Temporarily Restricted Funds -- Receiving & Using

[Lila Burmeister]

Temporarily Restricted Funds

I think I would like to use the temporarily restricted funds ability in Power Church, but am unsure how to go about changing things over. Here is what I am currently doing:

When we have a contribution for a designated purpose, I have a contribution fund set up for that purpose. For instance, a donation to our Memorial Fund is entered with contribution fund number 112, which is set up to:
Debit the General Fund Bank Account (01-1010-000)
Credit the Memorial Fund Account (02-4253-035)

My 02 Accounts are all accounts that are not part of our yearly budget, and 01 accounts are part of our budget. I have a savings account where this 02 money is kept until it’s used, so at the end of each month, I transfer any temporarily restricted money from the General Fund to that Savings account. I then
Debit the Savings Account (01-1220-000)
Credit the General Fund Bank Account (01-1010-000)
Credit the Liability Fund I have for these dollars, Memorial Fund (01-2226-017)
Debit Board Designated Funds (01-3002-001)*

When the money is used for something, I
Debit the Memorial Fund Expense (02-7601-017)
Credit Board Designated funds (01-3002-001)*
Debit the General Fund Account (01-1010-000)
Credit the Savings Account (01-1220-000)
Debit the Liability Fund (01-2226-017)
Credit the Fund Balance (01-3001-000)

*This account has a (-) balance
This is how things were set up when I took over this position. We have PowerChurch 11.

THANKS in advance for any help!

[JohnDMeyers]

It is not a good idea to debit one fund and credit another.

Debit the General Fund Bank Account (01-1010-000)
Credit the Memorial Fund Account (02-4253-035)

You may actually have made this work if the amount that you expense in this following transaction EXACTLY matches the transaction above:

Debit the Memorial Fund Expense (02-7601-017)
Credit Board Designated funds (01-3002-001)*

When you Debit 01 and Credit 02, your Balance Sheet will be out of balance (Assets = Liabilities + Equity) will not hold true. By making two "wrong" transactions, you may have actually made this work.

You should also not be directly changing the equity account on a regular basis. It should update automatically based on making a series of correct transactions. There are times when it is necessary to include an equity account in a transaction (setting beginning balances, for example).

Now, you should start doing the correct transactions.

Here is a previous thread where we discuss how to setup Temporarily Restricted contributions.
http://powerchurch.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ted#p15184

Feel free to ask more questions if necessary.