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Amount of Time to Decide to use Monies From Building Fund

We have a small church (about 125 in attendance). We don't have any building projects in progress or any planned for the future presently. But sometimes people give monies designated for the building fund. Since we did some building improvements during the past few years (refurbished the sanctuary, replaced the HVAC units, etc.) and we didn't use the building fund for those purposes, can we remove the money now if we decide that we need it for other purposes?

My thought is that the accounts are now closed. We cannot now decide to retroactively use the money from the building fund. Am I correct? If I can retroactively use it, then how would I record the transaction?

Thanks for you help.

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Comments for Amount of Time to Decide to use Monies From Building Fund

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Aug 22, 2010
 Monies in Building Fund
by: Marcus in Texas

Our church is about the same size as yours from the standpoint of membership. We have about $12,000 currently remaining in the building fund after all new pews were installed two years ago. This money will (and should) remain in the building fund to be used for routine or other kinds of maintenance and repairs that the annual operating fund budget for repairs and maintenance will not cover. If the funds were donated to the building fund at any time to be used for new construction or for major or routine repairs, then I think those funds should be used only for those things and should not be taken from the building fund and transferred into the general fund to be used for day to day operations. There will come a day when the funds will be needed for something to do with the church's facility.

Dec 27, 2010
 Building Fund vs Facilty: Building Repairs & Maitenance
by: Diana

We had a building fund account that was closed, the remainder of funds went into retained earnings. Now that the fund account is closed, how would you record major building repairs, such as a new roof or stucco repairs? Can you put them under Facilty: Building Repairs and Maintenance?
Dec 28, 2010
 Building Fund Monies
by: Marcus in Texas

It seems to me that if funds were automatically closed into the retained earnings account (probably at year-end), a general journal entry could be made in a succeeding year to move funds out of retained earnings and back into to a building fund or capital improvement fund account. As Treasurer, I would not do this sort of thing without first gaining the approval of the appropriate persons.We have a Stewardship Committee at our church that would be consulted on matters of this nature, and we also have bi-monthly "business meetings" where the matter would be voted on. However, it would be important to first check the files to make sure that the funds transferred into retained earnings have not already been expended for something else. Spending the same monies twice is too easy to do, so caution is advised.

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