This post was last updated on July 24th, 2024 at 10:56 am.
People
Must Know #1: (Household or Individual)
Understanding the difference between a Household and an Individual is important and is defined as follows:
Definition of a Household: A Household is a physical location where people reside and the name of the household represents the adults that are responsible for the location. It does not represent an individual.
Definition of an Individual: An Individual is a person that resides at the location. Every member of a family should have a member record in the system.
Whenever you are doing something in the system ask yourself: Do I need this for individual(s) or household(s)? For example: Creating mailing labels for people who receive the newsletter. Are these labels going to be sent to individual members or households? Chances are, they are going to be sent to the Households. If this is the answer, go to People: Households -> Household-Reports -> Labels Tab -> Household List and select to print labels for all Households belonging to one or more status groups.
If you are adding a new person in the system who is the only member of the new household, one household record would be added reflecting the location, and one member record representing the individual living at that location.
For a married couple, the household name should contain both names of the parents. The household ‘First Name’ would be something like John & Mary. Once the household is created both John, Mary, and any kids they might have would be added into the household as individuals.
Must Know #2 (Running Reports using Multiple Status Codes)
Many of the reports give you the ability to select status codes. Multiple status codes can be selected by holding the “Ctrl” key on the keyboard. While the Ctrl key is down use the mouse to click on the status codes you wish to use. When done selecting release the Ctrl key and run the report.
Must Know #3 (Adding Status Codes)
Status codes define the relationship of a household or individual to the church. When the system is initially loaded it contains the default status codes Active, Inactive, Visitor, and Delete. However, you can add additional status codes by going to Settings -> Church Membership. Locate the field “Select Drop Down List”. Click the down arrow and select Status. Go to the “New / Modified Value” field, enter the new status code, and click “Save New/Modified”.
Please Note: It is not a good practice to define a new status code if a household or person can fall into more than one status code. Example: Adding status codes of Choir and Usher would be confusing because a person could belong to both groups and also be Active. In this case, the person should have a status of ‘Active’ and belong to both the ‘Choir’ group and the ‘Usher’ group. Use the Groups section to classify Choir members and Ushers.
The most common Status codes we see are: (This field has a maximum of 15 characters so some of these are abbreviated).
- Active
- Inactive
- Visitor
- Delete
- Active NonMem ( Abbreviation for Active Non-Member )
- Associate Mem ( Associate Member )
- Friend
- Prospect
- Shut In
Accounting
Must Know #4: (Donation Funds Vs Accounting Funds)
This section takes you through setting up the link between Donations and Accounting. When setting up a Donation fund, you can designate the Accounting Fund; the Checking Account; and the Revenue/Liability Account to link to. This tells the system that when donations are posted, the system should also update the accounting system accordingly. This is a powerful feature of IconCMO and can be used to ensure that activity in the donation section is always recorded in the accounting system.
Fund Types
There are two Fund types in IconCMO.
- Donation Funds
- Accounting Funds
Donation Funds (D-Funds) are funds that people contribute to. Donation statements print from information posted to D-Funds.
Accounting Funds (A-Funds) are defined by the financial group in the church to manage the church finances. For example: In addition to the required ‘General Fund’ the board might have a Building Fund and a Charities Fund. A separate ‘Statement of Activities’ (also known as a Profit and Loss statement) and a ‘Statement of Financial Position’ (also known as a Balance Sheet) can be run for each fund defined or all accounting funds combined. It’s important to note that all donation funds must direct their donations to one of the accounting funds. First, define the bank account that receives the donations. Second, define the donation revenue account.
Below is an Example:
Your church offers four different D-Funds to contribute to.
- General Fund
- Building Fund
- Memorial Fund
- Flowers Fund
Define D-Funds by going to Donations: Funds & Donations and adding the D-Fund names. You want to print a Profit and Loss for General, Building, and Charities but would like the Flowers Fund to appear as Revenue to the Charities Fund. Create three A-Funds by going to General Ledger: Accounting Funds. Add the Building and Charities Funds since the General Fund already exists. Then go to General Ledger: Chart of Accounts. There needs to be at least one donation revenue account to define where the revenue is coming from. In this case, let’s define three revenue accounts and call them:
- General Donations
- Building Donations
- Memorial Donations
Note the use of ‘Donations’ instead of ‘Revenue’. This demonstrates that these are chart of account names, not funds. In addition to the donation revenue accounts, we need at least one bank account. Let’s call that ‘Checking’.
Linking the funds
Now we create the links between the D-Funds and the Accounting system. Go to Donations: Funds & Donations, then fill out the three drop-down lists for the accounting fund, checking, and revenue/liability. The example below shows how we might make the assignments. Notice that donations to the ‘Flowers Fund’ are directed to the accounting fund called Charities Fund. The revenue from the Flowers Fund will appear in the Memorial Donation account for the Charities Fund Statement of Activities.
General Fund (D-Fund)
- Accounting Fund Affected = General Fund
- Bank Account = Checking
- Revenue Account = General Donation
Building Fund (D-Fund)
- Accounting Fund Affected = Building Fund
- Bank Account = Checking
- Revenue Account = Building Donation
Memorial Fund (D-Fund)
- Accounting Fund Affected = Charities Fund
- Bank Account = Checking
- Revenue Account = Memorial Donation
Flowers Fund (D-Fund)
- Accounting Fund Affected = Charities Fund
- Bank Account = Checking
- Revenue Account = Memorial Donation
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