If you are starting fresh with StewardTrack — or migrating from a notebook or Excel — the chart of accounts is the first thing you need to get right. Everything else in your financial reporting flows from here.
What Is a Chart of Accounts, Really?
Think of it as the master list of every "bucket" your money flows into or out of. For a church, this usually means:
- Assets: your bank accounts, cash funds, receivables
- Liabilities: loans, amounts owed to suppliers
- Equity: net assets, retained surplus
- Income: tithes, offerings, donations, event income
- Expenses: utilities, salaries, supplies, missions giving
Step 1: List Your Current Accounts First
Before opening StewardTrack, get a piece of paper and list every bank account, cash fund, and GCash wallet the church uses. Each of these will become a treasury account linked to a chart of accounts asset entry.
Step 2: Create Your Account Groups
In StewardTrack, navigate to Finance → Chart of Accounts. Start by creating the top-level account groups (Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, Expenses). Then add sub-accounts under each group.
A typical setup for a mid-sized church in Cebu City might look like:
- 1000 – Cash and Cash Equivalents
- 1001 – BDO Current Account
- 1002 – BPI Savings Account
- 1003 – Petty Cash Fund
- 4000 – Income
- 4001 – Sunday Tithes and Offerings
- 4002 – Building Fund Contributions
- 4003 – Special Offerings
- 4004 – Online Donations
Step 3: Set Up Opening Balances
Once your accounts are created, set the opening balance for each treasury account. This is the balance as of the start of your fiscal year. StewardTrack will track all transactions from that point forward.
Step 4: Link Ministry Funds
If your church tracks separate funds (building fund, missions fund, youth fund), set these up as Ministry Funds in StewardTrack. Each fund can be linked to specific giving categories and budget categories, so you always know the running balance per fund.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Do not create separate accounts for every single offering type — group related income under parent accounts
- Do not skip opening balances — without them, your reports will show incorrect totals for the year
- Do not use the same account for both income and expense tracking
Setting this up correctly at the start saves hours of corrections later. If you need help, our onboarding team can walk you through it for your specific church setup.
