Question

[lbrown]

I am setting up a new company file for our new fiscal year beginning July 1. We are moving from QuickBooks to Peachtree. I have not been able to figure out how to enter encumbrances. In QB we used classes and sub-classes for the funds and encumbrances (Example: 1100 General Fund…1101 Encumbrances-GF). Peachtree does not have sub-accounts; therefore, I am unable to set it up like I did in QB. I am using account masking, but I am afraid to create an encumbrance account for each line-item because I do not want to clutter my reports. I have a Fund Balance Reserved for Encumbrances account, and I want my encumbrances to show up in a separate column for each line-item on my budget reports. I would not track encumbrances, but we are on a very tight budget and cannot afford to go over on any line-item. We cannot afford to purchase fund accounting software. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can do this?

[LauraG]

Is there a particular reason that you are switching to Peachtree? It sounds like QB might be more suited for your needs. With the lack of sub-accounts and classes in PT you may end up with a rather large Chart of Accounts. There is also no parent account like there is in QB--only individual accounts. You will need to manually add multiple accounts each time you need to see a grand total. You'll need to create custom reports by Fund to match those in QB.

[Lisa_p]

Bet it's batch posting! (saw you in the QB forum)

To eliminate the clutter, you'll have to customize your financial statements to roll up the "subs" into one line.

[EKnobil]

Please forgive my ignorance of terminology, but are encumbrances the same as designated/restricted funds?

We use Peachtree for fund accounting, and it does involve some extra accounts and custom report design. Nobody here has used Quickbooks, so I can't compare them for this kind of application.

Our General Fund is not an account, but a set of accounts, including several income accounts, a large number of expense accounts, and a prior year balance carryforward account. The net of all these is the General Fund balance. This same pattern is used for a number of other funds.

For the major funds, we use account masking, with a field at the end to identify the fund. This way, all the accounts for similar types of expenses (such as employee costs) are together, but they can be listed in fund-specific reports by using account masking.

For some smaller funds, with few account numbers and little activity, we use accounts outside the range of the major funds. For specific designated/restricted funds, we have a separate single account for each category, to segregate these funds from the operating funds.

For reporting, we have slightly customized income/budget reports for each major fund. We also have a custom fund balances report for each major fund. In the latter, we net the major fund to a few lines (carryforward, income, expense, net income, and current balance), and also list the other funds associated with the major fund.

I am also playing around with a custom "dashboard" report that lists all the fund balances in one report (one column for each major fund) along with a totals column. It's sort of like a balance sheet segregated into columns for each fund.

Sorry to ramble on, since this may not be of any help to you. I'm happy to help further if you don't find a better approach.

[lbrown]

Lisa, I will be using batch posting…you win!!! :D :D :D Thanks everyone.