First of all, in theory appropriate spreadsheets obviously COULD be
used. Remember,in the old days there was just pen and ink on paper.
Still legal, and so would be spreadsheets with columns just like the old
style accounting paper had. I do NOT recommend this because:
1) You would need to be experienced with old fashioned pen and ink
on paper bookkeeping. I could do it, because I learned back when that
was all that there was.
2) It was error prone, especially in the posting process
(transcription errors). Not easy to find/correct unless you know all the
tricks.
A modern system like gnucash is essentially "autoposting" (post directly
into the ledger, the journal is virtual) and the computer will not make
arithmetic mistakes. Also, it can easily produce the usual reports.
I am a retired senior systems and business analyst and treasurer of some
501(c)3's << US tax exempt non-profits). You have permission to email
me directly and we would exchange questions back and forth till it is
clear how your books should be set up. To start:
1) What is your jurisdiction? Do you know the line items needed for the
reports to gov't etc.?
2) You have choices how to handle restricted funds. For example,
something long term like a "building fund" you would probably want to
handle as a liability. Short term restricted donations << likely/certain
able to use for intended purpose within the accounting period maybe less
formally. Frequency of transactions going OUT from the restriction many
also play a roll. IN ANY CASE --- you will almost certainly be entering
two transactions for each << one for the actual money; one to reflect
removal of restriction << could be done with a single two way split
transaction but leave that till experienced.
3) Do you have fixed assets? I was thinking not until I saw
"building".If so, your organizations needs to decide on a de minimis
amount << even though for something long lasting, too minor to treat as
a fixed asset) and the time period over which fixed assets are depreciated.
Michael D Novack
On 7/20/2019 9:07 AM, Christopher Lam wrote:
On Sat, 20 Jul 2019 at 12:28, Michael Hendry <hendry.mich...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Assets/Current Assets/Charity/Charity Current
Assets/Current Assets/Charity/Charity Savings
I’d like to be able to report on both accounts as if they were a single
account (the spreadsheet simply treated these as a single account and
ignored the transfers between the accounts) but a request for a report on
the parent (Assets/Current Assets/Charity) in a Balance Sheet report gives
a zero result.
Are you using the default Balance Sheet? You'll need to choose, from
Display / Parent account balances or Parent balance subtotals, a suitable
choice. Hint: don't choose subtotals in both.
B. Some charitable receipts are earmarked as they are received - e.g.
Income/Earmarked Funds/Polio Plus
Income/Earmarked Funds/Water Account
and I’d like a similar composite report on the children of
Income/Earmarked Funds, preferably on the same report as in A. above, to
guide members on what is actually available for them to spend.
Is this the best way of recording earmarked funds? I'd imagine recording
from the donor, wish #polioplus in description, would be more suitable?
Anyway, Transaction Report, originating from Earmarked Funds account,
select children.
C. Sometimes a decision is made to commit funds already collected but in a
situation where the money won’t be spent immediately - e.g. a building
project.
This is obviously similar to the Earmarked Funds in B., but I’m not sure
how best to handle it.
I could create a transaction between the Charity Current Account with
today’s date and Expenses/Charity/Committed Funds as the destination
account.
This is similar to budgeting? If this internal allocation of funds isn't to
be used anywhere else, would an asset account were created as a child of
Asset/CurrentAssets/Charity called 'Restricted Funds', and transferred to
Asset/EarmarkedFunds/Projects be better, and check the parent-account
balance to determine 'unallocated funds' ? I don't know. What *could* be
implemented, is the concept of 'virtual transactions' whereby the balances
are counted separately from the real-life transactions
_______________________________________________
gnucash-user mailing list
gnucash-user@gnucash.org
To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see
https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
-----
Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
--
There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality
of the grave.
_______________________________________________
gnucash-user mailing list
gnucash-user@gnucash.org
To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see
https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
-----
Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
