New, confused user + Accounting Setup = MESS!

[TheChapelHickory]

I'm the new secretary of the church. We decided to switch from Aplos (our current bookkeeping system) after much consideration and recommendation. I have watched all the training videos and played around with the demo. Now that I am trying to set up the system for our needs, I have mass confusion and think I have just messed up entering the accounts, funds, and all those things.

Is there a way to reset, wipe everything I've entered and just start over? What are suggestions on getting this accurate?

[Zorak]

You can restart accounting by going to File > Preferences > Accounting Setup. Click the Restart Accounting button. That will show an explanation of what is going to be deleted (most everything in the Accounting menu) and what is not (vendors, employees) and will have you type YES to confirm. At the end of that process, you will be back to having Setup Accounting as the only option in the Accounting menu.

[NeilZ]

As far as keeping this from happening again.

Now that you went through it once, you basically have the idea of how the Setup works. I do advise that you review the 'basic concepts' starting on page 184 with Accounts. This will remind you of the account number layout, and the numbering scheme used for Assets, Liabilities, etc.
It also gives you a basic layout of what is the default for a Pastor salary breakdown (Salary, housing, health, etc).

Then it goes over what report levels are used for, and how to use them. I've always set a level of 4 as the 'group' for a set of expenses.

If you need to review debits and credits as they pertain to double entry accounting, continue. Then thoroughly review the section on Donor Restricted Accounts. This area can make or break your setup. If you have restricted accounts from which funds are withdrawn to cover expenses, they should be created when setup asks about them.

Something I should have brought up earlier. Now is the time to reduce the number of checking accounts that you use and operate from. For instance, if you have a checking account for 'youth' and you cover youth expenses from that, merge it into the main operations account, and make that balance into a Donor Restricted Account. The system will aid you in setting these up. This is covered in the manual under Accounting Setup, Temporary Restricted Accounts.

Above all ... review what is needed prior to starting Accounting Setup. You'll need current account balances, for checking and savings, this is NOT the bank statement balance. Too many times I've tried to keep people from using that balance, and too many times I've seen them having to redo everything or enter a bunch of corrective transactions to fix it. All bank balances must be that as tracked in your old system's check register, or similar. That gives you the most up-to-date balance; as your bank statement only has the balance as of the end of last month, whereas the check register includes all checks and deposits you have made since your last reconciliation with the bank statement.

I may be getting too far ahead of you at this point, so if you have questions ... don't hesitate to ask.