User Support Forum

Hello,

I am new to PC and I am taking over as the treasurer of our church. I have finally gotten a starting balance (records are a little messed up), and now I am trying to figure out the best way to go about things.

We have one main checking account that all bills get paid from. In addition to this main checking account, we have 5 other bank accounts that have been used for various purposes: Building fund, memorial funds, saving funds, etc.

My ultimate goal is to be able keep track of the expenses of the church and our balance in the checking account, but I would also like to keep track of the amount that we have in our Building fund (no matter what bank account it is in) and our Memorial Fund (no matter what bank account it is in).

What is the best way to achieve this? Should I wait to setup the account module until I have all of these issues worked out or can I adjust things at a later time?

Thanks in advance for any help that is provided

From your description you may want to set up 3 accounting funds--General, Building, and Memorials. The system is capable of keeping all monies segregated with just one checking account. This is done by setting up restricted income, expense, and fund balance accounts. The church will need to decide if they really need 6 bank accounts. The fewer bank accounts you have the easier it will be to do the bookkeeping.

You can go ahead and set up the accounting module now. If you later decide to close some of the bank accounts you can do an entry to transfer the balances and then inactivate the account.

Thanks for the quick response. I do agree that the six accounts is a nightmare. I have not started looking at defining the investments yet.

Would setting up the 3 different funds be practical if all of the bills are paid with the main checking account. The main checking account would be part of the general fund where some of the other accounts and investments would be divided between the building and memorial funds.

It mainly depends on whether the church wants to see separate Income and Expense Statements and Balance Sheets for the building and memorials funds, or if the church is ok with seeing separate line items for building and memorial fund income, expense, and fund balances but having these all included on the same Income and Expense Statement and Balance Sheet as for the General Fund. If the former you will want to set up separate accounting funds. If the latter you only need one accounting fund.