Receipt Form for materials

[raylaurenza]

We recently had a Saturday work day at church to fix "some things". A couple of the men bought supplies, such as lumber, circuit breakers, etc. Instead of being reimbursed by check, they just wanted a statement from the church that they donated these materials. Is there a general form out there that I can use to do that or do I just make up my own, and if so , what do I really need on it.

Thanks for help

[NeilZ]

We recently had a Saturday work day at church to fix "some things". A couple of the men bought supplies, such as lumber, circuit breakers, etc. Instead of being reimbursed by check, they just wanted a statement from the church that they donated these materials. Is there a general form out there that I can use to do that or do I just make up my own, and if so , what do I really need on it.

Thanks for help

Just type up something on church letterhead, listing the date, the donor's name, a description of the item(s), the amount of the item(s), the total of all items given, and the standard statement that no goods or services other than intangible religious benefits were given in return for the donation.

[beas]

I get quite a few of these types of things during the year, so I modified an Excel receipt template that I found on the web. It has the church logo, etc. on it and the "No goods..." etc. statement on the template. I just enter each receipt and the spreadsheet totals everything. It has worked well. Of course, if you just have this very occasionally, what Neil suggested works will probably be less work.

[raylaurenza]

Thanks to you and Neil. That's a great help. I like the idea of the excel spreadsheet.

[Ron]

Excuse me for tagging on to this. Let's assume we want to capture the expenses in PC+ for such a transaction. For example, a donor buys cleaning supplies and submits the receipt for ($50) and asks that it be treated as a donation. I'm thinking, as has been suggested, that his request can only be satisfied with an acknowledgement separate from his annual money statement. However, for budgeting purposes, etc. how can I account for the consumables since I will not be paying him?
Thanks much, Ron Webber

[NeilZ]

Excuse me for tagging on to this. Let's assume we want to capture the expenses in PC+ for such a transaction. For example, a donor buys cleaning supplies and submits the receipt for ($50) and asks that it be treated as a donation. I'm thinking, as has been suggested, that his request can only be satisfied with an acknowledgement separate from his annual money statement. However, for budgeting purposes, etc. how can I account for the consumables since I will not be paying him?
Thanks much, Ron Webber

There's no good way to do this, you could issue a check to the person, then have them donate it right back to the church. In this way you're tracking the expenses, and reflecting the normal cost of doing 'business'.

That's one of our problems here, we've been here for close to two years, yet we still can't get an idea of how much it really costs to do ministry here, because if something is needed, all of a sudden it appears, and we really don't know who or how much was spent. An example, we're having an annual Christmas party for the kids, we're paying for pizza, but there was a request during announcements this past Sunday for 'donations' of candy. And I'm sure that the drinks will suddenly appear that day, dropped off by someone.

[Ron]

Thanks Neil,
Since I have the receipt(paper-trail) is there a way I can manually inject this expense into the budget rather than with pen & ink?
Ron

[NeilZ]

Thanks Neil,
Since I have the receipt(paper-trail) is there a way I can manually inject this expense into the budget rather than with pen & ink?
Ron

Again, you have to reflect the income and expense, so you do need to reflect the outgo. As I said, its not pretty, but the suggestion above is based on what others have done in this same situation.

[Jeff]

There is really 2 separate issues here. The first is the person getting a receipt for tax purposes. The second issues is the churches accounting for the donated property. The first part about the tax receipt for the donated property was discussed previously.

If you want to record the donated supplies as an expense, you can credit an income account and then debit an expense account. This would be an appropriate entry, so that an accurate expense is shown for budgeting for next year. Next year you might not have a donor providing these supplies so having the expense there allows you to prepare for that.

[NeilZ]

So what you're saying Jeff, is that this transaction will cover the item donation as income, and the related expense that one would normally make for the items.

Does this cause any issues with an Income/Expense report that would need to be explained ??

[Jeff]

You could create a donated property income account so that people looking at the I&E statement would realize that not all income was received as cash. For the expense side, you would have to look at if the amount should effect the budget.

[NeilZ]

I see how that can work, thanks !!

[Eden Whitehead]

You could create a donated property income account so that people looking at the I&E statement would realize that not all income was received as cash. For the expense side, you would have to look at if the amount should effect the budget.

I guess there are a number of us struggling with this same issue. One thought I've had (but not implemented) is to set up a separate fund (e.g., NC for non-cash, something of that nature) with a single income account and expense accounts that parallel the expense accounts in the general operating fund, then track "in-kind" contributions thru that fund.

Would a setup like that then allow for non-cash contributions to be reported on the standard contribution statement?

Eden

[NeilZ]

Eden, no it won't. As there is no way for you to account for this contribution in the Contribution module. You would have to create a separate Contribution fund pointing to those accounts for it to work. And you would have to enter and post these separate from any normal contributions.

[Eden Whitehead]

Eden, no it won't. As there is no way for you to account for this contribution in the Contribution module. You would have to create a separate Contribution fund pointing to those accounts for it to work. And you would have to enter and post these separate from any normal contributions.

Neil, Thanks for the clarification! More thought needed....

Eden