Adding and Editing Funds and Fund Groups
Before you enter a contribution, you will need to create at least one Fund for the contributions to be given to. Your church likely already has these funds in place.
The structure and governance of giving will vary across churches, denominations, and organizational structures. We want Empower to be flexible enough to fit you perfectly.
Empower allows each contribution to be assigned to a Contribution Fund.
Contribution Funds can also be placed in a Fund Group.
Fund Groups act as folders to organize the Contribution Funds.
These funds and groups are completely customizable in Empower.
Fund Groups
Let’s take a look at how we add Fund Groups by navigating to Utilities>Options>Contributions>Fund Groups.
This is where you can both add and edit these groups.
Remember, these serve as folders for the specific funds that are within them.
To add a Fund Group, simply click on the +Add New Option button. Simply type in the name of the desired Fund Group and you’re done!
Notice that Empower initially includes Building, Missions, and General Fund Groups already in place. These can be deleted as necessary by clicking on the three blue dots to the right of the button.
Contribution Funds
Contribution Funds help show where specific contributions are given to. Typically a congregation has designated and undesignated giving. These are often known by different terminology, but will essentially be setup the same way in Empower. Your congregations might utilize the terms: special purpose funds, board assigned funds, restricted/unrestricted funds, set-a-side funds, or others. These are all in essence funds that have “strings attached”. Unless you are a newly formed congregation, you likely already have these funds in place. If you are unsure, you might need to consult with your treasurer/bookkeeper before setting these funds up. Although they can all be changed and edited, it could present tedious work if they are set up in correctly. For suggestions on setting up contributionsin an autonomous congregation, see our blog article Setting up a Contribution Structure.
If you have your current list of contribution accounts used in tracking income and receipts, let’s proceed to set those up.
Navigating to the Contributions>Funds page will be our first step.
Once on the funds page, we will notice the button that says “There have been no Contribution Funds set up.
Let’s click on the +Add Fund button.
This will display the Add Contribution Fund pop-up window where we will fill in the fields needed to create the Fund in Empower.
Fund Number
The Fund Number will be a number that you assign to each Contribution Fund. These will serve two purposes, helping to organize the funds’ structure and making Contribution Entry easier.
These numbers will help easily find and distinguish between accounts when entering the contributions.
For example, we might start all designated or restricted funds with 2000.
We might use 3000 for all temporary designations like “Smith Family Memorial Fund”.
*You might want to coordinate these with your accounting software or Chart of Accounts.
Fund Name
The Fund Name (Description) will tell where the fund is directed.
Fund Group
The Fund Group specifies the type of Fund or which “folder” the fund should be in. (see above article)
Fund Restriction Option
There are four options for Fund Restrictions.
We walk through each of these in detail in the blog article Explaining Fund Restrictions.
These settings can affect the year end giving statements as well as the understanding of how the funds can be spent. Your bookkeeper, treasurer, or financial advisor should be able to help determine the specifics of your Fund’s restrictions.
Notes
Each Fund allows you to add notes describing the fund or the intended use.
Default Fund
The Default Fund should only be checked for one Fund. This will serve as the primary fund that undesignated, restricted, or special Contributions are assigned to. This is typically known as the General or Undesignated Fund, but might be known differently in your congregation.
To finish adding the Fund, click Save. You’re ready to add your first Contribution to that Fund!