Still confused...can anybody help me????

[Julie]

I posted a question on here a few weeks ago regarding having more than one fund (because we have more than one bank account). I thought I had everything figured out, but I am still going around in circles!

Here is my situation...we have 2 bank accounts...one for the day-to-day operations and one for holding all the "designated" money, thus I get 2 bank statements to reconcile each month.

With PowerChurch, I am trying to set everything up so that I can keep my money in the 2 bank accounts separate and be able to reconcile the bank statements.

Can I do this in PowerChurch...and can anyone explain how? Is there anyone else in the same boat that I am in...I would appreciate someone sharing their expertise with me!

Thank you!

[BethAn]

We have 2 bank accounts just as you described. I can try to help you, but I'm new to this myself. I started using this program in January and so far both my checking accounts balance.
You can email with your questions and I'll be happy to try to help.
Beth
Parkway Presbyterian
parkway505@comcast.net

[Jeff]

Julie,

Bank accounts and funds are two totally different things. You can have multiple bank accounts in one accounting fund and you can use one bank account in multiple different accounting funds. If you have different bank accounts, they have to have different account numbers in PC+.

For example, the main bank account in the default chart of accounts has the account number: 1110-000. You would assign your "designated" bank acount a different account number, e.g. 1120-000. Each physical bank account needs to have a different major account number, ie 1110 & 1120.

A bank account can be shared accross many acocunting funds. The first two numbers indicate the "accounting" fund for that particular bank account. For example you could have the following funds:

01 - General
02 - Womens
03 - Building

In the 01-1110-000 you would put the amount of money in your main bank account that is for the general fund. The 02-1110-000 account would have the amount of money for the women's fund. And the 03-1110-000 would have the amount of money for the building fund. All these amounts are in only one physical bank account, notice they are all in the "1110" account. Since they are all in the "1110" PC+ knows they are the same physical bank account and combines all their balances for reconciliation. Also when you run a consolidated balance sheet, all the 1110-000 will add together to give you one combined total. You can do the same thing with your 1120 account and all your other accounts, all accounts in PC+ work the same way.

Does this help? What version of PC+ are you using?

[Julie]

Thank you for your help...I am starting to get it straight in my head!

I am using V.9...let me see if I am understanding correctly. All of my "Designated Funds" should be set up in my Chart of Accounts, only I can send to my Designated Funds bank account, not my main bank account, which will allow me to reconcile each statement separately?

On our old system, the current total of the D.F. account would show up on the balance sheet, however it does not have financial statements printed the same as the main account does. I just do a printout showing how much money is in each of the different funds.

[Jeff]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by:

"I can send to my Designated Funds bank account, not my main bank account"

By having each bank account with a separate major account (1110 vs 1120) you will be able to reconcile them individually. The totals of both the main bank account and all your other bank accounts will be shown on your balance sheet.

[Matt]

I assume that both checking accounts receive deposits from your offerings. If so, you need to make sure that how you are making actual deposits to the two checking accounts is in sync with the corresponding accounts that are being posted to when you post the transactions in the Contribution Module. For this type of setup to stay reconciled you will need to make separate deposits for "general fund" contributions to your main account and designated contributions to your designated account when you deposit your offerings. The problem with this type of setup is that you run into difficulties if a contributer gives to both your "general fund" and to a designated fund using one check. Which checking account do you deposit the check into in a situation like this? No matter which checking account you choose, the actual deposit amount will no longer agree with the postings made in PC+ to that account.

Because of problems like this I would highly recommend that you consider consolidating the two checking accounts into one. To keep the monies segregated all you need to do is set up a separate fund in Fund Accounting to account for your designations. Doing so will make your job a lot easier and save you a lot of headaches

[Julie]

Here's how it works on our old system:

Each Sunday there is one deposit made...to our main chequing account. This deposits consists of both general revenue AND anything given for a specific fund (i.e. missions, etc.). There are three entries that I make regarding the deposit. Once a month, any money that was given for a designated fund is transferred into the Designated Funds account. We cannot keep all the money in one account because any designated monies must be kept separate to avoid having it spent where it shouldn't be, or borrowed from. I have two chequebooks, one for each bank account, which again keeps everything separate and means less headaches.

I wish there was an easier way for me to explain this...I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it's not, and the old system allowed me to see each account as it was...how much money was in each, where the money was going, etc.

Maybe the problem is me...maybe I need to change my way of thinking about this, however right now I am trying to get these accounts straight in my head, and I would like (in a perfect world! ) to have PC+ set up the same as my old program!

Thank you all for your help so far...one of these days the lightbulb will go on (finally!) over my head and I will finally "get it"!

[Randy B]

Julie:

If I understand you correctly, PowerChurch eliminates the need to have separate checking accounts unless you want them. The software allows you to establish funds. As stated earlier I think in this thread, each fund is a self balancing set of accounts. A fund would have its own balance sheet and income statement. Within the balance sheet there is cash. The software would allow you to have one checking account but with funds you could look and see the money by fund. Another way of saying it is if you added all the cash by fund, it would equal the total in your bank account. That way you would not be spending unrestricted cash that you do not have.

To make this work, you generally will have to make sure your contributions are set up correctly to debit the proper bank account and then make sure you code your expenditures to the proper fund.

[Julie]

Randy, I understand what you are saying, however, merging two bank accounts into one is just not an option that I can take. It used to all be in one account, and problems occurred. Because members are giving this money for a specific purpose, it needs to be treated in such a way that it will stay separate.

I would love to have just the one account, it would make setting everything up easier, however I have to work with what I've got. I know there is a way to do it, however I think that I am going to have to get used to the idea that the PC+ program is going to make me change the way I used to do things. Change is hard for some of us!

Thanks!

[Randy B]

When I took over as church treasurer, our church had six or so bank accounts. With PowerChurch, I established 10 funds, nine of which were restricted for missions, youth, building, and etc. I used one bank account for each of those ten funds. PowerChurch broke down that single bank balance into the cash for each fund with nine of those funds being restricted. Each fund was reconciled each month and shared with ministry leaders. There never was a problem.

Each church is different but my point Julie is you can do with PowerChurch's capability implement a single checking account which is what I thought you wanted to do in your post. If you choose to have two accounts - one unrestricted and then combining all your restricted, then that is fine.

[Matt]

Julie,

Your response to my post last night really helped me to understand your situation better. Here's how I think you can set your accounting up so that you can keep your designated money segregated the way you want.

1). Set up only one Fund in Fund Accounting. In this fund you will have both your operating income and expense accounts and your designated income and expense accounts. I'd recommend putting the designated accounts in specific account ranges so they all appear together when you print Income and Expense Statements. Also, set up both checking accounts in this fund. Set up your main checking account as 01-1110-000 and your designated account as 01-1120-000.

2). Set up all of your Contribution Funds in the Contributions Module so that the debit account is your main checking account (01-1110-000). This will work since you say that you initially deposit all contributions (operating and designated) into your main checking account.

3). When you do your monthly transfers, just post an entry in Fund Accounting to record the transfer. For example, if you transfer $100.00 from the main account to the designated account, the entry would look like this:

DR 01-1120-000 $100.00
CR 01-1110-000 $100.00

4). When you write checks to pay your designations use account 01-1120-000 as the credit account.

I hope this helps.

Matt

[Julie]

Matt: Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! The lightbulb has finally gone off above my head, and I think I was already on the right path to the answer I wanted! I had one fund set up, and I already had the Contributions set up with each of the funds.

What threw me off was when I wanted to transfer the money...I started going around in circles and had myself convinvced that I had set up everything wrong. The "funds" keep throwing me off, and I knew there had to be a way to make the program do what I wanted, because our two banks accounts needed to be kept separate...both physically and on paper.

Thanks again to everyone who posted to help me out...the knowledge on this forum is invaluable!