The Steward's Prophet

Finance for Faith Communities

a project of Congregational Finance LLC -- Rev. Karen McArthur, editor

Entire contents
© 2007-2012
Rev. Karen McArthur
Please inquire for permission to reprint any part of this website.

The Steward's Prophet
PO Box 80035
South Dartmouth, MA 02748

Step-by-step setup for QuickBooks Pro

First, in the Edit Preferences:

1. Accounting/Company: Use Class Tracking
2. Checking/Company: Print Account Names on Voucher
3. General/My Preferences: Automatically Recall Last Transaction for this name
4. Payroll/Company: Full payroll; list employees by last name
5. Reports & Graphs/Company: Accrual basis (this is required for external reporting and is more accurate than cash basis)

Second, set up your class list:

• Unrestricted Funds
• Temporarily Restricted Funds (with various sub-funds)
• Permanently Restricted Funds

Drag the Unrestricted to the top of the list and Permanently Restricted to the bottom.

Third, set up your chart of accounts with accounts and subaccounts:

• CONTRIBUTIONS
  • Plate offering
  • Pledged income
  • Restricted contributions
• INVESTMENT INCOME
  • Bank interest
  • Investment Gains/(losses)
• MISSIONS/UCC
  • OCWM
  • Special offerings
  • Community outreach
• CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
  • Curriculum
  • Supplies
  • Vacation Bible Camp
• etc.

Fourth, set up your budget using the Company/Planning & Budgeting/Set up Budgets function. Choose Profit & Loss Budget by Class. For each relevant class, enter the full year budget in the column for the first month of the fiscal year; leave the other months blank.

Finally, set up reports:

Change title of a P&L to "Statement of Activities", filter for the desired classes (funds), and memorize.

Change title of a Budget vs. Actual report to "Statement of Activities vs. Budget", filter for the desired classes (funds), and memorize.

Change title of a Balance Sheet to "Statement of Financial Position" and memorize.

Set up Custom Summary Report

• Dates = All
• Title = Statement of Fund Balances
• Display columns by Total Only
• Display rows by Class
• Filter for Class = Multiple classes and then check off every class

This report will show the fund balances as of any one date. To generate report, leave the "from" date blank and enter the date of the report in the "to" field. Note that the total of the fund balances should equal the "Total Equity" on the Statement of Financial Position.