• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Icon Systems

Simple to use. Power to grow.

  • (800) 596-4266
  • Free Trial
  • Blog
  • Features
  • Bookkeeping
  • Order
  • Pricing
  • Resources
  • Login

May 6, 2014 by Jay Leave a Comment

This post was last updated on February 19th, 2024 at 03:46 pm.

Tips on how you can make it easier for your organization to record transactions and accomplish the daily accounting work using a church fund accounting system like IconCMO.

Knowing the Fund & COA is essential for each transaction:

Now that we know the differences between funds and COA from part one. And have seen an example in part two using families. Then in part three applying them to church funds, we can move onto some tips using these fundamentals in this final part of our series.

Before moving onto to the tips (1 & 2), we need to understand how individual accounts in the COA relate to the “Budget Line” items that users are familiar with. COA and “Budget Line” items are equivalent as far as account descriptions. In fact in most systems the budget should come right from the chart of accounts. By rephrasing the terminology (COA => Budget Line), it helps the user determine which line on the church’s budget should be affected with the transaction.

Additionally in the screen shots below, you will see a column ‘C’ called “Fund (Who Pays For It?)”. The “Fund (Who Pays For It?)” column is equivalent to the Fund, discussed previously. By appending the question “Who Pays For It?”, it helps the user make the conscience decision when inputting the transaction as to which financial statement it should appear on – General Fund, Youth Fund, Mission Fund, etc.

1. Handling Reoccurring Transactions Consistently For Church Fund Accounting

Simple excel cheat sheet for church funds for reoccuring transactions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One useful tool is a simple spreadsheet (like the one to the above) with the details necessary for each reoccurring transaction. This will help to ensure consistency for data entry each month and save time looking up previous transactions when writing checks. A transaction is easily done using only a few columns. Think of it as a cheat sheet.

Additionally, a user can use the Excel document for non-reoccurring transactions, if you like. Using the trip and food example from part three, the last four entries are entered using the same format as the reoccurring transaction.

Let’s use a utility bill as an example. In most churches this bill would be paid by the General Fund (Who pays for it?). Would you want this showing up on the Youth Fund report? Essentially by choosing the Fund (Who pays for it?), the user is choosing which ministry report should show the expense.

How to apply the excel sheet above in IconCMO:

Below you will see circled letters that correspond to the lettered columns from the sample Excel sheet above. The two most important fields are the (B) and (C) columns which are the Budget Line (B) and Fund (Who pays For It?) (C). When you knows these, it’s simple to write a check and ensure your reports are right 100% of the time. All accounting transaction screens (AP, Checkbook Writing & Deposits, Credit Card Charges, General Journal Entries, etc) in IconCMO have a similar screen layout and are created using a Fund (C) and Budget Line item (B).

Accounting - write checks within church software using our interface.

2. Purchasing Items and Entering Them Correctly, Every Time

Typically in any organization there are people tasked with purchasing items for the organization or for daily operations. For example, many times a pastor goes to lunch with someone to council them, or the secretary purchases some office supplies. How can you properly account for these items?

Properly accounting for purchased items involves more than telling the treasurer how much you spent at WalMart or a restaurant. The treasurer (or data entry person) needs to know the proper expense (Budget Line) to apply it to and which Fund (Who pays for it?) should pay for it. We often hear from churches that the purchaser or even the treasurer doesn’t know what it should be. If the purchaser doesn’t know this, then what business do they have buying things for the organization?

To resolve this issue, we recommend another tool that we have found helpful for churches. Submitting an expense sheet like the one above to the treasurer resolves a lot of issues. By using this simple tool, treasurers remove all issues with going back and editing transactions and cluttering their accounting system.

An example expense sheet for church fund accounting

*Important – We encourage church councils to implement a process that has the following goal in mind – to keep treasurers from editing numerous accounting transactions after the fact. So the purchaser needs to communicate the needed information for correct data entry and accountability. We suggested one method here, however feel free to brainstorm if this one doesn’t work for your organization, but keep this goal in mind.

A sample of an expense voucher for a church may look like the following. Feel free to adjust as needed for your church.

Visual representation of a church expenditure worksheet.

There are a few key pieces that are absolute musts to ensure complete and accurate accounting: the date, amount, budget line item, fund affected, and name of payee (Pay To). Depending on your church’s internal controls and bylaws, the other items like approval, submitted by, address, and special instructions may or may not be needed. With these two tools there should be very little confusion or errors on any compliant church accounting system like IconCMO and for the treasurer that inputs the transactions for the church.

If the input is incorrect in any fashion, the church council can’t expect correct reports from the treasurer.

We hope that this four part series has helped to light your path on how to properly account for all the church’s money and gives you some tools to help with that task.

Filed Under: Finance Tagged With: church accounting software, church management software, fund accounting, non-profit

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Top Rated
Church Accounting Software

Search blog posts…

Popular Posts

  • Debits and Credits – Does Debit Mean Minus and Credit Mean Plus?
  • Training Videos - IconCMO Church Management System
  • Church Finance - Renting Space And Its Cost
  • Church Budget Envelopes -- Don't Stress About Them!
  • Accounting For Churches -- Avoid These Mistakes
  • A Church Chart of Accounts Explanation - Part 2
  • Chart of Accounts - Equity Accounts As Funds - Part 3
Blog Home

Subscribe to Our Blog!

Sign Up Now
We respect your privacy and you can unsubscribe at any time.
  • The Facebook icon button link
  • The Instagram icon button link
  • The X icon button link
  • The LinkedIn icon button link
  • The YouTube icon button link
  • The Wordpress icon button link
Icon Systems, Inc.
3330 Fiechtner Drive S Suite 204
Fargo, ND 58103
Hours: Mon-Thu 8-5, Fri 8-4 CT
About Us — Privacy — Support — Careers — Sitemap
Recent Blog Posts
  • Is an All-In-One Church Software the Best Option?
  • Church Donation Software - Do you Need It?
  • Text Messaging for Church Software!
  • Is Church Software Online A Better Solution?
  • The Best Church Software Is Compliant & User Friendly!
Sales
800-596-4266
sales@iconcmo.com
Tech Support
218-236-1899
support@iconcmo.com
Fax: 218-236-0235
© 1992 – 2025 Icon Systems, Inc.