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February 23, 2024
Question

Church grant accounting

  • February 23, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 0 views

I run our church financials on QBO. We received and recorded a grant in Dec 2023 to misc income, but only allocated a portion of this grant. What is the best way to carry forward the balance of this grant into 2024 so I can report correct financials for current year? How would I record a journal entry to reflect this balance forward and the corresponding credits to appropriate expense account?

2 replies

February 23, 2024

If you received the grant in 2023, you would recognize that income in 2023. This is reflected by your Income Statement and Income account. The money from that grant is also on your balance sheet as an asset, presumably as cash in a bank account. The balance of that cash account on your Balance Sheet is what carries forward year over year, period over period. If you were to move it forward on your income statement, you would be breaking some accounting rules and essentially be saying you've received income in the current period which isn't accurate.

As far as expenses go, you would book those in the periods they occur to various expense accounts like supplies, rent, etc.  As you spend the cash in the bank, your Balance Sheet cash account will decrease as well as liability account like accounts payable.

Rainflurry
February 23, 2024

@FWUCCOH 

 

Is this a restricted grant?  If not, then @AccountantDave is correct - it is all income when received.  However, if this was a restricted grant (I assume that's the case), then you would record the grant to an equity account when received and then create a journal entry to move the funds from equity to income based on the grantor's restrictions - debit your restricted grant equity account and credit the appropriate income account.  

February 26, 2024

@Rainflurry Thanks for considering additional details that may affect this situation. I'm not familiar with restricted vs. unrestricted terms.