Designated Missionaries

[bjsbrown65]

someone gave a contribution to a designated missionary in March which has been reconciled. The person who wrote the checks to our missionaries in April did not take this into consideration; therefore did not show on the AP check and did not release from restriction. How to handle after the fact? Thanks for any direction.

[NeilZ]

someone gave a contribution to a designated missionary in March which has been reconciled. The person who wrote the checks to our missionaries in April did not take this into consideration; therefore did not show on the AP check and did not release from restriction. How to handle after the fact? Thanks for any direction.

Go into Funds Accounting, and then Enter Transactions. Click on the Release Restricted Funds button, and select the restricted fund you wish to use. The system will then ask for the amount, and give you a chance to enter any supporting narrative for use as an audit trail.

Then click OK, if you want, you can change the date to the date the initial check was written, but its not necessary. Now save the transaction. This will make the proper entries for the release.

[bjsbrown65]

One more clarification, please. I did not create an expense account when setting up the release accounts. Since the money has actually been spent, do I move it out of the equity hold account to an expense account.

[NeilZ]

One more clarification, please. I did not create an expense account when setting up the release accounts. Since the money has actually been spent, do I move it out of the equity hold account to an expense account.

No .. when you enter the Enter transaction function, you click on the Release Restricted Funds button. A list of funds you setup as Restricted will appear. Select the fund you wish to use, then on the next screen enter the amount you want to release, along with an explanation of why you're releasing these funds. In this case I would enter enough of an explanation to serve as an audit trail.

Click OK, and two entries will appear on the Enter Transactions screen:

The first is for the Restricted Fund Release account it will be a DEBIT
The next is for the xx-4999-000 Released from Restriction account which the system should have created, this entry will be a CREDIT.

Save that transaction and post it. The proper accounts will be updated, there is no need to touch any other account. The original expense account was used when you first paid the bill. That expense is still valid, you're just releasing funds back to the general fund.


Some explanation:

Your checking account has 2000.00 in it. Of that 500.00 is in a Temp Restricted Fund, and the rest is for General Use. When you paid a bill for $200.00 that should have been using Restricted Funds, the General use funds were used. So now the system will show $1300.00 in General Use, and $500 in restricted.

By releasing as shown above, $200 will be moved to General use, so the system will reflect $300, Temp Restricted, and $1500, General use.

That help?

[bjsbrown65]

yes, thank you.