Beginning Balances

[LydiaGirl123]

I am a novice at this and only started working with PC+ January of this year. When I ran the accounting set up I did not have control of the checkbook and did not get correct information to plug into the system.

The techs at PC+ say that I have to make a correcting entry to correct my mistake, which makes sense, but I don't know what that would look like. What would I debit, what would I credit, etc. My checkbook balance is off, too, and I need to have correct beginning balances so I can do a check register and balance the checkbook through PC+.

Any help would be appreciated.

[JohnDMeyers]

To show money coming into a bank account (a deposit), you would debit the bank account and credit an income account, if the money is income, or an equity account, if you are setting up a starting balance.

To show money coming out of a bank account (a check, or withdraw), credit the bank account and debit an expense account.

Most everything works properly if you get the credit/debit correct on the bank account. For example, to pay down a debt, you credit the bank account and debit the liability account.

To correct an improper entry, you reverse the original entry by swapping the debit and credits.

If you show a deposit of $35.00 and meant to show a deposit of $30.00, you need to decrease the checking account, which follows the same pattern as writing a check (decreases the checking account), except you would credit the bank account and debit the income account that you used to show the original entry.

If you make a mistake on a check, it is easiest to void the original check and start over, although there are other ways to correct a check as well.

Maybe there are examples that I am not thinking of.

[LydiaGirl123]

Thanks! Now I understand a little bit more about it. It seems so simple when someone explains how it works.

I really appreciate it.

[WCC Illinois]

Our church is in the process of setting up PC+ version 10 for all our accounting needs. The two of us that are attempting to do the setup work 0800-1600 CST and normally are not available, unless one of us takes off, so by the time we get off work the tech support line is closed. Plus if we can utilize this blessing for free vs. paying for tech support, that is our preferred route. Well, now that I have rambled, here is our issue:

We went through the accounting setup assistant and set up our chart of accounts, but instead of exiting the accounting setup (since we were not done entering) we clicked the Complete the Accounting Setup before we entered any beginning balances for all our bank accounts . Now, I/we can not figure out how to enter the beginning balances for all our accounts. I tried to Delete Fund Accounting data, however, when I clicked "delete old data" and entered YES, I received the response, "No transactions found to delete"...hence no help. Hopefully someone here can help?

George Krebs, Deacon
Williamsville Christian Church
Williamsville, Illinois

[NeilZ]

Our church is in the process of setting up PC+ version 10 for all our accounting needs. The two of us that are attempting to do the setup work 0800-1600 CST and normally are not available, unless one of us takes off, so by the time we get off work the tech support line is closed. Plus if we can utilize this blessing for free vs. paying for tech support, that is our preferred route. Well, now that I have rambled, here is our issue:

We went through the accounting setup assistant and set up our chart of accounts, but instead of exiting the accounting setup (since we were not done entering) we clicked the Complete the Accounting Setup before we entered any beginning balances for all our bank accounts . Now, I/we can not figure out how to enter the beginning balances for all our accounts. I tried to Delete Fund Accounting data, however, when I clicked "delete old data" and entered YES, I received the response, "No transactions found to delete"...hence no help. Hopefully someone here can help?

George Krebs, Deacon
Williamsville Christian Church
Williamsville, Illinois

Well ... since you haven't started doing anything other than setup the Accounting, you may just want to restart Accounting, which would delete all your accounts, and bring you back to the Accounting Wizard, so you can start fresh.

Or you can enter transactions manually. Frankly, I would print out my chart of accounts, then restart accouting as the wizard would do all the transactions for you.

[WCC Illinois]

Thanks Neil, I'll give that a try and see.

George