Contents

Introduction

In accounting, the Account represents a record of all transactions that occur within an organization - both deposits and withdrawals. These transactions commonly occur within a bank account, and one organization may have several accounts. Within your accounting, the Account holds all assigned Transactions, Funds, and Categories.

Accounts within Chmeetings Accounting represent Financial Accounts (accounting records) corresponding to your bank accounts; not the bank accounts themselves. You can link your bank accounts as well and can read more on this in our guide to Linking with Your Bank.

This guide shows you how to manage Financial Accounts within ChMeetings Accounting.

If you have not yet done your Accounting setup or need to familiarize yourself with relevant terms, please see Accounting Basics and Setup.

You can reach the Accounts section by going to Accounting > Accounts. Here is where you can view and manage both your Financial Accounts, and linked Bank Accounts.

Workflow

There is a logical order within which you must work with Accounts:

First, you need to know any Funds or balances you may have allocated to specific purposes from the Account you want to add. Once you have the list of Funds, you need to add it to ChMeetings before creating the Account, because you must enter the Funds’ Starting Balance during Account creation. There is a preconfigured General Fund, so if you have no Funds at all, then you can use this as a catch-all without creating more Funds.
Next, we recommend adding any Categories / Subcategories you might already be using. Again, this is optional. If you do not have previously-used Categories, then there are General Offerings (Income) and General Expense Categories preconfigured by default.
Then once your Funds and Categories are clear, and created in ChMeetings as needed, you can proceed to creating your Account.
Lastly, if you want to import Transactions, you can do so after creating your Account.

Add Accounts

Once you are done adding any needed Funds and Categories, you are ready to create your Account. To get started, go to Accounting > Accounts > Add Financial Account.

In the Add Account window, follow the steps below:

Account Information:
- Name: Give your account a name, such as “Checking”, “Savings”, etc.
- Type: Select whether this is an Asset or Liability account.

Asset represents what you own - such as a bank account held by your church.
Liability refers to what you owe - such as loans, mortgages, credit cards, etc.

Starting Balance: Add the balance from the day before you began tracking transactions in ChMeetings Accounting as the starting balance. You must enter a starting balance for each of your funds. If you did not use Funds previously and do not want to use them moving forward, then your Account balance should be allocated to the General Fund.
Start Date: Add the day when you begin recording transactions in ChMeetings. This is your accounting start date for the account you are adding.
Save when ready.

Your new Account is now listed on your main Accounts screen:

Manage Account Transactions

Accounts act as containers for your financial transactions, which you can learn more about by reading our guide on Working With Transactions.

Transfer Money Between Financial Accounts

In this section, we will discuss how to transfer funds between Financial Accounts within Chmeetings. Keep in mind that this is NOT performing an actual bank transfer; but only creates an accounting record. ChMeetings does not process bank transfers, only facilitates the creation of accounting records for those transfers. If you make a transfer between bank accounts that are linked to ChMeetings, you don’t have to record a transfer transaction manually. You do need to manually and periodically sync the Financial Account with your Bank Account, which is when the transfer transactions will also be imported automatically.

Add a Transaction, as explained above, under Add Transactions.
For the Transaction Type, select Transfer.
Optionally, select a Payee.
Select whether you want to transfer to or from a specific account:
- Transfer To lets you transfer money to the destination account you select below (from the current account, to which you add the Transaction).
- Transfer From lets you transfer money from the source account you select below (to the current account, to which you add the Transaction).
Select the Account. This acts as a destination account if you use Transfer To; or a source account if you use Transfer From.
Select the Fund to allocate the transaction to.
Add a Note if required.
Enter the Amount corresponding to the selected Category.
Add more items by clicking Add Item, and repeat the steps from a. to d..
Validate the total amount for the overall transaction. This should be the sum of all Category amounts. You can delete items by clicking the ⊖ icon next to it.
Attach a file (document, image, spreadsheet, etc.) This file should be a maximum of 5MB in size. This can be, for example, a bank statement or transaction file generated from a previous accounting system. You can add a memo to the attachment.
Save when ready or click Save & Add New to open a new Transaction window and add another transaction.

Once added, your transaction, regardless of type, is listed under your Account, along with its associated Category, Fund, and Total Amount. If you have added a multiple-item Transaction, with multiple Categories and Funds, then these will be listed as Multiple, under their respective Category and Fund columns.

Note On Editing Existing Accounts

Once creating an account, you can no longer edit any information except the Name. Once you begin recording transactions, Accounts can no longer be deleted either, unless you also remove associated transactions. This is standard accounting practice. Removing and recreating accounts may require redoing your initial accounting setup; which is why we recommend that you take great care and ensure that you are entering correct data during initial setup.

Archive Accounts

If you use an account less frequently or not using it at all anymore, then you can archive it. This is the appropriate alternative to deleting accounts, since it maintains records that are no longer in use without impeding on your workflow. Accounts do not require a $0 balance to be archived.

Archive an Account

To archive an account:

Go to ChMeetings Accounting > Accounts.
Find the Account you want to archive.
In its context menu, select Archive.
Confirm your choice.

Once archived, the account will be made invisible in your main list of accounts. The account itself and all relevant transactions remain saved. In Accounting > Transactions, you can still see records related to archived accounts, but the account is marked as Archived - particularly in the advanced search.

Show Archived Accounts

Once you have archived at least one account, you will see a Show Archived toggle. When this is off, you do not see archived items. Turn it on to make archived items visible. When revealed, you will notice that there is an Archived label next to corresponding accounts.

Restore Archived Accounts

You can restore archived accounts anytime:

Go to Accounting > Accounts.
Toggle on Show Archived.
Find the Account you want to restore.
In its context menu, select Restore.
Confirm your choice.

Once restored, the account will be visible again within your main list of accounts and the Archived label will no longer be displayed next to it (in all areas where your account is shown).

If there is no archived account remaining after you restore, then the Show Archived toggle will no longer display on your Accounts screen.