How to categorize a Women's Group offerings?

by Natalie
(Arkansas)

Our church has a Women's Group that collects money. Usually, from this money, we send checks to friends/family for wedding gift, baby shower gift, etc. What type of account do I categorize this in? Would it be "income", "other income", something else?

Comments for How to categorize a Women's Group offerings?

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Aug 07, 2023

Tracking Restricted Funds
by: Vickey

It would depend on the accounting software you are using and if you need to know what the "balance" is at any time.

Please let me know and I will see if I can help =)

Aug 10, 2023

Reply to Vickey
by: Natalie

I am using Quickbooks. And yes, we would like to be able to keep up with the balance. Even better, I would like for it to show up in reports. Right now, with the plan I have, I am only able to run a Summary of Activity. I created an account called "Gifts" to record when checks are written. Do I need to be using the same account I categorize offerings from the women's group so that the balance changes accordingly?

Aug 11, 2023

Tracking Restricted and Designated Funds in QuickBooks
by: Vickey

You can do it that way (using the same account for income and expenses) ... if you so not need to see how much was income and how much was expenses.

If you need to see how much was income and how much was expenses on that Statement of Activity report, you can create a parent account in QuickBooks and add 2 sub accounts under it.

Use one to record all of the donations or collections (income) and the other one to record the checks (expenses).

Note that in QB you will have to make the 2 subs the same type of account as the parent, so one of them will show negative amounts and the other positive amounts...but both will "roll up" into the parent account and you will always be able to see a balance in that triplet account ....by running a Statement of Activity (Income Statement).

I decide which account type I want to use by knowing what the balance will consist of. If expenses are usually more than income, I would use "Expense or Other Expenses" accounts.

If more income usually comes in than expenses, use "Income or Other Income" accounts, so you won't always have a negative balance in that parent account =)

Aug 12, 2023

Tracking Restricted and Designated Funds in QuickBooks
by: Anonymous - MN

Vicky, thanks for your explanation above. I have been using the same account for instances of other income and expenses like for Vanco Credit Card donations, but have not been using sub accounts to separate income and expenses so I end up with a list of pluses and minuses.

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