What do you mean by "the amount brought forward?" I wonder if they are confusing cash flow with profit and loss?

The previous year's surplus will have been carried through onto the balance sheet in the equity section, usually the Retained Earnings account, but for charities, it if often referred to as the Net Surplus/Deficit.

If Roger's answer doesn't help, than maybe there is an accountant in the congregation that can explain to the board how to read their financial statements??? I'm just not clear on what you are asking.

In answer to Keith:  Our start and end dates are January 1 and December 31.

Roger, we only started using Sage this year, so we have nothing in it from before January 1 2014 to compare for the same time period.

Amy, yes, they are referring to the Retained Earnings amount as far as what was in our current account.  The Balance Sheet also includes our building and property in that amount.

What they noticed at the last meeting is that the reports I gave them only showed activity regarding revenue and expenses for this calendar year.  When put up against the current year's budget, that doesn't look too bad, but then they realized that all of last year's surplus must have been spent to keep us afloat all this time and we're not doing as well as the report makes it look.  I'm not sure I'm explaining it well.  What they seem to want is something that shows that the surplus is gone and we're far behind budget.

The balance sheet will show previous year and current year's (net income) earnings

I must have something set up wrong somewhere because my previous year retained earnings include the equity of the building and property, giving me a very inflated number.  Instead of the $16,000 in the bank on December 31, it shows $2.6 million.  Current earnings are $3000, which does make sense.

That aside, I don't think they care if they see the $16,000 on the Balance Sheet, they want to see it as the amount in the bank on January 1 on the Income Sheet.  

I must have something set up wrong somewhere because my previous year retained earnings include the equity of the building and property, giving me a very inflated number.  Instead of the $16,000 in the bank on December 31, it shows $2.6 million.  Current earnings are $3000, which does make sense.

That aside, I don't think they care if they see the $16,000 on the Balance Sheet, they want to see it as the amount in the bank on January 1 on the Income Sheet.  

I'm not sure what the retained earnings issue is ? I presume a trial balance as of Jan 1st, compared to the original trial balance setup in sage, will provide insight.

to compare the cash position now compared to the cash position at the start of the year, it sounds like you need to 2 statements of cash flow,   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_flow_statement

reports, financials, statement of flows, from jan 1 - jan 1, and from jan 1 - today

this is a sample from my test company, showing a cash decrease of 6800$ for the year

I agree with Roger - look at the trial balance as of Dec 2013 and compare that to what you have set up as opening numbers for 2014. I think your start up numbers are wildly incorrect -- it sounds like the asset values were not input to the correct accounts and thus the system put that to R/E. Likely, numerous accounts on the balance sheet are incorrect.

As for the $16K in the bank - your bank balance shows on the balance sheet as well, but this number is not the same as your R/E and never will be.

Cheryl - you said

""That aside, I don't think they care if they see the $16,000 on the Balance Sheet, they want to see it as the amount in the bank on January 1 on the Income Sheet.""

That is not possible as the bank account is a balance sheet item and not an income stmt item. It will never show up on an income stmt.

Also Equity will never include the bank account in there - equity is the retained earnings (profits/losses accumulated over the years) along with owner contributions/WD . Your current earnings show 3000.00 but that does not mean you have 3000.00 sitting in the bank account - it is just the difference between the total revenue and the total expenses for the current fiscal year.

It sounds like your church board is asking for a cash slow stmt - not an income stmt. Perhap there is a church member that is also an accountant and could give you a hand in helping you with getting the information you require.

If you are collecting your receivables on time then that will cover the expenses - you have not mentioned if there are any loans - if so then that will make a difference in the cash flow since the loan would not show in the income stmt except as interest. So a 2000.00 loan would be 1500.00 toward principal and 500.00 towards interest - only the 500.00interest would show as an expense.

Cheryl, I work with many churches and I can understand their pain point. They are not use to working with financial statements as they should be seeing them. Many church people have experience only with their own personal bank account where the balance roles forward year after year. I treat this as a learning experience and present their information as a learning experience at one or two Board/Council meetings. When the light starts to dawn then others start the explanation and after a year or two they will understand. With my own church board I go through this process every time new members are added to the Board

I will present the Income Statement as a Revenue and Expense Statement and label it for the time frame being presented. On occasion I will do a comparison to the previous year for the same period, other months it is a comparison for all of the previous year and still other months it will be a comparison to the annual budget. The Balance Sheet is described as a snapshot at a given point in time. The Equity section is renamed to Net Assets and will show the balances of all of the various funds that are being held. One fund is the general fund and this will have the previous year end balance and the current amount. This part takes a little time to prepare for each reporting period so that everything is reflected properly.

One church just could not get this picture and the accountant on the Board provided no support or suggestions (abdicated her fiduciary duties and subsequently resigned.) I eventually found the information that they wanted to see and created a separate report using XLGL which pulled the data directly from Sage 50 and most people are now happy. This could probably be done with Sage Intelligence now that it is available at the Pro level.

Message me off-line if you want further discussion that is more specific to your situation.