Revolving Fund - Deposits, Withdrawals, Reconciliation

Depositing money into your Revolving Fund

Your Revolving Fund might only accept deposits as checks through the mail, you will have to ask. But whether you print your checks directly from Jewel or you write paper checks, properly recording that check in Jewel is extremely important. A check that is written correctly creates a transfer, whereas a check that is written incorrectly indicates that the money has been spent, which will cause major inaccuracies in your bank balances.

Use the instructions here to record the check in Jewel. Please follow the instructions precisely.

Once you have entered the check into Jewel exactly this way, you are finished. This one check will create accurate reports and give you what you need to reconcile both bank accounts. Your local funds should not be involved at this point since you are not spending the funds, just moving them to a different bank account.

If you write paper checks and record them in Jewel later, keep these instructions handy and use them when you are ready to enter this check. If you just “wing it,” the probability of an entry error is extremely high.

Once you have created this check in Jewel, check your Jewel “Financial Summary.” One way to verify that it has been done correctly is to compare the Beginning Balance and the Ending Balance of each bank account.

The amount in the Revolving Fund line will show as a minus check which can be confusing. But if you entered the check correctly, it will be obvious that the “Checking Account Ending Balance” has decreased and that the Revolving Fund “Ending Balance” has increased by the transferred amounts.

NOTE: It is not recommended to create a local fund to match a Revolving Fund bank account. It is not necessary and causes confusion. For a better understanding of this part of the process, if you need to be able to explain it to your church board, see the four tutorials at How Jewel Works.

Withdrawing funds from your Revolving Fund

If your church needs to withdraw money, you will contact your particular Revolving Fund and ask them how it works. They might send you a check, which you will deposit at the bank, by itself, not with any other offerings. Or they may send you the money electronically. Either way, you will still enter it with a transfer, from your Revolving Fund bank account to your Checking Account, using the actual date of the deposit.

TIP: Enter the transfer into Jewel right after you make the deposit into your Checking Account – don’t wait. Many treasurers wait until they are reconciling weeks or even months later, making it much harder to get it right.

When these instructions are followed precisely, this one transfer is all that is needed. Using a “General Journal Entry” instead of/in addition to a transfer is a mistake and will cause your monthly reports to be inaccurate.

Once you have created this transfer in Jewel, it will show up in the transfers column of the Jewel Financial Summary. To verify that it has been done correctly, compare the “Beginning Balance” and the “Ending Balance” of each Bank Account. If you entered the transfer correctly, it will be obvious that the Revolving Fund “Ending Balance” has decreased and that the “Checking Ending Balance” has increased by the transferred amounts.

NOTE: If your board is expecting this money to show up in a particular Local Fund, please see the four tutorials at How Jewel Works, particularly Confusing Interactions.

Reconciling

Deposits and Withdrawals

When you reconcile after sending money to the Revolving Fund or withdrawing money, keep in mind that one side of the transaction may appear in the "wrong" section of the bank rec screen. In other words, a deposit may appear in the Checks section with a negative amount, or a withdrawal may appear in the Deposits section with a negative amount. This is one reason why good memos are critical! If you don’t see what you are looking for, try clicking on "More Deposits" or “More Checks”.

Important! If you have followed all of the instructions up to this point and you still don’t see it, contact your technical support. Please don’t add an additional Transfer or a General Journal Entry to “make it work,” since doing so will create incorrect bank balances and errors in your reports.

Reconciling Frequency, and When to Enter Interest

Note: To prevent duplicate entries and/or entries to the wrong Bank Account, it is best to wait and add the interest during the reconciliation, using the Add Entry section at the

bottom right of the Reconcile page.

NOTE: If you receive statements quarterly and you wish to reconcile the Revolving Fund quarterly, you can save time by adding the interest as a quarterly total, rather than individual monthly totals. Once the beginning and ending balances are entered, the interest total for the quarter should match the “Difference” figure on your screen.

• Follow the general instructions at Quick Start Guide to Bank Reconciliations.
• Use these instructions to enter your bank account interest.
• Check to see if the Difference is zero. If it is: Click the “OK √” in the top right corner.
• When asked if you want to print, click Yes.
• Staple the printed bank rec report to the bank statement that you just reconciled.

The final test for accuracy

Have all entries have been checked off? When you are finished reconciling, if you have any leftover entries that you can’t check off because they are not on the Revolving Fund statement, and you know that they are errors or duplicates, those additional entries will need to be reversed or deleted. That extra entry (or entries) affect the accuracy of your reports, sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars, and fixing them before you close the month will create accuracy and clarity in your monthly reports.

If the entries were created in the current month, and are in the form of Transfers or General Journal Entries, they can be deleted. Both of those have a “Delete button.” Find the uncleared entry error and click on it. Poof, it is gone. If it is a check, it can be voided.

If any extra, unnecessary entries were created in a previous, closed month, they can be reversed. Use the instructions here for General Journals or Transfers.

If there are still entries on your bank rec page that have not been cleared, your tech support will be happy to help with them.