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

[Maf. King]

Hi Anita,

sorry if I missed your point.

It is quite a few years since I started a new year with an empty file, but 
IIRC, the only way to carry account balances forward is to manually create the 
transactions to Equity:Opening Balances in the new, blank file.

So all your asset & liability accounts (well, the ones carrying forward any 
balance)would have an transaction to Equity:Opening Balances at the start of 
the year - but you have to create them yourself.  Normally, the income and 
expense accounts wouldn't carry a balance.

 suggest an account summary report from the close of the last year's books 
would help here!

Thinking about it, instead of Equity:OpeningBalances you could use an account 
called something like Equity:BalancesForward if it makes it clearer!

HTH,
Maf.



On Thursday, 25 May 2017 12:35:26 BST Anita Graves wrote:
> Yes, Maf.  If you read my latest message, I think I got that.  But, as I
> explained, I didn’t know how to carry forward balances in the asset
> accounts when I opened the new file.  I just exported the account tree and
> that was all….
> 
> Anita
> 
> > On 25 May 2017, at 2:32 PM, Maf. King <maf at chilwell.net> wrote:
> > 
> > Hi Anita.
> > 
> > why would you expect a change in the opening balance account?
> > 
> > At the start of the year, you have some money (say €100), which shows up
> > in an asset account as you say, transferred from Equity:OpeningBalances.
> > 
> > You spend most of the money - so asset drops to €14, and expenses:whatever
> > is up to €86
> > 
> > Your donor is happy to "unrestrict" the little bit of leftover, so asset
> > goes to zero and Bank or Cash goes up by €14
> > 
> > Your opening balance was, is, and will always be €100. It is a fixed point
> > in time - on April 1st (or whenever the year started) - not a running
> > balance.
> > 
> > HTH,
> > Maf.
> > 
> > On Thursday, 25 May 2017 12:11:07 BST Anita Graves wrote:
> >> 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.


-- 
Maf. King
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