This is the “automatic” regular accounting workbook. It is set up for 5 funds or net asset categories.It consists of a Chart of Accounts, Budget to Actual report, Summary by Month report, monthly general ledgers, monthly and quarterly, and reports, and an annual report.
The Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual Reports are “view only” sheets. (A view-only sheet is a worksheet that contains formulas that will automatically pull data over from other sheets in the workbook.)
You will ONLY be entering data into the Chart of Accounts report and the monthly general ledgers. All that data will “automatically” carry over to the rest of the reports.
Tips
If you do not need all 5 funds or all of the income and expense accounts, it is very easy to hide what you do not need.
Simply highlight all the columns (funds) or rows (Income/Expense accounts) you do not need; right click; go down to hide; and click.
For example, say you only need 4 funds for right now. Highlight the columns P, Q and R…keeping your mouse positioned over the highlighted headings P, Q and R…right click….move down to HIDE and left click. You’ll notice your column headings now read …M, N, O, S, T…. The extra fund account is there hidden and can be “unhide” when you need another fund.
You will need to “hide” those extra fund columns on every worksheet in the workbook…except for the fourth and fifth worksheets: “Budget to Actual” and “Summary by Month”. These worksheet work only with the total columns. HOWEVER…you will need to hide unwanted income and expense accounts on these worksheets.
- Fill in your Chart of Accounts and Funds on third worksheet and it will autofill the rest of the reports.
- Fill in our Church’s legal name on the Chart of Accounts and the January Statement of Activities and it will autofill the rest of the accounts.
- Fill in your budget in the Budget to Actual worksheet. Actual column will fill automatically. Will update each month by putting in current month number in cell F4.
Save it once you get the church’s name in and accounts in as your template. You will need to save a new one each year from that one workbook.
Some view only pages are locked to prevent you from accidently erasing formulas; however, if you need to make changes to those pages, simply click in the REVIEW tab and click Unprotect Sheet
They describe the way nonprofits should account for contributions, present their financial statements, and account for certain investments.
A few years ago the FASB organized all these accounting standards for nongovernmental organizations, including churches and nonprofits together under one title: FASB ASC Topic 958, Not-For-Profit Entities.
It didn’t change any of the accounting standards for churches, just tried to simplify them by putting them all together under one topic.
The emphasis of the SFAS financial statement reporting is now on “net assets” classification, rather than tracking each fund. (Net assets means more or less the same as owner’s equity or net worth in a for-profit business.)
The net asset categories are:
- Unrestricted
These funds are donations that are available to use toward any purpose. Unrestricted funds usually go toward the operating expenses of the organization. - Temporary Restricted
These funds may be restricted by purpose or time, but the restrictions are not permanent. An example of a purpose-restricted gift is a gift for a certain project or for the purchase of equipment. An example of a time-restricted gift is a contribution of a trust, annuity, or term endowment where the principal of the gift is restricted for a certain term of time. - Permanently Restricted
These funds are gifts restricted by a donor for a designated purpose or time restriction that will never expire. An example is an endowment gift with the stipulation that the principal is permanently unavailable for spending, but the investment income from the principal may be used in current operations.
Net assets can now be combined into these three categories and you are no longer required to track each fund individually.