Capital Campaign

[dpetherbridge]

We are about to kick off a multi year capital campaign. I'm not sure how to set this up. Do I just add a contribution category of capital campaign and a restricted fund called the same? How do we handle pledges? I'm not sure how they get separated from operating fund pledge. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[NeilZ]

We are about to kick off a multi year capital campaign. I'm not sure how to set this up. Do I just add a contribution category of capital campaign and a restricted fund called the same? How do we handle pledges? I'm not sure how they get separated from operating fund pledge. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

1. Yes, you create a separate Contribution Fund, call it what you want, Building Fund, Capital Building Fund, etc. You're going to point it to the Income account you're going to create in the next step. If you have your normal "Tithes & Offerings" for operations going to Contribution Fund 100, use another number for the Building/Capital Fund, say 500 !

2. As far as what you do on the Fund Accounting side, it all depends. You can keep it all in the Operating Fund, then setup the restricted account, or do as we do which is have a separate Accounting Fund for our building funds. 01 is for operations, and BD for Building. We use the one checking account, and allow the system to maintain the records. In this way you don't have to worry about releasing funds when you may need it. It also provides a very transparent view of what is coming in and what may be spent from those donations for the capital campaign.

3. Its like setting up any pledge. You add the pledge, but you use the Contribution Fund for the building/capital campaign (in my example above, 500). Since its a multi-year campaign, you have some options. Using a 3 year campaign, You can add 3 pledges, for 2017/2018/2019, or just use 1 pledge starting at 01/01/2017 and ending on 12/31/2019. The system will keep the donations, and the pledges separate as long as the contributions entry volunteers/staff/whatever enters the right Contribution Fund numbers.

Does this help?

[dpetherbridge]

We are about to kick off a multi year capital campaign. I'm not sure how to set this up. Do I just add a contribution category of capital campaign and a restricted fund called the same? How do we handle pledges? I'm not sure how they get separated from operating fund pledge. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Yes Neil, as usual you are very helpful, thanks.

1. Yes, you create a separate Contribution Fund, call it what you want, Building Fund, Capital Building Fund, etc. You're going to point it to the Income account you're going to create in the next step. If you have your normal "Tithes & Offerings" for operations going to Contribution Fund 100, use another number for the Building/Capital Fund, say 500 !

2. As far as what you do on the Fund Accounting side, it all depends. You can keep it all in the Operating Fund, then setup the restricted account, or do as we do which is have a separate Accounting Fund for our building funds. 01 is for operations, and BD for Building. We use the one checking account, and allow the system to maintain the records. In this way you don't have to worry about releasing funds when you may need it. It also provides a very transparent view of what is coming in and what may be spent from those donations for the capital campaign.

3. Its like setting up any pledge. You add the pledge, but you use the Contribution Fund for the building/capital campaign (in my example above, 500). Since its a multi-year campaign, you have some options. Using a 3 year campaign, You can add 3 pledges, for 2017/2018/2019, or just use 1 pledge starting at 01/01/2017 and ending on 12/31/2019. The system will keep the donations, and the pledges separate as long as the contributions entry volunteers/staff/whatever enters the right Contribution Fund numbers.

Does this help?

[dpetherbridge]

Neil,

I'm still a bit confused.

I set up a contribution fund 500 - Capital Campaign 2017+

I also set up a new fund CC (capital campaign).

The part I'm confused about is how to tie it to one checking account. In the CC fund do I have an account CC-01110-000?

If so then when I do a deposit it mixes funds (01 and CC) and gives an error message.

Thanks.

[NeilZ]

Neil,

I'm still a bit confused.

I set up a contribution fund 500 - Capital Campaign 2017+

And you tied this to the Income (credit) and checking (debit) accounts in the CC fund? For example:

You should have a CC-1110-000 account (1110 is normally the default for checking), and CC-4030 (or such) for Tithes and Offerings listed on the Account tab for the new contribution fund.

That said from the way you listed these fund creations, contributions then Fund Accounting, you may have not tied them together properly.

I also set up a new fund CC (capital campaign).

The part I'm confused about is how to tie it to one checking account. In the CC fund do I have an account CC-01110-000?

If so then when I do a deposit it mixes funds (01 and CC) and gives an error message.

Thanks.

When you created the CC fund, did you tell the program to copy accounts from the 01 fund? If not, on page 221 of the manual (and the manual on PDF located in the PCPLUS115 directory) it will lead you through what you should need to do.

When you POST CONTRIBUTIONS, the system will create the proper transactions for Funds Accounting. You should not be getting an error. I suspect that you did NOT set the bank (debit) account properly on the Contribution fund.

So you need to copy the account for 1110-000 checking to the CC fund. Then copy any other accounts you will probably need, such as the default Fund Balance account of 3110-000 'Unrestricted Net Assets' .

Then copy any other expense accounts you may need. Include the Group headers to keep the reports looking the same in the 01 and CC reports.