Contributions (yearend)

[FischerCommCh]

I'm new to powerchurch and have used only the contributions side of program. The year is ended and I'm not ready to delete 2008 contributions. How do I close 2008, but able to retrieve the data if needed? How can I start my new year, does the closing month on the accounting side affect the contribution side also?
Thank you for your reply,
Retta

[NeilZ]

I'm new to powerchurch and have used only the contributions side of program. The year is ended and I'm not ready to delete 2008 contributions. How do I close 2008, but able to retrieve the data if needed? How can I start my new year, does the closing month on the accounting side affect the contribution side also?
Thank you for your reply,
Retta

FWIW ... you shouldn't be deleting old contributions data, I believe this info has to be retained for at least 3 years for the IRS.

Second, you don't close out or start any year in the Contributions module. What you should be doing is creating new pledge periods for the new year.

For instance. John Doe has pledged the three years he's been a member of the church. If you go into maintain pledges area of Contributions, you would see pledges setup for 1/1/2006 thru 12/31/2006, 1/1/07 thru 12/31/07 and 1/1/08 thru 12/31/08.

Thus when entering the contributions, the system will check the date, and then apply the contribution to the correct pledge.

He didn't pledge this year, so any contributions that came in will not apply to any specific pledge, but still accumulate in his account.

To filter out other pledge data, always make sure that any report starts with 01/01/2009 and ends with the period you want to stop at. I usually just use the end of the year for most reports (12/31/2009), except for quarterly contribution statements, where I usually started with the beginning of the year, and ended with the last day of the previous quarter.

As to your Accounting Module affecting Contributions, there is NO, I repeat NO direct connection from Accounting back to Contributions. The only connection that Contributions has to Accounting is when contributions are posted TO Accounting. Even at that point, the person who takes care of Accounting has an option to change or even delete the transaction prior to applying those transactions to Accounting.

In fact, you don't even need to Post Contributions to do anything other than create a report that you give to your treasurer, and lock those transactions into the system. Once Contributions are Posted, you can only change the contribution data by creating a reversing contributions entry then entering the corrected data.

Hope this helps.

[FischerCommCh]

Thank you for your quick reply. I won't be deleting 2008. Will there ever be a problem with too much data on file, how many years of data can this program hold?

[NeilZ]

Thank you for your quick reply. I won't be deleting 2008. Will there ever be a problem with too much data on file, how many years of data can this program hold?

I've not seen a problem with keeping up to 5 years of data. Of course, this also is predicated on the size of your church. That said, at my last church of over 500, we kept 5 years of data without a problem.

[Briana]

I am not sure if this is what I need to do or something else. We use Powerchurch only to track contributions. We do keep files for more than 3 years in the original hard copy. However, what I would like to do is each year start fresh in Powerchurch. The problem is reentering all personal information of the contributors. That takes up so much of my time. Is there any way to start the year fresh without deleting the old data?

The reason for this is often the Pastor would like a list of who is a regular attender (we do not have a membership), for me to go through each record one at a time is obviously too much. I have tried using the mailing category but the problem with this is that I do not know if the person is an active member or not in each case. It is time consuming to go through and recategorize everyone.

Any suggestions?

FWIW ... you shouldn't be deleting old contributions data, I believe this info has to be retained for at least 3 years for the IRS.

Second, you don't close out or start any year in the Contributions module. What you should be doing is creating new pledge periods for the new year.

For instance. John Doe has pledged the three years he's been a member of the church. If you go into maintain pledges area of Contributions, you would see pledges setup for 1/1/2006 thru 12/31/2006, 1/1/07 thru 12/31/07 and 1/1/08 thru 12/31/08.

Thus when entering the contributions, the system will check the date, and then apply the contribution to the correct pledge.

He didn't pledge this year, so any contributions that came in will not apply to any specific pledge, but still accumulate in his account.

To filter out other pledge data, always make sure that any report starts with 01/01/2009 and ends with the period you want to stop at. I usually just use the end of the year for most reports (12/31/2009), except for quarterly contribution statements, where I usually started with the beginning of the year, and ended with the last day of the previous quarter.

As to your Accounting Module affecting Contributions, there is NO, I repeat NO direct connection from Accounting back to Contributions. The only connection that Contributions has to Accounting is when contributions are posted TO Accounting. Even at that point, the person who takes care of Accounting has an option to change or even delete the transaction prior to applying those transactions to Accounting.

In fact, you don't even need to Post Contributions to do anything other than create a report that you give to your treasurer, and lock those transactions into the system. Once Contributions are Posted, you can only change the contribution data by creating a reversing contributions entry then entering the corrected data.

Hope this helps.

[NeilZ]

I am not sure if this is what I need to do or something else. We use Powerchurch only to track contributions. We do keep files for more than 3 years in the original hard copy. However, what I would like to do is each year start fresh in Powerchurch. The problem is reentering all personal information of the contributors. That takes up so much of my time. Is there any way to start the year fresh without deleting the old data?

The reason for this is often the Pastor would like a list of who is a regular attender (we do not have a membership), for me to go through each record one at a time is obviously too much. I have tried using the mailing category but the problem with this is that I do not know if the person is an active member or not in each case. It is time consuming to go through and recategorize everyone.

Any suggestions?

A few questions:

1. Why do you keep all that data in hard copy, when it could just be available on the computer for instant recall, and printing ??

2. Have you looked at the Delete Old Data function in contributions? This allows you to delete old contributions data without deleting membership data.

3. Have you looked at the Attendence function ?? This would require someone to enter attendance, and that would mean some way to take attendance (such as an attendance pad, or sign in sheet) on Sunday.


Not knowing exactly how you have Powerchurch setup for use, makes it harder to give some assistance. If you don't have a membership roll, how do you know who is an 'attender' or part of the congregation ??

[Briana]

A few questions:

1. Why do you keep all that data in hard copy, when it could just be available on the computer for instant recall, and printing ??

2. Have you looked at the Delete Old Data function in contributions? This allows you to delete old contributions data without deleting membership data.

3. Have you looked at the Attendence function ?? This would require someone to enter attendance, and that would mean some way to take attendance (such as an attendance pad, or sign in sheet) on Sunday.


Not knowing exactly how you have Powerchurch setup for use, makes it harder to give some assistance. If you don't have a membership roll, how do you know who is an 'attender' or part of the congregation ??

Thanks for your response!

1. I had not seen this function. I think that would help a lot. Thank you! I thought I had looked through the menus carefully but apparently I didn't

2. and 3. As 1 I think is my solution I am just answering these to give you understanding. The only time I really need to know who is a regular attender vs. someone who is just visiting is when I'm entering data into Powerchurch, other than that we just encourage people to start getting involved. So usually if I know that someone is contributing for a one time donation I will list them as non members, but other than that I have to consider them members until I know otherwise.

I do believe the delete old data function will answer my purposes though. I can then use the filter of the year to show only those that are recent contributors. Thank you!