This quiz will test a person's church accounting knowledge.

Contributions (donations) is revenue to the church.

GAAP stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. See the definition at the CFA Institute. Keep in mind all churches must follow GAAP.

The only person that can restrict contributions are donors. While the church's council may say they are taking donations for a purpose, they can later change that purpose by another church's council vote or whatever procedure they have described in their by laws.

The definition of fund accounting that is used in non profits is the following:
"Fund accounting is an accounting system for recording resources whose use has been limited by the donor, grant authority, governing agency, or other individuals or organizations or by law.[1][2] It emphasizes accountability rather than profitability, and is used by Nonprofit organizations and by governments. In this method, a fund consists of a self-balancing set of accounts and each are reported as either unrestricted, temporarily restricted or permanently restricted based on the provider-imposed restrictions."

To fully understand this question the user must understand the fund accounting principles. They would want to review the What is Fund Accounting article. Simply stated using revenue accounts has too many problems to figure out how much each church function (ie mission) has to spend or has spent.

The statement of financial position is the only report that gives you the dollar amounts as of one point in time. This is commonly called the balance sheet in for profit companies. The other financial statements like statement of activities and cash flow report show how the money came into the company and left the company. The budget report is not considered a financial report.

Churches are not exempt from the UBIT (Unrelated Business Income Tax). If they have gross receipts of over $1,000.00 they must file a tax form. This pdf goes over what UBIT and gives some clear examples. As always consult a CPA for your church's unique operation.

There are two main accounting methods called cash accounting and accrual. See Investopedia.

What typically happens is the church does one of two things which would start an IRS audit. They messed up on payroll taxes or they don't report Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT). A lot of churches charge rental fees throughout the year and over a certain amount, they must file the right forms to declare that income. In other words not all revenue is tax exempt for churches. Once the IRS sees a mistake they can open the audit which means it can turn into an almost limitless scope. According to the IRS Pub 1828,

the types of required records frequently include organizing documents (charter, constitution, articles of incorporation) and bylaws, minute books, property records, general ledgers, receipts and disbursements journals, payroll records, banking records and invoices. The extent of the records necessary generally varies according to the type, size and complexity of the organization’s activities.

According to FAS Topic 958 the Statement of Activities is equivalent to the income statement that for profit industries use.

This is an accounting 101 question. Please see Investopedia. This equation is not the same as Assets - Liabilities = Equity (or Fund's Balance). The equation has multiple formulations based on what is needed - ie balance sheet.

When the church pays for a service, money leaves the organization from an asset account which indirectly lowers the equity (or fund balance).

Liabilities plus equity will equal assets. This comes down to the balance sheet equation where Liabilities + equity equals assets.

As stated in the correct answer, liabilities are what is owed to someone else. Funds and their balances are what the church currently owns - ie money in the bank so to speak. It is not a debt! The chart of accounts has five distinct areas - assets, liabilities, revenue, expenses, and equity. Funds are considered equity accounts according to FASB. These five areas have specific account types that belong within each one. In other words you wouldn't list an expense in the revenue section. Likewise you would list an equity account in the liability area.