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

[Anita Graves]

Maf, I have already created an account summary of the previous file, so have the balances forward to enter in the new one and don’t mind using the Equity:Opening Balances account, but I also have separate asset subaccounts under that for cash, bank account (current), etc.

I will then manually enter the balances in these accounts in my new file. 

Is that right? Thanks for your help!

Anita
> On 25 May 2017, at 3:03 PM, Maf. King <maf at chilwell.net> wrote:
> 
> 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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> 
> 
>