Using the Accounting Screen

Creating New Accounts

To begin, select "Accounts" on the Accounting screen toolbar. When you do, the Account List screen is opened, as displayed below. This screen lists all the accounts that you are tracking in ChurchTrac, account type, and balance information.

Click the "Create a New Account" button to set up a new checking, savings, cash or credit account. You should specify a default account in the upper right-hand corner of the account screen. The default account is the account that appears when you open the Accounting screen. If you specify a default account here, you’ll be able to record deposits directly from the contributions screen. After you've created your accounts, click the "previous screen" button to return to the Accounting screen.

Note: For additional assistance with creating new accounts, see this knowledgebase article.

Using the Account Register

When you select an account on the Accounting screen, the account register is displayed (see below). From the register you can enter transactions, transfer money between accounts, print checks, reconcile accounts and more. The register works very much like your checkbook register: you enter Payees, payments, deposits and categories. ChurchTrac automatically calculates the account balance.

The Ref/Check Number and memo fields are optional. You can create and edit categories that are available to transactions by clicking the "Categories" button on the toolbar.

Entering and Editing Categories

The category list allows you to specify categories (or funds) to assign to contributions, expenses and budgets. For example, whenever someone gives money to your church, assign the contribution to a category, such as "Budget Offering" or "Building Fund" on the contributions screen. When you use the accounting screen to record checks or transactions you can assign one or more categories to each transaction, such as "Office Supplies" or "Telephone". The categories in this list are also available as selections on the contributions screen and budget screen.

When entering categories, If a category is a tax-deductible contribution item, make sure the tax deductible box is checked, otherwise uncheck this box. All contributions and pledges that are assigned to a tax-deductible category will appear on Contribution statements, whereas unchecked categories will not.

If a category is primarily an inflow category, select "Income", otherwise, select "Expense". Use the arrows at the bottom of the Category List window to move categories into the order you want them to appear in ChurchTrac and on reports.

Multiple-Category Transactions

To assign multiple categories to a single transaction, double-click inside the category selection field for that transaction. This opens the multiple category window.

You can transfer money from one account to another by choosing the destination account from the category selection list. This automatically creates an entry in the register of the second account where the funds are transferred to/from.

Tip: Once you have entered a transaction you can "memorize" that transaction by double-clicking in the payee field. This opens the payee list and records the payee, categories and amounts for the current transaction. This information can quickly be selected from the list of payees the next time this transaction occurs, greatly reducing the amount of time required to enter a new transaction in the future.

Hint: There are several buttons at the bottom of the register window which allow you to delete and void transactions, print checks, and import transactions.