The thing that we are trying to accomplish here is to account for a transfer of assets: cash into a capital asset. For example, you spend $30,000 to purchase a lot, or $5,000 to buy new furniture, or $500 from the Memorial fund to buy a new chalice, or $100,000 to purchase a building to use as a soup kitchen.
You should already have an asset account entitled "Property of Church".
You should have, or should create, Funds entitled
| "Church Land", |
| "Church Buildings Equity", and |
| "Church Furniture & Fixtures". |
Note that Church Buildings is plural. This is to allow for the possibility of having multiple "building" funds.
You should have, or should create, expense accounts with titles such as
| "Memorials - F&F", |
| "Purchase of Land" or |
| "Purchase of Buildings" |
| "Mortgage Principal Reduction". |
Each of these should be of accounting type "16: Capital: Building/Furn&Fixtrs", or "17: Capital: Land and Construction". A Mortgage Payment would have type "26: Payment of Mortgage Principal".
When you make an expenditure, for example, of $600 for a chalice set from the Memorial fund, you would use the expense account "Memorials - F&F" to record the expense. When you set that expense account up, using the "16" accounting type, you will be asked to identify the fund that will receive the increase in equity. The same would be true for any other expense account record using type 16, 17, or 26.
When you use the Accounts Payable process to create (or enter) a check, the check posting process detects the use of these 3 types, and creates an Income Journal Entry to record the payment as a corresponding increase in the equity value of the appropriate fund which you designated in the expense account.