Contribution posting/Fund accounting

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GEBCbookkeeper
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Joined: Wed May 09, 2018 6:09 pm

Contribution posting/Fund accounting

Post by GEBCbookkeeper »

I've recently taken over bookkeeping at our church, and as I'm learning Power Church I believe I'm seeing some things we are doing incorrectly but want to make sure before I show to our treasurer.

Each week, our money-counters enter all the income in the Contributions module, and then post ONLY to contributions and submit the posting summary report to bookkeeping. All the contributions are posted to the Designated Funds income accounts. Then the bookkeeper was creating a transaction in Fund Accounting to reflect the total deposits made, one each for cash and checks. My concern is that while the income accounts are reflected correctly in Contributions, they are NOT processed the same in Fund Accounting - the posts I was told to make have been as follows:

Debit 20-1210-000 Money Market General Fund
Credit 20-4100-000 General Fund income account

None of these deposits are reflecting which designated account they are to be applied to - am I incorrect in assuming this is wrong?

If we were to start posting our Contributions to the Fund Accounting, would it then be reflected correctly to those income accounts?

We have a specific missions trip coming up with a lot of designated contributions to their fund, and I'm not really confident that the balance numbers I'm giving to our pastor are accurate.
Melissa Guay
Bookkeeper
Graham Emmanuel Baptist Church

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NeilZ
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Location: Dexter NM
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Re: Contribution posting/Fund accounting

Post by NeilZ »

GEBCbookkeeper wrote:I've recently taken over bookkeeping at our church, and as I'm learning Power Church I believe I'm seeing some things we are doing incorrectly but want to make sure before I show to our treasurer.

Each week, our money-counters enter all the income in the Contributions module, and then post ONLY to contributions and submit the posting summary report to bookkeeping. All the contributions are posted to the Designated Funds income accounts. Then the bookkeeper was creating a transaction in Fund Accounting to reflect the total deposits made, one each for cash and checks. My concern is that while the income accounts are reflected correctly in Contributions, they are NOT processed the same in Fund Accounting - the posts I was told to make have been as follows:

Debit 20-1210-000 Money Market General Fund
Credit 20-4100-000 General Fund income account

None of these deposits are reflecting which designated account they are to be applied to - am I incorrect in assuming this is wrong?
Correct ... if you had contributions to specified funds you wouldn't have any record of that in Funds Accounting. I'm going to assume that the money market is your checking account? If not, do you transfer funds to the checking account for bill payment?

Not knowing how your Chart of Accounts is setup makes it a bit harder to make a specific statement.
If we were to start posting our Contributions to the Fund Accounting, would it then be reflected correctly to those income accounts?

We have a specific missions trip coming up with a lot of designated contributions to their fund, and I'm not really confident that the balance numbers I'm giving to our pastor are accurate.
Yes ... as long as the Contributions Funds are setup correctly in the contributions module and point to the specific income account, then you'd properly see the income.

As far as the process, there are a few things that should be corrected. The counters should not be the ones posting anything. Contributions should not be posted until you get the actual deposit receipt back from the bank. There could have been a counting error, etc. The counters may be very diligent, but the bank deposit as shown on the receipt should be verified with the total prior to posting.

What we have the counters do here, is print out the Funds Report listing the totals given to each Contribution Fund, this is run on the unposted contributions of the day.. They also print out a copy of the Unposted Contributions report. When we get the deposit receipt back from the bank, this is stapled to both these reports, and placed in the financial files. This gives us a full printout of who, how much, and where the funds were allocated.

We also use a computer deposit slip, and print out two copies, one is a white sheet that goes to the bank, and one is a yellow sheet that is attached to the two other reports and the deposit slip. Printing the deposit slip eliminates other human error when hand writing a deposit slip.

Does this help?
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

GEBCbookkeeper
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed May 09, 2018 6:09 pm

Re: Contribution posting/Fund accounting

Post by GEBCbookkeeper »

Thank you - this is very helpful! That's what I suspected.

Yes, we deposit to Money Market and then transfer money to Checking to pay bills.

The process you described makes more sense, as an adjustment just came up from our bank because of a counting error and I'm not sure how to fix that.

So, one more question....I am frequently asked "what is the balance in xx fund?" (which is how this whole issue came up) - where would I find the most current/accurate data? And because we aren't posting our Contributions correctly, are those numbers possibly incorrect? I know the Contributions reports will give me correct income, but it's obviously not reflecting the expenses that could have been posted.
Melissa Guay
Bookkeeper
Graham Emmanuel Baptist Church

Online
NeilZ
Posts: 10209
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:20 am
Location: Dexter NM
Contact:

Re: Contribution posting/Fund accounting

Post by NeilZ »

GEBCbookkeeper wrote:Thank you - this is very helpful! That's what I suspected.

Yes, we deposit to Money Market and then transfer money to Checking to pay bills.

The process you described makes more sense, as an adjustment just came up from our bank because of a counting error and I'm not sure how to fix that.
if it was on a check, you would have to reverse the original entry in Contributions, and enter the correct one. Since it was probably not posted to Funds Accounting based on what you say is the current process, you'd post that to contributions only. Then you'd reverse your Funds Accounting transaction, and enter the corrected deposit amount.

If it was cash, all you can do is adjust the 'Loose Cash Offerings' envelope in the same way I described above. I hope you have one of these assigned. This is where you would post cash places in the plate, and sometimes checks that are under $25 given by non-members. We don't create an envelope for these one time donations, usually a memorial after someone has passed, unless they're over $100. We use the envelope number of 999, if you have over 1000 members (or may hit that number) you'd use 9999.
So, one more question....I am frequently asked "what is the balance in xx fund?" (which is how this whole issue came up) - where would I find the most current/accurate data? And because we aren't posting our Contributions correctly, are those numbers possibly incorrect? I know the Contributions reports will give me correct income, but it's obviously not reflecting the expenses that could have been posted.
Frankly, the process that was being used was flawed, and you don't have an easy way to determine the balance. You'd have to run a Funds Report in Contributions against posted data to see what it shows as coming in for that temp restricted fund, that evidently was never used. The problem then comes in to see what period of time are they talking about. You'd have to run Income & Expense reports for the period to find the expenses, and even then you won't be 100% correct.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

GEBCbookkeeper
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed May 09, 2018 6:09 pm

Re: Contribution posting/Fund accounting

Post by GEBCbookkeeper »

Thanks for the help - i am working on a plan going forward and fixing all the mess.
Melissa Guay
Bookkeeper
Graham Emmanuel Baptist Church

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