> Surely a receipt-tracking compromise will allow ebasers to reap the > simplicity and efficiency of ebase and provide the controls of the > accountants who need reliable records. > > For me, the minimum requirements are: > - use ebase for all "payments" (bank deposits) and numbered > receipts > - use ebase Control Reports of "payments" (daily, weekly, > monthly, etc.) for tracking control showing receipt #'s, etc. (A bank > deposit report and a receipt sequence report, for instance) > - use the accounting records for recording summarized total > ebase "payments" (daily, weekly, monthly). The ebase Control Reports > provide the accountability for the auditors. > - restrict deletion of ebase "payments" records until Control > Reports are printed (better still, restrict "payments" deletions for at > least one year until the audit is complete) > - do not change ebase "payments" records after ebase Control > Reports are posted to the accounting records (e.g. if a cheque bounces, > record this in a new Adjustments "payments" record using a negative > amount and the old posting date - this "voids" the original payment and > a note can be made on the original record when if it is adjusted) > - if necessary, have a field on the "payments" record matching > the record to a specific bank deposit or accounting entry (use a date or > other unique number code). This field would exclude or identify > adjustment records in Control Reports) > Yes those additions (non-trivial) would be a healthy step in the direction of adding accounting functions to ebase. However they are still a long way from a full accounting program for non-profits. I see little point in implementing some accounting functions - either do it all or find a way to export the data to a standalone accounting program.
For those of us that take memberships and contributions from web pages, ebase is not even the only front end. For example we have varying amounts of information about people in ebase, quickbooks, ecorder(web) and icverify. Cash, paper checks, phone credit card and web credit card all take different paths before the basic membership tracking information is in ebase. Any real auditing process must make sure that all of these make it through the process correctly. ------------------ Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------
