Regular Church Collections and Cash/Undeposited Receipts

Most churches will have at least weekly collections of cash, cheques, gift-aid envelopes and perhaps card reader postings. This topic offers some help for dealing with the mix of income in an efficient manor for both the user and the system.

The usual situation is that the various sources of income will be aggregated and paid into the bank with a paying-in slip analysing the tender types. A supplementary analysis of the sources of income for accounting purposes will be available.

The approach will differ between dealing with card reader recorded income and cash and cheque income.

• Dealing with Cash and Cheques
• Dealing with Card Reader Income

Dealing with Cash and Cheques

When you receive cash/cheques you will usually group them together and deposit into the bank account on one paying-in slip. That paying-in slip will generate a single entry appearing on the bank statement (or for certain banks, in particular HSBC, two entries one for cash and one for cheques). What you want to do is record the cash/cheque income to the various income accounts that they relate to and then transfer a single value to the bank. The way to handle this is to use the Cash/Undeposited Receipts account.

In essence the process is: -

1. From a source of income analysis deposit the funds to the Cash/Undeposited Receipts account, recording the Income to the appropriate accounts e.g. Donations, Fees, Room rental etc. The transactions likely to be used are Cash/Card Takings, Donations, Receipts
2. Using the bank paying-in slip create a Bank Deposit Batch
3. The balance on Cash/Undeposited Receipts account will be zero and and the bank account will show the appropriate amount.

Cash and Cheques in Plate collections

If the organisation is using the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) cash in plate collections are posted using a Donations transaction selecting .GASDS as the donor. Click the link for more information on Gift Aid and GASDS

If GASDS is not being used the cash can be posted either as a takings transaction or a donation transaction using .NON-GASDS as the donor.

For other items of cash/cheques that are known not to be donations use a takings transaction.

Income - Donors - Add Donation

Income - Add Receipt - Add Receipt

For each transaction make sure that a suitable unique REFERENCE is entered (perhaps the paying-in slip number) and that the DEPOSIT TO account is Cash/Undeposited Receipts.

Envelopes in Plate collections

Where envelopes are being used by regular givers then, in the first instance, set up each individual as a donor. Note donors may be set one at a time or multiple donors may be uploaded from a csv file

Donors - Add Donor

Donors - Donor Upload

Once the envelopes have been opened and the cash/cheques counted use a schedule to enter the donations by donor. Three options exist to do this and a user may select the process that is efficient for them.

• Enter each donation one at a time, use Add Donation
• Use batch donations to enter all the donations as a batch, use

  Donors - Batch Donation

• Create a csv file (perhaps using a spreadsheet) of the donations and upload the file, use

  Donors - Batch Donation

For one-off envelope donations use Donors - Add Donation

For each transaction make sure that a suitable unique REFERENCE is entered (perhaps the paying-in slip number) and that the DEPOSIT-TO account is Cash/Undeposited Receipts.

Cash or Cheques for Parochial Fees

Parochial fees for weddings, funerals etc will be recorded as a single value receipt but the posting to income accounts needs to recognise that part of the fees are due to the diocese and not retained by the church equally other elements such as flowers, organist choir will also be due to third parties.

A convenient process for dealing with this is described here.

If not already done so use Add Standard accounts to insert Receipts on Behalf of 3rd Parties account to the organisations chart of accounts

Accounts - Add Standard Accounts

Now add as many third party accounts as required as sub-accounts of Receipts on Behalf of 3rd Parties for example Diocesan Fees, Flowers, Organist.

Accounts - Add Custom Accounts

Once added these accounts will then appear in appropriate drop-down lists when using Takings or Receipt transactions.

Now use Receipt transactions to input the income splitting it between income accounts for the organisation and relevant sub-accounts of Receipts on Behalf of 3rd Parties

Income - Add Receipt - Add Receipt

When ready make payments to the 3rd Parties posting the payments to the relevant sub-accounts of Receipts on Behalf of 3rd Parties, to bring them to zero balances.

For each transaction make sure that a suitable unique REFERENCE is entered (perhaps the paying-in slip number) and that the DEPOSIT-TO account is Cash/Undeposited Receipts.

Creating the bank deposit batch

Navigate to the Bank menu and from the drop-down adjacent to Cash/Undeposited Receipts select Add Bank Deposit Batch. On the screen use the tick box on the right of the screen to select those items to be included in the batch. Note the batch total and number of items is displayed at the bottom right of the screen.

Select the appropriate Deposit To account and SUBMIT the batch. The system will post a transfer to that bank account and set each item to reconciled.

If a transfer to the bank account has already been recorded and has been included in the batch (so that the total is zero) the system will mark each item as reconciled.

The batch report is available from the Reconciliation History drop-down adjacent to Cash/Undeposited Receipts. Clicking the printer icon generates a report of the details of the particular batch.

Dealing with Cash and Cheques

Card reading systems will provide regular reporting on the income collected via the reader. It is usual to be able to configure when and how often reports are received. The reports should provide sufficient information to able to identify the nature of any transaction.

The card reader company will make payments into the organisation's chosen bank account.

Note it may be possible to treat the card reader as a pseudo bank account and potentially import the data. Consult with your card reader supplier.

Use a receipt transaction directly or bank statement import to deposit the aggregate income into the bank account and select the Cash/Undeposited Receipts account as the line item. Add a suitable unique REFERENCE to the transaction.

Use the reports from the Card Reader company to analyse the sources of income.

Donations

If the organisation is using the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS), contactless card donations (of less than £30.00) are posted using a Donations transaction selecting .GASDS as the donor. Click the link for more information on Gift Aid and GASDS

If GASDS is not being used the card donation is posted either as a takings transaction or a donation transaction using .NON-GASDS as the donor.

Income - Donors - Add Donation

For each transaction make sure that the REFERENCE as entered when the card company payment was recorded into the Cash/Undeposited Receipts account is used.

Card payments for Parochial Fees

Parochial fees for weddings, funerals etc will be recorded as a single value receipt but the posting to income accounts needs to recognise that part of the fees are due to the diocese and not retained by the church equally other elements such as flowers, organist choir will also be due to third parties.

A convenient process for dealing with this is described here.

If not already done so use Add Standard accounts to insert Receipts on Behalf of 3rd Parties account to the organisations chart of accounts

Accounts - Add Standard Accounts

Now add as many third party accounts as required as sub-accounts of Receipts on Behalf of 3rd Parties for example Diocesan Fees, Flowers, Organist.

Accounts - Add Custom Accounts

Once added these accounts will then appear in appropriate drop-down lists. when using Takings or Receipt transactions.

Now use a Receipt transaction to input the income splitting it between income accounts for the organisation and relevant sub-accounts of Receipts on Behalf of 3rd Parties

Income - Add Receipt - Add Receipt

When ready make payments to the 3rd Parties posting the payments to the relevant sub-accounts of Receipts on Behalf of 3rd Parties, to bring them to zero balances.

For each transaction make sure that the REFERENCE as entered when the card company payment was recorded into the Un-deposited Funds account is used.

Card payments for Other Income

Now use a Receipt transaction to input the income splitting it between income accounts for the organisation and relevant sub-accounts of Receipts on Behalf of 3rd Parties

Income - Add Receipt - Add Receipt

For each transaction make sure that the REFERENCE as entered when the card company payment was recorded into the Cash/Undeposited Receipts account is used.