The perpetual-care fund

Every parish cemetery is required to maintain a perpetual-care fund (Archdiocese Policy 213), and Vianney keeps it in its own walled-off ledger rather than mixed in with the rest of parish finances.

How money reaches the fund

A share of each sale's fee items is set aside for care automatically — you don't post this by hand. When a payment comes in, Vianney splits off its care-fund portion and records it as a contribution.

Principal is inviolate

Contributions are principal, and principal cannot be spent — Vianney enforces this directly. Only the income the fund has earned over time can be spent on care. Trying to record an expense larger than the fund's accumulated income is refused outright; this is the one hard wall in the whole cemetery module, by design.

Receipts and the year report

• Every payment into the fund produces its own receipt.
• Care Fund → Report gives you the year's principal, income, expenses, and what remains spendable, with a CSV export shaped to line up with the Annual Parish Financial Report.

Tips

• Entries (aside from the automatic contributions from sales) are recorded by a priest or admin.
• If a figure in the report looks off, check the entries table first — every dollar has its own row and note.