how to account for application of donations ?

[Anita Graves]

Thanks, David.  I understand and I will record them as separate transactions.  Also, just to be sure, I will check with our auditors.  Anita

> On 5 Jan 2017, at 4:01 PM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Anita,
> 
> If I were you, I’d ask a local accountant for this advice; I imagine that getting this wrong could cause you problems later on. Personally, not being an accountant, I’d opt to treat them as separate transactions; it just feels right-er.
> 
> David
> 
>> On Jan 5, 2017, at 6:57 PM, Anita Graves <anitagraves at mac.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I have a question which is also related to donations and how to record them.  
>> 
>> I am the treasurer of a religious organization.  I receive contributions of amounts which are actually given in lieu of reimbursements for expenses (like cleaning the meeting venue, etc.)  These are exactly the same as cash transactions:  For instance, the custodian of the building asks for cash to reimburse her for paying  the cleaning lady, but instead decides to make that her contribution to the local fund.  I think this could be a single one-line transaction:  
>> 
>> Income : (Contributions) in lieu of reimbursement for cleaning expense  >  Expense : Cleaning the Center 
>> 
>> wherein I pretend I give her cash to reimburse her for the cleaning, and she hands it back to me as her contribution to the local fund.
>> 
>> Am I wrong in this very simple way to handle these kinds of contributions?
>> 
>> Thank you for your help,
>> Anita
>> 
>>> On 30 Dec 2016, at 8:40 PM, Matthew Pounsett <matt at conundrum.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On 28 December 2016 at 06:45, __ <tereque at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Can anyone advise how to set this up? I do not have to report in
>>>> detail or each individual donation, but need to see the entire sum of
>>>> funds that have been donated and what bills they have been used for
>>>> 
>>>> There are probably other solutions, but one idea that comes to mind is
>>> judicious use of sub-accounts.
>>> 
>>> I use sub-accounts to track money set aside for specific purposes.  For
>>> example, I have an asset account that maps to my real bank account, but in
>>> gnucash I have created subaccounts which I transfer funds into from the
>>> parent account in order to set money aside for a specific purposes like a
>>> vacation fund, and home repair fund.  You could do something like that in
>>> order to track incoming donations, and then when you pay bills using
>>> donated funds, make the transfer from that sub-account.  Do not set the
>>> parent as a placeholder, and in your Accounts view you might want to add
>>> the Balance column so you can see the difference between what's in the
>>> parent account, and what is summed up from its child accounts.
>>> 
>>> If your donations all come in to your bank account, but you sometimes pay
>>> bills using cash, then account for that with a transfer from your donations
>>> sub-account to your cash.
>>> 
>>> If you also sometimes get donations in cash, then have a donations
>>> subaccount for your cash asset as well.  Or, you might do that anyway just
>>> to have a specific way to track donated funds that pass through your cash
>>> asset.
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