's what the fund is essentially doing.

I hope this makes some sense. Any help would be appreciated.

Ray

Basically, yes. The separate fund restricts the funds its covers simply by being a separate fund. You will need to do the simple transfer as shown in the Powerchurch v12 manual on page 235, or the v11.55 manual on page 229

[bayparktreasurer]

Thank you.

Basically, yes. The separate fund restricts the funds its covers simply by being a separate fund. You will need to do the simple transfer as shown in the Powerchurch v12 manual on page 235, or the v11.55 manual on page 229

Ok, and I would use the fund balance accounts when transferring, not the chequing/savings accounts because the money is not moving in the bank accounts, just from fund to fund, correct?

Ray

[NeilZ]

Thank you.

Basically, yes. The separate fund restricts the funds its covers simply by being a separate fund. You will need to do the simple transfer as shown in the Powerchurch v12 manual on page 235, or the v11.55 manual on page 229

Ok, and I would use the fund balance accounts when transferring, not the chequing/savings accounts because the money is not moving in the bank accounts, just from fund to fund, correct?

Ray

Actually you're emptying the savings as shown in fund 01 and pouring it into 02. Do not use the fund balance accounts the transfer will handle that for you.

[bayparktreasurer]

I'm sorry, you have me confused again.

I don't think I'm fully understanding how to use multiple funds yet. So what would the actual transactions be? And how do I know that something is in fund 1 or fund 2?

Also, when setting up the accounts in fund 2 do I still use a temporarily restricted income account or how do I record the building fund donation income?

[NeilZ]

I'm sorry, you have me confused again.

I don't think I'm fully understanding how to use multiple funds yet. So what would the actual transactions be? And how do I know that something is in fund 1 or fund 2?

If you look at the example on the Powerchurch manual page I listed above, the transaction would be the same, except for using the savings accounts rather than the checking.

Also, when setting up the accounts in fund 2 do I still use a temporarily restricted income account or how do I record the building fund donation income?

As I said above since you are now using a separate Accounting Fund to hold the funds, there is no need to have any other restriction. As far as donations you said that it all goes into the General Fund from which you then transfer funds to the Fund 02, so you do not change anything in that regards. You just have to manually enter the transfer transaction moving funds from 01 to 02 using the same type of transfer transaction you used to originally move the funds from savings. However instead of moving from the 01 savings, you're moving fro the 01 checking to the 02 savings.

[bayparktreasurer]

I think this is what's confusing me.

So currently in the Contribution module I have the Building fund debiting our chequing account (in Fund 1) and crediting the temporarily restricted Building Fund account (also in Fund 1).

Once I create Fund 2 should I change that to debit the Building savings account (in Fund 2) and credit the unrestricted income account (in Fund 2) instead of copying over the restricted Building income account?

Also, currently the temporarily restricted Building fund account has the following 4 accounts closing to it:
Building Fund income
Building Fund interest
Building Fund expense
Building Fund release

Once Fund 2 is created those 4 accounts (at minimum) will be copied over so should those be changed to close to the unrestricted income account (in Fund 2)?

I'm finding it hard to keep track of how things transfer from contribution module to accounting module and fund to fund.

[NeilZ]

I think this is what's confusing me.

So currently in the Contribution module I have the Building fund debiting our chequing account (in Fund 1) and crediting the temporarily restricted Building Fund account (also in Fund 1).

Once I create Fund 2 should I change that to debit the Building savings account (in Fund 2) and credit the unrestricted income account (in Fund 2) instead of copying over the restricted Building income account?

Ok since you need to show the transfer from the checking to the savings so that it will appear on the Bank Statement what I would do is this:

When you setup the Fund 02 create a NEW building income account in Fund 02 ( it need not be restricted there), and add the checking account in fund 02. Then going forward when you move NEWLY DONATED funds from Checking to Savings you will enter a transaction to Credit the 02 Checking and Debit the 02 Savings.

In Contributions you will change the Building Contribution Fund to debit the 02 checking and credit the 02 income.

Also, currently the temporarily restricted Building fund account has the following 4 accounts closing to it:
Building Fund income
Building Fund interest
Building Fund expense
Building Fund release

Once Fund 2 is created those 4 accounts (at minimum) will be copied over so should those be changed to close to the unrestricted income account (in Fund 2)?

I'm finding it hard to keep track of how things transfer from contribution module to accounting module and fund to fund.

I understand. At a minimum, you will need in Fund 02 the following non-restricted accounts, that is you do not need to track these using a donor restriction:

A) Income - as I mentioned above this does not need to be restricted
B) Savings Interest - non-restricted income account
C) At least one expense account for any general expenses under building. If you need to add granularity to show where the funds are being used, say Maintenance and Repair, Equipment Replacement, etc, you can add those as you see fit.

You do not need to have a restricted release as the funds are restricted in the separate accounting fund.

Again, as I mention above you need to point the contribution fund to the 02 checking and income as I'm assuming that the Sunday collections are all deposited into checking. Using the 02 checking and income accounts will reflect that income directly in fund 02. So all you need to reflect the move from checking to savings is the simple credit/debit transaction I mentioned above.

Does this help or am I confusing you even more?

[bayparktreasurer]

Does this help or am I confusing you even more?

Yes, this does help I think. I've just got to mull it around in my mind for awhile.

One last question (for now ). So I can have both the chequing and savings account show in both fund 1 and fund 2? And that doesn't affect where the monies are coming or going?

Ok since you need to show the transfer from the checking to the savings so that it will appear on the Bank Statement what I would do is this:

When you setup the Fund 02 create a NEW building income account in Fund 02 ( it need not be restricted there), and add the checking account in fund 02. Then going forward when you move NEWLY DONATED funds from Checking to Savings you will enter a transaction to Credit the 02 Checking and Debit the 02 Savings.

In Contributions you will change the Building Contribution Fund to debit the 02 checking and credit the 02 income. ?

So if I credit the 02 Chequing and Debit the 02 Savings that will still show up in the 01 General Fund? Because the Chequing account is in the 01 Fund. Maybe I'm not understanding the relationship between accounts and funds.

I hope this eventually falls into place and makes sense. Sometimes it feels like this I really appreciate your time and patience with me.

[NeilZ]

Does this help or am I confusing you even more?

Yes, this does help I think. I've just got to mull it around in my mind for awhile.

One last question (for now ). So I can have both the chequing and savings account show in both fund 1 and fund 2? And that doesn't affect where the monies are coming or going?

If you're not using the Savings in Fund 01, I would make it inactive since you only use it for building funds. Obviously this would be after you transfer the funds from Fund 01 savings to the savings in Fund 02.

Not sure what you mean by affecting "where the monies are coming or going" means. The system will maintain how much money is reflected in each fund's 'checking' account.

Ok since you need to show the transfer from the checking to the savings so that it will appear on the Bank Statement what I would do is this:

When you setup the Fund 02 create a NEW building income account in Fund 02 ( it need not be restricted there), and add the checking account in fund 02. Then going forward when you move NEWLY DONATED funds from Checking to Savings you will enter a transaction to Credit the 02 Checking and Debit the 02 Savings.

In Contributions you will change the Building Contribution Fund to debit the 02 checking and credit the 02 income. ?

So if I credit the 02 Chequing and Debit the 02 Savings that will still show up in the 01 General Fund? Because the Chequing account is in the 01 Fund. Maybe I'm not understanding the relationship between accounts and funds.

NO .. you will not see anything showing in the Fund 01 checking as you're going to reflect the funds going to the Fund 02 checking. Your actual BANK will reflect the total deposited to the checking account, which is the total of the Fund 01 and Fund 02 checking account balances.

The system will maintain the 'separation' between Fund 01 and Fund 02 checking accounts (01-1110 and 02-1110). Here's an example.

You have contributions totaling $2100. $2000 to operating (Fund 01) and $100 to Building (Fund 02). Your deposit slip will reflect a total of $2100.00. The bank will show a total of $2100 deposited. The system will reflect the funds as 2000 to 01 and 100 to 02.

You then move the 100 to savings at the bank, you enter the transaction in PCPlus as I described earlier. The bank will just show the checking balance as 2000, and 100 added to savings. PCPlus shows that in Fund 02, checking balance is $0.00 and Savings shows an additional $100. Fund 01 was not touched since the funds went to checking 02 and moved within there.

When you do a checking reconciliation, you will see the deposit of $2100 and the move of $100 to savings on the bank statement, PCPlus reconciliation function will show the 2100 deposit and a transfer of 100 out. The bottom line will show the actual checking account balance.

I hope I'm being clear.

I hope this eventually falls into place and makes sense. Sometimes it feels like this I really appreciate your time and patience with me.

Frankly, this is a learning curve but eventually you'll see how it all works

[bayparktreasurer]

If you're not using the Savings in Fund 01, I would make it inactive since you only use it for building funds. Obviously this would be after you transfer the funds from Fund 01 savings to the savings in Fund 02.

Ok since you need to show the transfer from the checking to the savings so that it will appear on the Bank Statement what I would do is this:

When you setup the Fund 02 create a NEW building income account in Fund 02 ( it need not be restricted there), and add the checking account in fund 02. Then going forward when you move NEWLY DONATED funds from Checking to Savings you will enter a transaction to Credit the 02 Checking and Debit the 02 Savings.

In Contributions you will change the Building Contribution Fund to debit the 02 checking and credit the 02 income. ?

Maybe this is where the confusion is coming in. I'm not understanding where this 02 chequing account is coming in.

We have 1 chequing account that is for our General fund (01) which is what we've been using all along.
We have 1 savings account that is for monies collected for a repairs/upgrades and a possible new building sometime in the future. So far I have been keeping track of that simply by using a building fund account but now I want to separate that out by creating a separate fund (02) specifically for the building fund monies. There is no chequing account for this money, just the savings account. All income will be transferred into the savings account in (02) from the General fund (01) and all expense cheques will be written from the General fund (01) account and the monies transferred from the savings account in (02) to the chequing account in (01) to cover the cheques.

That is why I'm not understanding where this 02 chequing account is coming from.

[NeilZ]

If you're not using the Savings in Fund 01, I would make it inactive since you only use it for building funds. Obviously this would be after you transfer the funds from Fund 01 savings to the savings in Fund 02.

Ok since you need to show the transfer from the checking to the savings so that it will appear on the Bank Statement what I would do is this:

When you setup the Fund 02 create a NEW building income account in Fund 02 ( it need not be restricted there), and add the checking account in fund 02. Then going forward when you move NEWLY DONATED funds from Checking to Savings you will enter a transaction to Credit the 02 Checking and Debit the 02 Savings.

In Contributions you will change the Building Contribution Fund to debit the 02 checking and credit the 02 income. ?

Maybe this is where the confusion is coming in. I'm not understanding where this 02 chequing account is coming in.

We have 1 chequing account that is for our General fund (01) which is what we've been using all along.
We have 1 savings account that is for monies collected for a repairs/upgrades and a possible new building sometime in the future. So far I have been keeping track of that simply by using a building fund account but now I want to separate that out by creating a separate fund (02) specifically for the building fund monies. There is no chequing account for this money, just the savings account. All income will be transferred into the savings account in (02) from the General fund (01) and all expense cheques will be written from the General fund (01) account and the monies transferred from the savings account in (02) to the chequing account in (01) to cover the cheques.

That is why I'm not understanding where this 02 chequing account is coming from.

The 02 checking account is the SAME checking account as used in Fund 01. The system keeps track of how much is allocated to each fund so when you get Contributions to the Building fund, you will credit and debit the income and checking accounts as listed under Fund 02.

Doing it the way I've shown above simplifies the transactions needed to move funds to the savings.

When you deposit the contributions you will be depositing them in the ONE checking account, you will then move the funds to savings at the bank. In Powerchurch, the system will reflect that funds were received for operating and building and will show the building income under the building accounting fund 02. When you do the transaction to move from checking to savings at the bank, you then enter the transaction I showed you in the previous posts.

If you then need to move funds from the 02 savings to the 01 checking, you will then need to use the transfer accounts to move the funds to the 01 fund.

[bayparktreasurer]

Thank you for your patience.

I think it's all starting to fall into place for me. Just had to tumble around in my head for a few days.

I've gone ahead and have everything setup and so far it seems to be working and I think I'm understanding everything.

I went ahead and moved the funds from the 01 Fund to the 02 Fund using the transfer accounts which worked great but now I have run into another snag.

When I run a balance sheet report by fund, it shows the proper totals in the different funds BUT I still have some temporarily restricted building funds showing up in the 01 Fund column. What is the proper way to correct that? Can I just credit the 01 restricted asset account and debit the 01 unrestricted account to clear that up?