Setting up GnuCash for various Fund Raising Events

[Mike or Penny Novack]

OK then --- here's how I would do it.:

>I am a novice to accounting and to accounting programs.  I have recently taken on the role of treasurer for a fund raising committee within my children's school.  This committee is responsible for organizing and running many fund-raising events throughout the year.  
>  
>
   Neglected to say whether this was a public school, a private school, 
what kind of "charity" status is might have and therefore what kind of 
records it might need with regard to donations (so proper "letters of 
acknowledgment" could be prepared for donors who might require those).

>The school also holds two checking accounts and two savings accounts, that are used for holding all proceeds from these events and to fund the startup of each event.
>  
>
   You are starting up. Is there anything in those accounts (starting 
balances) and if so, where did it come from? Probably from prior years, 
so the opening entry description should reflect that. But you are 
perhaps more interested in the account tree structure.
   Assets
       Current Funds
          Checking
              Checking 1
              Checking 2
          Savings
               Savings 1
               Savings 2
  That will allow you to see the various subtotals you will likely be 
interested in

>I would like to be able to track the income and expenses for each of the fund-raising events, independently.
>
   You want to keep a separate set of books for each? That's technically 
what you would need to do. You would have a main set of books (for the 
organization) and then open "event" books ad hoc for each separate event.

>  
>
>The group also has some minor regular expenses, including telephone, and equipment maintenance, postage, paper, etc.
>  
>
    See previous answer. These would be expenses in the main books 
(under some "overhead" parent). Look, if you are keeping only one set of 
books you will be able to group all the income from an event together 
and all the expenses form an event together. But not directly group the 
income from an event with the expenses for that event. Doesn't mean that 
you can't SHOW how each event did treated individually.

>My questions is, how to best organize a gnucash Account Tree to best track the various events' income and expenses, and to track how much money is typically needed to startup each event.  
>
>For example, a flee market may need $200 up-front cash to start, which will be given to the organizer from the checking account.
>
     That would be an asset account. As the organizer reports money used 
for expenses, this account is drawn down instead of "cash". Look at how 
typical accounting books show treating the "petty cash" for a business.


>  Then, there may be additional expenses, preparing and conducting the event, that would be reimbursed from the checking account, to several individuals organizing the event.  There will also be income from the event, through the sale of items.  All proceeds will eventually go to the checking account.  Many of these events get donations (in goods and cash) from parents, which are sold.  It would be nice to track these also, so that we can have better predictability, year-to-year, of the "quality" of each event.
>
     Donations is an income account, with the money going into checking 
or savings or held in the organizer account and the goods going into an 
inventory account at their proper "fair market" evaluation. Here you have:
    Income
       Donations
          Cash
          Kind
    Assets
           Cash
           Goods for "sale"
          
     You may end up getting more or less than the valuation for the 
goods at the auction or flea market. Let's say that you use half the 
items for flea market 1.
     Income
         Flea markets
             Flea market 1
     So the take (in cash) from the flea market is split between the 
goods for sale (that's your "cost") and flea market 1 (your profit/loss 
for this flea market)

Michael