Fwd: Handling religious organization 'earmarked' funds and in-kind contributions

Thu May 25 07:33:47 EDT 2017

Well, I just discovered an error in my judgment!

Friends, I did not go back to the previous year’s accounts to see how I took the cash advance in the first place.  And because I did not carry forward the balances in the asset accounts, I did not correctly record these balances in my new accounts for this year.  Therefore, I think my error was in putting the balance of the cash advance carried forward to this year in the Equity:opening balances account, instead of recording the Assets:Cash account balance carried forward.  Obviously a cash advance draws the Asset:Cash balance down, and puts it in an expense subaccount.  The drawdown happened last year and the remainder that had not been spent was drawn down this year.   Do you think this was my main error, that I did not yet record the Asset:Cash balance forward from last year, and that is why it showed up in Equity:Opening balances?

I do not know how to open a new file and carry forward the balances from one year to another.  Instead, I opened a new file, exported the file tree, but not the balances in the accounts and that’s why I have a problem now, I think.  

thanks for help,
Anita

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: Anita Graves <anitagraves at mac.com>
> Subject: Re: Handling religious organization 'earmarked' funds and in-kind contributions
> Date: 25 May 2017 at 2:11:07 PM GMT+3
> To: "Maf. King" <maf at chilwell.net>, Gnucash Users <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> 
> Hi again, folks!  This message is about ‘earmarked’ funds for the religious organization for which I keep the accounts.  It is a corporation without share capital but not a non-profit corporation.  We are in Cyprus and the laws here are similar to British laws.  We do pay taxes, but we have not ever had any contributions from our own members who ask for tax exemption for their contributions.  We are not a tax-exempt entity.  We are a Limited (Ltd) corporation.
> 
> Our books are simple, and I am learning.  
> 
> During last year, there was a cash advance given to one of our members for some expenses. In our parlance, that is ‘earmarked’ funds.  At the end of the year, there was a balance still outstanding in that cash advance.  When I opened the new accounts for this year, I did not know how to carry forward balances.  Therefore, I took the advice of Maf. (below) and entered the balance in the Assets:Advance payment account, but obviously the debit/credit called for me to put the amount somewhere else, and it was recorded in the Equity:Opening Balances account.
> 
> Now, the money has been spent, except for about Euro 14 which I have returned to the cash account.  The asset account for the balance forward was decreased to zero, and the expense accounts reflect the accurate transactions.
> 
> Problem:  There was no corresponding reduction in the Equity:Opening Balances account.  Why?  Why not?  How can I fix that??  I don’t know how to carry forward balances from one file to the next (i.e., from one year to the next.  I opened a new file for a new year by exporting the account tree and started with 0 balances in every account.
> 
> Thanks for help!
> Anita
> 
>> On 18 May 2017, at 5:50 PM, Anita Graves <anitagraves at mac.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Yes, you are right…I forgot to cc the list and I will do so by forwarding our exchange of emails to the list and ask Mike Novak to take a look at my questions.
>> 
>> By the way, we have a cultural issue:  You apparently are British, and I am American, so that’s why I didn’t get the ‘widget’.
>> 
>> Thanks for your help!
>> 
>> Anita
>> 
>>> On 18 May 2017, at 5:46 PM, Maf. King <maf at chilwell.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Anita.
>>> 
>>> There are others on the list who are more familiar with Church & charity 
>>> accounting and earmarked donations.  (Mike Novak springs to mind), which is 
>>> precisely why replies should be kept on-list.
>>> 
>>> This sort of thing has come up before.
>>> 
>>> I think so.
>>> 
>>> The asset accounts would probably be best as sub-accounts of your bank, if all 
>>> the "reserved" funds are held within the same physical bank account(s)
>>> 
>>> So
>>> 
>>> Asset:Bank:Reserved:Project1
>>> Asset:Bank:Reserved:Project2
>>> etc.
>>> 
>>> (when you reconcile, check the "include sub-accounts" box)
>>> 
>>> Then as you close the books (I think you said you had closed the books & 
>>> started a new file), just carry the balances of each account forward and make 
>>> the expense payments from thos reserved "pots" as needed.
>>> 
>>> Should work.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> Maf.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Thursday, 18 May 2017 15:35:16 BST you wrote:
>>>> Well, let’s begin all over because I am getting the idea that another
>>>> question I have is linked to this same one we have been talking about:
>>>> 
>>>> I am the treasurer for a religious organization and we have some funds that
>>>> are ‘earmarked’.  That’s what we call them.  And that means that people
>>>> contribute funds for a specific purpose and that has to be somehow shown
>>>> against our assets so that those funds which are earmarked cannot be spent
>>>> for anything else.
>>>> 
>>>> Therefore, I am trying to be insightful here and if I understand the
>>>> principle you evoke, I could open Asset subaccounts (child accounts) for
>>>> each of the individual earmarked funds and treat them in the same way by
>>>> expending them into the expense accounts that are related.
>>>> 
>>>> And, in the case of funds that are carried over from one GC year to the
>>>> next, the balances in the asset subaccounts that have not yet been
>>>> expended, could be then entered in the new year’s asset subaccount as a
>>>> balance forward, and spent against the corresponding expense account.
>>>> 
>>>> Please tell me if this is the same thing basically as my previous question
>>>> in which the expense is ‘prepaid’ as you say….
>>>>> On 18 May 2017, at 4:58 PM, Maf. King <maf at chilwell.net> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hi Anita.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I guess widget is english slang - maybe this will help:
>>>>> https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/widget
>>>>> 
>>>>> But forget widgets.  Henceforth, I'll assume that your pre-paid expense is
>>>>> for curtains.  Maybe it is macadamia nuts. It really doesn't matter!
>>>>> 
>>>>> When the money left you bank last year, you book a transaction into
>>>>> Assets:PrePaymentToAliceForCurtains - so the bank balance goes down by
>>>>> £600
>>>>> and there is a matching increase in that asset account.
>>>>> 
>>>>> When Alice sends the new curtains, you transfer the money from the Asset
>>>>> to
>>>>> Expense:Curtains, such that the asset goes to zero.
>>>>> 
>>>>> hope that clarifies.
>>>>> Maf
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Thursday, 18 May 2017 14:32:29 BST Anita Graves wrote:
>>>>>> Maf., if you could explain in more simple terms.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Create balance forward in Asset subaccount
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Release the funds in expense account
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Do I have that correctly?  I have still no idea what you mean by a
>>>>>> widget.
>>>>>> But I need your help still.  Thanks so much.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Maf. King
>>> PGP Key fingerprint = 8D68 A91F 733B 2C1F 43B7  2B7C E591 E8E1 0DE7 C542
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
> 
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