I have spent too much time trying to figure this out myself. Any help would be greatly apprecitated.
I don't know if I am too "stuck" in Quicken and that is why I am having problems.
We have a non profit org. No sales, just donations. We enter each donation using a sales receipt form. I want to keep track of donations the following way: Individual Donations, Corporate Donations, Pledge Program Donations & Non cash donations (donated labor, donated material).
I enter the donation and mark it to go with "other undeposited funds" and then match up the donations with the deposit total when we deposit the donations. We don't deposit each donation individually, but in groups.
After all this, when going to my checking account register, where Quicken has "Categories", "Undeposited funds" is listed for the account.
Maybe I have a hard head, but I was looking for a way to view this transaction to see if it is an individual, corporate or whatever donation. "Undeposited Funds" doesn't tell me anything.
Also, in Quicken, I can run a report on the catagory Individual Donations and see each one listed for the year. How can I do that with QuickBooks?
Like I said, I have spent way too much time trying to figure this out.
There are usually about 3 ways to do anything in QB. Once you find the one that works best for you, it's not so difficult.
First, QB has a Chart of Accounts instead of Categories. Quicken is basically a checking account, tracking your checking activity. In QB, it's important to realize that every transaction actually affects two (offsetting) accounts. It's "zero balance" accounting -- when you debit one account, another account is credited & vise versa.
So, when you write a check, it shows in your checking account and in the expense account. When you receive a payment, it is actually going "through" another account to get to your checking. When you "park" money in Undeposited Funds, it takes a slightly different path.
I leave my C of A open all the time for quick reference. For me, it's the easiest way to see an account detail. I highlight an account, then right click, Quick Report (Ctrl+Q does it too)
In the checking register, you can double click on the deposit you want to see the detail, then on that screen, right click, Deposit Detail. From there, you can double click on an entry to see the specific payment screen.
Thanks for your words of wisdom! I really like Quicken and thought QB would be very similar. Maybe I am tired, but I know a little bit about accounting but I am lost with this.
So are you saying I am doing this right, but just not understanding what I am doing? I think this may be a very real possibility.
I noticed if I use the profit/loss report, it will show me each individual donation in one place. I compare that to viewing the transactions for each category in Quicken.
In my C of A, do I need to have seperate accounts for Donations: Individual, Donations: Corp., Donations: Pledge Program, and Donations: Non-Cash ? If so, then explain the items and classes to me. I understand items and classes for a business application, but I don't see how they fit into our non-profit on the income side.
Hope I can explain this without confusing you more! It does sound like you're doing it right.
An Item will track different things for you. One of my clients runs a swim school, with a snack bar & they do birthday parties. They use their registration program to invoice their customers, so we only use the items for snack bar inventory. Another client does home inspections of various types & we use items for invoicing the different types of service.
An item won't be detailed on your P & L or Balance Sheet, it will be incorporated into the numbers. If you want to see reports on them, you'll need to use one in the system, modify an existing one or create a custom one -- whichever suits your needs. If you open your Item List, you can do a Quick Report on any item.
If you use Classes, you will be able to pull P&L reports on one class specifically, or on the whole company. Another client of mine runs a sports camp with several facilities. When we enter income or expenses, we apply it to a class/facility & are able to track each camp individually.
Since you are using sales receipts (or invoices), you'll need to set up Items. If you want, you can set up the different incomes so they will be listed separately on your P&L & Balance Sheet, but totaled as income. Just be sure your items are linked to the corresponding income account on your C of A. If you just want them as "income", you don't need separate accounts.
For me, the swim school has 3 types of income on the C of A so the owner can see it on his reports. For the inspection company, one income number works best, so their services are set up as items, linked to Income.
You can make it as simple or detailed as you need. Like I said, I refer to my C of A for Quick Reports most of the time.
Hope you've gotten some good rest & it all seems perfectly clear now!
Susan: I have been running two non-profits with QB for seven years and it works fine. I tried Quicken and quickly changed over to QB. If you want to track your contributions by type, I would set up sub-accounts in my Chart of Accounts for Individual Contributions, Group Contributions, etc. Simply add them in the Chart of Accounts and make each a sub-account of Contributions. Then your P&L will roll up the total. Set up an item for Indiv Contribution to put the amount into that account, Group Contribution to put the amount into that account. I leave the amount on each item at zero. I use the Categories to classify special projects. Suppose you have a special program, "Skip A Meal" when individuals make contributions. You would record the Item Indiv Contribution which would put the money in that accout, but you would use the Category "Skip". That way, you could break out how much was raised in that special program. You could also hava a Group that donated to "Skip A Meal" and their contribution would go into the Account Group Contribution, but you could run a report on "Skip A Meal" and get all contributions.
