Sub-accounts

David Libbey

I hope that this post is in the right spot. However, I don't see a category for how one uses Quicken's features to best represent the way an entity operates. So if this should be moved, please let me know. In the meantime, here goes!

My church uses a single checking account. Internally we break this account into several funds or sub-accounts for record keeping purposes. For example: Operating, Missions, Capital Improvements, and transactions for all of them flow through the single checking account. In Quicken I have treated each fund as a separate bank account within a single Quicken file. Then I set up Categories that allow income and expenses to be tracked by type. This works with limitations. For instance, we recently opened a second bank account. Including this truly separate account as a Quicken account creates confusion between the notions of "account" and "fund (or sub-account) within an account". Is there another way to set up Quicken that maintains the true distinction among accounts AND enables me to recognize the various funds or sub-accounts within our checking account?

Thanks in advance for your help.
David

NotACPA

Look into Savings Goals.  There's no such thing, in Q, as "sub-accounts".

AND, because your church presumably has a payroll, which Q doesn't support, you should probably look into using  Quickbooks.

David Libbey

Thanks, NotACPA. I was afraid I was going to hear this sort of reply. My approach worked quite well until we opened a second account. We do have payroll which we have managed manually. We looked at Quickbooks a while ago; it seemed very complicated and raised some of the same "how do we organize things" questions.
Thanks again.
David

smayer97

Since you say all you transactions flow through the one account (and now a second one) an alternative would be to manage all this with categories and sub-categories combined with the use of Tags.

Otherwise the closest thing in Quicken might certainly be the use of Savings Goals.

thecreator

Hi @""David Libbey" ,

Why not simply use Cash Accounts, for your Sub-Accounts? Cash Accounts are not Online Services Enabled.

After setting up the Cash Account, you can rename them, to meaningful names.

The Columns are Spend and Receive. You can Transfer from your Checking Account via Split Categories into it or manually enter the information in the Cash Accounts.

Also see this FAQ:  https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7307115/add-your-quicken-information-to-your-posts-plus-how-you-are-connected-to-the-internet

David Libbey

Thanks for the suggestions, both of you. I will think through both ideas.

David Libbey

Question: thecreator suggests using cash accounts (no online services) and renaming them to match our funds. I believe that this is what I have done...so each of our funds/sub-accounts corresponds to a unique cash account. The challenge with this approach is that Quicken doesn't see the difference between these cash "accounts" and a truly different account. Am I correctly understanding what thecreator means?

Bob_L

I set this up once as a test at my previous church, but it takes a while to get used to, and to be honest I was not in a position to sell it to the Treasurer.  Anyway, the sub-accounts you are referring to were "restricted" accounts in my old church.  That is people could earmark their contributions to them for a stated purpose. 

The way I set it up was to create Liability accounts for each of the restricted funds, because they are effectively claims on the cash.  Then when a weekly deposit was made from the member contributions that week it would be booked as a deposit to the checking account split between a general operating income account and the various restricted accounts as [fund name] which show up as increases to the liability accounts.  Similarly if an expenditure was made from a designated fund the check would also be posted as a transfer from that fund, thereby reducing the liabiilty balance in that fund.  Checks of an operating nature, ie not from the funds, are booked simpy as that, i.e. operating expenses.

LIke I said, I never implemented this other than in a test file, so I welcome suggestions from you or others.

thecreator

David Libbey said:

Question: thecreator suggests using cash accounts (no online services) and renaming them to match our funds. I believe that this is what I have done...so each of our funds/sub-accounts corresponds to a unique cash account. The challenge with this approach is that Quicken doesn't see the difference between these cash "accounts" and a truly different account. Am I correctly understanding what thecreator means?

Hi @""David Libbey" ,

When you first create a Cash Account, it states Cash Account.
Using the Account Bar, locate Cash Account. Right-click Cash Account and click Edit/Delete Account.

You will see the name Cash Account. Highlight the name and start typing the Unique Name of the Account and click OK.

Now under Tools click Category List. Left side click Transfers. Right side, look for that unique name.

You can have any number of Cash Accounts with unique names.

This gives you exactly what you want.

And you  can use the Memo Field in Splits or in Split itself for further explanation of the transaction.

Like setting up a Christmas Club Cash Account.

David Libbey

I'll try these ideas in a test mode. Thanks very much!

Bob_L

To clarify, suppose Sunday collections are 1000, 250 of which are for designated Fund 1.  The deposit split transaction in checking would be this:
contributions       750
[Fund 1]               250

HTH

David Libbey

Bob_L: I understand the idea that you are proposing. But how do you categorize deposits into/payments out of the liability accounts? For example, building on your example, suppose Fund 1 is Mission Offerings and the $250 is split between Mission A (50) and B (200) where each of A and B are different local mission entities. Under my current system I have a fund = account in Quicken called Mission Offerings, and I use category = Offerings Rec'd with subcategories of A and B to record (in this case) the $50 and $200, respectively. I can then generate a report for the Mission Committee which can then see these income amounts with understandable labels. How would this work in your approach?
Thanks very much!
David

Bob_L

It wouldn't exactly.  That is, you would need to have a separate liability account for each fund. Your report to the Committee would include both funds shown separately.
And your point about meaningful labels is a good one as the ins and outs show up as transfers.

To be honest with you, I went back today and loaded the quicken file where I had run a test of two months worth of transactions for my old church back in 2015, complete with about 30 separate designated funds accounts.  The reports really get confusing very quickly!  

What You probably really need is QuickBooks plus an accountant to help  you set  up what  I believe  is called funds accounting with a common cash pool. 

David Libbey

Thanks, Bob_L. Much appreciated.