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Ministry & Church Admin — Restricted Capital Accounting & Designated Fund Trackers
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Restricted Capital Accounting & Designated Fund Trackers

Church Treasurer at work
Meet the worker
Treasurer Naomi — Church Treasurer
year-end audit prep

A donor gave $25K 'for the youth mission trip.' That money is legally restricted — using it for utilities is fraud.

What they'll need
  • Restricted gift letter
  • Separate sub-account
  • Disbursement log
  • Donor receipt
How it's done — step by step
  1. 1

    Segregate on receipt

    Day-of-deposit: code to Restricted Fund #YTH-2026, not General.

  2. 2

    Track balance live

    Every youth-trip expense reduces ONLY this sub-fund balance.

  3. 3

    Never borrow across funds

    Even temporarily. IRS & state attorneys general treat this as misappropriation.

  4. 4

    Release at trip-end

    Any unspent balance: contact donor for re-purpose permission in writing.

A $10,000 gift comes in earmarked 'Building Fund.' Legally it cannot fund Sunday payroll, even if the General account is short. You're handed a list of transactions — classify each one. Misallocating a restricted gift triggers a compliance alert and exposes an artificial general-fund deficit you didn't see coming.

Total cash
$17,150
Restricted
$16,800
Available Gen.
$350
Sunday loose offering+$4,200
Smith family gift — 'Building Fund'+$10,000
Youth Camp registration fees+$1,800
Tuesday electric bill (paid)$-650
Anonymous gift — 'for Missions trip'+$5,000
HVAC repair invoice$-3,200

Tap Show next step to reveal the math one piece at a time.

Worked Example

Available General Cash

Given: Bank $73k · Building (restricted) $25k · Missions (restricted) $8k

  1. 1

    Sum restricted

    25,000 + 8,000 = $33,000

Worked Example

Hidden deficit from co-mingling

Given: Bank $4k · restricted obligations $20k

  1. 1

    True operating position

    4,000 − 20,000 = −$16,000