beginning balances

[athomas]

restarted power church for 2019 and believe I allowed the system to set up the beginning balances but not sure. The trial balance shows the restricted accounts asset accounts with the beginning balances. Is this correct or should it be the income account?

Also didn't realize that I needed to allow for December 2018 when setting up new system so unfortunately even though i may enter transactions dated 12/18, they do not show when posting so it affects the reconciliation. Is there a work around?

[NeilZ]

restarted power church for 2019 and believe I allowed the system to set up the beginning balances but not sure. The trial balance shows the restricted accounts asset accounts with the beginning balances. Is this correct or should it be the income account?

Also didn't realize that I needed to allow for December 2018 when setting up new system so unfortunately even though i may enter transactions dated 12/18, they do not show when posting so it affects the reconciliation. Is there a work around?

FWIW .. the trial balance is only used to verify that the debits & credits are in balance. If the bottom line shows all zeros, its fine. You shouldn't have an income for the restricted fund balance accounts, income is counted in the year it was received, it does not carry over year to year, that's what the fund balance accounts are for.

The actual Balance Sheet shows what your assets are and they should equal your fund balances & liabilities. If this is correct, you're good.

As far as the previous transactions, if you followed the Setup Assistant when it asked for outstanding checks & deposits, they should show up in the reconciliation without any intervention.

[athomas]

So does something have to be done to remove those beginning balances. I guess I misunderstood about the income being retained.

[athomas]

Would this not be impacted by the fact that system was starting new with no prior data. How would it know the income was there if not added as a beginning balance.

[NeilZ]

So does something have to be done to remove those beginning balances. I guess I misunderstood about the income being retained.

If you followed the setup assistant and entered the data as requested, then there is no need. I don't understand why you want the beginning balances removed?

Weren't those the ending balances in December?

[NeilZ]

Would this not be impacted by the fact that system was starting new with no prior data. How would it know the income was there if not added as a beginning balance.

Again, if you followed the Setup Assistant, and entered the data properly, then the system is fine. Did you read the instructions for the setup assistant as listed in the User Manual and used the sources as directed there?

[athomas]

I admit I am totally confused at this point. Earlier your statement was "You shouldn't have an income for the restricted fund balance accounts, income is counted in the year it was received. That's why I thought it needed to be removed because it was put in a beginning balances when setting up the new power church for 2019. This new setup pulled nothing from previous years, was entirely a new setup using the assistant.

[NeilZ]

I admit I am totally confused at this point. Earlier your statement was "You shouldn't have an income for the restricted fund balance accounts, income is counted in the year it was received. That's why I thought it needed to be removed because it was put in a beginning balances when setting up the new power church for 2019. This new setup pulled nothing from previous years, was entirely a new setup using the assistant.

Again, if you followed the directions in the Users Guide for the Setup Assistant, it will have asked you for information as of a certain date. I'm assuming as of Jan 1st. On of the things asked was the information on existing Temp Restricted Accounts. The system then created the beginning balances using the data that you entered.

If you added the outstanding checks and deposits that did not clear the bank as of jan 1st, you should have all the data properly entered, and it should properly reflect that on the Balance Sheet. If you didn't include those when you ran the setup assistant, then you have a problem, and which is why you're having an issue with the reconciliation.

I'm still not sure why you think there's a problem.

[athomas]

Thank you for your insight Neil. The only problem seems to be that when the new system was set up, the correct starting date of December was not used. Is there a fix to this now other than contacting technical support?

[NeilZ]

Thank you for your insight Neil. The only problem seems to be that when the new system was set up, the correct starting date of December was not used. Is there a fix to this now other than contacting technical support?

I do not believe so, other than restarting Accounting all over again.