MinistryCPA - Corey A. Pfaffe, CPA, LLC

Road to Gold , by Ben Peterson We are privileged to serve our client Ben Peterson and Camp of Champs, the wrestling ministry he founded   and directs. Ben wrestled for more than 16 years, coached on a collegiate level for 28  years, and has directed Camp of Champs for more than 40 years. We have read his autobiography and found Ben's dedication to the sport and his faith to be inspiring. If you are looking for a good story we highly recommend Ben's  Road to Gold. In Road to Gold , Ben shares the lessons he learned throughout his upbringing and how they led him to achieve Olympic victory. Ben states a key element of his youth was the consistency of his parents. He was encouraged to read the Bible every day from an early age, which he now describes as the most stabilizing habit in his life. Throughout his story Ben also emphasizes the importance of confidence, solid goals, hard work, and consistency. These qualities helped Ben throughout his life and wrestling career, from ...

Question:  Why wouldn't a contribution designated to a missionary be recorded as a Liability instead of an Equity Fund account as you suggest? Then when the money is sent to that missionary the entry would simply reduce the Liability account. Answer: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) states that donor designated gifts, including missions funds, are considered donor restricted funds. As restricted funds it is best practice to record designated gifts as equity accounts, which falls under GAAP standards. This is true regardless of whether the restriction is temporary or permanent. Temporarily restricted gifts are gifts given by the donor for a specific purpose or program or for use at a certain time. In a church, common temporarily restricted funds might include a missions fund, benevolence fund, building fund, and others. Permanently restricted contributions are gifts given by the donor to be permanently maintained, but the church may use any income that comes from the ...

Question:  What is the best approach to recording the receipt and disbursement of designated gifts in QuickBooks? Answer: There are three ways we recommend tracking receipts and disbursements for designated gifts. Each of these alternatives will come to the same conclusion at year end on the Statement of Financial Position (aka, the "Balance Sheet"), showing the same beginning- and end-of-year balances.      1) The first approach is to post the receipts and disbursements of each designated fund throughout the year to a single equity account. The benefit of this is that you will always have a real-time balance of remaining funds. The total receipts and total disbursements can also be viewed on QuickBooks by creating a "Transactions by Account" report and view the total credits (receipts) and debits (disbursements) of the desired designated fund. An additional benefit is that no year-end closing entries need to be made, as everything is posted directly to the equity a...