The Methodist year runs from 1st September to 31st August. Martin Way’s financial accounts mirror that and are held and maintained in annual Excel workbooks, each containing several worksheets. All workbooks, past and present, are stored in the Church Accounts folder of our cloud storage, pCloud. A new sub-folder is created at the start of a new year and contains the worksheet for that year. The sub-folder is given a name of the form - Accounts 2025-26 and the workbook within that sub-folder is given a filename of the form MWMC Accounts 2025-26 (01Sep25). This new year’s workbook is created from the previous year’s workbook. The process is described below.
Clear last year’s data
Open the new workbook
Select Cashbook worksheet
To be safe
Repeat for Banking, Reconciliation worksheets
Then, for the two pivot table worksheets, Analysis and StdFormACs
Input new starting figures
Change dated headings throughout as necessary
Save the new year’s workbook
A copy of this webpage for easy access when processing the workbook
There are four Excel tables on the Keys worksheet together with instructions on how to maintain them. They define the static data for the system and are used to validate the entries being made on the Cashbook worksheet. An entry cannot be made that is not in a table. If an attempt is made to do so, an error message will appear. If it is a new item then an entry must be made in the appropriate table before completing the posting!
The four tables are Accounts, Funds, Categories and KeyNames.
Familiarity with these tables will help understand the system.
The date upon which the transaction was made/paid
The Account into/from which the transaction was received/paid being one of Cash, HSBC bank and CFB (Central Finance Board)
The Fund into/from which the transaction was received/paid
• Unresticted - Can be used for any church purpose and therefore lodged in the General Fund
• Resticted - Can only be used for the purpose the money was given currently being one of Property, Benevolent, Garden and Open Table Funds
The category into which the transaction best fits. It is important that the category is allocated correctly as it’s associated group is used to calculate the figures for the completion of the end-of-year Standard Form of Accounts
The name of the Member/Supplier/Group on the transaction
The description of the transaction. A full description is required if it is a property acquisition as an entry should then be made in the Property Log Book
The amount of the money received
The amount of the money paid
This is applied automatically if the KeyName is eligible i.e if there is a “Y” against the Gift Aider’s name in the KeyName worksheet. However, if the Debit is a refund for a church purchase, initially paid by a Gift Aider, then delete the “Y” that pops up to avoid the amount being included in the Gift Aid total.
The number of the cheque used to make a payment or “DD” if Direct Debit
Enter a “Y” when the item has been reconciled to the Bank Statement
Enter the number of the page on which the cleared item appears on the Bank Statement
Allocated automatically according to the category entered previously
The Banking worksheet is for keeping a record of monies paid out of Cash into HSBC generally following the paying in book.
Used to reconcile Cashbook and Banking with the Bank statements
This is maintained automatically on the GiftAid worksheet with totals by person and overall of monies given before and after the end of a tax year.
The split is necessary as the HMRC tax year (6th April to 5th April) is different to the Methodist accounts year (1st September to 31st August).
The September to April figures are combined with the previous year’s April to August figures and used to complete the HMRC’s Gift Aid Return form in order for us to reclaim the tax.
This is a Pivot Table worksheet maintained to analyse the Income and Expenditure by Account, Fund, Category and KeyName. To obtain the latest position at any time place the cursor within the pivot table and Right-click/Refresh
A separate worksheet containing another pivot table which may be refreshed at any time but especially at year-end for completion of the Methodist Church’s Standard Form of Accounts. Again it may be refreshed (Right-click/Refresh within the table) at any time to give the latest position.