Thanks for this but I'm not sure I've done this correctly. The returned checks are from donors, not customers. Two are to our General Fund and one to our Building Fund. The checks were all part of a batch of multiple checks. 

You mentioned creating an item, and income account - not sure what you mean by this. I did steps 1-6 and put the name of the person in the Name column as a customer and I see the entry listed as a payment. Not sure how to proceed from there and if I've even done that correctly. Guess what is confusing me is that these persons are not customers but making donations - there are no invoices, etc. Sorry if I'm not understanding - I'm new to the job (quite unexpectantly) and not a CPA.