Contributions Help Please

[pstafford3]

Can someone tell me how to handle this situation with contributions? We have Youth trips and camps that each youth has an amount they must pay to attend so it is not really a contribution like a tithe. These funds are either paid by the parents or they have some fund raisers like car wash. The youth leader wants these funds to be receipted in but credited to the youth budget line item. The youth leader budgets a certain amount that does not include these trips so she doesn't want that showing her over budget as we do issue the checks for the trips from the youth budget line. This is also the case with Awanas, they have a budget line item that they purchase books and uniforms, but then the parents pay for the books/uniforms. In the book it states you can credit an expense account on a fund. Is this how it would be handled and does anyone know exactly how that would work.
The accounting is a task I have taken on for my mother who is the treasurer but has had some health issues and while she recovers I am assuming those duties. She had not learned the software before her accident.
thank you so much for any assistance.

[JohnDMeyers]

1st - create an income account to receive the youth money in Fund Accounting.
01-4180-000 camp income, for example.

2nd - in Contributions, create a contributions fund, like 180, for example.
Contributions / Setup / Maintain List of Contribution Funds / ADD
180
DB 01-1110-000 checking
CR 01-4180-000 camp income

3rd - uncheck the box on the General Tab that says "include fund on statements". This will keep the contribution from showing up on the parents' contribution statements.

4th - back in Fund Accounting, there should be an expense account already create for youth camping (if not, you can create 01-5180-000 youth camping, for example).

5th - budget off of the expense account. The contributions will go into the income account and not affect the budget.

[NeilZ]

Quick note ... if you're not using V11.x, you don't have the option listed in John's step 3. In that case, create the Contribution Fund using a number that is outside the normal number range you use.

So, if you use fund numbers of 100 thru 999, I'd use a number in the 4000's. Then when you print out quarterly statements, just make sure that you select to report on funds from 0 to 999.

[pstafford3]

If we have a separate budget line item does that mean we have to include that in our budget which right now they don't since it should be a wash for what is receipted in and paid out but yet it's not like a pass-thru either. Does the church have to report that as income since it is only used to pay for these trips and not coming out of tithes & offerings. Seems like we should somehow be able to credit the youth expense account for the funds received.

[JohnDMeyers]

If the check is made out to another non-profit entity, then you do you not have to show it as income. It is, in fact, a pass-through. (and the other non-profit shows it as "income").

You can show it as income. You can also CR your expense account and not show it as income. It is up to you. Either way would likely survive an audit from the IRS.

The way PowerChurch handles budgets, it would be "cleaner" to show it as income and not a negative expense.

[Matt]

You can certainly credit the expense account for these receipts. All you need to do is set up the expense account as the credit on the Contribution Fund if recording the receipts in the Contributions module. Or, if you record the deposits directly in Fund Accounting, debit the checking account and credit the Youth Expense account. The thing to keep in mind is that you lose visibility of how much income came in, and what the true expenses are, if you do the postings this way. However, if that is not a concern, and the intent is for the Youth expense account to just show the net of what has come in vs. what has been paid out, then doing the postings this way is fine. The same thought process would apply for the Awanas expense account.

[debbieg]

After fighting with this same issue at our church, I came to the realization that there was no need for every money exchange at the church to go through the Contributions module. If the youth have a car wash to raise money for a missions trip, we simply make a stand alone deposit and enter that in the accounting system as income in the appropriate account. Same thing when church members pay money for a class text book...a separate deposit is made. The only things that are entered in the Contributions module are those monies that are collected with the offering and deposited all at once. I have found no problems in handling it this way.

[NeilZ]

After fighting with this same issue at our church, I came to the realization that there was no need for every money exchange at the church to go through the Contributions module. If the youth have a car wash to raise money for a missions trip, we simply make a stand alone deposit and enter that in the accounting system as income in the appropriate account. Same thing when church members pay money for a class text book...a separate deposit is made. The only things that are entered in the Contributions module are those monies that are collected with the offering and deposited all at once. I have found no problems in handling it this way.

This is the way we usually take care of such income.