Edit Accounts

The Accounts list includes Bank Accounts, Liabilities (not used by most), Local Funds, and Conference Funds. It is your responsibility as Treasurer to add new accounts when warranted. But this decision takes careful thought, as too many detailed accounts become cumbersome, while too few accounts many not give enough breakdown of the church's spending.

This page allows you to add to, edit, and organize your account list so that it provides the best financial information to your church board and congregation.

Add New Account

Before adding a new account, always check the list on the left to be sure that the account isn't already there under a similar spelling, and that it isn't there but deactivated. Entering duplicate accounts will bloat your list quickly, and cause much confusion on your financial reports.

First, choose the Type for your new account. The options are:

1. Bank Account: Use this for any account where you keep money, such as Checking, Savings, CD, or Union Revolving Fund.

1. Liability: Use this for a mortgage or other loan that you wish to track in Jewel.

1. Local Fund: These are how you keep track of the purpose of donations to be used at the local church. You'll include things like Church Budget, Sabbath School Expense, Building Fund, Evangelism, etc.

1. Conference Fund: These are to track donations that get passed on (remitted) to the Conference at the end of each month.

Choose the ID for your new account carefully. Accounts appear in numerical order on the Financial Summary, within their Type, so give the most-used accounts the lowest numbers, give similar accounts similar numbers, and keep sub accounts just under their parent accounts. You may use decimals (like 6540.7 or 6540.73) if you run out of whole numbers.

Delete Account

Jewel only allows this option for accounts that have never been used. If you just entered a duplicate account this month, go edit each transaction where you used the account. Once they are all edited to use the correct account, you can delete the duplicate. If the duplicate account has transactions in a prior month, see Closing Out an Old Account below.

Edit "Active" Status

The quickest and easiest way to control the account list is to "deactivate" the accounts that are no longer being used. This option is helpful for duplicate accounts, completed projects, closed bank accounts, and general restructuring.

Before deactivating an account, be sure it is zeroed out. You will not be able to enter any transactions while the account is deactivated. Follow the steps in Closing Out an Old Account below, then come back here to deactivate the account.

Go to Maintenance -> Edit Accounts. Click the Edit "Active" Status button on the right. This makes a check box appear in front of each account on the list. Simply remove the check mark from in front of the accounts you no longer wish to appear when you are entering offerings or writing checks. Click OK to finish.

If you later decide that you wish to use an account again, just go put the check mark back. Caution: If you try to use a deactivated account, Jewel will tell you that it is a new account and must be added. So before adding a new account, check to be sure it isn't just deactivated.

Edit an Account

If an account's name or other particulars need to be changed, go to Maintenance -> Edit Accounts. Select the account in the left-hand column, then check the Edit box in the center column. Make your changes, then click OK to save.

Exercise caution in editing accounts. Remember that these changes affect all time periods, so you are, in a sense, rewriting history. Editing should generally be reserved for correcting mistakes like spelling errors. If you are changing an account's name to reflect a new purpose, it's best to simply add a new account and close out the old one. If you must edit to make a bigger change, record the date and describe the change in the Memo.