How do you handle rebates?

[gospeltab]

We are running v. 11.

One of our local stores sends us rebates every so often for $5 at a time. I am not quite sure what to do with these. The person in charge of the contributions deposits them in the general checking account.

I just am not sure if I should enter them as a contribution to the general account or post them in another manner. Does anyone else have this situation?

Thanks for the help!

Deanne

[NeilZ]

We are running v. 11.

One of our local stores sends us rebates every so often for $5 at a time. I am not quite sure what to do with these. The person in charge of the contributions deposits them in the general checking account.

I just am not sure if I should enter them as a contribution to the general account or post them in another manner. Does anyone else have this situation?

Thanks for the help!

Deanne

IMHO ... this should not be handled as a contribution, but as a reimbursement to an expense. As such, the transactions should be handled by the treasurer.

Its OK if the rebate is deposited by the contribution secretary, but it should not be entered through contributions. The way we handled this in the past was to use a separate deposit slip, and forward a copy of the slip, along with any documentation that came with the check to the Treasurer. The treasurer would then enter the proper transactions to reflect the deposit in the checking account, and also reflect the returned amount in the proper ministry's expense account. We did this because this was money already spent, and we were getting some back, so it would show that the ministry had some additional funds to use.

So if Worship spent $60 at this store, and the store returned $5, the expense account for worship would reflect only $55 having been spent.

Here a thread with a more detailed explanation:

http://powerchurch.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 807&p=6333