Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for finance tracking

[lomondview]

During our last stake audit, there were no findings; only a recommendation that we separate the expenses from the donations. I'm hoping the experts on this forum can recommend some FY2015 GAAP folders/products that would help me separate the expenses in a professional way.

As an aside, for membership records, do the experts on this forum print out records of every membership record transferred in and out of the local unit, like we do for financial transactions? If so, what GAAP-equivalent would be the most professional/recommended?

Thanks!

[bastahmer]

Not to brag, but I am a CPA with over 34 years of accounting experience, with over 10 years of experience as ward and stake financial clerk and over 8 years as a stake auditor. I don't think there needs to be any sort of formal separation of donation and expense records. Most of the wards I have been in and audited kept the donations for each week in an envelope, with all the corresponding paperwork for the donation batch. The best wards I have been in or audited kept the expenses in a packet, with the check stub, reimbursement form, receipts, cover sheet and transmittal record all together (usually stapled, sometimes paperclipped). These would then be put into the files in a manila folder, or sometimes two. Nothing more formal that that is needed. I have seen wards where all the paperwork was tossed into the same manila folder, which does make it hard to sort out and find what the auditor is seeking. My advice would be to just be organized, so you know where everything is. There is no "GAAP" solution needed.

[russellhltn]

During our last stake audit, there were no findings; only a recommendation that we separate the expenses from the donations. I'm hoping the experts on this forum can recommend some FY2015 GAAP folders/products that would help me separate the expenses in a professional way.

Typically, what I've seen is that all donation batches go into their own envelope (usually left over stationary from the prior bishop). The expenses go into a folder in check number order. The folder is by some time period such as year, half year (auditing period) or perhaps quarter. No need to get fancy.

As an aside, for membership records, do the experts on this forum print out records of every membership record transferred in and out of the local unit, like we do for financial transactions?

At minimum, you need to at least look at the pages. This is where you'll discover if someone moving in has an annotation on their record or a request for the bishop to contact the prior bishop. So important information can be lost if it's not looked at.

You may want to keep in the printouts in chronological order. Sooner or later, someone is going to ask when something changed, and that print out will give you the answer. MLS keeps move-out information for only a limited amount of time.