Checking Your Work in PowerChurch Plus

As mentioned in a Summer 2014 newsletter article, once you have posted transactions in PowerChurch, making corrections is a multi-step process: You reverse or void the original item, enter a corrected one, and then post your corrections. That isn't so bad, but it's much better to catch these mistakes before they're a part of your permanent paper trail.

When working in Contributions, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, or Payroll, posting is a two-step process. First, you post in that particular module (for example, Post Contributions), and then you do the final step in Fund Accounting > Post Transactions. This gives you two opportunities to check your work: once before posting in the original module, and again before posting in Fund Accounting.

Before posting in Contributions

After you've entered contributions, there are three reports in the Contributions module that you can use to check your work.

• The Unposted Contributions report shows each individual donation separately, with a grand total at the bottom.
• The Bank Deposit Slip, Unposted Contrib shows you totals of only your cash and checks, and you can have it print out a preformatted deposit slip to take to the bank.
• The Funds Report shows you totals entered for each fund, with a grand total at the bottom.

If you find any mistakes while contributions are unposted, you can correct them in Modify Unposted Contributions.

Before posting in Accounts Payable

After you've entered invoices and/or checks into Accounts Payable, run the following report prior to posting.

• Open (unposted) Items is the main one, which shows you each invoice or check that's waiting to be printed or posted.

If you find any mistakes with invoices or manual checks, you can correct them in Maintain Open Invoices or Maintain Manual Checks. If computer checks have already been printed, you can make some changes in Maintain Computer Generated Checks. If the problem is with the invoice, you will need to delete the computer check record, fix the problem with the invoice, and print out a new check.

Before posting in Accounts Receivable

There are two reports in Accounts Receivable:

• The Open (unposted) Items shows all invoices, payments, and credit memos waiting to be posted.
• The Open (unposted) Payments shows only the actual money received that's waiting to be posted.

If you need to make corrections, you can do so in Maintain Open Invoices or Maintain Open Payments.

Before posting in Payroll

In Payroll, you can check your work before, during, and after you Process Payroll.

• The Employee Pay Items report shows each employee's default pay items and amounts. This includes all of the items that will be part of the Payroll transaction. You can change these items from the Maintain List of Employees screen. This report can also be run from the Process Payroll screen. On the Verify Payroll step, click the printer button to run the report.
• The Unposted Transactions report will show you the Payroll transactions that have not yet been posted.

If you find any problems, go to Modify Unposted Payroll. If it's just a check number or date, you can fix it there. If not, delete the unposted Payroll record and Process Payroll again.

Before posting in Fund Accounting

• The Unposted Transactions report shows you a list of each item waiting to be posted.
• Account Activity, Balance Sheet, Income & Expense Statement, Check Register, and Detail Changes in Equity. These reports can all be run to optionally "Include Unposted Transactions". You can run these reports before posting to check your work and verify that the transactions and amounts look correct. Running these reports to include unposted transactions gives you a preview of what you will see after posting.

If you find any problems, you can correct them in Modify Unposted Transactions. However, if the problem originated somewhere other than Fund Accounting, you should consider making the correction there instead.